Week Review Oct. 3 - Oct.7

This week we did some fun science! Learning about yeast and how it works. We watched a great little youtube clip about yeast being like a sleeping monster which we wake up with warm water. Then we feed him some sugar and he burps up CO2. Then we made pizza dough and had mini pizza's for lunch!

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After all the rain this week, the kids really enjoyed the new experience of playing 'dress up' with my old dress up clothes. They have been busy re-enacting various stories. We had a little store and Jem learnt a little about different types of coin. Lot's of imaginative fun!

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This week was pretty slack. Jem did lesson 4 in Math-U-See. He finished lesson 5 in Explode the Code. Did a few pages in A reason for Handwriting. And for Come sit by Me this week we just finished his unit book. I hope to really work on his alphabet sounds for the next few days, because he is really starting to struggle in Explode the Code. For Bible this week we did something special, as a family we looked up verses about helping the poor and then started the sponsorship of a little girl in China who has Downs Syndrome and heart conditions.  

Week Review ~ Sept. 26-30

Come Sit By Me

   Franklin's New Friend by Paulette Bourgeois

Language: Greetings, Vocabulary and appropriateness of greetings (Jem was very excited to learn how to spell HELLO, and has been happily practicing it on his own time)
Science: Meet Moose, Researching information about moose
Practical Living: How do you do? Proper etiquette

Journal
Picture following shows his journal entry for this week. He got new LEGO as a treat because he broke the habit of thumb sucking.

Explode the Code
Picture following of the last page of lesson 4. I was very impressed that Jem wrote the last few words entirely by himself, sounding out the order of the letters. He also has been practicing making his own sentences that he knows the words to and writing them out. I have attached a photo of his sentence which he thought up and wrote out himself;  'Matt sat on the mat.'

A Reason for Handwriting
We have been working on perfecting the shape of a 'G' and other letters that Jem is a little lazy with writing. I have just been using which ever page in this book that works on the letters we are having problems with.

Science Wiz Kits
We didn't do anything with this kit this week. But as Jem was looking though our books yesterday he found a section on the same things we have been learning about light and he 'told back' a little to me of what he learnt. I am happy to know he is grasping what he is learning.

Math-U-See
Jem is ready for the next lesson, but I am afraid we just haven't gotten around to it this week, although he has been doing a worksheet from the text book for practice every second day for sure.

And now for the pictures!!

   

Because of the beautiful weather this past week Jem has been spending loads of time outside exploring in the pasture and building a great fort by the pond. He has come home with lots of new bugs to keep as pets "until they die, then I will throw them out Mom!" He also made his own broom as you can see in the picture above :)

I have been very impressed with Jem's willingness to do school work alone, and I find that he does much better this way. I have taken to showing him the pages that I want done when I settle him down for afternoon quiet time and then I 'drop in' on him once or twice to see if he needs help or has a question. Of course this only works for phonics, math and writing. The rest we do together.