Friday, December 3, 2010

Week 13

We took last week off and enjoyed a yummy Thanksgiving with family. As usual after a break, it took some time for all of us to get back into things this Monday. I am not even quite sure we ever completely did! December usually ends up being a little light in the school department for us. In fact in years past we have taken the entire month off and focused just on Advent type activities. Not this year though!

Reading
  • We are continuing through The Witch of Blackbird Pond
  • Quinn read Blood on the River: Jamestown, 1607, Meet George Washington, The 39 Clues #8 and Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia
  • Evelyn read The Diary of Remember Patience Whipple
  • Some of the books we read to Leah this week were: Caps for Sale and Going on a Bear Hunt
  • We started our Advent story. This year we are doing Tabitha's Travels. It is the third book in a fun Advent series by Arnold Ytreeide. The first is Jotham's Journey and the second is Bartholemew's Passage. The kids look forward to it every year. They couldn't wait to start.

T


Math
  • Evelyn has needed to slow down and practice some of her mental math. She is not as strong at this as her brother. She isn't as mathy as her brother but I attribute it more to the fact that I didn't do RightStart Math with her. I am tempted to reorder book B and spend some time on it with her. However I am not sure she would take it well. She is more of a just-give-me-the-algorithm type of kid than a why-do-we-do-this type. Anyone KWIM??
  • Quinn whizzed through lesson 13 in 5b after Monday's "I don't remember how to do that!" (which is typical after any time off around here).
  • Leah has been working on recognizing groups of five or less on the abacus. Evelyn has been teaching her the "Yellow is the Sun" song.
History
Art
We did some still life watercolors with friends. I love the variety of perspectives and styles! 

Quinn's picture
Evelyn's Picture


  • Katie's Picture

    Leah's Picture (she opted to leave the gourd out)

    Ryan's Picture

Other
  • At the recent CBD Wharehouse sale I came across Color the Christmas Classics on the discount homeschool table for 1.99 then I found a second coloring book that was missing the CD for fifty cents. I decided to get it as another fun thing to do during advent. We had fun learning about the first two songs: Angels We Have Heard on High and Oh Come all Ye Faithful.
  • We started our Jesse Tree. A couple of years ago our church had a Jesse Tree onament swap. It was a lot of fun. We found a lrge branch in the woods and poured some plaster into a beach pail to hold it up. Every night we read the devotional for that night and hang the ornament. Another tradition that the kids really look forward to every year.