Monday, September 26, 2011

I"m late posting my Home School Weekly....but at least I"m here.....so overwhelmed, it almost didn't happen :)
Better late than never....

Math:
Abby is finishing up her chapter on Units of Measure...got a test coming up :) We'll see how much 'sunk in'!
Peter and Hannah are starting a unit on measures also...they are reviewing the "ruler"....measuring lines down to the 1/16th...my eyes struggle to see that!
Marissa is still moving through addition and subtraction....trying to help her NOT use her hands when subtracting....not sure how to even do that....

English:
Abby...we are still at a little bit of a stand still as we work on diagramming....the lessons coming up all have diagramming with them so we are just backing up and getting it right.
Twins....more diagramming here, too....along with sentence "math" (figuring out if a sentence is compound or simple). Peter is struggling,but we are going slow.
Marissa....working more with "answering" questions in the form of sentences....and doing some word order things. She is getting it all, but struggles to remember to begin and end a sentence properly...ugh!!!!

Spelling:
Abby and the twins just finished a "review" lesson where they had 100 words to study....everyone passed the test :)
Marissa is just starting her review lesson, but she does pretty well with spelling so it should be ok.

Phonics/Reading:
Marissa is the only one doing phonics and it's still the biggest struggle (this and the reading lessons)....but I had a former home school mom work with her on Thursday and she agreed that Marissa does not know her short and long vowels...but then told me that public schools aren't all teaching that as much any more...more word recognition type reading....so we are pretty much starting from scratch with blends and vowels....but we are moving slow through that and she is catching on to some of it.
Abby is still doing poorly in reading, despite the fact she is a great reader....but after grading her last few lessons, I'm realizing it IS her just being lazy. I had her go back and re-do a couple lessons and she did perfect....so we made a deal that from now on she will take her time and do it right....or else fail and do it over again next year (she does NOT want to repeat it)...so hopefully from here on out things will be better.
Peter still struggles with the reading comp, but I am trying to just sit close to him and help him work it out....today went better :)

History:
Abby is still studying Asia, with emphasis on China (her favorite). She will slowly start working on a 'research' type paper on China or some aspect of it.
The twins are still working on First Americans...they both read 2 books on ones in particular (Peter, Squanto....Hannah Pocahontas)....Hannah is LOVING it!!! And surprisingly, Peter is really enjoying reading about Squanto. They will start working on their speeches next week.
Marissa hasn't read a new chapter this past week....we just keep reviewing what we have learned....need to make progress in this area.

Science:
Abby is working on the "cell"....she will be drawing and labeling one this week.
The twins are still on arthropods.....they love it! They have gone through crustaceans, arachnids, and insects so far. We are now the proud owners of 3 crayfish....I wanted to give them an up close and personal look at crustaceans....I still can't really touch them! Too close to the spider family!! We did do a science experiment from the previous unit....had to do with water pressure...the kids loved it!! It basically taught about the scientific method and how to perform an experiment....they got it :)
Marissa worked more on seeds, wildflowers and weeds.....she continues to add to her seed collection and really enjoys that.

This week, due to some stress I'm having, we are on a 'half day' schedule. We are doing school from 10am - 1pm....taking the mornings to work on some cleaning projects and the 'extras' in our schedule (piano, knitting, awana, etc)....and I'm not allowing for much homework. I am doing school for about 8 hours a day and it's wearing me out. I'm taking this week to 'revamp' my schedule and seeing what works best.
Praying that I can figure this out.....

2 comments:

Emily said...

If it's any consolation, my 6th grader still can't (won't) write a correct sentence all the time. We've been going over capitalization and punctuation rules for weeks now and he'll write a sentence and not capitalize it. ugh! :) I wouldn't be too worried about a 2nd grader not quite getting it.

Glad you're taking an easier week! Sometimes it's just good AND it's not like they aren't learning anything! Doing chores and other projects are good for them. :) Enjoy your less stressful week!

Ps. How do homeschooled kids have homework?

missionarymomofthree said...

THanks emily :)
And the reason we have homework is because we school for 6 hours and still don't get it all done....I can't stay in the school room longer than that.
So how do you deal with "unfinished" work? Do you just save it for the next day? I'm curious....

I am enjoying the lighter week, just trying not to worry about getting behind :) lots of deep breathing...ha!