Wordless Wednesday

Pink Eye, Strep, Double Ear infections x2 girls ... plus Shelby has a sinus infection

Using the Lungs

This week we learned about our lungs in the Human body study. Shelby created three models to learn the parts and how they work. We also did a few experiments to show how our lungs move and air flows.

For fun at the beginning of the week we also made paper with our paper maker. The kids went and got flowers (aka weeds) from the yard to embed into the paper as well.

Shelby has started working out of her "Draw Write Now" books this week. We are using this to help her with her fine motor skills, artistic skills, handwriting, grammar (sentence structure), reading and a little science thrown in. We also have books that would go well with American History but we have not started them. She LOVES these books and does not complain at all about having to write and read.

Shelby picked out some Fancy Nancy books at the book store last weekend and read to me one this week (a few pages each night).

We have started working on solidifying her Math Facts. She does 5 minutes of practice a day on her Twist & Shout Addition "toy". She also has been working on counting by "2s" and several denominations of change together (except quarters).

Geography - was more city maps work and we located Canada! We are so excited for the Olympics to start. I look forward to pointing out several more countries over the next few weeks as we watch.

Bible-Discussing lying and obeying. Exodus 20:16 was her bible verse.

We had a good week overall.

Matthew and Abigail both had a Valentine Party on Thursday- there are a few pictures in the slide show of that. Abigail also enjoyed watching the kids do their experiments. I think she thought they were a little nutty breathing into a bag.

100th day of school

Well our 100th day of school I "think" was last week but with Abigail sick we did not celebrate. Instead we held it this week. Pictures are of Shelby doing her projects. She made a headband with 100 cherrios, created her own 100 project and we read several 100 day of school books.

Her 100 project was made with model magic clay and she used lots of different craft items to decorate it with 100 items. She counted them out 5 items at a time and we made a list of what was used.

This week Shelby got all of her spelling words right! She also was able to read "Anansi the Spider" pretty much on her own. She really enjoyed the story and finding Ghana, Africa on the Globe. There were also a bunch of her past spelling words in the story. Every time she came to one she would point out that she knew how to spell that word.

Overall it was a good week.

WorDY Wednesday

I know it should be a picture today but I have two quotes that really tickled me from Shelby.

1- Shelby told her Nana "I love you more than the Great Wall of China"
Of course she was meaning bigger than but still ....

2- Shelby yelled at Matthew and I "Matthew is lying, Truthful lips endure forever Proverbs 12:19" Of course she was the one lying but she still tried to cover it with scripture.

Counting by 5's and Reading!

This week we have been working on counting by 5's in order for Shelby to count nickels. We spent three days working on 5's, playing games, doing worksheets and then introducing the nickel. We then spent two days counting nickels.

So far in Money we have studied the penny, dime and now nickel. In a couple weeks we will introduce the quarter and then start making change!

We also continued to review our place value work, addition and basic clock work. Shelby seems to have a clear understanding of all of the above. I am loving our Horizons Math books. They really are helping her review weekly concepts that we have learned. We also are continuing to use Singapore math for the mastery part. It is working well (FINALLY a math system that works) so I plan on continuing it next year.

Shelby also has exploded in reading this past week. She started struggling and seemed like she had hit a wall a month ago. This week though she has been picking out her own book to read each night. Some of them are much harder than what I would have given her but she has done well with them. I think now that she is further along in her phonics and spelling work that that is helping her.

We did not really do a science topic or history this past week but we did work on her geography and map work.

On a side note ... the kids need swimming lessons and I am struggling with where to take them and the amount it costs. We have tried the YMCA and community center in the past and it really set Shelby back more than helped her. There is a swim school that a lot of my friends are taking their kids to and they have had incredible results. My goal is for the kids to be able to swim, know how to hold their breath and not be scared. I think distance will come with practice. This swim school costs about $90 a month PER child!!! I just don't know if I can squeeze that out of anywhere right now ... so we are still trying to figure out what to do. Schiliterbahn is building a water park (will open in 2012) literally around the corner from us (not sure how I feel about that). I know they need to learn how to swim before then.

We also will probably start Awanas in the next two weeks. One of Matthews friends is in it and there are some kids Shelby knows in it as well. I think it would be great for them.

Matthew note- his speech is going well. He is getting his "s" and "k" sounds down. We are now starting on "l" sounds. I hope he progresses enough to be able to end it in July or August.

Abigail-poor sweet baby has been sick all week. We have gone to the doctor and have no answers. Just high fever, coughing and stuffed up head.

85 in January!

This week we had several good days. So we took our learning outside. Shelby read books outside, we went on nature walks and checked out the ducks at the ponds. We also just got OUTSIDE to play. It felt so good to not be cooped up all week.

Shelby is getting much stronger at some physical skills that she has had trouble with in the past. She is swinging on her own now and can go pretty high. She also was able to push the petals on her Big Wheel bike. Now if I can just get her to ride her regular bike.

We are paying for it this week considering the "Cedar Fever" going on but we still had fun.

Shelby did great on her spelling list last week. She got one out of 16 wrong. After her list this week we will review 40 words for next week.

Our attitude last week was selfishness. Not sure how much sunk in but Shelby did read a few books to me about it and we discussed solutions when she is feeling selfish.

We also continued on our Math journey of Place Value and entered the thousands. Another topic we touched is measurement in inches. She really enjoyed measuring things with her ruler.

We have finished our Geography unit on directions (compass Rose) and started City/State and National Maps.

Haiti and Earthquakes

Her Models so far in our Human Body study (above)

Skin Model (above)

Learning about Decimal Street and adding Hundreds (plus some spelling rule work)

Shelby's Decimal Street that she plays with her blocks on. (above)

This week for school we worked on our normal handwriting, spelling, phonics etc.

For Science we started off the week with Skin and the layers. Shelby informed me that I must have a lot of fat cells when we got to that part of our model. THANKS!

On Tuesday the Earthquake hit Haiti. We then shifted our attention to Earthquakes and where Haiti is on the globe. We have since been talking a lot about Haiti and natural disasters. Our skin unit is still going on but got pushed aside a little bit.

Math this past week we moved onto Hundreds in our Decimal Street. She really is starting to understand place value a lot more.

School is still going strong. I can't wait until after MDO ends in May though. At that point we really can focus more on school. I do not plan on returning next year to Mothers Day Out so that I can focus more on Matthew and Shelby's school work. Shelby asked me today when I will get to be with her everyday. She really enjoys sitting and learning about different things. On the days I do Mothers Day Out we do not have as much "class" time. Mainly she does work book pages or handwriting practice.