Curriculum Sale Finds

I've gone to three used curriculum sales. I can't believe how much I ended up buying. I did find quite a few things from this year's list and my in the future list. Of course, I also found a lot of things that weren't on my lists. I got some really good deals though.

I don't plan for Colin to start this until next year in 7th grade. I couldn't pass it up at this price though since it's very expensive new.

Our Week: Moving Out

We didn't do any real school this week. On Monday, the kids spent most of the day playing outside while I prepared the house for packing. They rode bikes and scooters, played in the sandbox, and gathered items for this picnic I saw going on from the window.

Most of this week was spent trying to keep out of the way while movers packed up our house and loaded it all into this trailer.

Chad was able to work from home Tuesday and Wednesday so I could take the kids away from the house.

Some friends had the kids a moving away party. It was so nice of them. The kids got to play with the all the friends they'll miss the most. They had snacks, cupcakes, and ice cream. They even made a banner.

I finally took the kids to the NC Museum of History. I've been meaning to go there, but just never made it before. I think the part that excited them the most was a tree with the letters CRO. They remembered reading about it last week in history when we studied the lost colony of Roanoke Island. I love when things like that work out.

Since it's right next door, we also visited the NC Museum of Natural Sciences. We had been there twice before, but both times special activities were going on. It was nice to visit on a day when it wasn't crowded.


Thursday we had to wait for the movers to finish getting everything loaded and clean the house some before coming back to the apartment. Today we're unpacking the stuff we brought with us from the house and getting ready for a weekend trip to stay in a cabin in the mountains.

Colin also got to finish up his hockey season playing games Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday. His team ended up coming in 1st place.

Colin stopping the puck

Our Week: Trying to Wrap Up Things

We moved into a temporary apartment this week while we wait for our new house to be ready. We have a few things to finish up so I brought along some of our school supplies.

All the kids have started doing practice workbooks for math, which I plan to continue through the summer. Colin reviewed phonograms and spelling rules. He did writing assignments using story starters. Caleigh continued with her regular spelling lists, grammar, and practicing cursive. Molly continued with her phonics and handwriting lessons.

We did three chapters of history to finish up Story of the World- Volume 2: The Middle Ages. We read about Walter Raleigh, the lost colony of Roanoke Island, John Cabot, Newfoundland, Jacques Cartier, and the war between Spain and England. We also spent some time reviewing and discussing what the world was like at the end of the sixteenth century.

It's rained quite a bit this week so we've spent most of our time in the apartment. The kids have played lots of Uno and some Wii.

We're driving down to meet some friends at the park today and I'm planning to go to a used curriculum sale tonight.

We'll be taking next week off to go back to the house and get everything packed. After that, we have a few things to finish for the school year and need to take the end of the year tests.

Our Week: Shakespeare, Elizabeth I, and Finishing Astronomy

Three Rs

Math: Molly finished RightStart Level A yesterday. She was so excited and wanted to know if she was finished with math forever. Colin finished Life of Fred: Fractions. I had Caleigh stop her regular math because she's getting ready to start some new concepts that I want to wait for until after we move. She's just been doing some review work this week.

Spelling: Colin has finished the final spelling list in Spell to Write and Read. I'm going to have him review phonograms, rules, and reference pages. I'll probably quickly go through the last lists with him again next year. They do recommend doing each list twice. He and Caleigh both took diagnostic tests yesterday. His grade level was 11.2. I'm so glad we found this program when he was getting ready to start 1st grade. It's really taught us both so much and Caleigh is doing well with it now. Caleigh's mastery level was the same as the list she's on and she got a few words correct that she hasn't been taught yet. Her grade level was 3.3, which I think is great for her first year since she's getting ready to start some lists that will quickly make that go up.

History

We learned about Queen Elizabeth I. We read Good Queen Bess by Diane Stanely and Colin read Who Was Queen Elizabeth? by June Eding.
We also learned about William Shakespeare. We read Bard of Avon, A Child's Portrait of Shakespeare, Welcome to the Globe, and some of the Shakespeare Can Be Fun series.

Science

We reviewed to finish up our study of Exploring Creation with Astronomy. We read some books that we hadn't gotten to earlier. We had a themed lunch, made a rocket cake, did some mini-books for their notebooks, and made aliens from play-doh. See more about that and pictures in this post. We had a few more things we planned to do, including making a solar system to hang from our ceiling, making a model of a rocket, and making some spaceships from a book I have, but we'll save that for after we move since we'd just have to put it all back in a box anyway.

Art

We did a lesson from Artistic Pursuits, where the kids drew landscapes with oil pastels.

Everything Else

We met with Colin's First Lego League team to divide all the Lego pieces among the boys and to let the kids play. This picture is right before we took the table apart. We're going to miss getting together with them.

They had fun playing Wii

I took the kids ice skating on Tuesday.

Astronomy Review

The kids have had so much fun learning about astronomy this year. We spent the week reviewing what we had learned.

I found these plates and napkins on clearance at Target a while back and just had to get them. I made them star shaped sandwich, cut mango with a star cookie cutter, used banana slices for the different phases of the moon, and the strawberries are from a pack of space food.

The kids helped make a rocket cake.

We read some of the books we hadn't gotten around to yet. They did space themed puzzles, played with a space felt set, and played with astronaut sticker books.

We used mini-books from Homeschool Share for our notebooks.

They used playdough to makes aliens.

We went to the Museum of Life and Science, which has a section for space.

Mother's Day

Flowers Colin got me.

Caleigh got me white roses and Molly got red ones, but I somehow deleted the picture from my camera. :(

Colin made dinner.

Here are some of the things the girls made for me.

Strawberry Picking

My kids love strawberries! They've eaten 8 buckets so far this season. They think it's really fun to go pick their own too.

NC Museum of Life and Science