'13/14 Week 9 Day 1

The weather outside is still warm and far from being fall-like, i.e. chilly. We have barely had any reason to put on long sleeves yet. Still, fall activities are full underway. Last week end saw us carving pumpkins and baking up a storm of pumpkin goodies and - of course - our community's hayride that is always a fun one. We have so much candy to consume now!

Back in the classroom, the schoolwork was done well and efficiently, although one subject dragged itself into a homework after school hours. Andrew does not have as much hands-on math activities as he had last year. Most, if not all, of his math lessons are written tasks. He does a great job completing the lessons, but we need to speed things up a bit. Individual work we do not have time to cover during the day, Andrew has to tackle after all other schoolwork is done. That has become his homework. 

Bible. We started our morning with the story of Aaron's rod budding. Last storm shook down some big branches and one of them became handy for today's craft.

LA. Saara (and Andrew too) have been going over letter sounds, short and long vowels, and some word families. Saara finishing up words by adding a final letter.

'13/14 Week 8 Day 4

The kids and I spent the whole morning at the dentist office. I used the rest of the school day to catch up with subjects we have fallen behind a bit. And I am happy to announce - we are all caught up now!

'13/14 Week 8 Day 3

The day was busy as usual and it got truly enjoyable after we watched Saara's science video about freezing and melting/warming up. It was a very tasty affair for the most part. :)

Science. After watching the video and reading about freezing and melting, we got busy in the kitchen bringing out things we wanted to try to freeze, including Mom's leftover coffee.

Science can be delicious!

How much for the pig? While we were waiting for the freezing experiment to do its magic in the freezer, we did majority of our schoolwork.

The trays stayed a bit longer in the freezer than originally planned (our LA took us longer to accomplish), but, oh, what a fun it was to test the different ingredients, especially the chocolate frosting and peanut butter.

The kids recorded their findings on the blackboard.

'13/14 Week 8 Day 2

Tuesday is our ballet and library day. To manage the amount of borrowed books in our house, I gave each child a canvas bag and said that they can choose as many books as they can fit into their bags, but they have to haul the loot themselves. It did not scare Saara at all - her bag was full to the brim. 

Shorter school day still means serious school work.

Obviously, Andrew's reading comprehension book is about Robin Hood.

'13/14 Week 8 Day 1

Our day was rather heavy on the science side. Saara read a lot about the polar regions and Andrew did some experiments involving sight. 

Andrew filled out another book report and is ready for his next reading practice book which is a poetry book this time. He has really enjoyed reading rhyming lines in the past. 

Our last class today was music appreciation. We sang some songs and looked at the basic long and short notes. Their music teacher at the children's choir introduced the notes and rests to them a month ago. So today, it was a good review of the information they already knew. 

Science. Saara reading and comparing the Arctic and the Antarctic. A great poster from a book by the Schoolzone.

Andrew checking Saara's peripheral vision.

Music appreciation. Among other things, Andrew and Saara learned and tried playing short and long notes with the triangle. It was a lot of fun. We used a Youtube tutorial for this activity.

The notes and rests and the triangle on the head. :)

13/14 Week 7 Day 5

I stayed up late last night cutting and folding and gluing together an awesome replica of the Israelite tabernacle. A wonderful website to find this easy printable craft is sundayschoolsources.com. 

Andrew continued to learn about the five senses. Yesterday, we read about how our eye works and he enjoyed some experiments with light so much, he wanted to repeat them again today. 
We also read about how our sense of smell works. This topic produced a lot of giggles when we talked about 'buggers'. But we were very serious when we discussed why it is so important to grab a tissue when we sneeze. 

We read a whole lot more today - in history, reading comprehension, vocabulary learning, reading practice. I am so thankful, that unlike yesterday, we had a lot of 'oomph' that kept us going and enjoying every minute of it.

Bible. The tabernacle.

 

Science. Andrew is wiggling his finger in front of the flashlight and watching its upside down image appear on the wall. That is how our eyes work.

'13/14 Week 7 Day 4

Bible. This is our Moses with a brightly shining veiled face.

This was an odd day. We did our school work, but it was completely 'lackluster'. Even our little Bible play in the morning did not help much. Oh, we got all our work done well, but the usual energy was not there. 

Oh, well...