Halloween Week...Week 8

So Halloween around here is like Christmas. Xan has a countdown and is just way too excited, but I’m proud to say, we actually got quite a bit accomplished.

Leena-
She is finally getting into the swing of things at co-op and has made some changes to improve her grades. I’m proud to say she has improved them with little nagging from me.

Algebra-Continues to be a struggle, but after speaking with her teacher, Leena has been going to tutorials and asking more questions in class and this seems to be helping. I’ve always told her that the teachers are there to teach. If she doesn’t understand a concept, then she needs to make sure that the teacher works with her until she does understand. It’s their job.

English-Is going great, she continues to surprise me in class. She recently finished reading “The Birds,” which was difficult for her, since she has this bird phobia. She completed a report on the Jackdaw and received an A on an assignment, which she had to re-write the ending to birds. She killed everybody off…
World Lit- We’ve started using the Prentice Hall text World Masterpieces, and I’m so glad we did this. It’s not what I had envisioned, but it works for her and the work gets done and the stories get read. We recently wrapped up “The Epic of Gilgamesh” and she wrote a paper comparing Gilgamesh to a modern day hero, she chose Sam Wickwikie from Transformers. Me personally, I’d have gone with Harry Potter. To each his own. ;-)
Earth Science-This has become one her favorite classes again. She is currently working on a gem report.
Spanish- The Rosetta Stone is really working well for her. I just wish there was someone for her to speak it with. It’d be nice to hire a tutor.

Xan-
English- We’ve wrapped up our first chapter in Rod and Staff and Xan passed his test with flying colors. Spelling goes on and he is doing well there too. He recently finished reading Rabbit Hill and The Witches. If you’re looking for a free reading quiz site, check this one out. He loves taking the little online quizzes and scoring points.
Math-Hoorah, we’ve finished our multiplication and division facts and next week we move on to money. Although, we will still continue to drill those facts using some Mad Minutes by Prentice Hall and the wrap ups because he is still using his fingers most of the time.
Science-We are just finishing up DNA and will start the Great Science Adventure Human Body soon.
Other stuff- We are studying the election process right now and will be making an Elections lapbook to go with our Presidents notebook. We’ll be finishing this up by Election Day with a field trip to the polls.

That’s all for now. See you next week!

Pumkin Patch Fun

Happy Halloween !

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Rockin' Blog Templates

Like my blog? It's a free template I got from Leelou Blogs. She's having a launch party starting Monday to celebrate turning her hobby into a lucrative career. You go Leelou! Check it out here:

Here’s weeks 4,5,& 6.

Leena-

She is doing well overall. Some of her grades have slipped a little, but that’s okay. It’s been a good lesson in responsibility for her. I’m not so much worried about the academics part of it right now, but more of the taking ownership for herself, her life, her actions. You know things that will benefit her in the real world.

We’ve switched World Lit programs we’ve gone from a whole books approach to a textbook. I might be banned from participating in the forums at The Well Trained Mind by my classical friends over there, but I think this approach fits her learning style better. I’ve found a really great book that has all of the elements and stories I was looking for, while still allowing us the flexibility to change things as needed.

Xan-
Math- He’s doing very well and progressing nicely in math. Who’d ever thought I’d be able to successfully teach someone else math. Ok, granted, it’s 4th grade math, but still. My goal for the upcoming months is to incorporate more living math, or real life math, using my Family Math and Kitchen Math books.
English- Grammar is great. A few weeks ago I was ready to jump ship to another program, because I thought that he just wasn’t getting the Rod and Staff, but I stuck with and it is definitely paying off. He’s really getting it now and that’s great.
Writing is not going as well as I’d like, however, so I’ve had to rethink a few things and I’m going back to using my original plan of using Write Source for 4th grade which teaches format writing during the school year and Writing Strands or something fun over the summer.
Science- Xan’s favorite subject is science so I’ve made this more a focus than history, which is my favorite. We studied cells this past week and made a cell- mold. He had a blast! My suggestion to anyone who tries this, use yellow jello. We used the green which looked light colored on the box, but not so much in real life. Here check out the pics.

Everything you need for a Cell-o Mold

Voila! The final project

History-We are stuck on history and having a hard time moving forward. We are still on early civilizations. So it looks like we’ll have to step it up a bit so we can move on to Egypt where all the really cool projects are.

Notebooking Page

Outdoor Hour Challenge #1

In an effort to bring the kids closer to their hearts, by bringing them closer to nature, I’ve finally gotten around to using the greatest resource for Nature Study I’ve found, Anna Comstock’s Handbook of Nature Study along with the “Challenges” from Barb at Handbook of Nature Study whom is so graciously creating this adventure for families everywhere.

So we are starting late with the Outdoor Hour Challenge, so on the advice of we will do challenges #1-5 and then catch up with everyone else. Which is great because it’s all about trees right now and there couldn’t be a more perfect time for it. So here it is- Challenge #1-
We went for a little walk along the American River. It’s a lesser known path, which was good because it was quiet and not a lot of traffic. I had personally never been along this trail before, and was delightfully surprised to find:

As much as I dislike some things about living in CA, the natural wonders are certainly beautifully diverse. We found fennel, blackberries, dried of course, scat of all kinds, pine trees, oak trees, and of course our duck pond. With colors ranging from dried wheat, to rich forest green, sky blue, grays of all shades, and even some reds thrown here and there.

What a great day.

Wordless Wednesday

Fish Oil Update...

Okay, so it's been about 2 weeks since we've restarted the fish oil, and while we still have some issues to work on, life with Xan has been much better. It seems like such a simple thing, to pop a few "lemon drops", but what an unbelievable impact it has had in his behavior.

And actually, I guess I should back up in case there is an off chance that there is anyone reading this blog who doesn't really know us. Xan has adhd, really. It's not a case of "Geez, he's just a boy being a boy," he really does have it. I've had him evaluated, but not officially diagnosed because I don't want him labeled. It's not fair to label our kids, one way or the other, it just sets them up for failure I think. They are either to worried about living up to or living down those labels. But with a "diagnoses" at least I know where to look for help.

So anyways, that's the deal with the whole fish oil thing.