There were a lot of booklets from the science lapbook this week, so I split that reading up over two days, instead of one. Then, we went outside and did the activity looking for the terminal bud scar. At first we had trouble finding them. We looked on our snowball bush, and our crab apple tree, and another bush. We finally found some branches on the snowball bush and crab apple tree that seemed to show the terminal bud scars. (Of course, any good excuse to go outside for school is a big hit with the kids.)
In history the big focus this week was Napolean, the 1812 War, and Waterloo. We also spent a day on South American history and their revolutions. Theirs was a bit messier, I think. The kids think the state sheets are getting old, so today I found a picture of the state bird and state flower and printed them out, and let the kids cut them out and glue or tape them onto their state page. I was given the title "super-mom" for allowing such a deviation from the regular routine. They still had to write the postal code and capital city name, though. I told them I might not allow it every time, but since today was a "light" day, and we had all our activities today, I would make it something that took less time.
All of the kids have advanced one level in All-About-Spelling. Rabbit is at Level 6, but she got really frustrated today reviewing the red cards and yellow cards. I know she wants to get on with the "spelling" part of it, but she really needs to get those phonographs better. She mostly has trouble with the vowel teams. Tigger is on level 3. Again, a little frustration today with the red cards, but he did fine, really. He'll get through step 1 soon. Pooh is actually on step 2 of level 2. He did spell his words today. He did fine on all except one. Keeping a good attitude in spelling is tough some days for all of them.
I've added in Little Giant Steps Rapid Recall System for learning math facts - especially for Pooh and Tigger. Pooh is really struggling, even with +1 facts. Sometimes he knows the answer, but can't remember how to write the number, other times he just can't remember the next number. I talked to my husband about it, and he says even if he can't do the timed drill in under 2 minutes, we ought to keep going trying to learn the next set of five. I'm going to try having him say the answers to me and me writing and see if we can get him going faster. Part of it is the act of writing that bogs him down.
Rabbit is actually going to finish Singapore 5B by the end of our school year, I think. I'm so proud of her for getting caught up in math. We'll try Saxon as recommended by MFW next, but if it doesn't go well, I may try Life of Fred. I got the one on fractions from the library, and I think she really enjoyed doing that first chapter. We'll just see how it goes. I have the boys working in Singapore 1 Extra Practice books (ordered from their website, not the ones I've found at the teacher-supply store). I just really want them to cement those concepts down before starting 2A. The stuff in math has been a little easier lately, so we've only been spending about 15 minutes each, which has been a nice break.
Officially we only need 21 more days of school, but I really want Rabbit to finish the state report. (I'm not worried about the boys, as they can do it in 7th grade when we do this again.) I think I might order something from statehistory.net to help us along. We got our Colorado magazine and map from our tourism department, and I found census stuff on-line. Now to set aside time to work in the library and such.
