ivey league academy: week in review!

Here's what we did the week of 12/4-12/8!

We ended up taking a sick day on Monday; Caleb especially was very congested and was coughing a lot, and I was still getting over a sinus headache.

Reading:  Because our printer was out of ink and we didn't get a cartridge until later in the week, Caleb only had to do one Word Ladder! (I copy them out of the book in case I want to use the book again.)  He also only read out loud on Friday; before that, he would cough a lot if he had to use his voice.

English:  Caleb had his Chapter 7 review and test this week, and we also did a cumulative review.  We're almost halfway through his curriculum (there are sixteen chapters total), so I think we'll hold off on starting Chapter 8 until after New Year's.

Spelling:  We continued in his Spelling You See curriculum.

Word of the Week/Journal:  Our word of the week was "clench."  Caleb wrote about clenching his play-doh!

Math:  We continued in his Horizons math workbook.  He had a test in this subject as well, and did great!

Bible:  We only got to Bible one day this week.  We started a new lesson in which we'll answer the question, "Does God really supply all my needs?"

Zoology:  We started our study of the ocean habitat this week.  We learned about king penguins and codfish.  The scientific demonstration in the teacher's manual seemed a little confusing to me, so I looked up another experiment on Pinterest.  Caleb mixed a little bit of coffee grounds in water (it was supposed to be dirt but I didn't want to go dig any up!), then slowly poured it through a coffee filter wrapped around a plastic cup.  He saw that the filter (representing the fish's gills) allowed the water to pass through but "caught" the grounds.  Similarly, the fish is able to breathe underwater because its gills "catch" the oxygen out of the water and allow the water to then pass through again.

Countries:  We learned about The Netherlands this week!  For our craft, Caleb made a windmill out of a toilet paper tube.  For our recipe, we tried hagelslag, or "hailstorm" in Dutch.  Apparently this is a popular breakfast in The Netherlands.  They probably have better chocolate sprinkles over there, but it was still an interesting food to try.  Caleb thought it was too sweet to be a breakfast food, but I pointed out he likes doughnuts and Cinnamon Toast Crunch and those have a lot of sugar too!

Extras:  On Wednesday night, our church's small group got together for Christmas and played Hedbanz (it was the grown-up version but Caleb still participated).  Caleb loved it, and I pointed out to him that we had the kid version at home but hadn't played it yet.  So the very next day we got it out once we were done with school.  Micah still gets confused with it so he usually prefers to watch, but Caleb thinks it's awesome!

On Friday morning, it started to snow.  We were expecting just an inch or two at first; the snow was very wet and slushy but Caleb still went out in it.  It started snowing more and more later that evening and by Saturday most areas around us got six to eight inches at least!  Many people lost power but thankfully ours only cut in and out a couple of times on Saturday morning.

These snow pictures are from Friday afternoon, before the "real snow" happened!  :)

Links:
How Do Fish Breathe? Demonstration (Preschool Powol Packets)
Windmill Craft (DLTK's Growing Together)
Hagelslag Recipe (Serious Eats)

ivey league academy: week in review!

Here's what we did the week of 11/27-12/1!

Reading:  We continued with doing a Word Ladder a day as well as reading out of our Kittens and Children reader.  Caleb is doing so much better with reading out loud.  I can tell he's really trying hard not to rush, because it's when he goes too fast that he makes mistakes or skips words completely.

English:  We finished the last part of Chapter 7, which focused on practical skills.  We learned about how to use a dictionary (guide words, entry words, how to see if a word has more than one definition, etc.), library skills (fiction versus nonfiction and how they're organized on the shelf), and even how to use a phone book (a dying skill, admittedly.  We covered the basics and skipped the lesson on how to take a phone message...we don't have a landline so if we ever do get one then we'll cover how to take a message!).

Spelling:  We did Week 3 of his Spelling You See curriculum.  I noticed this week's lessons were different in the teacher dictation part.  Rather than tracing the simple three-letter words, starting this week he had to listen to the words I called out.  They still have the same vowel sound in common, but it's a good way to teach Caleb to listen for the letter sounds as well as how to group similar words together.

Math:  We continued in his Horizons workbook. 

Word of the Week:  Our word of the week was "ransack."  In his journal, Caleb wrote that he would "ransack" his room if he ever couldn't find his game ball from baseball!

Bible:  We continued Lesson 7 and learned about what our purpose is and why God created us (spoiler alert...He created us because He wanted to and we're to give Him glory).  :)

Zoology:  We played catch-up on Monday and finished Chapter 14.  Caleb filled out information on the snow goose and I also copied a map out of a library book that shows geese migration patterns.  We pasted it into his logbook.

After we were caught up, we continued to Chapter 15 (the second part of the Arctic habitat section).  We learned about polar bears and mountain goats.  For the scientific demonstration, Caleb learned about how polar bears can walk on the ice without slipping; they have special fur on the bottoms of their paws that helps them grip.  To demonstrate that, we put two small cans (one wrapped up in a washcloth) on a large baking sheet and tilted it.  The wrapped-up can represented a polar bear's paw, and it didn't slide down as easily as the regular can did.  I also reminded Caleb that we did a very similar experiment last year when we learned about friction!

Countries:  This week we learned about Ireland.  We read library books and filled out a country fact sheet as usual.  For our recipe, we made Irish soda bread.  It uses baking soda instead of yeast to make it rise, and hearkens back to when many people in Ireland were poor and found ways to make nourishing food without a lot of ingredients.  For our craft, we made shamrocks using bell peppers as stamps!

Extras:  One day we had a little extra time, so we got out our SQUILT cards and I pulled up the videos for the brass family of the orchestra.  We had a nice quiet listening time as the videos featured works like "Pictures at an Exhibition," "The Ride of the Valkyries," and even the theme from Superman!  We still have the percussion family to go and after that I might look into purchasing another SQUILT set, maybe composers this time.  Our read-aloud was Chicken Squad by Doreen Cronin.  It's a very quick read as a read-aloud (as opposed to Caleb reading it by himself), and very silly and entertaining!  I put the rest of the series on hold at the library because I could tell we'd go through them quickly!

Links:
Irish Soda Bread recipe (Let's Dish Recipes)
Shamrock Stamp craft (Crafty Morning)