Week 3 Wrap Up......

I won't list everything we accomplished last week for Week 3, but I'll highlight some learning the kids seemed a bit more excited about.  We did have our last Book Club meet where we headed down to the pond to do a little fishing Huck Finn style! (Well, almost)  The kids, and parents, had a blast!  You can check out our Book Club Page for some activities & the Audio book on Huckleberry Finn.

I just want to express how much Flower is enjoying America the Beautiful!  She loves history so much and it has been a great joy to have found something that she can use independently.  I feel she is grasping the content very well and adding a ton of "gravy" to it for more research!  We watch a documentary every week to go along with what she has studied.  Super pleased at this point!
Flower is thriving in Science Fusion, too!  I was a little apprehensive about the program, but she has expressed how much she is learning from it so far!  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she retains well.  She has been jumping in with Thumper & Bambi again with some science experiments which helps in some of the topics she is learning in Science Fusion. Other than doing virtual labs, she will pick out some experiments that are hands on as well.

She has completed Treasure Island in Lightning Literature and will watch the movie soon!  Adding the movie after a book is just the cherry on top to me.....she usually prefers the book over the movie in the end, which keeps her reading!  IEW is still going strong so far.....Flower is not having trouble with it but I feel Bambi needs a little bit of hand holding at times with Level B.  Bambi is still working hard and her final pieces are outstanding.  I'm pleased!
We had beautiful weather towards the end of the week through the weekend.....we tried to spend lots of time outdoors working on the yard, garden, and finishing some projects. Lots of painting......not completely pleasure painting, though!

Bambi finished up Unit  #3 in Jr. Analytical Grammar but I didn't have her do the Test: Pronouns just yet.  I'll be making some review worksheets for Units 1-3 for her to work on in Week 4 and then do Unit Test #3 on Friday.  I may have to keep this up throughout the Units so I know she is retaining and understanding before moving on.  I will post the review worksheets if I have time to this week!
Science for Bambi & Thumper has been fun for them.  Like I have said before, I'm not too thrilled with RS4K Chemistry but adding in Simple Chemistry Experiment book, 1st Encyclopedia of Science, DK books, Basher books, and videos/links, it has helped.  More work for me, but it has added more to the program.  RS4K is a little too much, or wordy, for my taste.  I don't feel like Bambi or Thumper need or understand some of the topics discussed. Basher books are way cool and they like them pretty well!

In Week 3 we discussed Molecules & Bonding......they played BBC games and watched some more Periodic Table videos(see handy science on the right).  We also built Marshemellow molecules which they loved!

I'm thinking of adding in Aha!Science for Thumper & Bambi.  I think it will had helpful visual learning to use with RS4K, especially with Thumper b/c RS4K is so over his head.  This would be just a supplement.

In SOTW Ancients T & B:
Day 1:  Listen to Chapter 1.....coloring sheet & narration....B worked on her list of facts from Usborne.  We watched The Mysteries of Cave Art on Discovery Education and I read Discovery in the Cave to T.
Day 2:  Completed mapwork for Chp. 1....found location on wall map....timeline: Nomads settle Fertile Cresent & Jericho built a walled city.  B and I read in Human Odyssey....I use this reading chart that lines SOTW with HO.  She picked out one fact from her facts list (from day 1) and found that topic in HO.  She then read through the 6 paragraphs and created a 1 point outline taking notes on the main idea in each paragraph.(She did very well with this.  This would make her first outlining/list of facts assignment)
Day 3: This day is open for crafts, documentaries, art, etc.   We really wanted to get to Cave Painting but it didn't happen.....we will squeeze that in soon!  We watched Mesopotamia From Nomads to Farmers on Discovery Education.

B started The Tales of Ancient Egypt.....but looks like it is a little hard for her to understand even with using CHOLL guides.  We will read it together and she picked out The Egypt Game as her reader for the next week or two.

 This is Thumper's map and coloring sheet.....his narration is on the back of the coloring sheet.  I tried uploading picture but it wouldn't transfer like I wanted it to.  I wrote his narration paragraph for him.....soon, when he's comfortable, I'll have him write it on his own.  He wrote "The nomads made their houses out of mud bricks.  They ate berries, honey, fish, grasses, leaves, deer meat, horse, and lizards.  The nomads became farmers and they made a machine called a shaduf.  They were able to lift water to their crops."  He did a wonderful job reciting this to me!

So for Thumper's English we are using Logic of English.  I was looking through the grammar portion of it and I think it's going to be best for us to stick with First Language Lessons 2 for the year.  So for LOE we will use all of it excluding Grammar.  The grammar section is very well prepared but a little over his head.  I don't think it's necessary for him at this time.  So I am going to make FLL worksheets to go with each lesson.  He does well with retention when he writes down what he is learning.  He goes back and looks through his writings frequently.  So for his Language Arts line up it looks like this:

Writing With Ease 2
Logic of English (excluding Grammar)
First Language Lessons 2
I may squeak in Essentials in Writing 2nd grade a couple days a week.....to get him writing!  I have it sitting on the shelf not being used.....so might as well.  If it seems to be too much with everything else, then I'll drop it!
Here is the Lesson 1 worksheet for First Language Lessons 2.  I  added a page strictly for this.

FLL2-L1