Homeschool Week in Review: Vol 11

Here’s our weekly wrap up in photos. Oy, I’m still trying to figure out the easiest way to organize this series! Grandma was in town this week for Josie’s 10th (WHOA) birthday. No uniforms worn as I’ve been behind in laundry. 🙂 

---

---

Language: 

The girls got their first library cards! They selected some beginner chapter books as well as a few picture books. Mike and I picked out some books together too. 

We are f i n a l l y getting into a routine with our daily schedule. I had intended to have reading practice after lunch, but we have been doing new lesson presentations then. So Daddy picked up the slack, and the girls are practicing reading to him before bed. Daddy also took over evening orchestra practice for me.
Daddy is the best! 

---

Arts

The girls are practicing violin in the early afternoon and orchestra before bed. They’re in Suzuki book 1 working on Long, Long Ago as well as a Christmas medley plus some other short practice pieces.  

We did a bit of botany nature study request and Mary wanted to paint. Since one of her goals this year has been more art, I pulled together a little watercolor basket for her.

She really enjoys it!

Speaking of baskets — check out this haul from our church garage sale this past week! Score! I found such an unusual little pouring vessel; it will make a challenging practical life work when we study Asia in January.

---

Math

Math was a huge focus this week. The kids reviewed the following:

• Mike — static addition snake game, teen bead hangers, multiplication board
• Mary — subtraction snake game, addition strip boards, five bead chain, multiplication board, addition chart 3
• Josie — dynamic addition snake game, addition strip boards, formation of numbers, teen bead hangers, multiplication board

Here’s a teens and twenties review / Montessori-inspired extension using golden bead cards. Josie struggles with math. But like with reading, it’s finally beginning to click this year, not always consistently, but it’s getting there. She does get frustrated with it, but overall she returns to it and really wants to understand. 

---

Geography

We learned the names of the oceans this week. We labeled some notable physical geography of North America and used the beginner command cards across all the continents. Very versatile material. Highly recommended!

---

Science

We worked heavily on identifying vertebrates vs invertebrates as well as animal classification. We’re going to attempt the tree of life for the first time next week.

I had the idea to pull together some animal classification boxes this week. I’m still trying to get that materialized. Hope to post about it soon. I’ll write more about the Great Lessons next week too! For now that’s it.

Thanks for checking out our past week in review.