The Pretty Life: ivey league academy: week in review!

Here's what we did the week of 2/19-2/23/18!

We took ANOTHER sick day on Wednesday; I caught another cold and pretty much nothing got done that day!

Reading: Caleb continues to read out loud in order to earn his personal pizza! Late in the week he remembered that he has access to free ebooks on his tablet and started reading a Peanuts one. It was very long so he continued reading it off and on through the weekend. I told him that could count as three books because of the length, and also he didn't have to read it out loud as long as he was READING. :)

English: We finished Chapter 10, which ended with Caleb sending a thank-you letter (complete with heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature) to his grandparents for his tablet (he also addressed the envelope!). He took a test on Friday and did very well; he sometimes forgets where commas go in addresses but he's doing great overall.

Spelling: We continued in Spelling You See. Caleb is doing so much better. I can tell he's really listening for the letter sounds of the words I call out and I'm hoping these skills will show up in other subjects as well!

Word of the Week: Our word for this week was "participate."

Math: Caleb had his tenth test on Monday and then continued in his workbook.

Bible: Our Apologia curriculum was getting pretty dry; we were just a lesson or two from finishing, but I could tell that Caleb was bored with it. He liked listening to the stories I read aloud, and maybe one or two of the activities, but overall most of the activities are things he just doesn't enjoy (coloring, writing, etc.). We decided to go back to basics and just read from a devotional. We started Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing; I read one or two pages and then we discuss. The book has beautiful illustrations too!

Anatomy: This week we started our study on the nervous system. We first learned about the brain and the spinal cord. Caleb colored a fun "brain hat" printable I found online, and then I cut and taped it together for him. He also colored a brain to put on his skeleton (I taped a pipe cleaner on there to represent the spinal cord!). Finally, we talked about reflexes and I tested both of the boys' reaction times to catching a ruler once I dropped it.

Countries: We studied the nation of Israel this week. Instead of a craft, we switched gears and did a "Dead Sea experiment." We put one egg in a glass of tap water, and another egg in a different glass filled with salt water. The egg in the salt water floated while the other one sank! Caleb had already read about the Dead Sea and how it's so salty that you just float on the surface without having to tread water or anything. He thought it was cool! We also made cinnamon roll challah bread. I prepped the dough in my bread machine and then Caleb help me separate it into three pieces, roll them out, spread the cinnamon filling, and then roll them up. I helped him braid them together. The end result was really yummy!