Weekly Review 4/23/12-4/27/12

This week was a pretty solid week.  I am happy with the progress we made.

History

Learned about Roman Gladiators.

The title says it all.  I certainly wouldn’t want to be a Roman Gladiator!  This book goes more in depth and tells the story of how one would become a Roman Gladiator.  Interesting, funny but it may not be the best for younger children however, my boys enjoyed it. 

Science

Observed Buster and read a couple of books to learn more about fish.  The boys were given a written to assignment to tell all about what they learned.

Look at Emmanuel’s writing on the bottom, too funny!

Math

Completed lessons 114-117.  Christopher had an exam he aced.

PE

Played lots of football, until Emmanuel got hit in the face.  Then it was time to play something else. 

In their free time they played a game of chess.  Christopher is teaching Emmanuel.

Reading

Continued our work with our reading curriculum.  I really enjoy him going back through his reader to answer the questions.  Of course he would just like to read but he is acquiring the skill of paying attention to what he reads because there will be questions afterward and going through carefully to find the answers within the story.  Love it. 

LA

Really getting more in-depth with suffixes.  This week we learned about vowel and consonant suffixes.  To help students remember the rules the teachers manual gave us a mnemonic.  Vowel suffixes are hungry suffixes. They like to eat other vowels and they especially like Mr. E.  When we put a vowel suffix on a word that has Mr. E on the end, the suffix gobbles up Mr. E.  When we add a vowel suffix we drop the e then add the suffix.  But when we add a consonant suffix we keep the e.  Our mnemonic tells us that the consonant suffix is full they will not eat Mr. E.    Fun way to remember a rule.  Whenever Christopher sees a vowel suffix he says the words gobble gobble. 

 

Preschool

Emmanuel worked on Starfall this week for his reading.  I have yet to order his K reading books. 

He is now eagerly counting to 30.  In the above pictures I call out a number and he counts out that number of counters.  You can see Joshua is next to him refusing to be left out.  Joshua can count up to 20 it is not always accurate but he’s getting there.  Emmanuel has become his teacher, everything he learns he shares freely with Joshua.  Its really sweet to watch my four year old teach my two year old. 

While Emmanuel counts Joshua would identify colors.  Simple but keeps him busy while I work with the older boys. 

I found these nature cards in the dollar section at Target several years ago.  Each day I pull out a few and go over them with Joshua to increase his vocabulary. 

Here Emmanuel is working on a worksheet.  His lessons are very short we will work on one worksheet two times before he finishes it.  But the short lessons keep him interested and prevent burn out. 

His penmanship is really improving with these short lessons.  He is always so proud of himself as am I.

Goals For Next Week

Continue knocking out this years curriculum.  Wrap up my curriculum choices for next year.

That’s it for us here this week.  How was your week?

One Day I’m Going to be a Dallas Cowboy

 

What do you do when you have a child that loves football?  Lives and breathes the game, watches everything he can breaks down the game for me and his younger brothers.  In his spare time he can be found drawing football plays.  My oldest son loves football.  I don’t understand this adoration, I just cant.  I am not wired this way.  There is even a small part of me that thinks oh great another minority male that wants to be an athlete.  Cant he just be a scientist or something?  Don’t get critical of me as I think aloud to myself.  But its true, I want my son to be something other than an athlete because nowadays it just seems so typical.  How many youth idolize sports players and feel that sports will be their ticket to fame and fortune.  Trust me I could go on and on about this topic but I will not. 

Instead I recall my childhood.  The one thing I was certain of was one day I’d be a hairstylist.  I was sure of it, from around the age of four.  Hairstyling consumed my thoughts.  There were several of my close relatives that worked in salons.  I spent many many hours in various salons observing.  I loved it. I dreamed of how my salon would be *the* spot in town. If you ever came to my home you were a potential customer.  My dolls were customers as well.   While in junior high I found out about a high school that offered cosmetology as a trade.  I scheduled an appointment with my guidance counselor and  asked her if she could help me. This was pre internet days.  She requested an information packet for me. Once received, I stayed up all day and night reading and putting a plan together to apply.  My mother initially was not supportive.  She wanted me to do something else.  But my heart never swayed.  I was on a mission.  So I filled out my paper work and went to an open house, with my mother and guidance counselor. While there I  secured an interview and was accepted into the high school. Admittance was a two part process, first I had to apply to the school then my sophomore year I had to apply to the cosmetology school.  My mother later told me that someone gave her some advice.  They told her if your child is really into something you should support it.  I never knew this person that gave my mother this advice but boy am I thankful.  My mom became my number one fan. She was supportive of me when it was time to apply to the cosmetology portion of the program and on my first attempt I was declined.  She went to bat for me and I got another interview and the second time around was accepted.  I completed my hours while in high school.   Took my state board exams and passed first time around.  By my senior year in high school I was working part time in a salon with a steady clientele.  Thanks in part to my mother.  It was hard work taking traditional high school classes and studying for my license.  I had to show up prepared and get the job done but without her I would not have had the funds or support to complete this goal.  For years I worked hard to see a dream come to light.  The road was not easy there were plenty of tough times, however I can say that my dream was always championed by my mother.  It was mom that sat me down my senior year of high school and encouraged me to have a bigger dream.  Working in a salon was great but she believed the world had something greater in store for me and she was right. So with her encouragement I applied to college was accepted and my story continues from there.

Many years later it is now my turn to take the advice given to my mother and put it into practice with my own children.  So what do you do when you have a son that loves football? I mean really loves, football; eats, drinks, sleeps and breathes football!  You support him, expose him to all that is out there.  You teach him to get up when he’s knocked down, be tough and be a team player.  You tell him that he should not brag on himself but allow others to compliment him.  You tell him its not about the games he wins, but that he gives each game his very best.  You tell him that no matter where he goes in life, whatever career path he chooses be it science or NFL, I support you.  And you can always come home where you are loved. 

When I was notified that our homeschool co-op was taking a field trip to tour the Cowboys Stadium I jumped on it.  Here are a few photos from our day at the stadium.  Hopefully, this upcoming season, Christopher and his dad will get a chance to go and watch a game.

Classroom Pet

Please join us as we welcome our first classroom pet.  Buster the Betta fish.  I strongly encouraged the boys to pick another name like Red Dragon, Fire Dragon or Betazoid but I was outvoted.   We are studying life cycles in our science curriculum right now and originally my plan was to take the boys to the aquarium.  After a nice chat with my husband he convinced me that we should get the boys a fish of their own.

1. We went to the pet store to pick out a fish.  The boys really wanted a Goldfish but when I asked the store attendant about the life span of Goldfish.  Lets just say that I did not feel a Goldfish was the right choice for our first fish.

2. The fish is paid for and ours to take home.  Christopher almost killed the fish before we left the store by throwing the cup in bag along with the other fish supplies.  The cashier witnessed this and notified me of their 14 day guarantee.  “If anything happens you can come back and we will replace your fish” she said.  She must have seen the look of fear on my face. 

3. We got Buster home and set up his bowl.

4. Found the perfect spot for him in the classroom. The boys love observing him and watching him eat his food.  He has only been with us four days and we have had countless fights over who is going to feed him. Perhaps I need a Buster Betta feeding chart so each boy can alternate feeding him.  Just in case you weren’t sure everything, chores included must be divided evenly or else there will be hell to pay.  Ahh yes, motherhood in all its glory!

5&6. There he is Buster the Betta, welcome home. 

Weekend DIY Project

Once the new classroom was complete, I knew exactly how we should repurpose Christopher’s old desk.  We would turn that desk into a Lego table.  The desk was moved upstairs to the toy room. We purchased two sided tape and extra Lego plates. I enlisted the help of Christopher and we worked together to complete the simple project.

 

Now Christopher has a place for all of his Lego creations.  This solution was cost effective and very easy to create.  Our new challenge will be keeping the Lego’s on the table or stored in the Lego box.  Wish me luck.  

I Pad 3

Recently I wrote a post about how I was resisting the latest tablet craze.  Then one day while researching material for a journalism presentation for my students at our co-op, I commented to my husband that I can understand the buzz over this product. 

So when he returned from his trip guess what he brought with him.  You guessed it he brought home the latest and greatest in technology the I Pad 3.  I thanked him and said honey you did not have to get us an I Pad.  Then I asked him, “Did you read my blog post and my stance about these things?”  He replied yes I did but when you mentioned them recently,I thought you wanted one.  So Trinity Academy has been blessed with a I Pad 3.

Here is my honest opinion.  The camera feature is amazing. It is great for reading books.  I have a Nook and the screen on the I Pad is bigger than the Nook so I like that. The battery life is great and it’s a lot easier to carry around than a laptop.  Consequently, when I am doing research I tend to do the bulk of it on the I Pad.  However the keypad is not the best for typing its too small and it’s touch screen is very sensitive so you make more errors. It feels like typing on a large cell phone.  You don’t really get to type but you can quickly navigate around the pad. You can purchase a keypad for an additional $100.  Then the I Pad would be the screen and the keypad would make it feel more like a laptop.  But you can purchase an actual laptop for under $800.  We are in a recession right?  It all seems over the top to me, in my old fashioned mind.

The I Pad is very expensive.  Our current model 16GB Wi-Fi+4G the base price is $629.00. In order to use the 4G features you have to purchase a monthly data plan.  That’s a bit much, but of course you entertain the idea of enabling the 4G feature so you can use it outside of your home.  We have not enabled the 4G features and at this time have no plans to waste our money that way. And I still can’t figure out what you do with it other than play games, read books and use the search engine. We have downloaded a few apps, mostly educational and a few games. The apps and books are purchased for a nominal fee and some are free.  In my opinion its not worth it. This is probably unsettling for the I Pad lovers out there, sorry for this seemingly blasphemous post. 

So you may be wondering, well why did your husband purchase it?  He didn’t, our family was gifted the I Pad from my husband’s very generous uncle.  It’s a nice gift, and we are thankful, but I personally would not spend that kind of money for a tablet. 

Lastly, it goes without saying the boys love it and ask all the time if they can play on it.   Which is another screen time battle.  As much as I try to limit their screen time, the more they get the more they want.  Christopher even mentioned we needed more than one to reduce the fighting over it. Sigh, need I say more. 

 

Christopher is using an app to count money.

 

Joshua counting with a preschool education app.

Weekly 4-16/12-4/20/12

What’s New- Its been a while since I have had the time to really sit long enough to type a review.  Right now I am wondering how all the loose ends are going to come together to bring our academic year to an end.  There’s no need to mention that my OCD tendencies will not let me declare the year complete until we finish each and ever page of every book.  Its crazy I know but its how I operate.  Daily, bit by bit we make our way to the finish line.

Today was our last day at our co-op.  We are finished until next spring.  Next semester our family will take a break from weekly co-op to pursue other interests.  It is sad that we will sit out next semester but we need the break.

After a recent sleepover with his best friend Mickey, Christopher decided he would like to earn extra money so he can purchase a new video game. He is given various odd jobs around the house in addition to his daily chores and he is slowly reaching his goal.

Math- This week we completed lessons 111-113.  We covered fractions and graphing and we had several lessons counting money.

We used fresh fruits and vegetables for our fraction study. After the food was divided we all sampled the foods and created a graph based on our results. 

LA-Christopher completed Light Unit 107 and his first writing assignment. Several weeks ago I mentioned that he was assigned this assignment .  The assignment was broken down into steps.  First he drew the picture then he came back the next day and wrote about the picture.  He needed some help remembering that a sentence is a complete thought and a phrase is an incomplete thought.  After several brainstorming sessions and lots of panic and prayer from his mother his first writing assignment is complete. 

 

Reading-Completed LU 102.

Nature Study-We finally got to get out in nature and just observe.  There is a park that I felt would be a great location for our nature hour.  Turns out it was perfect.  The pictures I took with my phone aren’t transferring right now so I will post those pictures another day.

History- We completed our read aloud and section covering Hannibal Barca.  This was a fascinating peak into the life of Hannibal. 

Goals for next week- I have to buy flowers for our next science project.  Next I need to order our caterpillars for an upcoming science project. 

Sites I visited often this week-

Wallflowers and Marbles

The Outdoor Hour

That’s it here, how was your week?