The Peer Review: Homeschooling

Another week of the basics. I'm really hoping little Alex starts sleeping at some point soon, so I can have some energy! It's funny ... I always thought I wasn't getting any sleep when the other kids were babies, but I had no idea! He had several nights this week of waking every 20 minutes ... all night long. I know he will grow out of this at some point, so I'm trying to enjoy him and his babyhood despite the trials. He had his two month check up this week and weighed 13 pounds ... so he is growing very well.

Sarah moved into a toddler bed last week, and we haven't had a minutes trouble with the transition. I am amazed. She actually yells for us to come get her after her nap instead of getting up herself. I figured with as active as she is, that this would be a terrible transition. She sure surprised me! I guess she loves her sleep (just like her Mom)!

Sarah in her 'big girl' bed with Josiah keeping her company.

We didn't do anything exciting this week. We are trying to double up on a few weeks of our Sonlight Core (history and read aloud), since we are a little behind. We didn't start it until our school room was finished last year (which of course, was several weeks later than I thought it would be). Then, we missed a few weeks at the end of my pregnancy and right after Alex was born. I want to finish Core 3 this year, so we can move into Core 4 right at the beginning of the school year. We finished week 22 of our core, and are on week 28 of our school year. I'm not sure if we can make up the difference, or not. The history is much easier to double up on than the read alouds!

Here is what we accomplished:

Math - Caleb continued his work in fractions. Josiah worked with the metric system. Rachel learned about bar graphs and the value of a dollar this week. I don't think Jada did any formal math this week. She did play lots of Skip-bo with me ... which reinforces some basic math skills, right?

Playing Skip-Bo ... don't mind the mess!

Grammar - Caleb studied adjectives. Josiah finished his chapter on Nouns and Pronouns.

Reading - Caleb finished his book George Washington: Young Leader (Childhood of Famous Americans) and started Martha Washington: America's First Lady (The Childhood of Famous Americans Series). Josiah finished Meet Thomas Jefferson (Landmark Books) and began Om-Kas-Toe. He actually read for pleasure this week!!! He also wanted to tag team read with me during our history readings (I usually read these aloud). I'm happy that he finally seems to be enjoying reading. Rachel read Henry and Mudge and the Tall Tree House (Ready-to-Read. Level 2) and lots of picture books.

History - We learned about The Articles of Confederation and the writing of the Constitution.

Read-Aloud - We read chapters 12-18 in Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. The boys both seem to really be enjoying this book.

Science - Caleb learned about the skeletal system. Josiah and the girls finished the cell chapter.

Writing - The boys both wrote about whether they would prefer to be a star on a losing team or a nobody on a winning team. Both those the latter. Caleb wrote a paragraph and Jo only wrote one sentence. Their actual writing still needs a lot of work ... that will definitely be a focus for both of them next year.

My sister's home town hosts a homeschool week every year. They have a scavenger hunt where the kids have to go from store to store solving clues. My sister and her family, my brother and his family, my Mom, and the kids and I all met up on Friday afternoon and did the scavenger hunt together. It was a little chaotic (we have 14 kids between the 3 of us) but we had a lot of fun!