Weekly Wrap-up ~ 40 down and 20 to go

This week seemed to zip by. I am certain it was because we had some sunshine and milder temps. That gives everybody more energy and a lot more gets accomplished. Before you know it the day is done.

The Past Week in our Regular Life

We have awoken from the winter dead. I am starting to dream about planting flowers and gardening. I am planning the painting of the trim of our house and our front porch. I can't wait to get outside and start sprucing things up! The kids and I rode our bikes a couple of afternoons. That felt fantastic!

The winner of my last Dial coupon giveaway was Julie @ Smart Savvy Mama. Thanks to all that entered! I will have another giveaway next week so check back!

The Schooling Basics

Bible - Our discussions this week were all about Lent.

Grammar - This week we moved onto predicates! Diagramming is so fun!

Spelling - We added the "bossy r" to chunking, copy work and dictation in Spelling U See and memorized "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". And in Soaring with Spelling we also learned -aid words.

Handwriting - We didn't do any lessons in Handwriting without Tears - Cursive Success. Instead the kids wrote one of their stories in cursive.

Math - In Math U See Gamma we completed Lesson 25 and continued with multiple digit multiplication, this time multiplying three digit numbers by two digit numbers. In Mastering 5th Grade Math - Fractions, we learned about the Greatest Common Factor.

Writing - We completed our problem/solution stories with character and setting descriptions by editing and revising our sloppy copies and then writing the final draft in cursive with illustrations.

Science - In Science4Us we have moved onto learning about Earth Features.

The Schooling Fun Stuff

We experienced a mini-obsession with the Iditarod this past week. The race started on Saturday and we have been checking the logs several times a day to see where our favorites are in the standings. The race is a constant source of conversation. We finished "Toughest Race on Earth" and all of us were teary at the emotions of the finish line. I cannot recommend watching that documentary enough. We loved it and are Iditarod followers for life.

When we started back to school after Christmas break, we had 60 days of school to perform before we could go on our Spring Break trip to Florida that is coming up on April 5th. That seemed like an overwhelming number of days. So I broke it down into 3, 20-day sessions. On the 20th day of each session we get to have a Fun Day.

Our first Fun Day was our Olympics Party. Today was our second Fun Day and we had fun with the Iditarod. We made puppy chow and watched Snow Buddies. We read the last of our Iditarod picture books. We didn't get to the homemade pumpkin dog treats for our pups, but we hope to do that next week. For a real treat, Dawson's friend allowed us to come out and see their kennel of Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes this afternoon. FUN day!!!! They will have two litters of puppies in the next week, so we are planning another trip out in about 8 weeks.

And now we only have one more 20-day session left before we leave for our Spring Break trip! What do we have planned for our final 20th day Fun Day? The start of our much-deserved vacation!!!

This week we also hosted a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt at our church on the first day of Lent for 16 kids from kindergarten to 6th grade. My kids and I spent all day Wednesday shopping for supplies, prepping for the party, and hosting the party. I will posting all of the specifics about that party in my upcoming review of the product. You'll just have to take my word that it was a lot of fun! Here is a sneak peak at the activity that we completed.

Finally, on Thursday we attended the first Lewis and Clark class at our public library sponsored by the University of Missouri Extension Center. The kids made journals, tasted some hominy and bacon (two thumbs down), and started on their journey Westward. They had a good time with their friends. This class will be every Thursday afternoon for the next six weeks.

The Kitchen

Chicken fettucine, broccoli and garlic toast; pancakes and bacon; sub sandwiches and peaches, butterscotch brownies, puppy chow.

The Days Ahead

This month is going to blast ahead with very busy days, especially weekends. We start the first of four basketball tournaments in a row this Saturday. The kids will have their regular bowling league (the countdown has started for state tournament at the end of April). Next week it just more of the same … basketball practice, church, Lewis and Clark class, bowling, Kyndal at school, Dawson at school and working. And on Monday afternoon we made plans to go to the park with some homeschooling friends. It's supposed to be in the upper 60's!!!

The Books We are Reading

Mom: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, Winterdance by Gary Paulsen.

Brynne: A Big Year for Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher.

Eli: George Brown Class Clown: What's Black and White and Stinks All Over? by Nancy Krulik (finished).

Read Aloud:  Papa and the Leprechaun King by Arthur Cola.

The People and the Places

We have been quite social this week! Like I said, the warmer temps made getting out of the house a lot more desirable. It was a week spent with friends at our egg hunt at church and the Lewis and Clark class.

The Savings Jar(s)

A whole $.34 went into my change jar. The upside is that I wasn't spending any money this week that would give me change.

The Bible in a Year

I am right on track and have read through Numbers Chapter 25.

The Favorite Things

Hands down … the Iditarod. We are so glad we made a decision to learn about it this year.

Brynne announced to me on Wednesday that she had decided to give up macaroni and cheese for Lent. I hadn't asked her to make such a decision. But we had been talking about it in Sunday school and at home. I was so proud of her because mac and cheese is a real obsession of hers. I am praying that this conscious break from it will bring her closer to God. (Eli chose not to participate, but that's okay. I want him to be mature enough that he understands the true meaning of sacrifice before he accepts such a call.)

What am I giving up for Lent? My lazy mornings. I know that I know that I know that getting up long before my kids to have my quiet time and to exercise is of vital importance to how the rest of my day goes. But have I mentioned how cold it has been this winter … and that we have been heating our house with small electric heaters … and I am awake most nights with severe heartburn? Getting up early has gone by the wayside. And, really, my days have gotten more and more off track. But I am giving up those lazy mornings of sleeping in until the last minute. I am back to getting up by 7:00 a.m. to have my quiet time and ….. EXERCISE!! Taking a walk with Crusoe has felt SO good! But the boy is wiped out when we get home.

Rick and I lead such a rat race life … in two different states. And when he is home on the weekends, we are rushing to and fro to the kids events that we hardly stop to take a breath. We had a nice conversation last Friday night, just standing in the kitchen, which reminded me just why I love being married to him. He is such a supportive husband and a good friend. We had a really great weekend together. And he called today and asked me if I would like to go out to dinner tonight. A date night!

Linking up

Baker's Passports ~ Little Bite Baking Passport {Review}

We have dabbled in Spanish instruction over the past couple of years. So I was very excited about the opportunity to review a yummy product by Baker's Passports called Little Bite Baking Passport.

Little Bite Baking Passports are designed as a fun, interactive foreign language experience whereby children are taught the fundamentals of baking all while learning words in either Spanish, French, or Japanese. In each language there are three recipes from which to choose: chocolate oat cookies, sugar cookies, or butterscotch brownies. We chose the butterscotch brownie recipe in Spanish. The Passports are targeted for ages 5-12, but any child can play along. My 19 year old was right in the middle of the action.

Let's get right to the fun!

The first instruction included washing your hands! That was a great way to start!

Then we gathered our ingredients and kitchen tools. These butterscotch brownies were so easy to make! We had every single ingredient in our pantry or fridge. They were all basic items. No, we didn't even need any butterscotch chips … the recipe was so easy that we achieved the flavor without it!

We kept the recipe pulled up on our computer and followed right along. We finger-traced the Spanish words on the table as we read them.

The recipe even required us to take a break to discuss some fractions. We are just starting to learn about fractions so this was a great real life example. The recipe called for 3/4 tsp. of baking powder. And we only had a 1/4 tsp. measuring spoon. How could we get 3/4 tsp. with it?

Yep! Three 1/4 tsp. scoops would do it. Nineteen year old sister showed them a trick for how to get nice, even measurements.

Then we had more lessons in measurement. I needed 1 cup of brown sugar. With this amount, did I need more or less? How much to I already have? How much more do I need?

Watching the brown sugar melt into the butter was entertaining.

Stir, stir, stir! How do you say that in Spanish? (We now know!)

Breaking eggs is the funnest part of cooking.

Well, sprinkling in the dry mixture was pretty fun, too.

We drew imaginary lines from the Spanish words to the pictures they represented. We made a couple of mistakes here!

While our delicious brownies were baking, we printed off the crossword puzzle and completed it.

And when the timer beeped, we had a yummy treat! They were perfectly cooked and absolutely delicious!

Do you know what would have made these pictures even cuter? … If each of the kids were wearing an apron, chef's hat, and using a personalized spoon. And Baker's Passport is working to provide such a physical product!

Right now their Little Bite Baking Passports are in electronic format only. And they are a bargain at just $5 each. But, Meg at Baking Passports has a vision of providing Baker's Passport Activity Kits which would include the recipe and foreign language lesson that we used in electronic form, along with a chef's hat, apron with the Baker's Passport logo, a fun smiley face mixing spoon, and a kid-sized eco friendly grocery bag.

Baker's Passport has partnered with Kickstarter to help raise funds to launch this new product. There are many levels of support available, even one as low as $5 which would provide you with your choice of Little Bite Baking Passports in either Spanish, Japanese, or French. You choose the recipe. Your support will go to help Baker's Passport move closer to their goal of providing the Baker's Passport Activity Kits.

If you would like to order one of the Little Bite Baking Passports, you can go directly to Baker's Passport's Kickstarter site and make your donation there. You will still get the exact same electronic product, but will be supporting Baker's Passport as well. It's a win-win. And, you might just decide you would like to pledge an even higher amount for even better rewards (maybe all three recipes in your chosen language, or one of the first Activity Kits off the production line).

I invite you to watch the following video for more information about Baker's Passport. 

We really enjoyed the Little Bite Baking Passport. The Spanish lessons were informative and educational, the recipes was easy and fun to make, and the brownies were divine! In fact, one of the kids mentioned that she would really like to get back into learning more Spanish. The other one said that he would like to do a recipe in Japanese. I think we will have to look into doing both!

First Day ~ March

It's time for another First Day post. I am linking up with Nicole at Journey to Josie.

Let's Bowl, Let's Bowl, Let's Rock 'n Roll!

Collin and Rick got in on the action.

Showing some form.

Eli and Brynne's balls they got for Christmas.

Brynne and I had to run the concession stand at the basketball games.

Taking a breather.

The girl turned on some mad aggressive skills in that game!

That smile is what it's all about!

Defense!

A huge bowl of leftover chili to get us through the week.

Mmmmmm ….. Something to keep me warm.

Always a Wii battle going on … this time Rabbids!

Her favorite spot.

My babies … "pick us up!"

What in the world would they do without their phones?

Weekly Wrap-up ~ Mush

That is how we felt a few days this week. Like mush. And we have very few pictures to show because of it. Brynne was sick midweek so we just did the basics on clipboards on the couch and spent the rest of the time watching videos and resting, trying to get Brynne healthy again and preventing the rest of us from getting her virus. It was a steady week, but just not very exciting from a blogging perspective.

The Past Week in our Regular Life

We had SUCH a fun weekend the past two weekends watching Brynne play basketball. She has played so great and has really gotten aggressive in her play!

That's her shooting, in the white headband. Look at that form!

Eli also had two great weeks of bowling with an average last Saturday of 70 and an average yesterday of 91! He is working hard to get ready for the state tournament at the end of April.

Kyndal passed her yucky virus right on to Brynne, so Brynne was running a fever with a bad sore throat and clogged ears for a couple of days this week. Thankfully she woke up on Thursday "good as new".

Aaaaaaaaannnnndddd … the bitter temps, snow, and ice returned. Yuck!

The Schooling Basics

Bible - We finished our studies about the Division of God's Kingdom with Israel being split into Judah and Israel, and their subsequent sins against God.

Grammar - We reviewed parts of speech, quotations, and irregular past tense verbs. Then we added indirect objects.

Spelling - We added consonant chunking to our vowel chunking, copy work and dictation in Spelling U See and memorized "Star Light, Star Bright". And in Soaring with Spelling we also learned -ied suffixes added to words ending in y.

Handwriting - We completed five lessons in Handwriting without Tears - Cursive Success.

Math - In Math U See Gamma we completed Lesson 24 and continued with multiple digit multiplication. In Mastering 5th Grade Math - Fractions, we learned about Factors. The kids picked them up easily. And I am impressed with how they are picking up on some beginning understanding of division. We won't start that until this summer when we move onto Math U See Delta, but it's cool to see them "getting it" before they even start.

Writing - We completed our problem/solution stories with character and setting descriptions by editing and revising our sloppy copies and then writing the final draft in cursive with illustrations.

Science - In Science4Us we have moved onto learning about the Earth's Materials. The kids completed that module.

The Schooling Fun Stuff

This week it was all about the Iditarod! I posted about our study plans HERE, and we pretty much stuck to that schedule. I highly recommend watching "Toughest Race on Earth" produced by The Discovery Channel. It has been so enjoyable to watch, and informative, too! We have been looking forward to the start of the 2014 race, which was today! We will be charting progress at each of the checkpoints. Mush!

While daddy was home last weekend, he noticed that we are now getting "Popular Science" magazine. As he is a science fanatic, he assigned each of the kids an article to read and summarize from the magazine. They used a non-fiction organizer, and reported to him this weekend.

The Kitchen

Homemade mini pizzas, biscuits and gravy, frozen lasagna with broccoli and garlic toast, salisbury steak with mac and cheese, tacos, chili and chili dogs, and pizza.

The Days Ahead

Public school has been cancelled for tomorrow, so Dawson is off for the day. We will still do our schoolwork, though. Then we are having lunch at my mom's. She leaves for Florida for a month on Thursday so we want to squeeze in a little more time with her. Wednesday evening we are hosting a glow-in-the-dark egg hunt at our church to celebrate the start of Lent (it's a review product, so be looking for that review soon.) Thursday afternoon the kids will start a 6-week class at our public library on Lewis and Clark. The house will be full again on the weekend, and Brynne has a basketball tournament.

The Books We are Reading

Mom: And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini.

Brynne: A Big Year for Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher.

Eli: George Brown Class Clown: What's Black and White and Stinks All Over? by Nancy Krulik.

Read Aloud:  Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine by Barbara Park. (See more mush!)

The People and the Places

My parents invited the whole family over for a fish fry last Sunday after church and before Brynne's basketball tournament. We used to have family dinners every Sunday, and I miss those.

On Tuesday night my women's circle from church came over for our monthly book study of What Happens When Women Say Yes to God by Lysa TerKeurst. We are all struggling with a case of the "I can't" syndrome, so discussed how this only leads to us being in bondage. Kyndal joined us and shared her spiritual "I can't" struggle. It is so nice to share my faith walk with my adult daughter.

We skipped basketball practice because Brynne wasn't feeling well (and then ended up running a fever) and bell choir practice was cancelled last week. With the increased cold temps (again), we didn't get out and about much.

In anticipation of the winter weather coming up, we decided to take Friday afternoon and go "to town" to get groceries. I didn't want to be bumping carts with the gazillions of other people last night who were also loading up before the storm. Glad I did, when I did.

The Savings Jar(s)

$1.63 went into my change jar. I am also pretty sure I will be saving another $75 out of my gas budget for this two-week period to go into savings for our Florida trip.

The Bible in a Year

I am still reading my Bible every night and have now read through Numbers Chapter 7.

The Favorite Things

I am currently having a love affair with ginger snaps. Do not even ask me how I got started eating these, but I grabbed a box at the store a few weeks ago and can't seem to get enough of them. There is nothing better than snaps and a cup of hot tea!

And I've heard that ginger is good for heartburn, but I doubt in such large quantities! What I do know is good for heartburn, and what I have finally found to work for my chronic pain, is Pepcid Complete! Oh, thank goodness I found it! Nothing else I have used has seemed to work. But, if I take a Pepcid Complete before I eat dinner, it gets me through until morning without any problems. I am so thankful because I was beginning to think I might have to go to the doctor for it.

Dawson finally took his last EOC needed to get his necessary credits from when we homeschooled. That was a hassle and is a huge relief that it's completed. It is so crazy to me to think about him being a senior in high school next year!

Vikings is back on for Season 2. This is Dawson and my favorite show to watch together, and the first episode did not disappoint. It's going to be a good season! Kyndal and I also snuggled up in the living room today and watched another 7 episodes of season 2 of Revenge.

Linking up

Some Good Music

There are some great singers our there! Here are just a couple I thought you might enjoy …

 

Iditarod 2014

Last year I read a post by Heidi at HomeSchoolroom about their unit study on the Iditarod. I knew this was something we would enjoy so calendared it for this year. As the 2014 Iditarod race begins this Saturday, March 1st, we started our studies this week. I thought I would share what we are doing in case you would like to jump in. There's still time!

Literature

As we always have to incorporate a read aloud, we are reading Winterdance by Gary Paulson. Did you know that the famed youth author has actually raced in the Iditarod? I can't think of a better living book on this topic!

Videos

We wanted to watch "Toughest Race on Earth" produced by The Discovery Channel in 2008. The only place we could find it for free was on Youtube broken down into six episodes. The quality is not first-rate, but it's good enough for us and well worth the time to watch! We have already learned so much and can't wait to watch the rest. (And we may get that chance to finish them all today as Brynne is sick and running a fever.)

Picture Books

We always throw in as many picture books as our little library has to offer. We were able to get our hands on Mush by Patricia Seibert, Painter and Ugly by Robert J. Blake, and Akiak: a Tale from the Iditarod by Robert J. Blake.

Field Trip

Dawson's friend at school breeds and raises Huskies and Alaskan Malamutes. We are planning to go out to his house one afternoon so that he can talk with us about his dogs and let us see them. I hear there is a fairly new litter of puppies!

Other Activities

We are going to make puppy chow for us to snack on while watching our videos and homemade dog treats for our doggies.

The origin of the Iditarod got us talking about Eskimoes and we realized that the kids know very little about them. So, we are going to read some picture books about Eskimoes next week. Who knows where that rabbit trail will take us!

We will be following the race all next week. The official Iditarod website has lots of resources. We learned from the website that four of the mushers from the "Toughest Race on Earth" video are racing this year. That makes it really cool as we will feel like we actually know somebody racing. We will follow Jennifer Reiter, the Teacher on the Trail. And we hope to do an art project with Iditarod poster artist Jon Van Zyle.

Science4Us.com {Schoolhouse Review}

Science has been an area where we have struggled over the years. We tend to fit it in when it corresponds with another unit we are doing, but have not been able to stick with any formal science curriculum. This has worried me because I do not really have a way to assess if my kids are up to par on what they should know about science. Science4Us.com is a web based science program that is recommended for Grades K-2, but it is also recommended for grades 3-5 as a refresher course. That is what caught my eye and what made me realize that this was a product I really wanted us to review.

We received a six-month subscription to Science4Us.com Online Subscription for both Eli and Brynne. I was able to register both kids separately in my class. We do grade level work for 3rd and 4th grade, so we jumped right into the program. We decided that we would complete one module per week and that turned out to be completely doable.

Both of the kids were registered onto the program as my students. But, we have found that we most enjoy the program doing all of the activities together. So we always log in under the same child. The kids sit side-by-side on the couch and work on the modules together. The information contained within and the presentation are a little juvenile for their levels of ability, but they talk about what they are hearing and doing which I find to be very valuable. It has worked great for us as a peer review of science! (That being said, the presentation would be PERFECT for a K-2 aged student. I even enjoy listening to the lessons.)

How We Use the Product

On Friday afternoons the kids pull up their current module and complete the Engage, Explore, and Explain activity videos.

Then on Monday through Thursday of the following week they complete the remaining additional activities. THESE are fun and very educational! What we all found that we love about these activities is how it brings in language arts and math and so many other subject areas to reinforce the science concepts. Some of the regular activities involve syllables, alphabetizing, and matching.

Teacher Resources

There are separate logins for the Teacher and Students. The Teacher resources are extensive! Not only can you manage your students, but there are many Teaching Tools, including Lesson Plans, Teaching Strategies, Student Reports, Assignments, and Notebook.


In our case, my students have propelled through the program independently. But there are full Lessons Plans for a teacher who wants or needs a more hands-on approach to the program. For each Daily Session there is general information about the subject matter, Teacher Guide, and Offline Materials. The teacher has the option of doing much or little, depending on his or her particular student. I was extremely impressed with the Lesson Plan possibilities.

The teacher can add particular assignments for the student to complete and then review the work done. A neat feature was being able to review all of the saved work of the students. I loved being able to pull up their saved work to see how they have done.

And the Student Reports feature is fabulous!

Student Login

When the student logs into the program, this is the first screen they see.

For the purposes of this demonstration, I added an "Assignment" to Brynne's lab. When she logged on she would see that she had a particular assignment to complete. The teacher can pick and choose which assignments to assign for which module.

In our case, since the kids did all of the assignments for each module instead of me adding assignments, this is the screen they get when they open the program.

The items under Recent Activity that have stars are the ones that are complete. When they opened it on this particular day they were just getting ready to start a brand new module.

On this screen, they can look at their Notes, read Assignment Details, listen to a Mini-Explain, look at Reports of work completed, or look up words in the Glossary.

Or they can jump right into their lessons under Recent Activity. (This is what my kids do.)

When they have completed a module, they choose a new module out of the different Books of Science. So far they have completed all of the modules under Inquiry and are currently working on the modules under Earth/Space Science. We will then move onto Physical Science and Life Science.

Another fun feature are the songs on the S4U Music Player! There are songs on Scientific Senses, Animal Groups and Life Cycle Lullaby, just to name a few.


Pros/Cons of Science4Us.com

If you adhere strictly to a Christian Worldview in your homeschool, you will want to understand that the History of the Earth module does not follow that worldview. It discusses the millions of years the earth has been in existence, etc., that I know might bother some people. I just made sure I sat close to my kids during this part of the lesson and explained the differing opinions about the conception of earth and what we believe as Christians.

At one point one of the lessons stated that summer was from July to September. My kids were, like, "What? That's not right! Summer starts in June and fall starts in September!"

We also had a little trouble with the measurements portions because, as we have not done a lot of true science in our schooling, my kids were not used to the metric system. That caused us some confusion, but did show us an area where we need to expand our learning.

Overall the kids have absolutely loved this program, more than any other science program we have used. It is hands on, entertaining, and interesting. It is very rare that either of my kids purposefully remind me not to forget a subject. But almost every day at least one of the kids says, "Don't forget Science4Us!" They really enjoy it, and they are learning a lot!

My overall opinion is that Science4Us.com Online Subscription is an excellent program and I would highly recommend it for anyone who would like a comprehensive online science program. This is a product that we will continue to use after the review period is complete. In fact, we will complete the entire program.


Product Details

Science4Us.com is a web based full science program for grades kindergarten through second grade. It is also a valuable refresher course or assessment tool for third through fifth grades. The cost of the online subscription is an affordable $7.95 per month per child. The program can be purchased at Science4Us.com.

To read other reviews of Science4Us.com, please visit the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog.