Weekly School Summary - Mexico (Oct. 3-7)

I respectfully ask that you not pin pictures of my children to Pinterest. Thank you!

 This week was a little different because Bass took a week of vacation to work on some house projects. I thought I'd have a hard time keeping the kids away from Daddy in order to finish school but they stayed on task (as did Daddy.) We got a lot done house-wise which I'm hoping to post about by the end of the week if we can wrap up a few more things.

School-wise here's what we did:
Field Trip: Our church held it's annual Fall Fest on Saturday and part of the activities was a presentation by "Forgotten Friend Reptile Rescue". The kids learned all about different reptiles and got to touch several of them. Perfect timing as we wrapped up learning about the desert and Soprano did her Reptile pages.They are based in Lancaster County, PA and do school assemblies, special events, or homeschool co-ops.

Math: Same as usual. Tenor had 5 lessons while Soprano did 4 and played games at http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math.htm on Friday.


Reading and Language Arts: Soprano was introduced to Ira Sleeps Over for her first book from 'Across the Centuries.' She read the book, completed a couple worksheets that I created, and did an activity where she had to fill a suitcase she made out of paper with items that she would take on a sleepover. I think she enjoyed it.
She also flew through her Phonics book and completed the whole week's worth of assignments in 1 day. We got through her Rod and Staff English. That's coming a bit slower but we'll keep at it. At least there were no tears or cries of "It's too hard!" We received her 'A Reason for Spelling' and I was quite excited to implement it but.... things have changed. (Surprise, surprise.)

Tenor continued to struggle with his CLE English and Reading. And I... got... sick... of... it! I shouldn't dread it. He shouldn't dread it. It was wretched. We finished the week with the final tests in both subjects, and T only did so-so. So... I said that was it. I spent the rest of the afternoon researching new curriculua for him.

The question was do we use what we chose for Soprano so that when she gets to 4th grade we'll have resources already on-hand. Do we pick less expensive ones but then need to buy Soprano new anyway in 4th grade so not saving much money in the long run? Will what we picked for Soprano work for Tenor? Will what we picked for Soprano work for Soprano? :)
After much teeth gnashing (and serious prayer), we decided on what to get.
So now we await Rod and Staff English 4 (grammar)
and Rod and Staff Spelling 4 (spelling.)
Tenor will continue with his 'A Reason for Handwriting C' and 'Writing with Ease.' I also ran over to the college library and got 'Across the Centuries C Level 1', which is actually 3rd grade but I'm going to use both levels this year and see how far we can go.

Since we're going to use Rod and Staff spelling for Tenor, I decided to return 'A Reason for Spelling' (although it looked fantastic) and get the much less expensive Rod and Staff for Soprano. That way she'll be familiar with it and can use Tenor's books when she gets to 4th grade.
Here's hoping we're on a better path now! And thankfully, Tenor's unused curriculum has already sold on eBay and Soprano's is listed.


Electives:
Typer Island for their typing instruction and a restart on SOS Elementary Spanish.

They did a health worksheet about how germs enter our bodies.


Phys Ed.: Lots of bike and scooter riding. They are loving the cool fall weather, and it's been absolutely gorgeous. We're going to spend as much time as we can outdoors because it's going to get cold soon!

Bible: This week included:
Reading about Haiti
Reading Matthew 4:17-25, 5:1-10
Memorizing Matthew 4:19

Geography: Discussion about interesting facts about Mexico, Mexico's nature, farming, and industry, and it's flag. Tenor used a book I found at the library called 'How To Draw Mexico's Sights and Symbols' to create some Aztec pyramids and medallion. We each won the geography game. Playing with Skittles as markers is definitely more fun!

Aztec art and architecture

Mexican Flag

Tenor's pages from World Geography this week were 'Population of North America' and 'Cities of North America.' They also did their vocabulary cards this week (canyon and gulch.)

Science: More discussion on deserts --- oases, coping with dryness, and rain in the desert.
Soprano worked on more Reptile sheets from The Complete Book of Animals.

Other MFW: Wee sing: El Coqui and Chi Chi Bud
Our art project was a substitution.... we made mini sombreros. I got the instructions here: http://crafts.kaboose.com/mini-sombrero.html

T's and J's ---not sure why they put pom poms on the top but they had fun decorating them.

We ended our week with a Mexican feast at a local restaurant, Carlos and Charlies. We enjoyed chimichangas, burritos, and fried ice cream.


Linking up at www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com and
at http://2ladybugsandalizard.blogspot.com/.


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