April 29-May 3
This week, the
Five in a Row book we explored was
Higgins Bend Song and Dance. This book thoroughly delighted Little Bit!
Simon Henry is out to catch the biggest catfish in the river. The catfish is not about to be caught!
Simon Henry tries everything he can think of to catch that catfish. The fish gets away every time.
Or did it? You'll have to check this book out, from the library!
Some of the lessons we covered were: what is a river bend? Tall tales. Illustrating using a cross section, as well as an underwater view. Measurements and numbers surrounding water. Fish, and fishing. We ended our week with a lunch of potato chowder.
For the fun of it, Little Bit put together a puzzle (probably more than one, but this is the one he wanted me to photograph ;-) ).
The rest of our schoolwork consisted of: Genesis Through Deuteronomy and Ancient Egypt; Making It Real Math; Budding Authors.
May 6-10
Our
Five in a Row book this week was
The Hickory Chair, by Lisa Rowe Fraustino.
This is a sweet book, about a boy who has a special relationship with his grandmother.
His grandmother was really good at hiding things. So, one of our activities with this book was to play hide and seek!
Through the illustrations, we learned a little about antique wardrobes, and the fun an attic can be. We also had fun making lists.
In science this week, Little Bit had an experiment to perform. We were learning why polar bears have black skin.
First, we put the two thermometers underneath plastic trash bags.
After 15-20 minutes, we checked the thermometers.
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| This was under the black bag. |
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| This was under the white bag. |
Botanist Boy has been reading a couple books:
The Golden Goblet, and a biography of Johannes Kepler. It was hard to get him to do any other schoolwork!
But we did manage to cover the Making It Real math, Budding Authors, and our Genesis Through Deuteronomy study.
We even added something new, and
fun, to our schedule. We received
Go Fish for Ancient Egypt, from
Birdcage Press. (Watch for a review coming up next month!) I like how it meshes with our current study on Ancient Egypt!
May 13-17
This week we explored
Roxeboxen for our
Five in a Row book. I think this one has long been a favorite of mine.
Roxaboxen is set in the Southwest. A group of children set up their own little imaginary town.
The illustrations are lovely, using a palette of desert colors.
Topics we covered with
Roxaboxen were Arizona, and the desert; colors of the southwest; simple machines; and gems and minerals. We used the Fold&Learn. (You can get all of the
Five in a Row Fold&Learns for free when you subscribe to the
Five in a Row blog!)
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| Just a few pages |
We also watched some videos, about the southwest, and the Grand Canyon.
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| Be aware: this one references evolution |
Wilderness Journey: Canyon Suites--The majestic splendor of the American West is set to soothing classical music.
American Wonders: National Parks of the West--This explores the tranquility of awe-inspiring landscapes, spectacular vistas
and breathtaking natural wonders found in the great national parks of
the Western United States.
Still working on Genesis Through Deuteronomy, MIRL Math, Budding Authors.
I tried to switch things around, to start a more relaxed summer schedule. I took Math U See out of Little Bit's workbox, among other things. That lasted all of about 2 days! He put it back in!
He also spent hours, playing The Family Farm Game
by himself.
Botanist Boy finished the biography of Johannes Keppler, and began
Galen and the Gateway to Medicine. He's also nearly finished reading
The Cricket in Times Square, his Beyond Five in a Row book.
He and Jen have been playing Fractazmic this week, too.
We are very thankful this week that the tornado that hit the town where my brother and his family did no damage to their place. It was extremely close to their place, and was reported to be about a mile wide as it came by/over their place.
May 20-24
This week has been a bit more relaxed. We've played more games of Go Fish for Ancient Egypt, and Fractazmic. Jen and Little Bit have played a few games of 4-Way Countdown.
Our
Five in a Row journey took us through
The Gullywasher. We were able to continue our Southwest theme with this one.
We talked some about learning Spanish, because the book is written in both English and Spanish.
We learned about weather, thunderstorms, road runners.
We also learned about tall tales. (Like how Grandfather got his white hair.)
We did get kind of "caught up" with the rest of the world, in the tornado that hit Moore, Oklahoma. And remember them in our prayers.
The most exciting thing this week is that Little Bit finished reading his I See Sam books!
Botanist Boy has been spending time writing in his "book" and playing a computer game, called Stronghold.
We have still been working on Genesis Through Deuteronomy, and MIRL Math. We also finished volume 8 of
The Bible Story books, and began volume 9.
May 27-31
Well, basically, we are "wrapping up" the
official school year this week. But we will continue through the summer, with reading (aloud, mostly), and working on review items for the
Schoolhouse Review Crew. And Little Bit still wants
math! ;-)
We have finished up Volume 4 of Five in a Row this week! Complete! Which means Little Bit will be moving on to Beyond Five in a Row, doing a few books with Botanist Boy later in the summer, when we resume.
To finish the volume, we ended with
The Raft. I think I fell in love with this book all over again!
Nicky has to spend the summer with his grandmother. Before he arrived, he was certain he would have a terrible, boring summer. But his grandmother kept him busy. Then he discovered the raft.
He spent the summer on the raft, drifting on the river, and learning all about nature and the wild creatures who seemed attracted to the raft. The illustrations are very endearing. You must check this one out! A great summer read, for your summer nature study time.
We learned about Wisconsin; opening sentence; nature sketching; listing and categorizing animals, etc.
We also received some new review items, and began working on them this week. Be sure to watch my blog for those reviews in a few weeks.
Oh, yes; we began the week with a holiday: Memorial Day. Hubby had a long weekend off work. Tim also had Monday off.
Hubby splurged, and purchased a small pool, so the kids (and hubby!) could have some water to help cool off!
And thus wraps up our month, and our official school year. I find it unbelievable that next school year the boys will be in eighth and fourth grades!
Enjoy your summer!
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