52 Books in 52 Weeks

I love to read, but I readily admit that I usually choose to read "easy" books.  I love Amish fiction because it is easy, quick, and the stories and characters lead me to reflect on my own walk with God.  I don't usually choose to read intellectually challenging literature, because I read for relaxation instead of stimulation most of the time.  However, as 2012 comes to a close and we get ready to ring in 2013, I want to challenge myself to put more effort into choosing quality literature, and learning new things in the next year.  So, I have decided to join a group with the goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks.  In addition to that goal, I will also be participating in the 5/5/5 challenge - read 5 books from each of 5 categories or 5 genres.  The genres are fiction, autobiography, history, drama, and poetry.  I have my first book, Pride and Prejudice, and I'm ready to start tomorrow!  Click on the picture on my sidebar to read more about the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas!

It's been a few weeks since I have done a report.  Time seems to pass so quickly.  Things have been a little crazy around our house, as K's work schedule has been changed around quite a bit.  We started our Jesse tree devotionals on December 1st.  This is the second  year for us to do a Jesse tree, and the boys really enjoy it.  Since we are studying ancient times in history this year, it is also reviewing the Bible history we have learned.

We made our annual visit to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree, and Ethan enjoyed petting the goats. 

This week we studied the early Greeks in history.  We heard the story of the Odyssey and learned about other Greek myths.  We learned about the early Olympics.

  In science, we learned that the air is a mixture of gases and did a couple of demonstrations to determine some of the gases in the air.  We figured out that there must be oxygen in air, because a flame needs oxygen to burn and when we covered a lit candle with an inverted jar, the flame went out.  We also saw that water was drawn into the jar when the oxygen was depleted.  The boys also got a kick out of our demonstration on carbon dioxide.  We combined baking soda and vinegar, producing carbon dioxide, and the boys loved "pouring" the carbon dioxide onto a candle to extinguish the flame.  This led into a discussion of fire extinguishers and general fire safety.

Isaac is learning multiplication facts for 2 and 3, and Ethan is learning about picture graphs in math.  I am trying to come up with something fun for us to tally and graph over the break...maybe the different kinds of Christmas cookies we make? 

Both of the boys have been reading like crazy.  We made 2 trips to the library this week.  Recently, Isaac has read Little House on the Prairie,  Mr. Popper's Penguins, and Charlotte's Web.  Ethan has loved reading the My First Little House books.  We went to the library's story time on Wednesday. We heard a story about elves, made an elf ornament, and got an elf coloring page to bring home.

We are looking forward to some fun Christmas plans next week!

Weekly Roundup - Spooky Style

 

In science this week, we learned how to read a map and about the cardinal directions.  The boys had fun using a map to navigate and tell me how to get to the library.  We also practiced figuring out directions by trying to determine what direction we would be going when we made a turn.  On Friday, we went outside and learned how to become "human compasses".

 

Ethan finished studying shapes in math, and Isaac has been working on weight in kilograms and grams.  He loved using his balance! 

We are taking a few weeks to review the Latin we have learned so far before we start working on Christmas words. 

On Wednesday, we enjoyed a laid-back afternoon for Halloween.  I finished reading Bunnicula to the boys, and they watched the Magic School Bus videos on bats and spiders.  We also cut out skeletons and glued them together on construction paper, learning about the different bones and how they fit together.

We learned about the Phoenicians for history, and watched a video of a present-day blown-glass artist in Hebron, showing the process involved in his craft.


The boys both earned their Book-It awards for October.  Isaac is currently reading Little House in the Big Woods and Ethan is reading The Berenstain Bear Scouts and the Humongous Pumpkin.

We don't usually get much of a fall here in Texas, but here is a little bit of our "autumn color".

Weekly Roundup - October 26

This week was an unexpected 4 day week.  We took Tuesday off so that I could meet with a realtor about listing our house.  We should have the paperwork back to her on Monday, and then we can move on to the next step in our planned move.  I have been perusing the houses available in the new area on several websites, but I haven't found much yet.  Hopefully more will come on the market soon.  Here is what we covered this week!

Bible: We have been reading about the exodus this week, starting with the twelve spies and ending with Moses' death.

Language Arts: For handwriting, we have used a mixture of their handwriting books and copywork from their Awana memory verses.  This week, Ethan worked on John 17:17 and Colossians 1:3.  Isaac studied Isaiah 9:6 and Psalm 100:4.  Isaac has continued his work in Easy Grammar.  Each day he covers a capitalization rule, a punctuation rule, and sentence combining.  This week he also covered subjects, dictionary guide words, and nouns. In Primary Language Lessons, he studied comma usage and creating a venn diagram comparing ideas from what he read.  He is memorizing the poem My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson.  He completed lesson 15 in his spelling book and is reading The Whipping Boy for literature.  Ethan has completed 4 lessons in his reading program and has read Play Ball, Amelia Bedelia, and  Little Bear's Friend this week.

Math: Isaac finished his study of English measurement today.  He has taken two tests this week and made a 100 on both of them.  Today he also reviewed for his cumulative exam he will take Monday.  Ethan has been studying shapes and spent time today playing with Mighty Minds.

History: This week in history we studied the Israelites' exodus from Egypt.  We are still working on our sticker pages, and I'd like to start a project on famine, comparing how a plant will grow with water vs. without.

Science: For science, we have been studying what makes day and night.  We read a book on Monday.

On Wednesday, we demonstrated how the earth rotates using a globe and a lamp.  We were able to see how only a portion of the earth receives sunlight at a time.  We also talked about what direction the sun seems to "rise" and "set" from.  On Thursday the boys colored a worksheet with yellow for the part of the earth receiving light and black for where it would be night.

Foreign Language: This week we continued to learn the names of animals in Latin and watched episode 7 of Salsa Spanish.

I have been reading Bunnicula aloud to the boys this week. 

We are about to leave to shop for our Operation Christmas Child box, and then meet our homeschool group this afternoon to put the boxes together and get them ready to send. 

The Curious, The Missing, and The Creative

Ethan earned his Book-It award this week for October.  His goal was to score a 90% or better on 5 book quizzes.  The books he read were:
Magic School Bus in the Haunted Museum: A Book About Sound
A Chair for My Mother
Chicka-Chicka-Boom-Boom
Madeline
Swimmy
He has also read Magic Tree House: Twister on Tuesday and Tut's Mummy: Lost and Found, scoring 80% on each of those quizzes.  The quizzes help me to determine what reading level he is on so that I can help him choose appropriate reading material.  The last two books listed were a little above his reading level, but they were books he wanted to read.  I'm hoping they stretched his reading ability a little, helping him to grow as a reader.

In science this week we reviewed the properties of matter, the types of energy, and the differences between matter and energy.  Isaac wanted to test water to see if it had weight.  We then determined the volume of water we poured into the bucket and the weight of the water. 

The tooth fairy visited our house this week.  She has made only 1 other visit, and that was when Isaac had 4 teeth pulled to make room for those adult teeth on the bottom to come in.  This was the first time he had a tooth loosen up and come out on its own.  He was beyond excited!

 

Friday we had a little extra time in the afternoon so I pulled out Ethan's tabletop easel.  He loves to paint!  Here is the artist at work.

 

 

Wordless Wednesday - Does water have weight?

Sights, Sounds, and Tastes of Early October

"A wise man will hear and increase learning" Proverbs 1:5
We have been busy learning and growing! In history, we have continued our study of ancient times. Last week we had a great time studying ancient Africa.

making paper bead necklaces

 Anansi the Spider and Cushion

Our African Feast - Chicken with figs and papaya fried rice (Delicious!)

 decorated hands

 

 

This week we studied the Middle Kingdom in Egypt.  We learned about Egypt invading Nubia and the Hyksos invading Egypt.  We learned that the Hyksos were one of the tribes that lived in Canaan when God told Abraham to go there.

 

In science this week, we studied sound.  We learned that sound comes from vibrations. We learned that the faster the vibrations, the higher the frequency of the waves, and the higher the pitch, or note that is produced.  We also talked about how the amplitude affects the loudness of the sound.  We experimented with rubber bands, instruments, and our voices.  We also talked about how sound travels through the air, into our ears, and to our eardrum.  The boys colored a diagram of the ear and we talked about the parts of the ear.  Here are some pictures of them experimenting with their instruments by plucking the different strings and watching the vibrations.

 

In math, Ethan is finishing up addition and subtraction and getting ready to start a unit on shapes.  Isaac is studying measurement and just made a 100 on his test over measuring in centimeters.  Ethan is currently reading Henry and Mudge and Mr. Putter and Tabby.  He has also read Magic Tree House and Magic School Bus books for fun. Isaac is reading Because of Winn-Dixie for school and The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader for fun.

 

There is great excitement in our house for next week.  We will finally get to King Tut in our study of history and the boys have been asking since July when we would get to study him!