Friday, September 4, 2009

Weekly Wrap-Up: Soccer Edition




It's Friday again and it's time for the Weekly Wrap-Up hosted by Kris over at Weird, Unscocialized Homeschoolers.


We got a bit distracted this week. Errands, annoying (although sweet) neighborhood child, yard work that had to be dealt with before I got a nasty-gram from the HOA. But we survived and we almost finished everything scheduled despite of the interruptions. (We have 2 chapters of a read aloud and one science lesson left, incase you're wondering. LOL)


Bible:


Mackenzie is continuing to read in Genesis this week. She's been reading about Jacob and Esau. Rebekah infuriates her everytime we read this story. LOL




Together we are reading in Luke. We're reading about Jesus' many miracles.


I bought the Grapevine Studies "Stick Figure" Bible curriculum to add a little visual to our lessons. I'm dying to implement it but it's confusing me. LOL I cannot for the life of me figure it out. The actual lessons are not hard to use but hey have the timeline lessons and then the regular lessons and I cannot understand how they fit together. Do you fill out the entire timeline before starting the lessons? Or do you do each lesson and then go back and add it to the timeline? I have no idea. I think part of my problem is that I bought the e-book and I do not do well reading that much on the computer. I should've sprang for the hard copy of the teachers guide.


Math:

This week in math she studying her 2's timestables and some measurement. Neither presented a particular challenge for her.


Social Studies:


We finished up Columbus this week. We really enjoyed Pedro's Journal and were sad that we are finished with it. We finished up the week using The Story of the USA vol. 1 and learned about other Spanish explorers.


We studied a bit about the Aztecs in the American Indian Prayer Guide. We also started working on our Native American History Pocket but it fell to the wayside early on in the week. We'll work on that some this weekend.










Her reader for the week was Vostaas: White Buffalo's Story of Plains Indian Life . That was really good and we both learned a lot. The author did a very good job explaining the plight the Native Americans suffered with the arrival of "white man" while also noting some of the positive impacts. It really moved Mackenzie.




We are still working our way through The Complete Book of Maps and Geography and Mackenzie is still loving every page of it.






Language Arts:


Mackenzie started diagramming sentences in First Language Lessons. Nothing fancy, just subject and predicates, but she thought it was "fun." I always enjoyed diagramming when I was in school, so it's not just my love of reading that she inherited. We also worked on some dictionary skills and she almost has The Land of Nod totally memorized.


Her ability to summarize what she's reading is really coming along nicely thanks to The Complete Writer. I couldn't be more pleased with this purchase.



Spelling was a little rough this week. We've been on the same series of words for over a week. I think the problem is the way Spelling Power states the rules. She learned this particular rule a couple of weeks ago, in First Language Lessons, and understood it perfectly. But she can't seem to apply it to Spelling Power. I think I'm going to "rewrite" the spelling rules for this program in a language more easily understood. This isn't the first time that they stated the rules in a confusing fashion. Other then that we are LOVING the program.


Science:


We are studying the human body this week. Mackenzie has been enjoying the way Usbornes Book of Everything is presenting the body. She thinks the "body machines" are funny. She particular enjoyed how they compared our body's ability to fight off germs to a castle defending itself from it's enemies. She is a princess after all.

We still have an experiment to get to.

Lastly...

Soccer practice started again. She loved soccer so much last year and she's been waiting impatiently for this moment for a year now.


9 comments:

  1. It sounds like a good week! Our Native American pockets fell a little to the wayside as well. We really enjoyed Pedro's Journal as well. :o)

    Heather

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  2. What a great week, I loved soccer at that age too! Thanks for sharing!

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  3. What a fun week. I love how one of your girls even has her hair beautifully done with a bow. I'm so lucky to get clothes on mine. I've been looking at the Grapevine studies, I'll keep watching to see if you figure it out! LOL! Hope you have a great holiday weekend.

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  4. Oh, distractions can be hard to overcome. But it looks like you accomplished a lot anyhow! The White Buffalo story sounds great, I've never heard of it.

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  5. Sounds like a fun week! Love the soccer photo!

    For the Grapevine Study, at the beginning of the book there is a timeline that you do first. Then start the lessons...there are timeline reviews that you do periodically that go back over the same info as on the timeline, to help them to retain the facts easier.

    I'm using the American Indian History Pocket for our monthly acitivity day. Glad to see I'm not the only one that really likes it!

    Joesette

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  6. Just remember that the things that get in the way of "school" are real life education too. Looks like a fun week was had by all. Love the soccer pics!

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  7. Looks like a fun week. You got some great soccer pictures.

    The Grapevine Study we did had you do the timeline first, as an overview, then do the individual lessons. HTH!

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  8. Looks like you had a great week, great pictures too!

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  9. What fun!! Awesome pictures!! My little one starts soccer tonight..Im new to this soccer mom thing any tips would be great....Pumpkin is not excited about wearing the black "spike shoes...as she calls them" LOL

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