Our Week: Halloween, Worms, Butterflies, and Cinderella

I still haven't felt 100% this week so we've been slacking on a few things. Unfortunately, it's mostly the fun stuff that I end up leaving out.

The kids had trouble concentrating on Monday since it was Halloween and they couldn't stop asking how much longer until they could go trick or treating. Colin thought it was horrible that I'd even make them do school on a holiday.

 

Three Rs

Since the kids can do some of this on their own and they're done in the morning before I'm too worn out, we've kept up with them pretty well.

Molly started adding 4 digit numbers using base 10 cards.

Caleigh has been working on finding the area of figures that aren't rectangles.

Colin is continuing to do well on his own with RightStart Geometry and to do Life of Fred once or twice a week.

History

We talked about the spread of slavery, tobacco, and Queen Nzinga of Angola. We discussed the difference between indentured servants and slaves.

Science

I had planned to do a fun week to celebrate finishing the insect portion of Zoology 1. The girls painted wooden butterflies, but we didn't get to any of the other crafts. Our butterflies did come out this week, which was exciting for the kids.

 

I also made a quickly thrown together butterfly lunch. As we were coming downstairs for lunch, I asked Molly what she wanted and she requested a butterfly shaped PB&J sandwich.

 

 

Colin had his Biology class this week. They learned about cells and made their own out of jello and candy.

A worm composting class was going on at the nature center at the same time so the girls did that. They measured gummy worms, counted their segments, tasted them, compared them to real worms, felt the real worms, made a worm from clay and painted it, learning about composting, and went out searching for worms.

 

 

Everything Else



Last weekend I took the girls to see Phantom of the Lollipop while Colin was at one of his many hockey games. It was a really good show and we all enjoyed it. It was the girls's first time going to the symphony. The ghostbusters were in it and the girls got a picture with them and the car after the show.

 

Colin had his regular Monday and Wednesday hockey practices.

We had a playdate at a new park with friends.

We saw The Commedia Cinderella at the Children's Theater Friday. It was really funny and all the kids liked it.

 

Our Week: Sick Mom, Butterflies, and Rhode Island

I'm glad we didn't have a whole lot of extra planned this week because I felt awful. I started getting a terrible cold over the weekend. It just continued to get worse all week. Today I've finally started feeling a little better. We didn't do everything exactly as we normally would have, but we managed to get in most of our work each day. With a sore throat and coughing, I wasn't able to read aloud as much as usual and it made me realize that I normally read aloud a whole lot.

Science



We did the final insect chapter in Zoology 1. It was about butterflies, skippers, and moths. We studied butterflies last year so we didn't do as much as we would have otherwise. You can see that here. We did read some extra books.

 

We also got caterpillars a couple weeks ago. This week the kids have been impatiently waiting for them to emerge from their chrysalises. I think it should happen in just a few more days.

 

History

We read two chapters of A History of US. They were about colonies and Peter Stuyvesant and New Netherland.

State Study

This week our state was Rhode Island. We actually lived in RI for 2 months four years ago, but the girls couldn't remember much about it. We read some books, did map work, did the coloring page that included the state flag, and made Johnny cakes.

Colin had two hockey practices. He also played in games with kids older than him because they were short a goalie. Unfortunately, my sickness made me miss it, but Chad said he did really well.
We met some friends at the park this week. We hadn't seen some of them in a while so it was really great. I didn't really feel well enough to go, but the kids and I really needed to get out. Until today, the weather has been nice and they've been playing outside a lot.


We have a busy weekend planned. I'm taking the girls to the symphony to see Phantom of the Lollipops while Chad takes Colin to the first of his many hockey games of the weekend. Then we'll all head back to the ice rink tomorrow evening for two more games. He has one game on Sunday.

State Study: Vermont

Books we read:

I attempted to make butterfly pancakes. Butterflies are Vermont's state insect. We had them with maple syrup, of course.

We also had maple floats, which the kids loved.
3/4 cup milk, 1 Tbsp. maple syrup, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream

Sheets for binders

Colin

Molly

Caleigh

For more information about our state studies, see this post.

Our Week: Field Trips, Pilgrims, and Vermont

I'm glad we had so much time at home last week because this week has been busy. We also have a busy weekend planned.
Colin had hockey practice on Monday and Wednesday.
Tuesday we went on a field trip to the Lazy 5 Ranch. It was a beautiful fall day and we had so much fun. The kids loved feeding all the animals.

 

 

Thursday we went to see Seussical at the Children's Theatre. It was great, one of the best plays we've seen! Unfortunately, pictures aren't allowed during the show so this is all I have. The costumes were really good though.

 

Colin also had his science class on Thursday afternoon.

Today we went for a walk on the trails in our neighborhood to enjoy the wonderful fall weather.

 

 

 

We also went to the Carolina BalloonFest. We had been once before and really liked it, but today was even better. Last time it was windy so lots of the balloons didn't go up. This time we got to see all 50 balloons.

 

 

Tomorrow morning Colin has hockey practice. We're going to Trunk or Treat with my moms' group in the afternoon.

We plan to go to the Renaissance Festival on Sunday.


We did manage to fit in some school work. We're still observing our caterpillars, which have grown quite a bit.

 

We continued studying the Pilgrims. We read a lot more books, did notebook pages, and made corn cookies. (I'll make a post soon with all the things we did.)
We also read about the Dutch coming to the New World and settling in what they called New Amsterdam.

We finished reading about Vermont and did the maps and coloring page for the binders. We read about how maple syrup is made. The kids had maple floats as a treat. They must have been good because they've asked for them every day since.

Apple Picking at Sky Top Orchard

We had a great time at Sky Top Orchard a few weeks ago. It's about a two hour drive, but those apple cider donuts make it worth the drive. It's a really nice place with great views too.

Our Week: Pilgrims and Lots of Insects

Besides two nights of hockey, we didn't have any outside activities this week. It was nice to stay home and have more time for our schoolwork and free afternoons.

We did go to a birthday party last Saturday. It was a dress up party and this is what the girls dug out of the dress up box.

Three Rs

Colin is doing really well with RightStart Geometry. He's doing pretty much all of it on his own. I'm even giving him extra work some days because he's getting through it so quickly.
Caleigh is still working on multiplication and is finding the area of rectangles.
Molly is moving on to larger numbers.

Colin and Caleigh are both doing well with spelling. Caleigh has gotten 100% on every test so far. Colin has only missed one word.

Molly started First Language Lessons. She acts like she loves it, but I think it's because she knows it was both Colin and Caleigh's least favorite subject.

Science

We covered a lot of insects this week: praying mantises, dragonflies, crickets, katydids, grasshoppers, aphids, and cicadas. We spent one day on praying mantises and one day on dragonflies, reading extra books, doing lapbook pieces, and making a dragonfly craft. We also read a couple books on crickets.

Praying mantis & dragonfly notebook pages (I've tired everything, but for some reason I can not get this pic to flip)

We did an experiment to see how shorter wings make higher sounds.

Our caterpillars arrived because our next insect is the butterfly.

Caterpillars the day after they arrived

State Study

Vermont was our state this week. We read a few books and will finish it next week. We had pancakes for dinner with maple syrup.

I tried to make them into butterflies since that's the state insect

History

We started learning about pilgrims this week. We read lots of books, which I'll post soon. We spent time talking about the reasons they left England, the Mayflower, the journey, the first winter in the New World, the Wampanoag people, and Squanto. The kids used Draw Write Now to draw pictures of Squanto and the Mayflower. They made pilgrim puppets. We also made pilgrim hats for snack. We'll be continuing with this next week.




Since it's actually already Sunday, I'll include our weekend here. Colin's house team hockey games started.

Colin waiting for his team's turn to play

The girls had a fun evening last night playing with two of their friends I was babysitting.

Today we had a Thanksgiving dinner in celebration of our study of the pilgrims.



State Study: New Hampshire

Our second state to study was New Hampshire. We've only driven through it when going to Maine so we didn't know much about it.

Books we read

Pages for binders

Colin

Caleigh

Molly (she decided to change the flag a bit)

Colin made New Hampshire easy apple pie. He really liked it and ate almost the whole thing.

One thing we learned was that the first public library was in NH. We decided to get the girls their own library cards in honor of that. Molly was so excited all day. While the librarian was putting the information in the computer, she kept bouncing around asking how much longer until she got her card. She couldn't wait to scan her own card and check out books on her own. Caleigh didn't seem to think it was as exciting, but she has wanted to check out books on her card each time we've been to the library since.

Very excited girl picking out books

See this post for more information on resources we're using and the worksheets.