Today is the day...

DS is testing today and tomorrow. He is excited. One of his friends told him how much fun he had last year when he tested. Wish him luck!

Sight Word Test Week #25

I have been testing DD on level 1 sight words since we started in September. I am really excited by her progress. I decided to go ahead and test her on Level 2 words this week as well.
I haven't been practicing them with her in flash card format. Only practicing them as they come up in books and worksheets. I was hoping by doing it this way she would really learn the words rather than just memorizing them- It appears to be working! I am excited by how well she did on the Level 2 test as there were a lot of tricky sounds (kn, ou, ould, etc.)

Here are the results:

LEVEL 1

Sept.9-08 29/108

Nov.11.08 68/108

Feb. 9.09 82/108

LEVEL 2

Feb.9.09 60/108

Week # 13

This week went smoothly. The kids seemed a little burnt out on the routine we had been trying so I tried a few different things to make things a little more fun. DS dreads math so I am trying to figure something out that will make it not seem like such a chore for BOTH OF US. DD is starting to not like math so much either as we are getting in to some new concepts and she is now having to work a little harder. Overall, I think we had a pretty good week.

BIBLE-
Window on the World- Bulgaria
Memory Verse

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied memory verse
DS- Yellow Book Page 80-86, Assesment #2 (100%)
DS/DD- Creative Writing Story- FROG (From previous post)
DS/DD- Independent Study Form- They both filled out a worksheet stating that they would like to study, what they hoped to learn from the study, time frame, materials needed, ect. I am asking them to do this as independently as possible. I am going to stay out of it as much as possible, just to see what happens. I am not expecting much from this one, but I plan to make it a regular part of our schooling, and will increase my expecatations as we go. DS chose healthy eating and DD chose bug/butterflies.
DD/DS- Letter Writing, DS chose Grandpa Jens, DD- Friend Yesenia
DD- She came to me this week with an idea to start a "dog club" Not a dog club really, but a social hour for her friends, where she plans activities, they dress up and eat snacks. She named it the "DOG CLUB" because her brother has the "monkey club" and she likes dogs :) Anyhow, I told her in order to have the club she had to organize everything with an itinerary, detailed schedule, and menu. And she did, a very detailed one at that! So I have agreed to let her have her club as long as she plans all the activities in advance. She plans to have her group meet once a month. She will be responsible for writing everything out and gathering all the materials she needs and making simple snacks. She is very excited, as am I, but for different reasons! She did SO much writing and planning this week, really having no idea that she was actually working in the process!
Spelling-DD/DS Spelling DVD 3x 30 min
DD SIGHT WORD TEST - SHE DID AWESOME!(PREVIOUS POST)
DD/DS - Vocabulary word - Abhor

MATH-
A bit of a challenge this week- with both kids. Both of them moaning and groaning every bit of the way...
DS- Saxxon lesson 43&44
DD- Saxxon Lesson 37-40, Assesment #7, only missed one (and that was a simple problem that she knew but tried to rush through)
DRILLS- DD-Addition, subtraction, DS- Geometry

GEOGRAPHY-
I read aloud from Illustrated World Atlas Pages 30-33 Nature, Farming, Industry
DS- Finished Geography Packet
Played Geography Game-Europe 3x -30 min. each
Added the year that Norway got its own flag to our Book of Centuries.
Continued our Norwegian Krone activity- kids "paying" for each meal with krone. Friday we pretended we were at a Norwegian Auction. Kids bidding Krone for items out of the auction box.
Friday I tested the kids on the Europe Map. Because there are so many little countries I did not require them to learn them all. I tested DD on 13 and DD on 17 of the countries. DD got 8/13 and DS 8/17. I was very happy with the results as we really didn't study the map as much as I would have liked over the last two weeks.

SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Living World- pgs 68-69- winter in the Northern Forests.
We added to our Frog Lapbooks (What I know about frogs)
We continued to observe our tadpoles and added to our frog journals.
We continued to observe our potato plants.


MUSIC/ART-
Songs from Europe- Row, Row- Little Frogs, The Mulberry bush, The Circle goes around.
Crayon Rubs
DD- did a drawing for a scholastic contest, although I am not sure I am going to turn it in as she really didn't seem to understand the directions as he drawing shows...

READING-
Book Basket- 4x 20 mins each
DS read and finished 5 Pokemon, BMX Bully, 3 Scooby Doo 3rd reader books. It was a huge week for him reading wise. He is really enjoying it these days!! DS read to DD from MY FIRST ATLAS- Europe
DD- Read Big, Big Big Bus 2 x

I read the following books aloud.

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!