Weekly Wrap-Up ~ End of 1st Quarter {C, Kaya Lapbook, Digestion and Greek Myths}

This week was a different one for us. Dawson's 14th birthday was on Monday. Although I let him sleep in, we still had school that day. We tried to keep it as fun as possible. Our public school's Fall Break was Thursday and Friday, and continues until school resumes Tuesday, so we took/are taking those days off, too. We still got lots accomplished this week!

Brynne ~ 1st Grade

The 3 R's ~ Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic

Brynne started her weekly journal pages by finishing the sentence, "I like to eat ..." She put "Mackrone and ces" (macaroni and cheese) and drew a picture of it.

She did her workboxes full of daily phonics, mini readers, math pages and others. She continues to amaze me with how much she knows. Since we use my public school 1st Grader's homework for her lessons too, it has become very apparent to me that I am going to need to order a good Saxon Phonics instruction book. Sad that I don't know phonics rules well enough to teach them to her. I did print some off the internet (coding rules, digraphs, etc.) that helped me some. Anyone know any good, free, internet cheats?

For the Letter of the Week activities Brynne did her "C" workbook pages and mini book. She learned the rules for differentiating between the hard c and soft c sounds. She found "C" objects to put in her letter bag (cracker, cup, car). She decorated her "C" collage letters with cotton balls, craft sticks and Christmas confetti.

She completed her letter spiral by finding "C" pictures in magazines (coffee, cell phone, catapult), cutting them out, gluing them in, and writing the words.

On Monday we did a Muffin Tin Monday lunch for her letter-of-the-week. She had cheese pizza, cheese, cherry jello, crackers, chocolate chips, candy corn and chocolate milk.

On Tuesday we counted cars. I would put cars out in different groups (i.e. one car, then a line of three cars, then a line of four cars). I would then say, "What is 1+3+4?" And she'd count to answer the problem. Then we would subtract some. This game was her idea!

On Wednesday we took a break from pencil-and-paper school to play Candyland.

Math continues to be her area of strength. She loves it! Not only does she do lots of work pages, but she loves to play math games on Fun4thebrain. I am also trying to come up with hands-on math games for her to play with items around the house.

History ~ Kaya, an American Girl

We finished Meet Kaya, and instead of moving on to another book in the series, I decided that we would just spend extra time on our lapbook and read some books on the Nez Perce indians and appaloosa horses and read Kaya's World more slowly (it is a non-fiction book about the people and customs from Kaya's era). That will give us plenty of time to finish our study on Kaya and her people by the end of the month, and give Brynne plenty of time to decorate her lapbook to her liking. Then we will be moving onto another American Girl.

Out and About

On Wednesday Brynne and I went to our public library story and craft time. After listening to the reading of a couple of books, the kids made paper quill creations. Brynne chose to make a face. Coincidentally, her face matched her dress. (There wasn't much quilling going on, but she used her creativity and made what she wanted ... which is the point anyway.)

On Thursday my public school kids were out of school for Fall Break (and the older two kids left for the weekend) so I planned to take Eli and Brynne to a nearby town to the apple orchard. We were going to skip Lesson 2 and go straight to the current lesson of the The Outdoor Hour, because it was a lesson on apples. That didn't work out like we had planned. So, you can go here to read how our day panned out!

On Friday we went to our Homeschool Coop's gymnastics day at a local gymnastics and cheer gym. That was so much fun!!  Eli was glad to be out of school so he could join us! It was a little crazy, and they could certainly use more workers (or mom's paying attention to their kids), but Brynne definitely wants to go back next month.

Dawson ~ 8th Grade

We started out Dawson's week by letting him sleep in until 10:30 a.m. because Monday was his birthday. Yes, on the surface it looks like I am a mean mama/teacher for making him do school on his birthday. But, Fall Break started on Thursday and he was off school Thursday and Friday and will be again on Monday.

A World of Adventure

In Language Arts Dawson started working on nouns. He added some prefix vocabulary words based on Greek root words. Because we are reading Myths about how the world was created, we have been reading Genesis to see the truth about how the world was really created. {No, we don't believe that we have seasons because Demeter (the goddess of agriculture) stops doing her job during the 7 months each year her daughter Persephone is banished to the underworld and that spring and summer happens because she perks back up when Persephone gets to come back to be with her for 5 months.} The topic of evolution and The Big Bang Theory have been discussed. God created the heavens and the earth and it's irrelevant whether he did it in 7 days or a million years. He did it.

We are continuing our reading of Classic Myths to Read Aloud, by William F. Russell, Ed.D. Dawson added Demeter, Ares and Zeus to his "Mythical Creatures, Gods and Goddesses" notebook.We have found it very interesting how many modern day words are taken from Greek words in the myths.

In Social Studies Dawson read and studied (briefly) about The Trojan War and The Trojan Horse (we will cover that in depth later) and about attacks by the Minoans, the destruction of the Greek civilization during the Dark Ages, the arrival of the Golden Age, the beginnings of the theater and the evolution of the Greek government system.

In Science he finished his study of the Human Body Systems, doing worksheets for the remaining systems in his Body Systems notebook. For the Digestive System we did an experiment about whether you can swallow upside down and, if you can, why. We did an experiment about how enzymes are broken down in the stomach. And, Dawson made a Digestion Apron. 

(This isn't what he drank!)

We counted the painting of his Digestion Apron for Fine Arts and on Wednesday he completed his day by making Ambrosia {layering of strawberries, pineapple chunks, powdered sugar, coconut and orange juice}. It was a tad sweet for us.

Other Less Picture-Worthy Subjects

Fred Fractions, Good Typing and Spanish lessons were completed. I've got to get him back to reading in some personal reading time.

********************

We have completed our first quarter!  I cannot believe it! It has gone by so fast and has been such a fun and excellent experience so far!!!

As always we are linked up to the Weekly Wrap-up. This week it's being hosted by Jamie at See Jamie Blog, while Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers is attending a much-needed retreat.