The Pretty Life: ivey league homeschool: week in review

Here's what we did last week!

Eclipse: On Monday we did our schoolwork in the morning, then watched live coverage of the total eclipse! Caleb was especially very excited. I had decided not to try to view it outside, and as a result we were able to watch six different total eclipses across the country! I printed out a few activities in case they got bored while we waited. While we weren't in the path of totality, it did get very dark at one point!

Reading: We continued in Hooked on Phonics and started the "bossy r" sounds such as "ar," "er," "ir," and "ur."

Language Arts: We had our first English test on Monday and Caleb did pretty well. I think his main issue is understanding the directions and stressing out too much. We began the second unit after that; in this unit, Caleb will learn how to plan, draft, and proofread a story. I helped him with word webs and also wrote a sample paragraph and showed him how to find and correct mistakes.

Word of the Week/Journal: Our word of the week was "donate." Caleb opted to write about the eclipse for one journal entry, and then copied down a portion of an animal poem for the other.

Spelling: Caleb learned Week 3's spelling words and got 9 out of 10 correct on his test!

Read-Aloud: We started reading The 13 Story Treehouse by Andy Griffiths. There are a lot of fun illustrations so we'll finish it pretty quickly. I already requested a couple of the sequels from the library!

Math: We continued in his Horizons Math workbook.

Bible: We began Lesson 2 in our curriculum, which focuses on the question, "How do I know what's true?" We discussed different ways God tells us the truth (through His creation, through His Word, and through Jesus), and also that our senses can usually tell us the truth but can sometimes play tricks on us (there were a few optical illusions to illustrate this point!). One of the fictional stories we read had two friends discussing how they thought the world began. The boy who believed in what the Bible says used a plate of brownies his mom had left for them as an example; he joked with his friend (who believed in the theory of evolution) that the brownies just made themselves! Caleb thought that was funny. He did a few activities in his journal and at the end of the week he helped me make brownies (with mint chocolate chip frosting from the freezer!) as a reminder that only God can make something out of nothing!

Zoology: This was our second week in the African grasslands. We learned about elephants and giraffes. We filled out animal reports for each one, and also finished up our habitat report sheet and "diorama" (really just a copy of a grassland landscape and animal stickers!). We also filled in our food chart for the week (both animals are herbivores) and did a "giraffe saliva" demonstration. I sent the boys out in the backyard to find twigs an leaves. We had one bowl of plain water (to represent human saliva) and one bowl with a cornstarch/water mixture (to represent giraffe saliva). Caleb put a few leaves and twigs in each one and mixed them around. I told him to feel the leaves in each bowl and see which ones seemed softer and less "poky." And of course, the giraffe saliva's leaves and twigs did. The giraffe especially enjoys eating from the acacia tree, which has thorns on it, so its thick saliva helps protect the giraffe's mouth as it chews.

World Cultures: This week's country was Cuba. We read a few library books and Caleb filled out a country fact sheet. We made a mango shake as well as Cuban sandwiches. Both boys enjoyed the sandwiches (though I left the pickles out for them), while only Caleb liked the mango shake. We still have to complete a fun tody bird art activity, which we'll do early next week before we move on to the next country.