Sowing Simple Seeds: Learning Log #11

For math this week, my kids worked fairly diligently on their Math U See curriculum. Anna finished her Primer Math book!! She learned how to subtract by 1s, and reviewed some addition problems, telling time, and subtraction, and did some story problems. She also tried to answer math questions when her grandpa tried to quiz her.😃 Elsie finished chapter 22 in her math book, dividing 3 digit numbers by 2 digit numbers. She also did story problems and reviewed previous chapters. Kimball finished chapter 14 (getting 100% on his test), where he learned to multiply by 6s and reviewed finding the perimeters of shapes. He started on chapter 15, learning to count by 8s. He also learned how many quarts are in a gallon, and did lots of story problems. Peter finished chapter 20, and started chapter 21. It is about finding the least common multiple of numbers using different methods. He did some word problems and reviewed long division, and reviewed last weeks chapter also.
For Language Arts this week Anna re-read a couple of her Dash Into Reading books to me. She also read four pages out of her First Steps reading book. She learned and practiced reading words with the blends “ew”, “ow”, “oo” (as in look), and the long vowel sound of e in “ee”. She also listened to a lot of books read out loud at story time at the library, about pumpkins. She did 3 Jenny Phillips handwriting worksheets, practicing print. Elsie finished reading about WWI in her book, I am an American. She learned how the Germans broke their promises that were made through the international laws in Hague. She also read a story about Thomas Edison and how he made the light bulbs, and how he always stayed positive, despite his many failures. She wrote in her diary several times and did four Jenny Phillips worksheets, practicing her cursive. She did 3 pages of spelling out of her book Spelling Works. Kimball read 2 chapters of Climbing Higher and 4 picture books, The Rechargeables, Leon and Bob, Peep and Ducky, and The Princess Gown. He also did 4 Jenny Phillips worksheets, working on his print. He passed a spelling test, where he had to spell "poultry", among other things. Peter read a few pages of Lord of the Rings (book 1). He also wrote a funny short story about Bill Gates taking over the world. He debated the topic whether service hours should be required for graduation. He had to prepare for both sides, and ended up having to oppose the topic.
Towards the end of the week, we slowly started getting sick, starting with the baby. By Friday, most everyone was sick, walking around with burning eyes, soar throats, stuffy noses, and achy limbs. No Fun. So, whatever classes we had left to do, stayed undone or was done with less gusto. Peter did go to his library classes on Thursday, so for Peter's forensic class he learned about fingerprinting and how there are different types of fingerprints, and within those types there are special characteristics that are hard to see without a magnifying glass. For his Pyramid Project, he worked on fine tuning his skills of observation on a nature walk he took.

Kimball watched several Generation Genius shows, learning more about pendulums, illusions using light, and extinct animals. He learned that their bones and teeth can tell us much about them. The teeth can tell what they ate, and their skulls can help in estimating their size. Elsie got her science from watching t.v., and learned about sea snakes in the ocean. She learned that the males are dark and the females are light. She learned that when the male wants to mate he kind of becomes the female's shadow, swimming beneath her, mimicking whatever she does. They can also hold there breaths for an hour! Anna was the only one who didn't get sick, so she found some of her Ohio buckeye seeds, which are very similar to chestnuts, and planted them throughout our yard. We will see this spring what happens!
The kids all went to their music lessons and practiced well this week. On violin, Elsie is still working on Minuet 1, but also started a little on the next song Minuet 2. In piano she is learning the left hand part to the first and last line of a song she has been working on. Kimball learned the last part to Go Tell Aunt Rhody on his cello. Now he can play the whole song! In piano he learned how to put both hands together on Cookoo. He says it's hard, but he can also play through that song now too. Peter is working on memorizing Gavotte and fine tuning The Happy Farmer on his viola. In piano, he started on a new duet and is working on putting his hand together and memorizing A Short Story. Anna learned the whole song to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on the piano. She is working on good hand positioning and fingering. On the violin, she is working on the first part of the Twinkle song and then short excerpts or exercises for the next two songs in her book.
The kids all had fun carving pumpkins, going to a ward Halloween party, and going trick-or-treating. Kimball had a birthday, and turned 9, and had fun celebrating with friends and family. It was a fun and busy week!