Schoolin' with the Flock: September 17-23

In My Life This Week 

Guess what?! The kids now have blogosphere nicknames! I've always used their first initial, but why not have something that is more representative of who they are? LOL Oh, and did you notice that I made some changes to my blog set-up too? I can't seem to find the "look" that I want, but I'll keep tweaking!

Homeschool Happenings

Yep, we did! We gathered up our school books, headed out to the yard in the chilly morning air, and completed school while the chickens pecked around us. 

See Chirp to the Left? LOL

So, in Language Arts this week Jag worked on Saxon Grammar and Writing lessons 4-6 on proper, concrete, abstract, and collective nouns and present, past and helping verbs. Sweet Tart worked on lessons 5-7, complete and fragment sentences, and action verbs. And Sprinter reviewed /ch/, /th/, /sh/, and /wh/, started /sm/, /sn/ and /sp/, completed 2 readers, and finished 16 pages of Handwriting Without Tears. (Yep! HWT is pretty easy for him now.) We visited the library mid-week for new books. Sweet Tart and Jag are reading these books:

Sprinter's Letter to Nannie

Jag and Sprinter chugged along on with their Saxon Math lessons, and Sweet Tart with MCP Math. And they all had first assessments! Jag got a 95%, Sweet Tart got a 96%! Sprinter's assessments aren't graded, but he did very well.

Sprinter Doing Saxon With Chewer for Focus

Jag's Earth Science studies have focused on landforms, the 4 spheres, maps and globes, and latitude and longitude. And Sweet Tart and Sprinter finished notebooking the basics of the solar system in Astronomy. We made a Planets Wheel, a Solar System Dictionary Mini Book and My Solar System Book. I read Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System to them and then we watched the TV show. We also started delving into the Sun and discussed rotation and revolution in relation to the Sun, Earth and Moon and watched this. (Let's hope for warm sun next week so we can try out a pizza box solar oven!)

Jag's 4 Spheres Chart

Sweet Tart finished up Columbus on Wednesday. She wrote a letter IN CURSIVE (which we'll definitely need to continue working on) to Columbus, asking for a job as a ship musician. To make the letter look "old", we lightly painted it with diluted coffee, let it dry and then carefully burned the edges. We also wrapped up Columbus by Edgar Parin and Ingri D'Aulaire and filled out a Who Was notebook page.  And now she's off to learn about John Cabot! Jag read Chapter 1: Rebels in America: The Story of Us and started his episode guide from The History Channel by creating a vocab matching game using flashcards.

Sweet Tart's Cursive Columbus Letter

Sprinter's John Cabot Shoals Picture

Jag's America: The Story of Us Episode 1: Rebels Vocab Cards

And on Friday we studied the 2nd element of art in How to Teach Art to Children - shapes. The kids did a shape scavenger hunt then copied onto paper a shape design they created with tangrams. Our BIG cooperative project was a positive and negative shape poster.

The Kids Positive/Negative Shape Poster

Places We Went and People We Saw 

• Soccer, soccer, soccer! (Didn't I say this last week? I think it will be my mantra through October! LOL) Jag had 2 home games and 2 practices, and Sweet Tart and Sprinter had 1 game and 1 practice each. Although Jag isn't too thrilled with riding the bus home after practices, I'm finding not fighting through construction to get to the Middle School W-O-N-D-E-R-F-U-L!
• Jag and Sweet Tart played basketball at the Rec Center. Still lovin' Saturday ball! 
• Another Sunday hangin' out with the boys from next door! Sword fighting, running around and traipsing through the woods most of the day.
• Sweet Tart had a clarinet lesson at the Elementary School. She enjoys practicing outside with the CHICKENS as her audience. CLUCK! Toot! (At least they don't "take cover" in the woods at her first toot anymore! LOL)
• Jag and Sprinter had Scout meetings. Sprinter is working towards his Bobcat patch!

Our Favorite Thing(s) This Week 

So, my youngest is a runner. (Those of you who know him, know this! LOL) When we're out-and-about, I usually drop the kids off at the end of the road and they run the 1/2 mile back. Sprinter has never lost. On Tuesday, he runs into the yard, "Mom! Porcupine!" Lo and behold, just a little ways from our driveway, a haggard looking porcupine is slowly climbing up an old pine, stopping here-and-there to eat bark. Sweet Tart catches up and watches too. Imagine the 3 of us pointing and starring up at a tree for 20 minutes. Wonder what the neighbor's thought? LOL

Looked Like This - Photo by Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge

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