Winter term ~ Week 2

After thinking on it over the Christmas break, I have changed up the way that we plan our school year.  I will try to share about that later.  However, the changes have changed the titles of my weekly updates.  That’s why this post is titled winter term ~ week 2.  (And there is a week 1 that needs to be written but I’m not sure it will ever get written.) {smile}

Since we have started school back after the break, it has gone really, really well.  I think the one who had the hardest time adjusting was me since I had to go from two weeks of free time back to a day spent teaching my children.  It always takes some adjusting for me to lay down my selfishness and realize that it is not all about me.  Anyway, that’s not what this post is about so I’ll move on to our week in our homeschool.  Here are some highlights from our week:

This week, the younger children were talking about the nervous system in science.  Lab #1 was about our reflexes which involves the use of our nervous system.  We would hold the ruler about and inch above the child’s hand and then release it.  The child would catch the ruler and then we would record the number.  They would try to see if they could improve their reflexes by catching the ruler more quickly.

Lab # 2 was about using our senses.  For each of the five senses, they had to guess items using on the sense that was designated.  Sometimes that was easy but they found out that sometimes you needed another one of your senses to help you to figure out the items. 

 

We are going very slowly through our American History.  We just finished the French and Indian War or the Seven Years’ War.  Next week, we will start the American Revolution.  The two older boys both had to write reports this week on a History topic.  We are still reading Johnny Tremain for our read aloud.

Everyone is continuing to advance through their lessons.  I am very proud of my children and the accomplishments that they are making with their school work.  I have reorganized the weekly work where they are more able to work on their own and so far they are doing very well with the new system.  Look for a post on that in the future. 

One of the best things about homeschooling is seeing your children learn to read.  This year, we decided to use living books instead of readers for our reading books.  The older boys both enjoy chapter books that they read and then narrate to me.  This year, our second grader is using books that are suggested by Sonlight.  She and I sit and read the stories back and forth to each other.  However, some days if I’m busy teaching pre-algebra or grammar, she will read to her younger siblings or to herself.  Oh, I just LOVE that!

This week, we also had the special treat of a field trip.  We went to our city’s fire training center.  We were able to learn about K-9 bomb detection and a robot that our city uses to handle bombs.  It was a FUN field trip.