Learning Log #39

This week we studied a smattering of things for science.  We learned about the healing properties of chickweed.  We learned what happens when the light goes off on an incubator with a robin egg in it (so sad, we won't expound).  Kimball watched a Mark Rober video on physics about Newton's laws, for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.  We also watched a Pompeii documentary and learned about how the volcano, Vesuvius, blew.  We learned about volcanry and archeology. 
The kids all worked on their language arts.  Kimball read the first couple chapters of Ben and Me, as well as the first chapter from the book The Apple and the Arrow (the story of William Tell).  He wrote an acrostic poem, took a spelling test, learned about open syllables, studied homophones, and wrote some opening sentences to stories.  Elsie read from the book Unbroken (young adult edition) and reread the book Restart.  She also started reading Little Men.  She wrote a couple poems, corrected them, and rewrote them in her poetry book.  Elsie also worked on the spelling rule of turning nouns plural by adding es or ies.  She read several poems by Eliza Lee Cabot Follen, learned about conjunctions and compound sentences with independent and dependent clauses, and learned about the 4 types of sentences.  She worked on diagramming several sentences as well.  Adam read several mini books (2 every day), and reread them.  He is practicing his fluency.  He practiced sight words as well, and reviewed the vowels.  Anna worked really hard at reading a chapter from the Book of Mormon reader every day.  She worked on understanding the difference between the homophones to, too, and two.  She worked on the br, tr, and dr blends, read two stories from her Level 1 reader, practiced reading fluency, practiced reading ing and ed words (and their different sounds), and wrote several sentences (either copied or dictated).  She listened to a short biography about Beatrix Potter as well and is excited to read her books.  Anna was stuck on the couch one day due to a bee sting on her foot, and read the entire day.  She read all the Good and Beautiful sets of books from box sets B, C, and D.
For music, Kimball, Elsie. and Anna practiced their piano and string instrument.  Elsie started on a hundreds chart for Happy Farmer on the piano and progressed on Bouree.  Kimball has learned most of etude on the cello, and nailed a new line in Chant Arabe.  Anna has continued to develop her songs as well.
Adam went along with the rest of the family to a bike park and tore the trail up!  He tried all the loops on his bike, and absolutely loved it.  He also went to the local track with his siblings and I and ran the 100 and 200 meters for time.  He learned about the long jump and also tried jumping his farthest into the sand pit.  We have had a lot of fun!
For math Elsie worked on solving for the unknown in equations with fractions and multiplication.  She practiced multiplying fractions, finding the area of circles, and finding the average.  She took the test for chapter 28 and started on chapter 29, converting fractions into decimals and percentages.  Kimball did chapter 3 of Epsilon and started on chapter 4.  He learned how to add and subtract fractions with a common denominator, and also how to create equivalent fractions, using manipulatives.  He also reviewed finding the perimeter of shapes and did lots of story problems.  Adam learned how to tell the hour on face clocks. He also reviewed subtracting numbers from 10 and other addition and subtraction math facts with worksheets.  Anna reviewed counting money, counting by 4s, and addition and subtraction problems.  She measured lots of things using centimeters and millimeters.  She also practiced line graphs and how to read information from them.  Anna reviewed all the mental math strategies she has learned and applied them to her tricky subtraction math facts.  Lastly, she learned how to add multiple numbers together in an equation. 
For tech, Kimball did 2 Minecraft assignments and turned them in.  He wrote a story about Minecraft and took pictures and turned them in.  He learned how to use the Story builder software and is excited to use it during the summer.  Elsie took pictures of her creations she made for her story and submitted those.  She also created her story on Story Builder, but then lost all the information somehow.  She did not have the time to redo it all.  She is excited to continue to play with Story Builder, however. 

Learning Log #38

This week for science we continued to watch the robin egg grow in our incubator.  We saw the heart start pumping and the "mass" is growing. We are also going camping tomorrow morning, and I'm sure there will be lots of nature journaling and nature appreciation that happens. 
For music, Elsie, Kimball, and Anna worked hard at their practicing.  Elsie received some help from her teacher with her intonation and started a new song on her violin, Bouree.  Kimball is working on Etude on cello and he finished his hundreds chart for Long Long Ago.  Anna is about ready to turn in a video of her playing Perpetual Motion on her violin to her teacher.  She is also started a hundreds chart for Lightly Row. 
Adam played and played outside.  He ran outside and played in the sprinklers for hours one day.  He had a lot of time playing outside and riding his bike, enjoying the good weather.
For Language Arts Elsie read the book Restart.  She also typed up her memory essay she wrote the previous week and we are in the process of correcting that.  She created a book of poems from a notebook and has been working hard at filling it up with poems.  She wrote three this week, and notes of ideas for several more.  We went over a spelling rule of when to double letters and diagrammed lots of sentences that had a direct object.  She learned what a direct object is as well.  She also learned what a biography is and she started reading the book Unbroken, youth edition.  Kimball read the first chapter of The Secrets of Mental Math and started going over the book How Science Works again.  He also worked on narrating a story I read him and practiced some new spelling words.  He studied the spelling rule of when to use c, ck, and k at the end of words, practiced reading certain words to help with fluency, and read a pretty poem called A Dragonfly.  Adam practiced reading blends that have the en, un and ad sounds.  He also practiced spelling out words (with help) that use certain spelling rules or are sight words.  He read a short poem and a mini book two times, called Ben Has a Book.  I read to him a poem he is starting to memorize and a chapter from Bobby and the Big Road.  The we did an assessment of the unit he just finished.  Anna copied four sentences and practiced spelling words by herself.  She also practiced using more descriptive words in sentences while I wrote them down.  She practiced writing two-syllable words and spelling out several two syllable words as well, and she wrote 5 sentences on her own.  She is working hard at reading from the Book of Mormon reader, and has set a goal she is following to read a chapter a day this week. 
For Math Anna practiced lots of subtraction facts and getting a good grasp on millimeters, centimeters, and meters.  She measured lots of things and filled out a worksheet where she decided which unit of measurement would be best to measure certain things.  She reviewed counting by fours and counting money.  Adam reviewed math facts that equal ten, then he learned the math facts that subtract from ten.  He reviewed patterns, shapes, and calendaring.  Kimball took the test for chapter 3 and started chapter 4 from his Epsilon MUS book.  He built and wrote and spelled out equivalent fractions.  Elsie took the test for chapter 27 and started on the next chapter, 28 in her MUS Epsilon book.  For the test, she found areas of circles.  Chapter 28 was about learning how to solve for the unknown by getting X by itself using addition/subtraction and also reciprocals. 
Elsie worked hard on Minecraft.  She created a story with the setting being Minecraft and created additions of her town to go with her story.  She built a homestead and memorial statues for the mayors of her town. 
For

Learning Log #37

For science this week the kids had a fun time making solar ovens out of pizza boxes.  We discussed solar energy and they warmed up pizza in their ovens.  We are also watching our robin egg very closely.  About every other day we take it out of the incubator for a few seconds and Mike shines a light through it.  We were able to see the yolk attach to the wall of the egg and the first veins form.
Adam had a fun time playing games with the family outside for his P.E.  We played tag, hide-and-go seek, and sardines.  He is riding his bike around everywhere as well.
The kids continue to practice their instruments almost every day.  They are working hard on learning their songs.  We also started our first practices of a family string quartet, and we played our song for their grandma for her birthday.  It was a different kind of practicing as they all learned how to play their songs together, syncranized.
For tech this week Kimball learned how to join a Minecraft server.  He also learned how to join a zoom meeting and he joined his older brother and friends for an evening of Magic the Gathering.  Elsie played with my cell phone and explored what features it has for photography.  She took some beautiful spring pictures with it outside.
We tried a new curriculum this week, one I am helping to create.  Much of the curriculum was review for the kids, but it was very helpful to the group I am working with, and the kids had fun.  For Language Arts, Elsie and Kimball reviewed what a noun (proper and common), verb, adverb, adjectives, and pronouns are.  They read short stories (some fables, written by me) and discussed them with one another.   Anna and Adam went over the first 5 sounds of the alphabet.  For writing, all the children learned and applied how to draw a portrait of themselves.  They all worked really hard and created beautiful portraits.  Anna and Adam wrote them names and ages (Anna in full sentences), and Elsie and Kimball wrote 3 things they liked about themselves.  We also all wrote sentences of what we liked about each other (I wrote for Adam).  Kimball developed his three things he liked about himself into a paragraph.  Elsie wrote several paragraphs, one of her writings was a 3 paragraph essay explaining a memory of hers that helped develop a quality she likes about herself.  For reading, Anna read The Little Brute Family to herself, and 3 beginning books about animals:  What Animals Eat, How Animals Hide, and Where Animals Live.  Elsie read about 5 chapters of Winn Dixie out-loud to Anna and read church magazines on her own.  Kimball reread the book Fortunately, The Milk to himself. 
For Math the children did mostly review.  Elsie and Kimball reviewed long digit multiplication using lots of story problems.  Kimball also did some long digit adding and subtracting facts as well.  Elsie felt like she got faster at her multiplication math facts by doing the review.  Anna practiced her addition and subtraction math facts.  She also reviewed Joseph LeGrange who helped develop the metric system.  She measured several things around out kitchen using centimeters.  Adam reviewed number recognition from 1-10 and making pairs of numbers to make 10.  He also practiced other math facts he has learned and we discussed the times of the day.
I read outloud a Value Tale about being responsible.  We talked a lot all week about being responsible and respectful, especially when it comes to learning and taking care of our bodies.

Learning Log #36

We had an impromptu science class this week.  My husband and I were on a run, and my husband found a robin egg lying on the grass, unbroken.  We ran back home and showed the children.  They decided they wanted to put it in our home-built incubator (from last year's chickens) and see if we could hatch it.  We did some quick research and found out what temperature robin eggs need to be at (90-95 degrees Fahrenheit), what humidity (50%), and how long they incubate for (about two weeks).  We also learned the eggs need to be rotated every 40 minutes.  So, my hubby jimmy rigged the rollers in our incubator for a tiny robin egg and we currently have the egg turning the required time. 
For music, the children continue to practice their string instruments and piano.  Kimball turned in his videos of Rigadoon and received new videos for the next song, Etude, on the cello.  He also worked on his hundreds chart for Long Long Ago on the piano.  Elsie reviewed her songs on the violin and continued to work on her waltz and folk song, and Happy Farmer for piano.  Anna memorized Allegro and turned in her videos of her violin songs.  She received new instruction videos for Perpetual Motion from her teacher.  For piano Anna is playing Lightly Row and reviewing Cuckoo.
Adam had a fun time riding his bike.  We all went on a 5 mile bike-ride to see a neat bird's nest.  He did great.  We went on a couple other 2 mile bike rides.  He says his legs are getting stronger.  There are lots of hills where we live!
For Language arts the kids all worked from their Good and Beautiful curriculum.  Anna is having a fun time reading books.  She read Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel this week.  She also read the first Billy and Blaze book.  She did 3 lessons out of her G&B book.  She practiced writing sentences, some of which were made up by her, and others that were dictated.  She also practiced writing and memorizing some spelling words, and reading 2 syllable words.  Kimball also read the introduction to The Secrets of Mental Math (his choice of light reading).  He also continued to study how to spell words ending in ck,c, or k.  He did a unit review where he read and and spelled words with qu, kn, igh, ear, alk and oo.  He reviewed all his spelling words and worked on the ones he had missed.  He recited his poem he memorized, and reviewed all of the homophones he has studied as well.  Elsie read the short story, A Penny's Worth of Character.  She also studied comas in dates, memorized a poem titled "Window Boxes", practiced reading fluency, and learned about pronouns.  She wrote a wonderful poem about a memory of hers, she typed it up, and we proof read it together.  She read about 60 pages from the poetry book Devotions by Mary Oliver.  Adam practiced reading sight reading words and phonics.  He read some sentences, and started putting blends of letters together, such as it, ad, and am.  He read a mini book called A Pet 2 times.  I read a couple chapters of Bobby and the Big Road to him. 
For Tech Elsie learned how to change her background in zoom.  She is learning to use zoom to connect with friends, hold book clubs, and for violin lessons.  She is exploring many applications and the software itself.  Kimball started making a list of things he has learned off of Minecraft for his next Minecraft assignment.  Anna was unable to get to Tech this week.  We have such a demand for computer time right now that she is the lowest priority.  She has been improving by leaps and bounds with her reading (and her violin), and that is our focus. 
For Math Elsie learned how to find the area of a circle.  She also reviewed solving for the unknown using multiplicative inverse, and how to divide and multiply fractions and mixed numbers.  She did lots of story problems.   Kimball finished chapter 2 of Epsilon and took the test.  He learned how to write out fractions using words and reviewed multiplying a fraction by a whole number, and how to find the perimeter of a square.  Adam did lessons 17-20 of his Good and Beautiful math.  He learned more about fact families, and we built and discussed 7,5, and 2; 2, 8, and 10, 9, and 11.  He also learned all the number pairs that make up 10.  We discussed calendaring, number sequencing, and patterns.  Anna worked on lessons 20-23 in her Good and Beautiful math.  She reviewed counting money with nickles and pennies, subtraction and addition problems, and counting by 4s.  She learned facts that subtract from 14 and 15, and we played a games to reinforce as well as worksheets.  She learned the distance of a mile and what it equates to as well and also drew a map while reviewing coordinates. 

Learning Log 35

The kids watched Mark Rober's science class online this week while he answered the question:  What would happen if every single toilet flushed in the world at the same time?  He learned that everything would back-flow, and the sewer water would come out of our sinks and toilets and other plumbing.  This is because of the pressure that would build-up.  We also planted our garden.  The kids all picked a plot and picked their seeds and took responsibility.  They learned about seed spacing and depth and good watering practices.  Elsie and Anna chose to create flower gardens, mixed with some herbs.  Elsie also planted strawberries.  She learned about stolons - special stems that run horizontally and take root.  Kimball and Adam picked watermelon (they decided to plant red and yellow types), zucchini (because of the yummy desserts of course!) and sugar pie pumpkins.  They learned about different pumpkin varieties, and decided that instead of growing a giant pumpkin, they would rather have pumpkins for pumpkin pie.
Elsie finished the book A Little Princess.  She went over some spelling rules and practiced her spelling, and she learned what qualities make a good book to empower her to judge for herself.   She also worked more on her stories.  She is excited to share when she is done.  Kimball read a book called The Astronaut Handbook.  He learned about space and what it takes to prepare to go into space.   Kimball learned about a new spelling rule of when to use c, k or ck at the end of a word.  He studied different homophones: sea and see, and knew and new.  He read about 10 pages from his reader, he wrote four sentences about a couple fine art picture we studied together, answered questions after reading a nonfiction excerpt, studied the "ear" and "alk" blends, and studied past present, and future tenses.  He also studied his new spelling list of words.  Anna spent the week reviewing what she has learned so far in language arts.  We worked on letter blends, the soft c and g, and the silent e.  She also had an assessment at the end of the week.  She read board books to her youngest brother, and several pictures books to herself.  She is also reading 2 pages from a Book of Mormon reader every day.  Adam   practiced sight words and phonics cards, he sounded out 3 letter words, sounded out and spelled 3 letter words, learned to hear the long and short vowels in words, and read a mini book, Is It a Cat two times.  He listened to the poem The Valley of Grump and more of the story Bobby and the Big Road.
For math Anna learned to count by fours and practiced that.  she reviewed telling time and her addition facts.  She also practiced subtracting from 13 and played a couple games to reinforce, and she practiced measuring paper snakes and finding the differences in their lengths to prepare her for harder story problems.  Adam learned how to subtract 20s and did lots of practice problems.  He also practiced counting forward and backwards by 2s, played a game subtracting twos, did a number word search, and learned about his first fact family: 8, 6, and 2.  We reviewed patterns and discussed the calendar.  Kimball finished chapter 1 in Epsilon, and took the test.  He also started on chapter 2 where he is learning about the basics of fractions.  Elsie did chapter 26, where she is learning to solve for the unknown using addition, subtraction, and division.  She reviewed converting weights, lengths and volumes and also subtracting and adding and multiplying fractions and mixed numbers.
Kimball worked hard at memorizing Rigadoon on the cello.  He also practiced bass clef note reading.  On the piano he is working on his hundreds chart for Long Long Ago and continuing to learn Chant Arab.  Elsie worked on a waltz on the violin and started learning a folk song.  She is working on putting both hands together on Happy Farmer and finishing Come Follow Me hymn.  Anna worked on polishing Allegro, she learned another line to I am a Child of God, and she learned a folk song we had a fun time singing to on her violin.  She also learned to play the entire Lightly Row song, with both hands together.  She will get a 100 chart for it next week so she can polish it off.
For exercise, Adam played hard on our bounce house for a couple days.  He also went on walks and played outside with his siblings. 
For their string instrument lessons, they are sharing files back and forth with their teacher through emails and on google drive.  I will take videos of their playing, and then load them up to google drive for their teacher to review.  For Tech, Kimball learned how to move the files of him playing from my phone to the computer.  Elsie learned how to copy and past files to different places.  Anna, Elsie, and Kimball all learned how to get into google drive, find their file, and watch their videos from their teacher.  Finding a technical way to solve the problem of not having physical lessons has been educational as well.

Learning Log 33-34

For science the kids watched Mark Rober's videos.  One was about how astronauts weigh themselves in space.  Another was how to put your hand in water without it getting wet.  They learned about surface tension and how you can put up to 40 drops of water on a penny.  They learned how soap can destroy surface tension as well.    
For Language Arts Elsie read a chapter from A Little Princess.  She wrote 2 chapters in her dragon book and another chapter in a story about bears. Elsie read a poem called Little Feet by Edgar Guest and If by Rose Fyleman.  She learned about prepositions and adverbs and learned to recognize them in sentences and stories.  She started diagramming simple sentences.  Kimball reread Fortunately, the Milk and he read 2 chapters of The Odyssey by Mary Pope Osborn to his younger brother.  He also read about 15 pages from his reader.  He worked hard on his spelling and got all caught up on his spelling words.  Anna finished reading the graphic novel City of Ember.  She also learned about the OU and OW blends.  She read a chapter from her reader called "The Children Living on Lake Street."  She practiced writing and studying her spelling words.  Anna read a couple poems, learned what an acrostic poem was, and then wrote her own using her name. I started reading a story to Adam called Bobby and the Big Road.  He would read the words of, to and he when I got to them.  He also went over the short and long vowel sounds, sounding out 3 letter words, practiced sight words, learned to read words that end in ss, ff, and ll, and practiced sounding out 3 letter words and spelling them.  He read a mini book called Is it a Dog? two times. 
For Math Elsie took three tests.  She took a Unit 3 test, and chapters 24 and 25.  The unit test reviewed dividing fractions and mixed numbers, adding and subtracting mixed numbers, and converting weights and volumes into different measurements.  Kimball finished his Delta book!  He took the chapter 30 test, the unit test, and the final test. He started on Epsilon and started learning about fractions, which is finding a fraction of a number.  Adam reviewed his shapes.  Mostly he worked hard at filling out a year long calendar.  He wrote from 1 to 30 about 8 different times.  He is getting good at his counting and learning about the months of the year.  Anna practiced measuring for math.  She learned that 12 inches makes a foot and 3 feet make a yard.  She measured long and short objects.  She practiced counting by 3s, reviewed addition facts, and learned different strategies and practiced subtracting from 13. 
For music Elsie passed of Long Long Ago and started on Waltz on the piano.  For piano Elsie is working on putting hands together on a hymn, Come Follow Me and the first half of Happy Farmer.  She is practicing every day.   Kimball practiced the cello and piano every weekday.  Kimball worked on polishing off the song Andantino and worked on Rigadoon on the cello.  For piano he is polishing off Long Long Ago and starting on Chant Arab.  Anna learned the song Allegro on her violin and practiced it.  She also practiced the first line to Long Long Ago, with both hands together on the piano.  She is working hard on her music, and is especially enjoying the piano.
For PE Adam played crochet and also helped his family tear down and haul off a fence.  He is working hard a practicing how to make a basket in basketball as well.
For tech Anna had a 2 day trial to Artventure and she learned how to navigate the website very well.  She pulled down different menus and refined searches to find certain projects she wanted.  Elsie and Kimball made an artifact in Minecraft.  They each took a picture and submitted their final work as well. 

Learning Log 32

For science this week we learned about electromagnetic waves and the things that encompasses.  We watched a YouTube video about wireless radiation, and we also watched a YouTube video put on by Mark Rober discussing why the sky is blue.  We learned a lot about solar wave lengths from him.  We also started a new unit study that incorporates solar radiation as well and we learned that molecules move faster the warmer they are.  We did an experiment and we learned about equilibrium as well.
Elsie, Kimball and Anna all practiced their musical instruments (both piano and their string instrument) every week day.  They are all polishing off songs and starting on new ones.  We are working on getting lessons going via online.
Adam, along with other family members, went on about a 3 mile hike along the mountains.  We also got his bike tuned and he rode his bike a lot outside as well.
Elsie learned on Zoom how to change the background and how to show people in the meeting pictures and videos by sharing her screen.  She also played on regular Minecraft and found a shipwreck and she is working on defending her house.  Kimball learned how to share a screen on zoom.  He learned how to convert a phone picture into a file on the computer.  Anna played some games on the computer, which helped her mouse skills.  She also learned about zoom by watching her siblings.
For math Elsie redid chapter 25 where she practiced changing mixed numbers into improper fractions and then multiplying, dividing, adding, and subtracting.  She also looked over her story problems.  Kimball did chapter 30 of his math book, Delta.  He learned more about roman numerals and took the test.  He did lots of story problems and review such as long division, conversion problems, , finding the average, finding the area, and creating fractions.  Anna practiced reviewing her addition and subtraction facts and telling time.  She also practiced counting by 3s.  She learned what a parallelogram was, practiced subracting 2 from numbers, practiced subtracting from 11 and 12, and reviewed fact families, counting strategies, and how to tell apart coins.  Adam learned about the shape octagon.  He practiced adding and subtracting by 2s.  He worked really hard at filling out a calendar he has with all of the months.  He counted and wrote from 1 to 30 or 31 over several times.  He is getting good at learning how many days each month has. 
For language arts Elsie practiced spelling words that followed the open syllable vowel sound.  She also read several poems and then wrote her own about nature.  She corrected it and typed it up.  She went over what an idiom is and other spelling rules.  She read 2 chapters of The Little Princess and she added three more chapters to her dragon story.  Kimball read a short story about George Washington (about 32 pages).  He also read some from his reader  (16 pages) and answered questions from it.  He practiced spelling words, finished memorizing a poem, and went over spelling rules.  He practiced writing about himself using transitional words and did some phonogram review.  He had a fun time sharing his poem for "Poetry and a Picnic".  Anna learned about the "or" and "oo" blend and practiced reading and writing them.  She practiced memorizing a poem called "Singing-Time" and shared it in our "Poetry and a Picnic".  She learned about the soft c and g sounds and practiced reading words with them.  She also worked on spelling out some of her spelling words.  She read a couple stories from her reader.  One was about cleaning.  She also read started reading a graphic novel called The City of Ember. Adam reread the mini book Mom and Dad.  He reviewed the vowels and learned more about the alphabet.  He practiced reading 3 letter words and learned about the "ck" blend.  He also practiced sounding out words to spell them and practiced spelling some words. 

Learning Log 31

For tech this week all the kids, Kimball, Elsie, Anna, and Adam, had meetings/play dates on Zoom.  They learned how to navigate Zoom quite well: muting sound, adding recording, using whiteboards, how to chat, and how to end a meeting. 
Their science teacher (me, haha) was sick this week and couldn't muster much else besides language arts and math and music lessons, oh and cooking from scratch and keeping everyone happy.  Whew.  There was a lot of discussion about Covid-19 and how germs spread.  We all learned how to be extra careful: to wash hands, disinfect, and use social distancing.  We also learned first hand about earthquakes, aftershocks, and more about the seismograph scale. 
Although all music lessons were cancelled this week, everyone of the kids practiced piano and their string instrument every day.  They did great.  Kimball even played the piano for a special musical number for our family worship on Sunday.  Elsie is working on a new song in piano, Happy Farmer, and is polishing up a different version of Long Long Ago on the violin.  Anna is polishing up Long Long Ago on the violin and starting on Lightly Row on the piano.  
Although Adam's wrestling is cancelled, he still had a fun time running around the yard and playing games with everyone.  Our favorite game was Refugee that we played as a family.  He lasted running around for several blocks before he got caught.
Adam did 4 lessons in his language arts book.  He practiced sounding out 2 and 3 letter words as well as sounding out and spelling some of them too.  He also read a mini book called Mom and Dad, and we reviewed what the vowels were.  Kimball took a spelling test this week and is working on a new spelling list.  He read several short stories and wrote down answers to questions about them.  He also worked on homophones and learning the appropriate spelling for various words and situations.   He read 10 pages in The Bulletproof George Washington.  Elsie also took a spelling test, learned a spelling rule about open syllables, and learned to spell words with the "ti, ci, and si" blends.  She learned about possessive nouns, verbs, and state of being nouns, and practiced editing.  She worked really hard and beautifully traced North America on vellum and identified all the countries.  Elsie learned the three things that make a sentence and learned how to identify them also.  Elsie worked on her story, and wrote about 3 chapters in her dragon story.  She wrote 1 chapter in her bear story also.  She read about 20 pages of The Thing about Jelly Fish, and she read the first 2 chapters in The Little Princess.  She also got together with her cousins on Zoom and discussed starting a book club.  
Adam also did 4 lessons in math this week.  He learned about growing patterns and how to recognize them in nature as well as numbers.  He reviewed less than and greater than and adding and taking away the number one.  He also learned about odd and even numbers and how to recognize them.  Kimball started and finished chapter 29 (except for the test).  He learned about fractions and what a numerator and denominator were.  He also reviewed long division, finding the area of shapes, and Arabic numerals.  He did some story problems as well.  Elsie redid chapter 23, where she learned how to find the reciprocal and reviewed the rule of four when dividing fractions.  She also worked on chapter 24 a little bit. 

Learning log 30

For science we learned about potential and kinetic energy.  The kids all build a frog hopper out of origami as well as a catapult out of popsicle sticks and we learned how to categorize and recognize the two different types of energy.  We also learned about renewable and non-renewable energy.  We all played a game on conserving energy.  We continued to learn about Covid-19 as well.
The kids all went to their piano lessons and string lessons and they practiced their instruments.  Elsie, Kimball, Anna, and Peter participated in a little recital for the piano, and they all did a lovely job.  They are working hard on new songs now.
Adam was unable to go to wrestling practice, due to Covid-19, so he played hard outside instead.  He played tag, such as infected and hide-and-seek. 
For language arts Anna practiced reading and spelling out words and stories with the sh, ch, th, and ee sounds.  We studied paintings by Hans Dahl and read some poetry.  Anna memorized a poem about the days in the months and shared it at our poetry and tea.  Anna read a bunch this week as well.  She is enjoying reading the picture books.  She read, among others, Sullwe and Big Sister and Little Sister.  Kimball read about 20 pages from a reader from The Good and The Beautiful.  He also wrote in his journal several times.  Kimball learned what adjectives are as well as the difference between common and proper nouns.  He worked on reading fluency as well as worked on polishing off his spelling words.  He practiced differentiating various homophones and studied a couple paintings and wrote some sentences about them.  Elsie learned how to spell out “oor” sounds in words and other spelling rules, such as with open syllables.  She read several poems from Eliza Lee Cabot Follen and studied paintings by Edmund Adler.  She also studied where many countries in Europe are located.  She also read the Book Daddy Long Legs and went to her book club and discussed it.  Adam is learning to read and write two letter words and read short sentences. He read a very short book and practiced word sounds.    

For math Anna learned math skills and how to read a compass, how to find and write coordinates, and how to find things on a map.  She reviewed subtraction and addition facts and worked on counting by 3s.  She learned about angles and how shapes have the same number of angles, sides and vertices.  Kimball almost finished chapter 28, where he is learning to read and write roman numerals.  He reviewed long division, where he divided 3 digit numbers into 6 digit numbers.  He also did some story problems and found the area of various shapes.  For math Elsie learned to solve for the unknown in simple multiplication equations.  The other review she did was all done incorrectly.  She is working on redoing her math.  Adam worked on finishing patterns and writing out the date.  He worked on adding and subtracting one.  He worked on counting backwards from 20.

For Tech their dad showed Anna, Kimball and Elsie how an electrical circuit works.  They hooked up a light switch to a batter and a breaker and an on off switch.  She learned how to trip a breaker and how to complete a circuit.  They talked about how fires are started and safety precautions to take

Learning Log 29

For science this week the kids learned about the Law of Conservation of Energy.  We did experiments where we watched energy transfer to one item to the next.  We built a pendulum and watched it swing, we dropped a smaller ball on top of a bigger ball and watched it bounce higher, and we watched some rub goldbers online.  We also learned much about Covid-19 and how it is infectious.
Adam went to wrestling Tuesday and Thursday and worked hard.  His goal on Thursday was to sweat, which he did.  He learned new wrestling moves as well.  Elsie, Kimball, and Anna all went to their piano lessons and string lessons.  They practiced really hard for their String Festival they participated in.  They also have an upcoming piano recital they are practicing hard for as well.

For Language Arts Anna started The Good and the Beautiful, reading and spelling out words with consonant blends and long and short vowel sounds.  Anna also worked on reading and sounding out words with the silent e and the ar blend.  She read a ton of books!  She says about 20 beginner books.  She is loving to read!  Anna listened to a book online called Story of Pilgrims for Children.  She learned a lot and discussed at our family book club as we discussed what we learned from our various readings about the pilgrims while we ate spudnuts.  Kimball started memorizing a poem called September by Edwina Fallis.  He practiced spelling words with qu, ar, and or.  He worked on using the correct homophone such as for/four and where/wear.  Kimball also worked on a set of spelling words that break regular spelling words.  He studies several paintings and wrote some sentences about them.  He read about 50 pages about the pilgrims, called Pilgrim Stories by Margaret Pumphrey and discussed with us at our book club.  Kimball also wrote several entries in his journal.  Elsie learned about commas in a series, and about all the rules to the silent E, when to double the letters s,f, and l,and how to apply them to her spelling.  She learned that not all books are equal, and read an essay about what makes a good book.  Then she started on a one paragraph essay on what SHE thought made a good book.  She read about 50 pages of Argonauts of Faith, which is about the pilgrims, and then she discussed with us at our book club as well.  Adam reviewed his letter sounds and started reading short, 2 letter words.  He also practiced his handwriting and did lots of handwriting workpages.    

For Math Anna learned about parallel, intersecting, perpendicular, horizontal, and vertical lines.  She did lots of math fact reviews, solving for the unknown and learning extra tricks to solve addition math facts.  She practiced counting by 2s and 10s and reviewed telling time on a face clock.  We discussed fact families and reviewed some subtraction facts as well.  Kimball did half of chapter 28, where he learned how to read and write in Roman numerals.  He also did some story problems and reviewed finding the area of a triangle.  Elsie did chapter 23, but she did everything wrong.  She was learning how to find the reciprocal of fractions and using that to divide.  She also was turning mixed numbers into improper fractions and dividing them.  She has a lot of work to do.  Adam learned how to read a calendar and practiced continuing patterns.  He learned the equals and not-equal, and greater than and less than signs.  He practiced reading and writing out number.

For Tech Kimball finished electrifying his town.  He used red stones and trap doors.  He also took a picture and turned it in. Elsie has spent hours trying to put electricity to her town, and she is almost done with it.  Her brother helped her find herself when she got lost in a porthole, which was exciting. 

Learning Log 28

For science this week we reviewed the various definitions of different types of energy and had a fun time doing experiments each type:  heat, sound, electric, light, mechanical, chemical, and magnetic.  Some of the examples were we tied two cups together with string and listened to how sound travels, we blew up zip lock bags using vinegar and baking soda, and we made s'mores in our oven for heat energy.  We had so much fun with the experiments.  We also read several chapters from The Burgess Seashore Book for Children.  We learned about lobsters, seals, and clams.  The kids had a fun time starting on their own dioramas of the seashore.
Elsie, Kimball and Anna also practiced the piano and went to their piano lessons.  They are getting ready for a recital.  Anna will be playing Cuckoo, Kimball will be playing Little Playmates, and Elsie will be playing Short Story.  They also went to their violin and cello lessons and they practiced.  They are getting ready for a string festival to perform a piece in front of judges. 
Kimball and Adam both went with their older brother to free-style wrestling practice.  They had a lot of fun learning techniques and practicing on other kids their size.  On Saturday they watched their brother compete in a wrestling tournament and also watched kids their age competing as well. 
For tech this week Anna learned how to navigate the Well Educated Heart App to find her online book about pilgrims.  She had to navigate through several menus to find it.  Elsie and Kimball worked on Minecraft.  Elsie made a portal and then got lost in the portal, and now she can't find her way back to her town.  She is frustrated!  Kimball learned how to navigate the computer and pull up a movie on the computer. 
For math Elsie took the test for chapter 21 and finished chapter 22 and took the test.  Chapter 21 was adding mixed numbers with different denominators, and chapter 22 was subtracting similar mixed numbers.  Kimball did chapter 25 in MUS and continued to learn extra long division and took the test.  He also did chapter 26 and took the test where he learned to find the volume of a cube.  He reviewed long division and converting ounces into pounds and vice versa and pints into quarts into gallons.  Anna did most of chapter 27, where she learned how to subtract by 7s.  She also did several story problems and reviewed other subtraction facts.  Adam continued to work on counting and writing to 100. 
For Language Arts we had another poetry and tea with a couple other families.  The kids reviewed poems they had memorized and listened to other friends recite their poems as well.  I started reading I, Juan de Pareja aloud to the kids.  Anna read several chapters in Hooked on Phonics and learned all the long vowel sounds with a silent e at the end of the word.  She did several pages of her
handwriting.  Kimball read about 20 pages of pilgrim stories from Massachusetts.  He also copied sentences out of one of his favorite books and he also wrote in his journal.  Elsie wrote 5 chapters in her story she is writing.  One of those chapters was the last chapter to help her work towards a goal to finish her story.  She read See Saw Girl and about 80 pages of Argonauts of Faith, which is a story about the pilgrims.    Adam practiced sounding out letters and reading short words.  He still has a hard time recognizing a few of his letters, so he is concentrating on those last few. 

Learning Log 27

Our family visited grandparents and cousins the first half of the week, and Kimball and Adam were sick the last half of the week, so our learning logs are less stellar this week.
We did go to a butterfly pavilion with extended family.  We had a fun time watching the butterflies and learning at the different exhibits.  There was a leaf-cutter aunt exhibit that was fascinating to watch.  We saw their homes and learned they are built out of fungus they get that grows off of the leaves.           
For Math this week Elsie finished chapter 21 (except she forgot to take the test) and did most of chapter 22.  She is learning how to subtract mixed numbers with different denominators and also reviewed previous math facts.  Kimball did chapter 24, where he divided a 3 digit number into 6 digit numbers.  It was intense math that required a lot of focus.  He also did some story problems.  Anna and Adam did very minimal math.  Adam counted to 100 and wrote out to 50.  Anna finished chapter 26 and took the test.  She reviewed her subtraction facts, solved for the unknown, and did some addition problems as well.  She colored in a picture based on the addition answers she got.
Elsie, Kimball and Anna practiced their instruments 4 times during the week.  Their piano teacher had a medical emergency and so they were unable to go to lessons, and their private lessons were cancelled due to the holiday on Monday for their string instruments.  They did all go to their group lessons however and they played together and learned more of a square dance as well.
Kimball read lots this week.  He finished the book Fortunately, the Milk and read the book The Show Must Go On as well.  Elsie wrote a chapter in her dragon story.  She also wrote in her journal and she wrote 2 letters to 2 different friends.  Anna started in level three in hooked on phonics.  She read some review words and learned the long a and long i with the silent e.  She read a couple short stories and she read a chapter from a Little Bear book on her own.  She also did several pages of handwriting.
For Minecraft this week Elsie and Kimball created the lemon battery.  They learned about electricity.  Anna watched her dad teach her how to download something from cd onto her MP3 player. She downloaded a suzuki cd so she can listen to her songs. 

Learning Log 26

Happy Late Valentine's Day.  My kids had a great time celebrating the day.  We went to the jump zone and had fun with a bunch of other homeschoolers.  Adam had a fun time shooting hoops, jumping, and swinging off a rope.  Kimball had a fun time doing flips, climbing their rock wall and playing dodge ball, and Anna and Elsie jumped and played with friends.  Fun was had by all.
Afterwards we had a great poetry and tea at our home with friends.  We decorated sugar cookies and shared poems.  Elsie recited a poem in a fun accent called The Red Rose, Kimball memorized and recited a couple stanza's from All Things Beautiful, Anna memorized and recited The Lovable Child, and Adam memorized and recited a Valentine poem.  Later that evening we went to an elderly neighbor's home and recited them our poems as well.
The kids also had a fun time reading that week.  Kimball read about 60 pages of Fortunately, the Milk.  He also did 2 journal entries and copied 3 stanzas from a poem.  Adam read 2 more Dash into Reading Books.  He focused on blending letters together and we played reading games where he practiced reading words and blending sounds.  Anna finished the 2nd level of Hooked on Phonics level 2.  She read some stories, and learned new sounds.  She also read to herself several books and did 4 pages of handwriting.
For science we started a unit study about energy.  We discussed and built models of atoms and molecules.  We also discussed different types of energy there are and learned definitions and examples of each type.  We also continued our study of the seaside creatures and learned about different species of crabs and watched short youtube videos on each of them.  We had a fun time.
The kids practiced their musical instruments every day.  Kimball, Elsie, and Anna each went to their piano lessons, their Bows and Bridges private and group lessons.  They are all learning Oh Susanna on their violins and cello.
For math Elsie finished chapter 20 and took the test and did most of chapter 21.  She is learned how to add mixed numbers with different denominators.  She also reviewed multiplying nad dividing fractions. Kimball finished chapter 24, where he did lots of long division and multiplication.  He worked very hard on being precise and keeping his place value.  He also did lots of story problems.    Anna started chapter 26 and did most of the chapter.  She learned some more subtraction facts and reviewed her previous subtraction facts.  She also did some story problems.  Adam wrote and counted all the way to 100 and practiced counting by 10s.  He is learning the patterns of numbers.
Minecraft Kimball built electricity for his town.  He used red stone, levers, and trap doors.  Elsie started on electricity for her town.  She began by making redstone and putting it around some doors.  Anna continued to learn how to navigate the internet and the computer by practicing cutting and pasting, exploring drop-down menus and saving her work into files.

Learning Log 25

For music this week Elsie, Kimball and Anna went to both their piano and private and group string lessons.  Anna's teacher said she is doing great in her string group lessons!  Kimball completed all 10 phases to his practicing in cello, and got a balloon from his teacher.  Elsie played her violin for a lady in our neighborhood who is bed-bound.  They all had great experiences with their music this week. 
Adam walked a mile outside with his dad.  He also played dodge ball with his siblings and enjoyed practicing his push-ups.
Elsie and Kimball worked on building their roller-coasters for Minecraft.  They both built large and advanced roller coasters and had  a great time.  Anna made another coloring book for herself using copy and past from the web to word.  She also taught her friend how to do the same thing, so now I think she knows how to do it really well.   
For language arts everyone finished reading their selections they picked to learning about early explorers of the new world.  Elsie finished her book about Sir Walter Raleigh, which was about 50 pages.  Kimball finished reading about Columbus.  I took them out to eat and we discussed and compared notes with each other about the things we had learned.  Anna learned about past tense and learned the different sounds "ed" makes as well as how to read 2 syllabus words. She read a couple short stories and part of a Hooked on Phonics book called The Case of the Missing Sandwich out-loud to me.  She also read lots of beginning reader books to herself.  Anna did several pages of handwriting also.  Adam practiced writing his name and reading.  He finished memorizing a poem about the short vowel sounds and started reading Dash into Reading Books.  He is practicing blending sounds together in the order he sees  them.  Kimball finished the book 8 Class Pets +1 Squirrel /1 Dog= Chaos.  He thought it was funny.  He read Ook and Gluck, which is another silly book.  He read several pages from  Maze Quest in History.  It has a history page on one side and a maze on the other of each open page.  He wrote in his journal one time and did 4 days of copy work.  He is working hard at studying words for their spelling and looking at sentence structure as he copies.  Elsie read a graphic novel.  She also wrote a dozen poems with different rhyming schemes and others that didn't rhyme, but had certain rhythms.  
For math Anna finished chapter 25, where she learned to subtract from 9s.  She also reviewed other subtraction problems and did some story problems.  Elsie started chapter 20 and did most of it.  She learned about the "same difference theorem" when subtracting and adding mixed numbers.  She also reviewed converting pints to quarts and vice versa.  Kimball started chapter 24 where he learned how to divide a 2 digit number into a 4 digit number.  He also reviewed long multiplication, multiplying 3 digit numbers by 5 digit numbers, and he did many story problems.  Adam is learning how to count and write to 100, but it is hard and it is going slow. 

For science we learned about plant propagation.  We planted a bunch of cuttings from jade plants.  The kids learned about potting plants and roots and how different colored lights can help with different aspects of plant growth: germination or cell growth, etc. 

Learning Log 24

This week for music, Elsie, Kimball and Anna went to Bows and Bridges for their private and group lessons.  They also practiced their string instruments.  They are working hard on polishing a song for the string festival that is coming up.  They also went to their piano lessons, and they practiced the piano as well.  They are picking songs also for their recital at the end of the month and working hard towards that. 
Adam did push-ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks, and stretched.  He also worked hard at digging a big hole outside in a snow bank.  He also ran around the indoor track at the high school and watched his brother in a wrestling match. 
Elsie and Kimball worked on minecraft.  They finished building their restaurant, took pictures of their finished product, and turned it in.  Anna explored on Paint.  She learned how to use drop-down menus and how to save her drawing on her desktop.  She created 3 drawings and saved them. 
For Language Arts I read a story about Siddhartha's life out-loud to the children.  I read a story about Leif Erikson and Christopher Columbus to Kimball, Anna, and Adam.   I also started reading out-loud the third book of Kirsten.  Anna is really starting to enjoy reading.  She is reading beginning books by herself and continues to read to me from Hooked on Phonics.  She read several lessons and a book called Over My Head.  She practied reading words ending in ing, er, ly, and es and learned when they are used. She read a couple short stories as well.  Anna also did several pages of handwriting.  She worked really hard and memorized a poem for poetry and tea about Columbus.  She had a great recitation!  Adam memorized a poem about Columbus as well and did a great job reciting at poetry and tea.  He also worked on memorizing a poem about the vowels.  He worked at sounding out words in books he likes and played some reading games.  Kimball wrote in his journal and did 5 days of copy-work. He read 5 chapters of his 8 Class Pets book.  He also read about 20 pages from an old book online called Explorers and Discoverers.  He read about Columbus, Marco Polo, and Henry the navigator.  Elsie started a book about Sir Walter Raleigh, and read about 20 pages.  She also read about 50 pages of The Boy who Harnessed the Wind.  She also wrote a fact sheet and  a poem about elk.
for math Anna learned to subtract from 9s.  She also did some story problems and reviewed other addition and subtraction math facts.  Kimball started chapter 23 where he learned how to divide a one digit number into a 4 digit number.  He also did several conversion problems and reviewed long multiplication; 2 digit numbers multiplied by 4 digit numbers.  Adam did chapter 5 in MUS, where he learned to add 1s.  He also reviewed reading and building 3 digit numbers and did some story problems.  Elsie finished chapter 19, adding and subtracting mixed numbers.  She also reviewed converting yards to feet and vice versa and finding the area of rectangles and triangles and cubes. 
We did more social studies instead of science this week.  We studied maps and learned about the continents and oceans.  We also learned about different land and water formations such as straights, gulfs, and bays and isthmus', peninsulas, and islands. 

Learning Log 23

This week for Language arts I read a couple stories from India to the children.  I also finished reading the Kirsten Learns a Lesson aloud as well.  Elsie also read from Princess Academy and The Boy who Harnessed the Wind - about 40 pages in each.  She decided to start putting together articles and pictures to make her own magazine.  She refined a poem she had written and wrote a joke for it.  She also wrote in her journal once, wrote a letter to her cousin, and copied a verse of scripture.  Anna read from her Hooked on Phonics books.  She went through a chapters and read a book out-loud to me about a barn.  She read lots of Bob books to herself and copied down the titles of all the books she read and rated them according to her liking.  She also did several pages of handwriting worksheets, where she copied a poem, a grammar rule, and practiced writing letters.  Anna loved her American Girl Club where we discussed the Kirsten book and learned how to embroider and sew with a sewing machine around a handkerchief and ate Swedish Creme.  Kimball read about 20 pages from an old book called Discoverers and Explorers and 2 chapters of 8 Class Pets +1 Squirrel /1 Dog= Chaos.  He wrote in his journal 3 times and he copied down his favorite scripture verse and another sentence out of a story we read together.  Adam worked on letter recognition and practiced finding the sounds in different words and sounding out simple words.  We started a new reading curriculum called The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  He also practiced writing a some letters.  We all enjoyed poetry and tea at the end of the week. 
For science we learned about the IndoChina Mangroves.  We learned about what the importance of mangroves and some of the animals that live there.  We learned about the false gharial and the gharial.  We also studied Rachel Carson and learned about her important work. 
For math Elsie finished chapter 18 and started on chapter 19, where she learned how to add and subtract mixed numbers.  She reviewed conversion facts such as converting feet to yards and vice versa.  She also reviewed finding the area of rectangles, triangles, and cubes.  Anna started and finished chapter 24, where she learned subtraction facts subtracting from 10.  She reviewed her addition facts and other subtraction facts as well.  Adam finished chapter 4 where he learned to add zeros.  He did story problems and practiced counting and writing to 20, and built and read 3 digit numbers.  Kimball finished chapter 22, learning to do long division.  He reviewed converting inches into feet and vice versa.  He also reviewed finding the area of different shapes:  trapezoids, triangles, and rectangles. 

For Elsie's tech, she worked on building her restaurant for Minecraft.  It is fancy with an outdoor and indoor eating area and a kitchen.  Kimball built his restaurant, but hasn't submitted it.  He built a pizza restaurant, but had a hard time creating actual pizza in Minecraft. 
Adam worked hard for his PE.  He did push-ups almost every day.  He also went to his brother's wrestling match and learned from watching.  He ran around the track there as well.  He played outside at explorer's club and in the afternoon with friends and ran around and jumped in the snow. 
Anna, Elsie, and Kimball all went to piano lessons and to Bows and Bridges for group lessons.  They all worked hard on their practicing, especially Elsie and Kimball on their strings.  They practiced the piano as well.

Learning Log 22

For Language Arts this week Elsie read 100 pages of Princess Academy and 10 pages of The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.  She is also enjoying listening to Little Women online.  She wrote 2 letters to her cousin and another letter to an old friend.  Elsie also wrote a small newspaper she wants to distribute at her book-club.  Kimball finished his book Viking Adventures by Bulla and read about 30 pages from a book called 8 Class Pets=1 Squirrel / 1 Dog = Chaos.  He wrote in his journal 5 times during the week.  Anna did a little bit of copy work, and began copying down a poem about Columbus.  She also did several worksheets of handwriting.  Adam played games where he tried putting sounds of different words together to form the word.  We also played Bingo for letter sounds and we read several books together where he read the words he was familiar with and I read the rest.  Anna read lots of Bob books on her own.  She also read several units to me from Hooked on Phonics and the short stories that follow them.  She reviewed several blends sounds.   All the children worked hard on memorizing part of a poem or an entire poem to recite at poetry and tea.  We enjoyed listening to all the different poems.  I had a fun time reading aloud as well.  I read Kirsten Learns a Lesson, and several short stories from Australia and other islands.
For Science we learned about the Himalayan Mountains and the different lifeforms that live at the various elevations.  We started an animal chart on our wall where we identified the Kingdom/Phyllum/Class/Order/Family/Genus/Species of the different animals we learn about.  We studied the Red Panda, Tigers, and the Snow Leopard.  We also made another trip to Hardware Ranch with our Nonny and Poppy and watched and learned about the Elk.  Adam especially had lots of questions.  Elsie saw a baby elk call out to and find its mama.
For Math Elsie finished chapter 17 and took the test.  She started on chapter 18 where she is learning to multiply and divide mixed numbers.  She reviewed finding the volume of a square and did lots of story problems.  Adam worked at learning what each number coordinated with each manipulative.  He also learned to add by 0s and practiced with some story problems.  He also practiced writing to 20.  Anna took the test for chapter 23 and did a crossword problem.  She practiced reviewing her addition and subtraction problems.  Kimball started chapter 22.  This chapter was a challenge, but he is learning how to divide a two digit number into a 3 digit number.  He is learning the importance of estimating and staying organized in his handwritten work. 
For Tech Elsie worked really hard on Minecraft.  She caught up on all her assignments.  She built houses, started her menu for a restaurant, read about Eric's story to name a few.  Kimball helped Elsie and played on Minecraft.  He learned how to build new things from his next door neighbor friend. 
For music Elsie, Kimball and Anna started up on their piano lessons again.  They each received new challenges and are excited to learn their new pieces.  Elsie earned a Symphony bar by getting all the note flashcards in record time!  They also went to their individual and group lessons for their string instruments.  They were given practice challenges that they are working hard to finish.
For PE Adam went to two of his older brother's wrestling matches.  He is learning about the sport: how to score points and different moves.  He also enjoyed running lots and lots of laps with his older sister, Anna, around the indoor track of the high school during the duals as well. 

Learning Log 21

For science this week the kids had a fun time learning about the Northeastern Siberian Taiga.  We learned about the animals that live there, like the great grey owl, lynx, and reindeer.  We learned about the coal, oil, and natural gas that are found there and how they are formed.  We also learned how global warming is melting the permafrost in the soil, and it is causing gases to build up.  This causes huge mounds to form as well as huge, deep craters.  The biggest of these is the Batagaika crater.  There are craters formed overnight, and sometimes lakes that disappear as well.  We learned that prehistoric mammal fossils and bones are being found due to the melting permafrost as well.
For math Kimball took the test for chapter 20, started and finished chapter 21, took the test, and then took the unit test.  He learned about how to estimate to help one figure out the rough answer to a problem before one actually attacks the problem.  Adam worked on chapter 2 of his Alpha workbook and took the test.  He is learning how to write while counting to 20.  He practiced this a lot as well as reviewed how to build and say 3 digit numbers.  Anna worked on subtracting using doubles math facts for chapter 23 of her math book.  She also reviewed her addition doubles math facts as well as other subtraction problems she has already learned.  Elsie took a unit test and started chapter 17 where she is learning to add mixed numbers with the same denominator. 
For language arts I had a fun time reading stories to the children.  We studied stories from Sweden, and so I read several stories by Hans Christian Anderson (The Fir Tree, The Ugly Duckling, and The Little Match Girl), a Beauty and the Beast Tale from Sweden, and I read the stories of Beowolf and Frioloff.  I also read the American Girl Book Meet Kirsten.  Kimball did three journal entries.  He copied 2 stanzas of a poem he really likes (titled I Am a Child of Royal Birth).  He also wrote a short article for our family newspaper about the board game club he joined this week.  He read 62 pages of Viking Adventures by Bulla.  Anna read 3 pages of a book called Snipp Snapp and Snurr.  She read some out of her hooked on phonics as well.  She learned about the ing, ang, ong, and ung sounds and read the book Chick Chick the Ping Pong Champ.  She had a fun time at our first American Girl Club!  We reviewed the book, packed our own trunk of precious things we would bring if we had to move like Kirsten, ate some dried food, and the girls made their own rag dolls.  They had a lot of fun with them!  Adam reviewed the sounds of letters and practiced some of their blends, such as "en", "od", and "at".  We played lots of games that incorporated reading small words, and he read a short hooked on phonics book.  Anna and Adam also did some handwriting worksheets.  Elsie read the book The Light Princess and went to her bookclub.  She discussed the book and worked on a sampler they are making to remind them of their divine worth.  She also read a little from The Boy who Harnessed the Wind and Princess Academy.  She wrote an article for our family newsletter and wrote a reflective piece in her journal.  She also copied a poem called "Only One Mother" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 
For Minecraft Kimball wrote out a menu plan for his restaurant he is going to build in Minecraft.  Elsie found out she was 6 assignments behind in Minecraft!  We made up a plan for her to catch up and she almost finished building her room in Minecraft.  Anna is working on formating our next family newsletter with everyone's articles.
Kimball, Elsie, and Anna started up Bows and Bridges again.  They went to their personal lesson and group lesson. Kimball is working on the song Allegretto right now.  Elsie is working on the Chorus from Judas Machabees, and Anna is working on Oh Come Little Children. 

Learning Log 18-20

For science as a family we went to a Physics Demo Show at USU.  We learned about fluids.  There are 14 3/4 pounds of air pressure per square inch pushing on things all the time.  We saw a bunch of really awesome experiments.  We saw a huge barrel completely collapse from air pressure as they changed the temperature around it quickly.  Another favorite of ours was watching fog come out in circles through the class room from these huge drums they had made.  We also learned about siphoning.  Another favorite was watching a ping pong ball break the sound barrier and blast through a paddle.  It was fun watching a hydrogen balloon explode too!
We also had a fun time going to a place up a canyon that feeds and over-winter's elk.  We learned all about elk!  We were given elk calls and we learned the different elk calls of a bull, calf, and cow.  We also learned about and felt lots of pelts from different animals.  We learned the difference between beaver, bear, otter, and other pelts.  We also saw mountain man paraphernalia and scrimshaw work.  We learned many other things as well, and it was all fascinating!  We even got to make Christmas ornaments out of elk poop, dogwood sticks, sage brush clippings, and other natural finds.  It was a fun family event.
For math each of the kids all had a fun time designing and constructing their own gingerbread houses.  Each was different and unique.  Anna made a stable and manger seen, Elsie made a home, Kimball made a pyramid, and Adam made an A framed home.  They also got back into their math a little bit and each did a couple pages of math. Adam started on a new math book, Alpha in the MUS curriculum.
The kids all had fun writing kind notes to each other and writing down their new year resolutions.  They also enjoyed receiving their literati packages and reading the books from them.  I had fun reading out-loud some of my favorite Christmas stories to the children.   We also had a couple Poetry and Tea afternoons.  Kimball, Elsie, Anna, and Adam, and myself all worked hard at memorizing a Christmas poem.  It was fun to hear all the sweet poems!
For music, Anna, Kimball and Elsie all were kept busy with practicing and performing their music recitals.  Anna ended up being too shy to perform her Jingle Bells duet for piano.  We were all disappointed because she had worked so hard.  She did perform on her violin, however.  She played Jolly Old Saint Nicolas and part of Joy to the World.  She also performed Song of the Wind.  Kimball played We Three Kings and Joy to the World on the cello as well as Perpetual Motion.  Elsie played Joy to the World, Carol of the Bells, and The Happy Farmer on her violin.  Elsie played Silent Night on the piano and Kimball played Away in a Manger, on the piano.
Kimball worked on his Minecraft assignment and answered questions about a business someone was starting in a story he read.  Elsie and Kimball learned how to set up a Minecraft server so they could play as a group.  Kimball created a world he really likes.  Anna practiced cutting and pasting coloring pages off the internet onto word documents to make coloring books for her and Adam.
For PE Adam tried to ice skate.  He practiced going around our neighbor's rink and then skating while pushing a bucket.  He did not enjoy it too much.  He also helped shovel snow at his grandpa's house.  He is a hard worker!