Wrap up: Week 6

Well, we have finished up our first 1/5 of the school year and we are now going to take a week-long break. Well, El gets a break. I get to write a history midterm paper on... something. (I really need to read that assignment since it is due in, oh, seven days or so.)

Math: Following last week's test results, we decided to put away the Math in Focus book this week and focus on lots of subtraction-with-borrowing review as well as basic multiplication review.  MiF is largely a mastery program so I did not want to move on until he really had subtraction down. Also, MiF 3A begins multiplication with "multiplication and division by 6's," assuming the student completed "multiplication and division by 1-5" during the second grade year. Since this is his first year with MiF, he didn't have any multiplication or division last year so we have been working catching up to MiF 3A.

Language Arts: El still struggles with WWE (Lvl. 2) narration, so we have added a Spectrum workbook to make writing feel a little more productive. He actually really likes the writing prompts in this workbook, and it makes us both feel like we're getting somewhere in writing. I was going to give up completely on WWE, but I do really think he needs the narration practice. Maybe I need to give in and get the workbook? Not this month, anyway. Additionally, I'm pretty sure his handwriting has actually gotten worse over the last few weeks so he probably needs all the writing he can get. :/

Other than writing, El is rocking right on through language arts as usual. He has done tons of reading (his required book this week was "Tales from the Odyssey: Sirens and Sea Serpents"), 2 grammar lessons and a dictionary skills lesson, 3 more spelling groups mastered (we actually took Wed. & today off of spelling because it's just going so fast.)

Almost finished with Spelling Power level D. Here is some word work.

Our artist this week was John James Audubon

What a beautiful week to observe trees.They won't have leaves much longer, though!

Map work. This week our focus was Ancient China.

Making a clay bowl for our Ancient China studies.

I got the idea from this blog to prioritize my focuses using the acronym ART. I have it written inside my daily plans and I refer to it often when I start to get stressed about the "teaching" part of homeschooling. 

Anyway, here's the overview of the goals I set for this week with goals not met stricken:

Math:

• Rework missed math test problems and work on subtraction with borrowing daily
• Master "vocabulary of multiplication"  (factors and products)
• Do MiF intro to Ch. 6 and complete 6.1
• Challenge Math Ch. 7 Levels 1 & 2 Ch. 7 incorporates calculator use, so we skipped most of it and did Ch. 8 instead. No calculators yet, thank you!
• 30 minutes on xtramath.org and daily multiplication (1-5) review

Language Work:

• Memory work: Review Land of Nod and start memorizing list of pronouns
• 3 lessons in Spectrum workbook and 2 written paragraphs
• Writing With Ease: 2 days completed
• Spelling: Level D, 3 groups
• Latin: 3 lessons from the text, focusing mostly on subject/verb agreement
• Sign Language class with library co-op group

Social Studies:

• Story of the World, Ch. 10: Ancient China. Make page & do map work. Projects: Clay bowl and pictograms.
• SOTW, Ch. 11: Ancient Africa. Make page & do map work. Projects: Paper beads or henna hands

Science/ Health:

• Evan Moor unit on backyard habitats
• Chemistry experiment #7: Are some molecules heavier than others? (This experiment, by the way, ended as many of our experiments do; with a Crash! followed by........"Yay! Science!") =)
• Health: 2 textbook lessons on "Managing Stress" 
• Nature hike. Okay, we never took an actual hike this week, but we have spent hours outside enjoying the beautiful fall scenery.

Whole Child:

• Cooking: Homemade omelet
• Drawing: drawing things in nature
• Art: focus on John James Audubon
• Music:

aaaaannd.. Hello Burnout! We are tired. It's time for a week off!!!!!