We are having a fantastic week. I took this picture yesterday because I was just feeling so happy while we were doing school. It's seriously such a joyful time. I love that Annie seems to have a smile on her face (she didn't know I was taking a picture) while she's doing her math review.
Yesterday we had such an interesting time learning about the Revolutionary War. The kids were hanging on the edge of their seats as we read for an hour about it. They were following the different armies in their minds, always tracking George Washington in particular, and cheering for the Continental Army. It was awesome. They had so many questions and were so enthralled. Then today we read a biography about Anne Frank, and ended up tying the two subjects together (i.e. war, freedom, governmental oppression, etc.), and also had a wonderfully meaningful discussion.
Yesterday, we also did a super fun activity that was a total stroke of inspiration thanks to the Dollar Tree. When I took Alex Christmas shopping for his siblings, we found a book of 'Zany Tales'. It's the equivalent to a 'Mad Libs' book. I knew Logan and Annie would love it, so I convinced Alex to get it for Logan. I also realized at the time that it was the perfect way to teach the parts of speech, and it was! We had a fabulous time creating silly stories in it yesterday. The kids couldn't get enough, and afterwards they could explain nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, and plurals. It also worked out to be unintended writing and spelling practice while they filled in the blanks. Triple score!
Today I was pleased to observe how great our math curriculum is working. I was excited when I bought it last March, but was a little nervous about how it would pan out for us. It's a great system for our family! I feel like it really makes math time fun and easy for us. This morning I had the following conversation with the kids:
Annie, "I want HARDER math!"
Logan, "Me too! I want the HARDEST math!"
Annie, "Yeah! This is easy!"
This is awesome because we took quite a long break from math during our move and holiday time, but they didn't forget anything and are totally ready to pick up where we left off.
I took a picture of their 5-a-day reviews today so I can remember where they were at when I publish my blog book. The first one is Annie's. They are working the same concepts which is really nice for me. Logan is just a little quicker at some of it. Annie is more careful, though. Concepts reviewed for the day: addition with carrying, use of $ sign and decimals, subtraction with borrowing, changing between vertical and horizontal formats, solving for 'x', multiplication facts, basic fractions, and telling time.
They do a 5-a-day review at the beginning of each day. It gives them a daily review of the concepts they've learned. When a new concept covers an old one (i.e. long multiplication will cover addition), the old one no longer needs to be on the review. There is also a simple system for rotating needed concepts when one doesn't need to be reinforced daily or when there are too many to include each day. It's working beautifully! My favorite part is that we don't need to hammer any concepts because they review everything frequently. They usually don't mind doing the 5 problems each day. After the review we have a lesson or activity where we can learn a new concept or reinforce an old one. We generally have a lot of fun with that part; it also serves as a motivator to finish their 5-a-day.
Logan's math notebook has a lot of space ship and rocket pictures. :)
My favorite thing today were our oral reports. They chose to do these as part of their 'Book It!' goals this month. Nothing beats cuddling with a five year old with the most expressive face and voice as she gives a report on 'Amelia Bedelia'. She was hilarious and so very excited. I loved it! Logan has been after me to listen to his oral reports for a couple of days too. He was incredibly thoughtful about it.
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