Sunday, January 8, 2012

Our Week: Getting Back into a Routine

We started back to school on Tuesday after 2 weeks off and a week before that of light school. It went so much better than I expected. We only took a short break for Thanksgiving and the kids had such a hard time starting back so I was prepared for it to be a rough week.



Three Rs


Colin started back with RightStart Geometry. He mostly worked on finding the area of lots of different shapes.
Caleigh is one lesson away from finishing RightStart Level C. She really liked working with tangrams this week.
Molly has been working more on place value by adding 1, 10, and 100 to numbers. She also started working on telling time again.

Colin and Caleigh both did Writing With Ease and a Spell to Write and Read lesson along with some grammar activities that went with it.
Molly is continuing Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading and her handwriting.
They will all start back with regular grammar next week.




History

We read about the Moghul emperors of India and how they eventually lost control.
We also read about the Salem witch trials.



Science


We started chemistry this week. We're using Real Science-4-Kids Level 1. We'll also be using Fizz, Bubble, and Flash along with lots of library books. RS4K is actually a level above where the girls should be, but that's the level that is best for Colin. My goal for them is just exposure at this point and I hope they'll find the experiments fun. They want to understand everything though so they're asking a lot of questions and I'm having to go back and explain a lot of it to them. We learned about matter, atoms, protons, neutrons, electrons, and the periodic table.
We read What's the Matter in Mr. Whisker's Room and Bartholowmew and the Oobleck. We made our own oobleck just like in these books. We mixed 2 cups of cornstarch, 1 cup of water, and a few drops of green food coloring.



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Colin also started the second part of his Biology class. It's the first academic class he's taken and he's doing so well. They are also using Real Science-4-Kids.




Everything Else


While Colin was in his science class, the girls had to go visit the horses again. They're so fascinated with them and will spend an hour just looking at them and trying to feed them.


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Colin had his two regular ice hockey practices. He also went to tryouts for a travel roller hockey team twice.

2 comments:

My Captivating Life said...

Looks like a fun week! We take the whole month of Dec. off but we also do school in the summer. My kids were really excited to get back to it.

Unknown said...

It's hard to start back up again after a break! I think it's the routine of doing "little" that makes it hard for us. We're trying to get back into the swing of things this week too!

We love goop around here. (That's what we call the cornstarch stuff.) Does it make a mess though! LOL

And look at those beautiful horses!