The Pretty Life: ivey league academy: weeks in review

Here's what we did the week of 2/5-2/9/18!

I had a bad cold during this time so we took sick days on 2/5 and 2/6. The remaining days of that week were spent doing the core subjects (we caught up on science and geography the following week).

Reading: We continued with Caleb reading one or more books a day to me and also did a Word Ladder each day.

English: Caleb completed a cumulative review and then we moved on in his Language Arts workbook. We started Chapter 10, which focuses on letter writing.

Spelling: Something clicked for Caleb this week! I had him try his Spelling Smart Tray set just for some practice, and we were a bit worried about those consonant blends messing him up, but one day this week he got all of his dictated words correct! I asked him if he just memorized the spellings or actually heard the letter sounds (I'm fine with either...it's not like these words are the same twelve words every day. Some of them repeat but there's always different ones too). He told me he could hear the letter sounds so that's great!

Math: We continued in his math workbook. He started learning about Roman numerals this week!

Read-Aloud: We started Frank Einstein and the Electro-Finger this week, but didn't get very far since I was coughing a lot. :) Caleb is really enjoying the series so we'll keep borrowing them from the library (I believe there are 6 or 7 books in all).

Here's what we did the week of 2/12-2/16/18!

Reading: You guessed it...Caleb read a book or two to me (or Micah) every day, and we did a Word Ladder.

English: We continued in Chapter 10 and Caleb started a draft for his own letter.

Spelling: Caleb continued to do very well with his dictated words. There was the occasional goof but he's doing so much better!

Math: We continued in his math workbook. He's getting more confident with multiplication.

Word of the Week/Journal: Our word for this week was "abandon."

Science: We decided to do two chapters this week (which is four lessons) in order to make up for what we missed last week. These chapters were on the respiratory system. Caleb learned about what happens when we inhale and exhale, as well as about the structure of the lungs and alveoli. We did an "out of breath" demonstration where he counted how many breaths he took in 30 seconds at rest, then counted again after a couple of minutes of exercise. He took a few more breaths after the period of exercise so he learned that we breathe deeper and more often in order to keep up with our increased heart rate and our need for more oxygen in our blood. We also made a set of "paper bag lungs," and Caleb colored/painted a set of lungs to put on his skeleton.

Countries: This week we learned about Turkey. Caleb filled out his fact sheet for Turkey and colored its flag. We also read a few folk tales from the library. For our craft, we tried a technique called "ebru painting," which is inspired by the Turkish technique of drizzling paint on water, then pressing the canvas (or tile or paper) lightly onto the surface. We used shaving cream instead of water...it was messy but fun! For our recipe, Caleb helped me prepare a marinade for Turkish chicken kebabs. They were good but took longer to cook than I anticipated.