Weekly Recap-- Year #4 Week 25

This week just flew by!  We had so much fun keeping ourselves busy.  Our schedule was pretty much open for the whole week and I just love weeks like that.  We had nothing planned so we could pretty much do whatever we wanted each day.  The weather was nice enough that we got outside and enjoyed spending time in the great outdoors.  We had FUN with our schooling and that's all I could ever ask for.

Arts and Crafts:  Alec painted his Sea Creatures making a perfectly cute little dolphin to sit on my plant shelf.

Ian made a para-cord bracelet with the kit he got for Valentine's day.

Math/ Logic:  Evan completed a dot to dot page counting by three's to prepare him for learning the three times tables & then worked on several more pages in his math workbook.  He completed an entire page of adding two digit numbers with regrouping completely on his own while in the car one day.  I often worry that by sitting with him, having him dictate to me and writing the answers down for him that he might not really be learning how and where to place the numbers but he did great on his own! He also spent one morning playing with our Laser Maze game.

 Ian finished up his book on percents and we decided to just focus on decimals for now so he's working on two pages a day in the Key to Decimals book two.  Alec worked on a few more pages in his math workbook adding, subtracting, and reducing fractions.  He also played with Gravity Maze one day working through several of the puzzle cards.

All three boys completed the next set of pages in Multiplication games and the two older boys worked on the next set of pages in their Math Genius books.

Ian worked on putting together a battery controlled car using a kit he had gotten for Christmas. The directions were spotty at best and only showed how to complete part of the car but he kept working on it and is pretty determined to see it all put together.

Socialization-- The boys cousins came to play one day and Ian had a friend sleep over.  The boys had a great time playing Exploding Kittens, Nerf Gun wars and Video games.  We all spent the day at my mother's with both of my sisters and their kids one day this week visiting and having fun playing with family.  The charades game was particularly fun and funny.

Writing and Language Arts-- We had an I LOVE... questionnaire for the boys to fill out this week in honor of Valentine's day. The older boys worked in their cursive workbooks.  Evan worked on another page in his Star Wars Reading book matching nouns and irregular plural forms (mice= mouse) etc.  He completed the page completely on his own and thought it was pretty easy.  They each wrote a "roll a story" story using the dice to decide on the setting, main character, and problem.  It was a quick assignment and the boys had fun with it.  They also spent a day working with me typing up some facts for their geography reports.

Reading-- Ian read a several more chapters in Treasure Hunters, he is LOVING this book and I find him reading it all the time.  He also read If I Could Drive a Grader,  Alec read a few more chapters in Double Fudge and started reading Hoodoo.  Evan read Bear Wants More, Now I know Fish, and together we took turns reading You Read to Me; I'll Read to You.  He also listened to a few more chapters in the Lord of the Rings.  We all listened to a few more chapters in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.  I read aloud a few more chapters from the Hero's Guide to Being an Outlaw and we just could not contain our laughter! Seriously I was laughing so hard I was crying!  We just love these books.  They are so silly.

Geography-- Ian and Alec worked on coloring in their country's flags and maps and affixed them to their geography boards.  Evan and I read Powerful Polar Bear, The Little Penguin, and started reading A Caribou Journey.

Sight Words/ Spelling-- The older two boys completed another page in their Spelling Time journals.  I was skeptical that they were learning much of anything by coloring in the words and writing a few missing letters here and there so I quizzed them on some of the words they've been working with.  They both did pretty well!  Evan worked in the next page in his spelling workbook too.  Evan red through the list of second and third grade Dolch words missing just 6 in all!  Alec completed two more pages in his Fun Spelling workbook while Ian worked on another set of pages in his Four Seasons Spelling workbook.

Physical Eductaion-- The boys were all invited to participate in the belt grading ceremony at karate this week moving up in rank, once again. The older two boys were thrilled to move up to the next belt level.  We went hiking and for bike rides this week; taking advantage of the nicer weather.

Kicking snow and ice into the flowing water

Science-- We observed all the changes in the forest at one of our favorite hiking spots while hiking and at a nearby park while biking; we could not get over how many trees and limbs fell with these last few storms.  The boys spent time examining trees, rocks, and water-- in all it's forms; snow, ice, water, vapor.  We watched and episode of Mythbusters too.

Alec's nest 

Shelf mushrooms on a log 

Evan's Warrior; see his shield and his arm raised holding a club?

Playing with a frozen stream 

The sticks stood straight up when thrown like a javelin 

A piece of ice we had to take home due to the amazing pattern of crystals