Journey Journal ~ Summer School Week 2

We had a pretty quiet week this past week which totally makes me happy, especially with the busy week we have coming up!

On my way to get groceries ... alone .. in the quiet.

Wow. How I love summer school. I am sure that after a long while of it I would finally get bored and be ready for more substance in the way of a deep literature study or science unit study. But for now there is something so glorious about spending mornings on the couch reading great books to the kids, honing up on some math and grammar skills, and then finding learning in the everydayness of summer.

This week we continued to read Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein. We completed another set of lessons in math (adding fractions with same denominators and then simplifying) and grammar (more of the same diagramming).

Jason from ScienceandMath.com's Mastering 5th Grade
Math Volume 2 (the kids love his boring presentation?).

The kids were assigned a project at Book Club last week to create a unique game. Dawson helped the kids and they came up with some great ideas. Brynne literally worked hours on her board game. Eli's game is more of an interactive library game with walkie talkies.

Additional learning this week came in the form of Wii Fit (emphasis on yoga) for Brynne and speech therapy for Eli (more speech machine learning, aka anatomy).

I received some of our curriculum for next year. The next level of Fix-it Grammar looks challenging, so we better really pay attention when finishing this current level.

I have started planning a bit for science and for our WWII studies. I am also toying with the idea of leading a literature enrichment class at our library one afternoon a week for 4th-6th graders, much like the Book Club that the kids are currently attending. I'd like to keep it in the WWII area so am looking at The Victory Garden by Lee Kochenderfer. We would likely have the small community garden available to us to do some fall planting so it would be a neat class, I think. Even if we don't do the class at the library, I am thinking of at least inviting a few of the kids' friends to do it here at our house and use our garden.

We will not have regular school this next week because Brynne has basketball camp every morning and Eli has swimming lessons. Add in some evening softball games, a doctor appointment, and two separate dentist appointments and we are going to be quite busy.

Taking the week off from book studies so we can avoid
doing this at every appointment. Schoolwork on the go
is a perk of homeschooling, but I think this week we need
a break from it.