Last Week & Next Year

Guess who is on a much needed break week this week? That's right: We are! :D

Last week was the 6th week of our spring semester. We finished up Unit II in math with two step word problems (where the first step was not specifically explained.) This was kind of tricky, when all previous problems have been spelled out in separate parts (i.e. "part a" asks you one thing and then "part b" draws upon part b's answer.) El also got into "turning sentences into the language of algebra" in Primary Grade Challenge Math, which he does once a week. This was definitely fun and I think it will help make those Singapore word problems a little easier.

El also participated in a homeschool Valentine's Day exchange, for which he sent and received Valentines from all over the country. He had a great time opening all the envelopes on Tuesday (Valentine's Day) and marking them on a map.

 

El's third grade art notebook is filling up nicely! Here is a sketch of a Ruby-throated Hummingbird:

Last week, our artist study was Andrew Wyeth, a twentieth century realist painter.

We had some "unsolicited science" moments when the kids decided to use marshmallows, chocolate chips, and food coloring to make a replica of a carbon atom:

...and when El spent a morning putting together a suspension bridge from a Scholastic kit:

In "Next Year" news, I think I finally picked a Latin program. This is big news, because there's really nowhere to go after finishing our current book. Getting Started with Latin is a one-book wonder and goes no farther than just... getting started with Latin. I looked at probably 10 different programs, before finally deciding on Galore Park's Latin Prep 1. If Galore Park works well for us, it could be El's Latin program for the next four years or so, which would be wonderful. It's strange, though. Despite Latin being an integral part of classical education, I had no intention of starting it so young (even though many start Latin even younger, with programs like Minimus and Song School Latin.) It has turned out to be one of El's favorite subjects and I have been very impressed with how much  easier it is to understand English grammar and vocabulary once you start to learn a classical language.

Wrap Up: Sem. 2, Wk. 5

• This week in math has been a lot of review of addition and subtraction word problems. El has been learning when to use the comparison bar model and when to use the part-whole bar model.

In case you don't know what I'm talking about.

• Grammar has us working on prepositions, prepositional phrases, and the objects of prepositions. Thankfully, no diagramming of prepositional phrases this year.
• El is working on  "fact v. opinion" in writing. He is still having a bit of a hard time differentiating between the two.
• In science, we learned about Sally Fox and we went through another "states of matter" chemistry lesson.
• History was definitely here, there and everywhere this week. Harriet Tubman, Abraham Lincoln, and... early American civilizations? Yeah. No flow, but whatever.
• For our Friday "building construction" discussion (I have to figure out what to call this: Architecture? Construction? Legos in Real Life?) we talked about steel beams and steel-reinforced concrete beams. We also learned about elastic v. plastic deformation & deflection.  
• We started The Hobbit two weeks ago and I think we're now 3/4 of the way through the book. The kids absolutely LOVE it!
• We were supposed to go to the library today but it is super snowy, yucky, and cold outside so instead we ate microwaved S'mores.  We'll get to the library sometime in the next few days.

Here are a couple of El's latest drawings:

Map of his "ideal city." In geography, we have been reviewing cardinal and ordinal directions and learning a little about cartography.

El practices drawing birds

Pyrimids of Giza, another drawing inspired by the Draw 50 Buildings book.

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Em finally decided she was ready to start learning some guitar chords. Here she is, rocking an Em (E minor) chord. She learned Em and A7, and she did a great job!