Weeks 12-14

Weeks 12-14

Our family battled several sicknesses during the month of October. We got school in here and there when we felt good enough to read and work. The last two weeks we've been very happy to feel well and be back in the swing of our regular school time (if you can call the way we school "regular.")

Life in a Desert

Our new unit is "Life in a Desert." Miriam is so interested in learning about the desert since she knows that her Aunt Alana's family lives in a desert. We have read a lot about snakes, spiders, and scorpions and she keeps questioning me to make sure that Aunt Alana's family is safe from those things where they live in the desert. She is especially interested in roadrunners and thinks it is really cool that Aunt Alana sometimes sees them in her yard. The read aloud scheduled for the next several weeks is Ereth's Birthday; after the second day of reading I declared that we would be finding yet another new book to read instead. I was very disappointed in the main character's attitude and the way he talks in the book. I know the premise of the book is to show how he ends up loving the fox children he is forced to adopt, but I refuse to suffer through reading aloud mean rantings and bad attitude until we get to that part. We've chosen to read aloud Ginger Pye instead; so far we are all happy with the new choice. The kids enjoyed making desert pictures this week. Each child made a cactus with animals living in "apartment" holes. Miriam's cactus has bugs in one hole, an owl in another, and a kangaroo rat in the bottom hole. She also drew snakes on the ground by the cactus.Rebekah drew her animals in the cactus, then colored over all of it in black. When I questioned her about her drawing she said that the animals "wanted to shut their doors."

Michael wanted to join in on the fun, so I cut out a cactus for him and helped him glue it down; then he did some coloring of his own.

Language Arts

Both girls are taking a break from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I could see Rebekah struggling more than usual, so we decided to do other things instead for a few weeks. Miriam has jumped so far in her reading that she can already read all the words the book is trying to teach her, so I've decided that reading aloud and Explode the Code are more than enough to continue her reading skills.

Miriam read aloud through chapter 11 in Hector Springs Loose. She has finished through lesson 6 in Explode the Code 5. In Growing With Grammar she has completed through lesson 39; she is currently learning about proper and common nouns. All About Spelling is still one of the highlights of Miriam's day; she has completed through step 3 in book 2.

Rebekah has been playing lots of games of Sound Hound and Starfall Raceway with me to practice her decoding skills. She completed the post test in Explode the Code C as well as the pretest in Explode the Code 1 and also lesson 1 in her new Explode the Code book. The picture below is one of the pages she completed this week; I am amazed at her reading skill!

Rebekah has also started Handwriting Without Tears this week to teach her how to correctly form her letters.

Math

Miriam has completed through page 118 in Singapore 1A. She is working on lesson 39 in RightStart B. She began working with base 10 blocks this week and is enjoying using the blocks to add numbers all the way through 1000s! She completed her quarter year test in her RightStart book and got all the questions correct.

Rebekah is enjoying her new Bob Jones University Press K5 math book. She has completed the first two chapters practicing shapes, patterns, and counting to 4. She has also completed through lesson 28 in RightStart A.

Art

For our art project this week we talked about shapes in art. Miriam enjoyed working on her art project. Michael also had a great time gluing Miriam's scraps to a piece of paper.

Bible

We've completed through lesson 8 in our Bible Study. We talked about Jesus's birth and about Mary and Joseph taking him to the temple when he was a baby.