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

Here's what we did the weeks of 1/15-1/19 and 1/22-1/26!

Reading: Caleb continued reading out of his Kittens and Children reader and completing a Word Ladder a day.

English: We did a cumulative review of what Caleb's learned so far, and then started in on Chapter 9. He learned about capitalizing proper nouns, correct abbreviations, pronouns, and possessive nouns. He also learned about when to use "I" or "me."

Spelling: We continued in our Spelling You See workbook. During this time we moved into more challenging dictation words. All of the words I called out had the "__ __ a __" pattern, and Caleb seemed to have the most trouble with consonant blends that happened in the first part of each word (such as the "sl" in "slam"). Overall he's doing very well though. We keep it very low-key so he doesn't get himself all stressed out. I can tell he's really trying to hear the letter sounds, but sometimes he admits that he just doesn't hear it. Soon I might get our letter and word tiles out again for extra practice....maybe the hand-on manipulatives will help him too!

Word of the Week and Journal: We had the words "opinion" and "talented" during these two weeks. Apparently I forgot to take pictures of our vocabulary charts!

Math: Caleb finished his first workbook and we moved on to the second half of math! He's still doing well with multiplication as well as fractions which were just re-introduced.

Anatomy: We began Volume 2 of the Sassafras Science Adventures, which focuses on anatomy. The first week was basically an overview of what we'll be learning; I attempted to trace Caleb's outline so we could add the different body systems/parts we learn about to it (I might just print out a life-size skeleton and then add on to that!). Then in the second chapter, the twins travel to Ethiopia and end up working with an archaeologist who teaches them about the skeletal system. Similar to what we did in our zoology study, each lesson has an "anatomy record sheet" where the student writes down facts about each body part or system that's studied. Caleb and I learned about the skull and the backbone specifically during the second week. We did a fun science experiment with water balloons to see how the skull protects our brain; Caleb wrapped up one water balloon in bubble wrap and then we tried to throw it really hard to see if it would break (Caleb was all ready to get wet so Micah and I threw it in his direction!). We also threw a water balloon without any protective covering. Caleb also constructed a little backbone out of a cut-up egg carton and a pipe cleaner!

Countries: We studied Iceland and Greece during this time. For Iceland, we learned more about the Northern Lights since the northern part of Iceland is one of the places where they're visible. Caleb and Micah then used watercolors to make their own Northern Lights. I also made them "Icelandic hot chocolate" which is basically hot chocolate with sea salt added. The boys only liked it once I added a bit more sugar to it; I think it was because I only had dark cocoa powder so maybe it was just too intense for them. For Greece, we read a book about the ancient Olympics and then Caleb made a laurel wreath out of a paper plate (the athletes used to get laurel wreaths instead of the medals we see today!). For our food, I found spanakopita in the freezer section at Target; it's basically spinach in a puff pastry shell and it was cheaper and easier than trying to make it from scratch. I thought the boys would like it; they eat creamed spinach and who doesn't like a flaky crust? But they were pickier than I thought. So I ate one and we still have several more in the freezer for another time (luckily they were appetizer size so it wasn't a big waste!).

Extras: During the second week, we also started a fun cartography/geography set called Legends & Leagues. We have the Grade 1 set, which is a storybook plus a workbook with suggested activities. The storybook itself is nicely illustrated, plus has the fun characters Mr. Latitude (who is very wide) and Mr. Longitude (who is very tall). So far we've only done one activity; we learned about strip maps from ancient times and then Caleb made one showing the way from our house to church (though it's the scenic route; he wanted to include downtown Canton and our local Moe's!). I'm going to pick and choose more activities for us to do as we have time since Caleb really likes maps and then we can see if we want to do the books for the latter grade levels.