Creative Writing - The frog story

For this assignment I gave the kids a funny picture to look at and asked them each to write a creative story about what they thought was happening in the picture. They both wrote them independently then I corrected them and they wrote a final draft. These are the storys they came up with.


(DD)
The Scary Frog and Alien

The alien wanted to eat the frog and steal the diamond. The spaceship was coming to get him. His name was Tim. He went home to rescue his family. The end

(DS)
Frog Capture

This is a story of a rich frog who got captured by aliens. Hopper was the only one on Earth. He even thought he was the only one in the world. Well, he was wrong. Since the frog was the only one he did not have to go to work. One day when he was eating fly soup outside he got captured by aliens. The end.

Week # 12

After the last two great weeks, I really had myself convinced that we were in a groove and had this whole homeschooling thing figured out. It doesn't stay one way for very long. I am guessing the anticipation of DS's upcoming birthday and the kids' anticipation of our upcoming trip to California for the holidays contributed to our lack of focus this week. It also didn't help that it was the last week for nut sales for Girl Scouts and I was very busy trying to get all the paperwork done and fielding phone calls. I learned the hard way, as seems to be my ONLY way in life, that with homeschooling things keep changing. I am trying to see that as a good thing. Some days I really feel that it is. But being the controlled and scheduled person that I like to think I am, some days it bugs me that things aren't going exactly (or even remotley close) to how I had planned. As with previous weeks though, as I jot down what we did I realize that we didn't do as badly as I had been thinking and we did accomplish a little. Whether or not it will be enough in the long run- THIS IS WHAT PLAGUES ME!!! I am trying to be more relaxed and have a "fly by the seat of our pants" kind of teacher/Mom.. I am working on this... daily...


We are now studying Europe- Norway specifically the next two weeks.

BIBLE-
I read aloud Mathew 8:5-27
Memory Verse
Window on the World- Romania
Colored John 3:16 Norwegian Page

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
Dictated memory verse
DS and DD- Book Report on Nate Saint
DS- Yellow Book Pg 70-72
DS- Letter writing- Focused on the different parts of a letter, greeting, body, ect- did a first draft then a final draft. He then addressed the envelope by himself, and mailed it. He chose to write to his Great Grandma this week.
DS- Workbook- Worked on 2 pages relating to letter writing.
DD- Workbook #1 page 46-50, Workbook #2 page 21
DD- watched DVD that came with Language Arts program for 35 minutes- It shows the story and you read along with it.

Spelling- DS- Spelling DVD 2x for 30 minutes, DD- DVD 3x for 30 minutes

MATH-
DD- Saxxon lessons 35 & 36
DS- Saxxon Lessons 40-42
Drills- DD- Subtraction
DD- Worked on a Math DVD for 30 minutes. (I found it at Goodwill brand new for .99! It is a game that has subtraction and addition problems.

GEOGRAPHY-
We stamped our passports as we entered in to Norway.
Read Intermediate World Atlas page 58-63
We located Europe on the map and started to become familiar with the different wcountries, what hemisphere, what oceans border it, ect.
We used our Flag Sticker Books and matched the flags of Europe to the right countries.
DS- Began the advanced country packet.

SCIENCE-
We continued to observe our tadpoles. Not noted changes this week.
I read aloud from Living World about Northern Evergreen Forests.
We continued to observe our potatoe plant experiments. Although, we haven't measured them as I had hoped to. Just keeping an eye on them, watering them, observing how they change.
3 Episodes of Oregon Field Guide

MUSIC/ART
No music this week other than the regular music that plays around the house daily. As for art, no scheduled projects but DD was constantly drawing as usual.

READING-
DS- Finished Journey to the Center of the Earth and Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon.
DD- Read Pop, Pop, Pop.
4 episodes of Reading Rainbow


SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-
Cheerleading, Community Group, Play date with the neighbors. DS had a sleepover at our house with 2 friends, DD went to a sleep over at a neighbors house that night. Birthday party for DS (DD and I surprised him by making a Pokemon cake while he was occupied, he was so surprised)


(In his monkey costume- he and his friends have called themselves "The Monkey Club" since first grade, DS being the monkey leader had to be in costume of course)

Sight Word Test- Results Week 1- Week 13

In September, our first official week of school, I tested DD on 108 level one sight words. She scored 29/108.

Yesterday I repeated the same test and she got 68/108!

It is exciting to see what progress she has made in just a couple of weeks! I showed her how well she had done and she was so excited and wanted to go "practice" reading some more. It is becoming more and more common to find her in her bed curled up reading a book, or sneaking in to her brothers room at night to tell him about a new word she figured out how to sound out.

DS is doing great with reading as well. He has been reading a lot, finished a book in one day yesterday. He gets excited during some books, and stops to read aloud to me a passage that he thought was funny. It is so exciting for me, a book lover, to see my kids getting excited about books!

Happy Birthday

It is so hard for me to believe that my baby boy is nine years old today! Even the hubby was a bit emotional this morning. I know it is an overused cliche but the truth is that they really do grow up too fast. I can't help but get a little teary eyed thinking that 9 years ago today I held this sweet little person for the first time ever, and it doesn't seem right. When did he get so big?

I know every mom thinks so, but I really am lucky. My son is so special. He is the sweetest, most thoughtful, kind, and loving person I have ever met. He is growing in to quite the little man.