March Adventures!

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We've been busy! So busy that I've fallen behind on blogging.  By the time we're done for the day, my brain just is done.  I thought I'd post a "what we're up to these days" update.  When I first started blogging, I wanted to use it as a way to keep tabs on what we were doing.  My goal is to post at least monthly updates again.

Reading

What's doing me in is all of the read-alounds, I think. The boys seem to do much better listening to stories read aloud than trying to both read and comprehend at the same time.  Of course, that means that means Mama is trying to keep all the plot lines straight! Our current read-alouds include:

A Bear Called Paddington
The Courage of Sarah Noble
Adam and His Kin
Mary Poppins
The Illiad

We also just finished reading Charlotte's Web (yes, there were tears...) and Prairie School.

Independently, the little boys are reading the Magic Tree House series (Jude) and Geronimo Stilton (Damien).  Matthew is a bit behind on his "for fun" reading at the moment. He's reading Gallatin: America's Swiss Founding Father for American History. He picked that up when we went to Friendship Hill, Gallatin's Pennsylvania estate, last summer.

Math

Math is one area where we always seem to keep up!  All of the boys like math, so it's a preferred subject!

Jude and Damien are both working with Math U See.  Jude began level Epsilon a few weeks ago, and is currently zipping through finding common denominator fractions. Damien is more than halfway done Beta.  I have a feeling that he will be moving pretty quickly for several of the next lessons. Since he had a crash course in some of the upcoming subtracting with our recent Math Mammoth review, he will probably move quickly.

Matthew is three-fourths of the way through Algebra II.  I'm hoping I don't jinx him...but after 10 of 14 units, plus the midterm, he has a perfect grade.  I may be mama, but I'm still impressed and proud!

New Stuff

The younger boys have started Sassafras Science.  We opted for the logbook version (there's also a lap book).  I chose it since they are big fans of Magic Tree House. My plan was to use the two-days-a-week lesson plan, but I have a feeling we may be doing a little more -- everybody wants to know "What happens NEXT??"

Jude is studying ancient history with Veritas Press' self-paced Old Testament and Egypt.  He is nearly done their Bible course and loved the format.  He is enjoying the new course -- and telling me lots of things he's learning.  If you want to know about Ancient Egypt, he's your Pharaoh.

A grateful Matthew has finished Latin, rounding out his foreign language credits.  That space in his schedule is now filled with US Government.  He's also begun working on the same cooking techniques course (The Everyday Gourmet: The Lost Art of Cooking from The Great Courses), so I'm hopeful soon we'll have another good cook in the kitchen.


Reviews

Matthew's gotten a jump start on his Junior year literature with The Illiad and The Odyssey from Memoria Press.  That review will be posting soon.  He's also watching Drive Thru History's The Gospels as well.  We are really enjoying that one! After we finish The Gospels, we're planning to watch The Holy Land as well -- the two series' will form the base of his next Theology credit.

I highly, highly recommend Bessie's Pillow. You can read my review, or you can just go find the book.  You can curl up with it for a long afternoon, or take advantage of short chapters and read it in "I have a spare moment" increments.

Celia recently worked on Creating a Masterpiece - that review is here.  She's still itching to try out other things from the program, but is now working on Art Achieve.  Last spring, she reviewed Level II, so she's excited to move on to the next level.

Luke is back on the review circuit!  He is using SpeedyPrep to study for his college placement exam, and is considering a few CLEP exams as well.  We'll let you know how it goes - fingers crossed.




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Weekly Wrap Up - Our First Test

This is our first post to the Weekly Wrap Up series.  The series is a way of sharing what we did this week with others.  For us, some weeks it will be a reflection of our progression; other weeks it will just be a reflection on any extra fun we may have had!

This week, our Bible theme was "generous," and we read the story of Isaac and Rebekah.  They were so generous to other people that God gave them to each other.  Jude enjoyed reading the picture story in our workbook; though my little literalist read one sentence as: "(Rebekah) gave (Abraham's Servant) and (the camels) (a puddle of water) from the (wishing well)."

Discipleland Kindergarten Program - "Heroes"

We finished our first math unit this week.  We have spent the last six weeks studying sorting (same, alike, and different), and working on careful listening (same shape AND same color; same color BUT different shapes).  Jude took his first test on Thursday, and had 25 out of 27 correct, for a score of 93.  I think the hardest part of taking the test was not being able to rely on me for help; I was only reading the instructions, not helping him think things through.





Jude is still working on learning letters and their sounds.  Last week we finished Book B of Explore the Code, so this week we took a break from the program and decided to do some more fun language-based "review" activities.  We did several activities from our folder games and played Alphabet Bingo.  Jude really enjoyed the Bingo Game.  It it geared for use in a larger classroom and contains 36 bingo boards, so we should be able to get lots of use out of it.  I also like that it should be able to grow with us; the instructions come with several alternative game ideas.

Some more pictures of our week:

Heading to duPont one day this week.  (I forget which day this was - we were there more days than we weren't!)  His jacket didn't have a hood, so he borrowed his brother's hat.  He decided to jump over each of the cracks in the sidewalk and the parking lot.  By the time we got to our car (I think two spots from the end of the property!) he was still hopping one foot at a time more than jumping, but he was getting some nice air on the leaps.









The whole family visiting my husband's grandmother at her her nursing home.  She turned 96 this past Wednesday.  Happy Birthday, Mom Mom Woody!!
















Journaling.  Jude has decided to be a fire fighter when he grows up.














Our first Halloween art. Our witch was totally sparkly.  He added pumpkins and stars, too.

 Playing Minecraft over Wifi with his big brothers.  He thinks he's a big shot since he gets to play  a big kid video game, but really -- it's building with virtual blocks. More shape work!!

Come see what everyone else has been up to!