Today was actually a fairly good day. The kids argued less today than they have lately and we got done with all our subjects in a reasonable amount of time. They even impressed me with their ability to identify some of the states we have studied from an outline of the state on a flashcard. I wasn't expecting them to get any of them but they got about half. At breakfast, Racer proposed that with his great talent for drawing and understanding tank design, he should go work at his daddy's work drawing tanks for them. I told him that was great, but he would have to go to college and that, right now, no company was going to hire him full time. He was dejected but then said, "What about half-time?" I had to let him down there too and told him he still would need to go to college to get a job at his daddy's work.
Religion - We read about Samuel Smith's Mission. He considered his mission a failure but because of his mission Brigham Young was introduced to the church and eventually converted. It's a good story to read and talk about. We can talk about perseverance, faith, or doing what is right even when you can't see any results. Chicklette drew a good picture of the story and Racer worked for a few minutes on summarizing what happened.
Math - I set Racer and Chicklette on their Xtramath while I was cleaning up from breakfast and tending to the babies. When I came back down, Racer had gotten distracted with something else and Chicklette was done and had Turtle doing some Xtramath. He actually got three smiley faces although I'm not sure if Chicklette helped him or not. Since I like to capitalize on excitement, I got him his own Xtramath account. We'll see how much he actually wants to do it. Racer's math focused on using fractions to solve word problems and he only got one wrong. Chicklette had some mental math to do. I knew she wouldn't finish all of it, but I told her to work her hardest and get as much done as she could. She has great intentions of finishing the worksheets on Saturday. As far as I heard, she was getting them all right.
Physics - We did a simple experiment regarding heat transfer. We had three bowls - one with hot water, one with cold water, and one with lukewarm water. You put one hand in the cold bowl and one hand in the hot bowl for a few minutes. Then you put them both in the lukewarm water and see how each hand feels. No, I'm not going to tell you how it turns out. You go try it. Chicklette actually wrote a couple sentences on our experiment.
Spelling - Yes, both kids did spelling today! Racer reviewed the abbreviations for months of the year and then we wrote down the homophones eye/I and Mrs./misses. We had to make up a new sheet because we could not find his continuing sheet. How many times did I tell him to put it in his language arts binder so he would not lose it? Chicklette practiced words that end in k or ck by spelling on the board with tiles. We have some reviewing to do. Thank goodness AAS has review built into the program. I think Racer may have conveniently forgotten his piano today, but Chicklette did hers and she is sounding pretty good on Good King Wenceslas.
History - We reviewed our states using these big oversize state map flashcards. As I mentioned, the kids did really well. I was pretty surprised. We also started studying Florida. Their state animal is the alligator and they have the same state bird as Arkansas. I would opt for a state animal a little more cuddly than an alligator. We read from our book about the Underground Railroad as well.
Latin - For Latin, the kids had to answer some review questions. Racer finished his quickly and efficiently although I had to have him look at his translations again because quinque does not mean one. Chicklette moaned about hers for a while but I just ignored it and made Chocolate Peppermint bread. I had to make a few substitutions but it turned out great.
Grammar - Racer's grammar was all review and I allowed him to do it on his own. He seems to understand everything but he missed several capitalization corrections. See his nickname. Chicklette's grammar was identifying things as common nouns. We discussed how McDonalds is a proper noun but restaurant or fast food restaurant is a common noun.
Writing with Ease - Chicklette just had copywork from Charlotte's Web today. Racer's Writing with Ease was pretty interesting. He read a section on World War I and then I asked him some questions. Then we pulled out the main idea from the text and two supporting sentences. After we had determined our narration, I dictated two sentences to him. They were pretty short since they were from his own narration. I thought the section on World War I was quite interesting. It dealt with how Germany and Russia assumed the war would last between 2-4 months and it actually dragged on for a number of years.
When we finished school we had the opportunity to make dinner for a lady in our ward that just had a baby. I threw in a bunch of the muffins we had for breakfast as well so that there was some breakfast for her. We had herb crusted pork loin, baked potatoes and salad along with chocolate bread for dessert, muffins for breakfast, and some applesauce that she can use however she wants to use it. It was delicious! I actually like cooking for others and I think it's important that our kids see us serving others and serving others cheerfully.
I also think the baked potatoes dripped butter in the oven so it is now on its cleaning cycle so it stinks in here. And a big shout-out to my brother who stopped by for a visit and dropped the fireside he was going to go to so he could help me with the kids and dinner. We love it when he comes by. Bro, I know you're going to read this and you should probably get a nickname. Want some input on what it should be?
And now a special picture for you viewing pleasure. Nope it's not pork loin, that is gone, gone, gone.
Religion - We read about Samuel Smith's Mission. He considered his mission a failure but because of his mission Brigham Young was introduced to the church and eventually converted. It's a good story to read and talk about. We can talk about perseverance, faith, or doing what is right even when you can't see any results. Chicklette drew a good picture of the story and Racer worked for a few minutes on summarizing what happened.
Math - I set Racer and Chicklette on their Xtramath while I was cleaning up from breakfast and tending to the babies. When I came back down, Racer had gotten distracted with something else and Chicklette was done and had Turtle doing some Xtramath. He actually got three smiley faces although I'm not sure if Chicklette helped him or not. Since I like to capitalize on excitement, I got him his own Xtramath account. We'll see how much he actually wants to do it. Racer's math focused on using fractions to solve word problems and he only got one wrong. Chicklette had some mental math to do. I knew she wouldn't finish all of it, but I told her to work her hardest and get as much done as she could. She has great intentions of finishing the worksheets on Saturday. As far as I heard, she was getting them all right.
Physics - We did a simple experiment regarding heat transfer. We had three bowls - one with hot water, one with cold water, and one with lukewarm water. You put one hand in the cold bowl and one hand in the hot bowl for a few minutes. Then you put them both in the lukewarm water and see how each hand feels. No, I'm not going to tell you how it turns out. You go try it. Chicklette actually wrote a couple sentences on our experiment.
Spelling - Yes, both kids did spelling today! Racer reviewed the abbreviations for months of the year and then we wrote down the homophones eye/I and Mrs./misses. We had to make up a new sheet because we could not find his continuing sheet. How many times did I tell him to put it in his language arts binder so he would not lose it? Chicklette practiced words that end in k or ck by spelling on the board with tiles. We have some reviewing to do. Thank goodness AAS has review built into the program. I think Racer may have conveniently forgotten his piano today, but Chicklette did hers and she is sounding pretty good on Good King Wenceslas.
History - We reviewed our states using these big oversize state map flashcards. As I mentioned, the kids did really well. I was pretty surprised. We also started studying Florida. Their state animal is the alligator and they have the same state bird as Arkansas. I would opt for a state animal a little more cuddly than an alligator. We read from our book about the Underground Railroad as well.
Latin - For Latin, the kids had to answer some review questions. Racer finished his quickly and efficiently although I had to have him look at his translations again because quinque does not mean one. Chicklette moaned about hers for a while but I just ignored it and made Chocolate Peppermint bread. I had to make a few substitutions but it turned out great.
Grammar - Racer's grammar was all review and I allowed him to do it on his own. He seems to understand everything but he missed several capitalization corrections. See his nickname. Chicklette's grammar was identifying things as common nouns. We discussed how McDonalds is a proper noun but restaurant or fast food restaurant is a common noun.
Writing with Ease - Chicklette just had copywork from Charlotte's Web today. Racer's Writing with Ease was pretty interesting. He read a section on World War I and then I asked him some questions. Then we pulled out the main idea from the text and two supporting sentences. After we had determined our narration, I dictated two sentences to him. They were pretty short since they were from his own narration. I thought the section on World War I was quite interesting. It dealt with how Germany and Russia assumed the war would last between 2-4 months and it actually dragged on for a number of years.
When we finished school we had the opportunity to make dinner for a lady in our ward that just had a baby. I threw in a bunch of the muffins we had for breakfast as well so that there was some breakfast for her. We had herb crusted pork loin, baked potatoes and salad along with chocolate bread for dessert, muffins for breakfast, and some applesauce that she can use however she wants to use it. It was delicious! I actually like cooking for others and I think it's important that our kids see us serving others and serving others cheerfully.
I also think the baked potatoes dripped butter in the oven so it is now on its cleaning cycle so it stinks in here. And a big shout-out to my brother who stopped by for a visit and dropped the fireside he was going to go to so he could help me with the kids and dinner. We love it when he comes by. Bro, I know you're going to read this and you should probably get a nickname. Want some input on what it should be?
And now a special picture for you viewing pleasure. Nope it's not pork loin, that is gone, gone, gone.
Oops, I just remembered I usually do Wordless Wednesday. In that case, here's some more pics.