Weekly Report # 23

An average week overall.

BIBLE-
Window on the World- Saudi Arabia
Memory Verse
read aloud from Hero Tales "David Livingstone"
Discussion daily about David Livingstone.

Watched "Facing the Giants"


LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory verse
Dictation of Memory Verse
DD- Letter A Word Search
Both kids added to thier blogs.
DD- Spectrum Workbook Page 16
DD- Hangman - learning how to spell number words
Wrote letters to friends and family.

MATH-

DD- Saxon Lessons 58-64

She has been teaching herself multiplication! She was listening in on DS' lesson and when we were done with the lesson she showed me what she had been writing- she figured out what x means and wrote out all the x 0's and x 1's! I thought it was neat that she had taken the initiative- she has been drawing number sentences for x problems all week now.

DS- Saxon Lessons 66, Fraction practice- made a fraction book. Slow math week for DS. We were waiting on manipulatives to arrive in the mail for our next lesson and he had a lot of reading to get done before book club so he was stressing a little so we made finishing his book a priority.

Played Money Bags ( You can read some reviews of the game here- It is a great game to teach the concepts of counting money- the kids really love it!)

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Money-Bags-Value/dp/B00004TDTQ

GEOGRAPHY-
We entered Asia this week. We added Asia to our passports and exchanged our American Dollars for Sudan Riyals.

Intro the the Middle East- Read from the Intermediate World Atlas- became familiar with Asia- found Asia on the map- Located what hemisphere, bordering countries, water, ect.
Added Saudi Arabia to our World Map- Colored and labeled it.
I read aloud interesting facts about Saudi Arabia from "A trip around the World" Pages 58-59.
Labeled and colored Saudi Arabia Worksheet.

Daily discussion about the war in the Middle East. The kids took great interest in this topic so it became a regular topic.
We started our 7 Continents lapbook. We added the following pages- Cover page, This is where I live, Asia, North America, Saudi Arabia,


SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Wild Places- Living in the Desert pages 80-83.
Illustrated World Atlas - Nature, Farming, and Industry.

MUSIC/ART-

We made soap in the shape of tools and heart shape soap for Valentines Day. The kids love making soap so it has been a regular activity in our house for a couple years now.. Here are a few they made.

READING-
DS continued to read from the book "HOOT"
He finished the book this week and is all ready for Book Club next week!
I read aloud from David Livingstone- Chapters 10-18- We finished the book this week. It was our least favorite from the series so far. The kids seemed to lose interest early on- it was a hard one to get through! Ready for a fresh book!
Fancy Nancy- Bonjour Butterfly
The Fleas Sneeze
Pinkalicious
I started reading aloud "Understanding September 11th" by Mitch Frank. Pages 1-18. The kids have had a lot of questions latley, some I didn't know how to answer so we picked this book up. I don't know that we will finish it. It is obviously very heavy subject matter and the kids are young. But we will read through un'til the kids have thier questions answered.
We started our next chapter book "Amy Carmichael" - Chapter 1


SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-

Cheer practice 3x
Cheer Competition (They took 3rd this weekend)
Girl Scouts- Selling cookies
Royal Ambassadors

Experience Music Project

Last week while in Washington for a cheer competition we made a quick stop to The Experience Music Project. Though we only had a short time there we had so much fun and can't wait to go back! Here are a few of our pictures from our trip!

You can check out the EMP online at : http://www.empsfm.org/





Learning about the mixing board.


Rocking out to an original Pokemon song :)


Loving the drums!


Playing the guitar

Week # 22

This week was definitley one of the most social weeks we have had. We have been so busy latley that we haven't had much time for friends so we made them a priority this week.




We watched the Presidential Innaguration. It was exciting for me to see how much DS seemed to be soaking in. Even saying "Wow, we are watching history right now." He was even commenting on how Rosa Parks and MLK Jr. contributed to this event. It was so neat to hear him really"getting it"

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-

"I have a dream" promise worksheet

Barack Obama book

DS-Yellow Book page 127-129

DD- Started her new Spectrum workbook- Pages 1-15

Martin Luther King Jr. Report

DD- Wrote a paper about Rosa Parks

GEOGRAPHY-

National Geographic Video- Baka- The People of the African forest

MATH-

DS- Saxon lesson 63-65

Assesment # 12 %100- Doing very well in Math although he still isn't caring for it, but his attitude has improved GREATLY from the beginning of the year. \

Played Money Bags Game-

READING-

DS- 4 Various Pokemon chapter books, 2 chapters "Hoot"

I read aloud "The Gum Chewing Rattler" by Joe Hayes, "Diary of a Fly", David Livingstone Chapter 9

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES:

Cheer practice 2x
Playdate with friend from cheer
Girl Scouts - Skating party at Skate World
Cheer camp - through the high school

Cheer routine at CHS Varsity Basketball game

Cheer Competition- DD's team took 1st place!
Homeschool Group Meeting- The kids all did presentations but DD & DS chose to sit this one out. DS was shy and DD didn't feel like sharing. maybe next time.

Playdate with a neighbor.
DS had his first real sleepover at a friends house- they went skating the next day and had a great time, though DS could barely walk all weekend!

MUSIC/ART-

Field Trip to the Experience Music Project.

We visited the Music Experience Project in Seattle. I have wanted to go there for years so it was exciting to finally get the opportunity to go. We didn't have as much time there as we would have liked as we had to travel home that day, but we did get a membership so we can return when we are in Seattle next (In March) The kids loved the music room where they got to use and learn about real music equipment and the process of making music. The kids were not as interested as DH and I in the exhibits with the music history. DD took interest in the poster press exhibit. She loved seeing the actual presses and the posters that they produced.





We visited the Science Fiction Museum as well. It was interesting but as I am not a science fiction fan it didn't hold my interest, except for the Teengage Mutant Ninja Turtles memoribila :P The kids thought it was ok, but it was geared more for a real science fiction buff!





Our last stop was Pikes Market Place. We had such a great time walking around the shops, exploring the streets. We had hoped for the kids to see the famous "fish throws" but we weren't there at the right time. Maybe next time. We were lucky enough to run across a shop called the "Taj Mahal" where we found some really neat Henna tattoo materials that we are excited to use when our studies take us to India. There were so many cool shops down there, I would love to go back when we have more time!

Washington trip- in DD's words

I asked DD to draw a picture and write a paragraph about our time in Washington. She did really well and was so proud of herself when I read it back to her, not having to stop and ask her what certain words were. She replied "You could read all of that by yourself?! I am a very good writer!" It was nice seeing her be so proud of herself. I am proud too. She is making so much progress.

"We slappt in a hotall room. We wet to cherled. We drev to Seadall then we wet hom now that the end. "


(We slept in a hotel room. We went to cheerleading. We drove to Seattle then we went home now. That's the end.)

Week # 21

Kind of a slow week as far as school work goes, didn't get as much done as I had expected to but I am not dissapointed either as we had a nice week together and played and cuddled alot. We took Friday off to travel to Washington for a cheer competition. We spent the weekend in Tacoma and Seattle, with a lot of learning experiences along the way. It was a great week with a lot of family time!






BIBLE-

I read aloud from Window on the World- Kal-Tamashaq
I read aloud Mathew 13:53-58, 14:1-12
I read aloud from Hero Tales- Samuel Morris
Memory Verse- Daily




LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
DS- Yellow Book- Page 122-124
Vocabulary word of the week- Abridge- added to vocab notebook
Coloring page MLK Jr. (Lots of discussion this week)
I have a Dream worksheet-
DD- Started her Alphabet Workbook - (A-C) Coming up with 6 words for each letter on her own and then drawing a picture for each.

MATH-
DD- Saxon lessons 55-57, Workbook #4 Pages 12-14
DS- Saxon Lesson 62
Played our new game "Money Bags" It is a coin counting game that I picked up hoping it would help DD with her counting skills. It is a great game and they really enjoy playing it! They didn't want to stop so it became our math lesson for the day.
Counting money worksheets (on our drive to WA)
DS- Various multiplication worksheets (on our drive to WA)

GEOGRAPHY-
I read aloud from Illustrated World Atlas- People and Places, Nature
Played AFRICA geography game 2x 25 min.
Watched National Geograhic African Wildlife video- (One of my favorites that I have watched as of yet- though some of it was a bit much for DD)

We made African animals out of homeade dough- baked them and planned on painting them the next day. Unfortanatley, our dog decided she wanted them while we were away at cheer....

We played "Mancala" after learning that it is a game frequently played in Africa. We had intended on making our own game but were lucky enough to find the game very cheap while in town and decided to buy it as it would be more sturdy than our homeade game.

Washington worksheets (busy work for our long drive) I will be sharing this later as her writing was SO impressive!
Book basket- 3x 20 mins.



SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Living World- Grassland Meat Eaters, Survival of the Grasslands, Life UndergroundDD- added a page to her Nature Notebook- drawing of an ostrich
We watched an episode of Oregon Field Guide-



MUSIC/ART-

Wee Sing- Songs from Africa



READING-
DS- Continued reading HOOT, A Juenne Fille Named Marie, Various Pokemon books
I read aloud David Livingstone Chapters 5-8
Martin Luther King by David A Adler, Martin Luther King Jr - from Jan. Teacher resource book, The Story of Martin Luther King by James Riordan




SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-

Cheer 4x- Competition in Tacoma WA- (They took 2nd place! It was the biggest competition they have attended this year, the competition was tough but they held thier own!!)

Playdate at our house with a new friend.

Trip to Washington (more on that in a later post)

Week # 20

We had a very busy week- Cheer competition season is in full effect and has us running more than ever- Girl Scouts cookie season is also in full swing so I am bombarded with cookies, and work is still crazy, but we managed and did quite well with our school work. The kids had great attitudes all week which made it all that much better. One of the better weeks we have had :)

BIBLE-
I read aloud from Window on the World- Riffi Berbers
I read aloud Mathew 13:31-52
I read aloud from Hero Tales the story of Marry Slesslor.
Memory Verse- Daily.


LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
Vocabulary word of the week- Abrasive- Copied to Vocab notebook
DS-Yellowbook pages 110-119 + Assesment #13 (100%)
DD- Workbook #1 Pages 100-121 Finished the workbook- she is flying through them, I am going to move her up a level starting next week.
DD- Workbook #2 Pages 26-28- Working on vowels
SPELLING-
DD- Spelling DVD 3x 25 min each
DS- Spelling test (-1)

MATH-
DS- Saxon Lesson 56-61 + Assesment #11 (100%)
DD- Saxon Lesson 52-54, Workbook #4 Page 6, 9-11, 24 (addition tables, greater than, less than, number stories)

GEOGRAPHY-
The kids made thier geography game boards for Africa with no help from me for the first time. They did a really good job!
Played Geography game 2x 30 min each. Did very well for not having studied too much beforehand!
DD- Africa coloring pages- children of Africa
Book Basket- 3x 20 min each.
DS- made Irio (A Kikuyan tribe recipe) for dinner. The only help he had was the peeling of the potatoes. He did great and had a lot of fun with it!
DS- Continued to work on his AFRICA packet.

SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Living World- Grasslands, Grassland plants, and Grassland plant eaters.
We did the "Elephant Experiment"

MUSIC/ART-
Tooth Puppet
Tooth Box
Gingerbread house

READING-
DS read HOOT chapters 1-9 and numerous Pokemon books that he didn't log.(He is a reading machine right now!)
DD- read Hippo wants to Play
I read aloud from David Livingstone Chapters 3+4, A Light in the Attic pages 40-54, AFRICA by A.R, Schafer, A is for Africa by Ifeoma Onyefulu

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-
Cheer 4x (Competion on Saturday- They took 2nd place!)
Book club meeting- They made clay animals and discussed the book- Both of the kids winning the raffles- they were very excited!
Bible Study-
The kids both attended Royal Ambassadors(I have been calling it Royal Rangers...oops!)
Girl Scouts- we have begun cookie sales--- it is going to be very busy for some time now....

Best & Worst Public School Systems in the U.S. according to U.S. News

U.S. News looked at more than 21,000 public high schools in 48 states to find out which are the best and worst. They listed thier Top and bottom 10...
Not that I put a lot of stock in polls and such, but from what I know to be personally true in my town it fits.

8th Worst: Oregon
Total Score: 71.5 (out of 100)Overall State Grade: C-
Chance of Student Success: C
School Finance: C
K-12 Achievement: D