Our Week: Celts, Mr. Gumpy, & Hockey

This week hasn't been the easiest for getting our school work done. On Monday and Tuesday, we had a toddler staying with us while her mom was in the hospital having a baby. Needless to say, we didn't get to all the things I had planned for those days. Babysitting is apparently hard work. Poor Molly was so worn out from being kept up late and woken up early that this is how I found her at 5:00 on Tuesday evening after the little girl left.

I was hoping we could jump back in on Wednesday and have a really productive day. One of the kids was having a really bad day though. She broke down crying 3 times during school. The first time she didn't like starting school with grammar, the second time she didn't want to name action verbs, and finally she didn't want to read a word problem in math. She decided on her own that she needed to go lay down in her room for a while when everyone else had lunch. After a little break, she did better with the rest of the day.

Unfortunately, Thursday wasn't the best day either. Lots of whining, tattling, pestering, and fighting with all the kids. And a few more tears from my 7 year old. This time the idea of starting multiplication had her in a panic. She always worries about new things and likes to know how to do everything right away. She convinces herself it's too hard, but she did just fine with it once she calmed down.

I'm very glad we've made it to Friday. I think we all need a couple days off. I'm hoping everything goes better next week and maybe the sun will return, which should improve everyone's mood.

The Three Rs
Nothing too exciting to report here. Everyone is progressing along with their lessons. Molly has been working on the websites, Reading Eggs and Studydog, for her phonics. She's enjoying both of them. Some of the things are easy for her, but the repetition seems to be helping her remember some of the things she was having trouble with before.

Five in a Row
Our FIAR book this week was Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car. We did some fun lessons and read many books to go along with it. I'll be posting more about this soon.

History
We learned about the Celts and the story of Beowulf. We also read about Christianity coming to Britain, monks, and how they made books. Besides reading, the map work and a coloring page of Beowulf were the only things we got to for history this week.

Science
Our science this week went along with our FIAR book. We learned about clouds, the water cycle, and friction.


Friction Experiment

Art
Art also went along with our FIAR book. We discussed crosshatching that was used in the book and they tried some. We also looked at how action was shown. They drew an example by having something in their drawing throwing mud. We also worked with using texture in drawings and discussed symbolism. They each drew their own car using Draw Write Now.

Extra Stuff
On Tuesday, Colin had his First Lego League meeting. They chose their t-shirt design and the solution to their problem. They also completed their first mission, which was exciting for all of us.

Colin started roller hockey on Thursday. He's been talking about playing hockey for a while, but needed ice skating lessons first. We had planned to hold off on that until January. Then my hubby saw a sign for roller hockey so we thought we'd let him try that first.

Today we all went to a Carolina Hurricanes hockey game.



They had inflatables for the kids before the game.



 

Molly said this was the best part.





Colin waiting for the game to start. He was very happy that the Hurricanes won.