Week #11 In Review

LANGUAGE ARTS: Grace completed lessons 4-6 in SWO-B this week, as well as lessons 115-117 in FLL. In keeping with the whole sports theme in Spelling Workout, I added a special incentive for Grace...the spelling homerun. If she spells all the list words correctly--without hesitation--during the Warm-Up Test, then she only has to complete 1-2 of the activities & she can skip the final test. It was a real winner!

READING: We began our new read-aloud book this week, Mr. Popper's Penguins. Very funny stuff! Grace is still independently reading Junie B. Jones: Boss of Lunch. She also read several other books, poems, and passages that tied into our other subjects. One of our unexpected *themes* for Monday was the wind. We had battened down the hatches in preparation for the strong windstorm predicted for the Pacific Northwest. Fortunately, we only had a few really big gusts in our little neck-o-the-woods. But we did manage to find--and read--every single poem we have about the wind.

MATH: Grace finished lessons 34-37 in Horizons 2. Still going strong! She has turned into my little Energizer Bunny of math. YAY! She even worked in some P.E. and math together. How? Simple...count how many times you hula-hoop in one try, write it down, count the next try, write it down, add the two together, then lather, rinse, & repeat.

HISTORY & SCIENCE: We read Chapter 8 ~ The Assyrians in SOTW1. Grace did her narration, coloring page, map work, and copywork. For science, we started studying penguins. The DVD of March of the Penguins just arrived from NetFlix for us to watch this coming week.

ELEMENTARY SPANISH: Grace completed lessons 8-10 from Elementary Spanish Unit 1 on UnitedStreaming. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of a letter from her new Spanish penpal. :)

OTHER: I even managed to get some *major* house cleaning & organization done, including assembling three of these cute little bookcases from IKEA: two for the playroom/learning room & one for the study. Yay me! Next week's challenge...to finish painting (living room, entryway, upstairs & downstairs hallways) before putting up the Christmas tree & decorations. Hmmm...anyone up for Christmas in July?!?!?

In closing, what do you get when you stock up on new PlayDoh? A couple of happy gals, and colors that aren't mixed...yet.

Week #10 In Review

Another week...another report. And this one is even on a (somewhat) timely basis. :) Here's the scoop:

LANGUAGE ARTS: We completed Lesson 3 in SWO-B and Lessons 112-114 in FLL. Grace started copying & illustrating the January-March pages of "The Months" by Sara Coleridge.

READING: Both Grace's independent reading & our read-alouds were a hodge-podge of books this week. We will start our next *official* read-aloud, Mr. Popper's Penguins, this coming week to coincide with our science unit on...you guessed it...penguins.

MATH: Grace is keeping a steady pace with Horizons 2. She finished Lessons 29-33 this week.

SCIENCE & HISTORY: For science, we learned all about salmon this week. Another great Magic School Bus book on this topic ~ MSB Goes Upstream: A Book About Salmon Migration. In history, we read Chapters 6-7 in SOTW1. Grace did the usual activities to go along with the chapters...narrations, map work, crosswords, word finds...but by far my favorite was creating a scrapbook page using our set of house rules. Why was this my favorite? (1) Grace is scrapbooking, and (2) we incorporated a bad pun. [tee hee] Here's our take on The Code of Hammurabi:

The Code of MOM-urabi

SPANISH: Grace watched the video for Elementary Spanish-Unit 1-Lesson 7, then completed the activity sheet & did some copywork.

OTHER: Co-op is moving right along. Grace's "Musical Theatre" class will be performing The Wizard of Oz in the spring, so it's fun to drop in & watch the early stages of rehearsal. Emma gets a kick out of it too...and loves to sing along! Not much got done this week in music & art appreciation, unless you count our attendance of "Go Diego Go! LIVE" this afternoon. It was a belated birthday festivity for the divine Miss Em. I'll close with a few pics...

Outside the Paramount Theatre before the show

A very happy three year old

Miss Gigi McGee patiently poses for the paparazzi (aka ME!)

Matthew pondering the true meaning of Diego

Weeks 8 & 9 ~ In Review

So, I didn’t get around to posting a weekly report last week. No…I wasn’t trapped under something heavy…just very busy. You can read more about it below, if you’ve got the time or inclination. If not, here’s what’s been happening at Evergreen Eclectic Academy over the past two weeks.

LANGUAGE ARTS: Our switch from SWR to Spelling Workout is going well. We’ve completed the first two weeks of SWO-B…discussing spelling rules & phonograms (from SWR) as we go along. FLL is also going smoothly. When we reached lesson #111—the first reading of FLL’s adaptation of “The Year” by Sara Coleridge—it was fun to find several different versions of the poem and compare the differences from one to the other. In the end, I had Grace choose which version she wanted to memorize. It was not the one in FLL, but rather the *original* by Sara Coleridge. Grace will begin memorizing it next week, as well as creating her own illustrated book of the poem.

READING: We started—and finished—a new read-aloud over the past two weeks. Let me just say that if you’ve never read Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield, you are missing out. It is a fabulous book! For independent reading, Grace chose several Halloween-themed selections. She also finished her first Junie B. Jones chapter book…and then promptly chose another one to read. And, no...these photos are not in the least bit staged. Would I ever do such a thing?!? And would my dear daughter so graciously agree?!?

MATH: Still moving along in Horizons 2, and I’m quite pleased to report that Grace’s interest in math has increased with her understanding of it. YAY!!! Those who know me well will understand (& appreciate) this next statement…those who don’t may think I’m a little strange. (OK…let’s be honest…even those who know me well will think I’m strange.) I am absolutely, positively ecstatic that Grace actually does math for fun…on her own…without any prodding by me. She makes up her own math problems and then works them. She asks me to make up problems for her. She asks to do extra one-minute timed drills. She was even working math problems today while shopping at IKEA. Here's one of her *for fun* sheets:

HISTORY & SCIENCE: We worked through chapters 4 & 5 in SOTW1—Ancient Egyptian pyramids and the first Sumerian king—and finished our study of bats. We did lots of fun reading & watched some good UnitedStreaming videos too.

SPANISH: We did a couple of lessons from Elementary Spanish, including some activity sheets & copywork. Sidenote: I know I still haven’t posted on our eclectic Spanish plan…{hanging my head in shame}…it’s coming…soon-ish.

And that sums up another [bi]weekly report. I'll leave you with a photo of the newest 3-year-old in our house—along with proud big sis—taken on a cool fall day here in the Pacific Northwest. Happy fall, y'all!

I'm still here!

Things have been a bit on the busy side for the past week or so. We celebrated Miss Emma's birthday last weekend. She turned the big 3...which meant she really got into the whole birthday thing this year. We also had Halloween festivities, co-op, swimming...and we spent yesterday afternoon at the Creating Keepsakes scrapbook convention. I do think I enjoyed that much more than the girls did. :) Plus, I spent my *free* time this week working like mad to finish up a "First Year" scrapbook gift for a baby shower today. Whew! So...short story long...I haven't had time to blog this week. [gasp] I'll try to get my weekly report for the last 2 weeks posted tomorrow, but I'll leave you with a peek at the album I made.


Baby Girl Album - pgs. 1-10

Baby Girl Album - pgs. 11-20

Baby Girl Album - pgs. 21-30

Credits: Created using Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. "Girly Without the Pink" digital kit by Shabby Princess. Various digital frames, overlays, & brushes by Katie Pertiet, Anna Aspnes, Nancie Rowe Janitz, Michelle Coleman, Rhonna Farrer, Jackie Eckles, & Heather Ann Melzer. Sketches & templates by Becky Fleck, Angie Briggs & Michelle Coleman. Fonts used - AL Sandra & Linenstroke.