Weekly Report 11/17-11/: Kenya

Week 11

Kenya

Galloping the Globe

We had the best time learning about Kenya this week. We downloaded Google Earth and took a virtual trip from our house all the way to Kenya. The girls were able to zoom in on Kenya and look at the cities and villages; we were also able to see amazing pictures of places in Kenya by clicking on the boxes on the map of Kenya. Google Earth is my new favorite Galloping the Globe tool! We read many books, made Masai necklaces, and also learned about African animals for science. This evening we are going to church to see a children's choir from Kenya singing!!! What a great way to finish out a great week!

Reading

Miriam finished her Explode the Code 2 book this week! We'll be doing Explode the Code 3 a little out of order since the concepts are introduced in a different order in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. This week we started ETC 3 with lesson 5 in ETC 3 which covers the /sh/ sound. Miriam completed through lesson 65 in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.

Miriam is still reading anything she can get her hands on. In Charleston last week she proudly read any sign she could sound out. She even told us at one restaurant that the sign read, "Catch of the Day." She also got a new Dr. Seuss book Ten Apples Up On Top and was able to read it cover to cover with very little help!

Math

Miriam finished the Singapore Earlybird series this week! We did skip the last chapter on money. I believe that money will be best taught using real money rather than the workbook. I also think Miriam should have a better grasp of addition as well as counting by 5s and 10s before expecting her to make change.

We completed through lesson 23 in RightStart Math. Making patterns with the geoboard was the hit of the week in math.

Preschool

Rebekah is very into workbooks again and finished up all of her preschool books in the last few weeks. She was thrilled to open several new workbooks when our Rainbow Resource order came this week. She's doing several of the Rod and Staff preschool books, as well as a new prewriting book and several general preschool skill books we picked up from Wal-Mart to take to Charleston with us. She likes the variety of different workbooks and seems to sit at the school table longer if she can do several pages from one workbook and then move on to a different book. I have learned that she does not really enjoy coloring-she prefers cutting, pasting, circling/marking, and tracing. We also got a set of pattern blocks and pattern cards in our order this week. I can't believe I didn't invest in those a long time ago! Rebekah loves them and spends a lot of time each day working with the blocks. Below are pictures of her doing her work this week- I love how she sticks out her tongue when she's concentrating! I've also included a video of Rebekah "reading" she couldn't be left out when we videoed Miriam reading this week.

Bible

This week we learned about King Saul's rule of Israel and also started reading about David.

Miriam completed memorizing Psalm 23! In the recording below she says two of the verses out of order due to her excitement about being videotaped. Rebekah has picked up a lot of the chapter too just by doing circle time with us and listening to Miriam practicing her verses!