So glad today was Friday. We were all a bit tired from pushing through this week. It will be nice to have the weekend and regroup. I also get to see what expectations I should revise and which I should keep. I've scheduled a whole year out before and I've scheduled some subjects out for several months, but the approach I keep coming back to is this. I have a general overview for where I want to be during the year for most subjects, but I only do the actual scheduling once a week. That keeps me from having to reschedule too many things, which can get really confusing, and it allows me to evaluate how the week went. Did I have too much going on? I know this week I wanted to make at least one recipe from Road Trip USA. It didn't happen and it only disappointed me because I was the only one who knew about it, but I can see that either I didn't use my time wisely, I didn't plan in advance for what I needed, or I scheduled too much. Or it was a little of all three. Thank goodness for our amazing co-op that we belong to that filled in some of the fun, crafty, creative gaps that I have in my rush to push through and stuff knowledge into the sweet little heads of my children.
Religion - I finally remembered to have Chicklette finish her last picture for the Joseph and Hyrum booklet we started weeks ago. Now we just have to remember to show it to DH so he can properly admire it. Racer read part of Joseph Smith History while she was doing her work. He was very excited to find our memorization verse in there - Joseph Smith History 1:16-17. I tried to be patient with his discovery, but inside I was thinking, 'Where did you think I got the verse from? There's only one Joseph Smith History that is referenced that way.' I also discovered that Racer really likes it when we sing a song or a hymn during our memorization time. We try to sing the Articles of Faith songs when we hit them in our cycle and we have memorized "Joseph Smith's First Prayer."
Math - Racer and Chicklette got started on their math. Chicklette started with her Xtramath and Racer started with the assignment he didn't finish yesterday because of a rising frustration level. I grabbed the opportunity to give Turtle his reading lesson. I asked him if it was going to be a great day or a bad day. He reassured me that it would be a great day and it was. He did really well with his reading and he's starting to recognize some of those high frequency words like the, is, and in. Racer interrupted us to ask for help and I didn't handle it like I should have. I should have told him to find something else to do - Xtramath or Study Island - until I was done with Turtle's reading lesson. Instead I tried to do two things at once and didn't do either as well as I could have. But the reading lesson got done and I demonstrated to Racer how to solve the last three problems, with help from the teacher's guide. I was going to write that Racer learned how to solve the last three problems, but although he understood the solution, I'm not sure he internalized the process. I wanted to solve the questions algebraically, but it's not a strategy he knows yet. He's supposed to use bars to figure it out like these on page 14. It's a strategy I didn't learn growing up and I'm still shaky on its presentation. I need to check Chicklette's math still.
Spelling - While Chicklette was still working through her problems, Racer and I did spelling. We did some of the More Words section in All About Spelling 4. Then we discussed the homophones do, due, and dew. As I suspected, he didn't know the spelling of two of them. Then I dictated three sentences, we corrected them as necessary and worked on penmanship. We ended with doing one word from Writing Station. I was going to do two more words, but it was lunchtime, one of the Bubbers woke up, and Turtle and Sunshine needed some attention.
Science - After lunch and recess, we regrouped to do our science. We read the section in the Usborne Science Encyclopedia we had skipped in favor of Bill Nye and defined inertia and momentum. I love learning alongside the kids. I've had a basic idea in my head of what inertia and momentum were, but now I really know them and I know how to calculate them. It's interesting to see the different levels in the kids too. Racer is starting to understand that you can calculate the amount of force something has or the amount of momentum. Chicklette just understands that something moves because it is being pushed or pulled. Turtle surprised me by reciting the first law of motion almost word for word. I didn't know he was listening really but he picked it up either from Bill Nye or our science reading today.
Religion - I finally remembered to have Chicklette finish her last picture for the Joseph and Hyrum booklet we started weeks ago. Now we just have to remember to show it to DH so he can properly admire it. Racer read part of Joseph Smith History while she was doing her work. He was very excited to find our memorization verse in there - Joseph Smith History 1:16-17. I tried to be patient with his discovery, but inside I was thinking, 'Where did you think I got the verse from? There's only one Joseph Smith History that is referenced that way.' I also discovered that Racer really likes it when we sing a song or a hymn during our memorization time. We try to sing the Articles of Faith songs when we hit them in our cycle and we have memorized "Joseph Smith's First Prayer."
Math - Racer and Chicklette got started on their math. Chicklette started with her Xtramath and Racer started with the assignment he didn't finish yesterday because of a rising frustration level. I grabbed the opportunity to give Turtle his reading lesson. I asked him if it was going to be a great day or a bad day. He reassured me that it would be a great day and it was. He did really well with his reading and he's starting to recognize some of those high frequency words like the, is, and in. Racer interrupted us to ask for help and I didn't handle it like I should have. I should have told him to find something else to do - Xtramath or Study Island - until I was done with Turtle's reading lesson. Instead I tried to do two things at once and didn't do either as well as I could have. But the reading lesson got done and I demonstrated to Racer how to solve the last three problems, with help from the teacher's guide. I was going to write that Racer learned how to solve the last three problems, but although he understood the solution, I'm not sure he internalized the process. I wanted to solve the questions algebraically, but it's not a strategy he knows yet. He's supposed to use bars to figure it out like these on page 14. It's a strategy I didn't learn growing up and I'm still shaky on its presentation. I need to check Chicklette's math still.
Spelling - While Chicklette was still working through her problems, Racer and I did spelling. We did some of the More Words section in All About Spelling 4. Then we discussed the homophones do, due, and dew. As I suspected, he didn't know the spelling of two of them. Then I dictated three sentences, we corrected them as necessary and worked on penmanship. We ended with doing one word from Writing Station. I was going to do two more words, but it was lunchtime, one of the Bubbers woke up, and Turtle and Sunshine needed some attention.
Science - After lunch and recess, we regrouped to do our science. We read the section in the Usborne Science Encyclopedia we had skipped in favor of Bill Nye and defined inertia and momentum. I love learning alongside the kids. I've had a basic idea in my head of what inertia and momentum were, but now I really know them and I know how to calculate them. It's interesting to see the different levels in the kids too. Racer is starting to understand that you can calculate the amount of force something has or the amount of momentum. Chicklette just understands that something moves because it is being pushed or pulled. Turtle surprised me by reciting the first law of motion almost word for word. I didn't know he was listening really but he picked it up either from Bill Nye or our science reading today.
History - I was very excited to read our history books for today. We read Sarah Morton's Day and Samuel Eaton's Day. The pictures in these books are great and really help to bring the stories to life. They show a day in the life of a Pilgrim child portrayed by reenactors at Plimoth Plantation. After we read them, I had Racer and Chicklette do a graphic organizer where they drew or wrote one thing that was the same between the books and one thing that was different. Chicklette did pretty well, but Racer had to go over his work a few times to make it neat and to make it have complete sentences. It was still somewhat superficial, but it was done to a minimum standard. He was pretty upset with me and I really had to control myself as well so I wouldn't respond back inappropriately. When they were done with that worksheet, we practiced our songs for the states. I decided to add in a new song today as well. Then we went over the facts for New Hampshire and started coloring our sheets in. We also reviewed all the state capitals we've learned so far.
About then, Chicklette had to get ready for ballet, but Racer and I were able to finish up his language arts.
Grammar - We reviewed alphabetizing and practiced going to the third of fourth letter of alphabetizing. It was pretty simple for him.
Writing with Ease - This was a little more challenging. It was dictation and it was a poem dictation assignment. He had to hold four lines of poetry in his head, remembering where each line started. He actually did pretty well and it was written fairly neatly. I just remembered that we didn't review "Afternoon on a Hill." He seems to be remembering it fairly well so as long as we do it on Monday, it should be okay.
Chicklette is behind where I would like her to be on her schedule. For example, I need to do more spelling with her and we didn't get to her I need to review it and see if I can speed her up or if I need to evaluate my expectations. She just dawdles sometimes and she still needs her playtime. It's something to think about.