Week 33

 

This week, Nathan’s math wrapped up with a lesson on the compass. He’ll start his post test on this level and be finished with it by the end of school. Exciting! For science lab, we made a wind turbine. It was a rainy day and Brian volunteered to be sprayed by the water. We are counting down these last days of school and working on wrapping up everything. 

Week 32

 

These pictures aren’t in order but our science lab was making a hovercraft after learning about wind power. It did work!  We also finished our read aloud and it was different but good. We couldn’t have guessed how that ended! I got out the books I had left and they picked our last read aloud. We’re winding down, hard to believe!

Week 31

Monday was the solar eclipse and we were ready!  We had already done a field trip about it and had the glasses ready.  Samuel has been very interested in it so him and I sat outside and had a perfect view.  We attempted a picture with an old phone but it didn’t do it justice!

The rest of the week was pretty normal.  We did a successful science lab!  We separated the hydrogen from water, as pictured in the glass of water.  It’s the little bubble like things by the copper wires.  Easy to do and it worked—love those labs!  We started an art project and just kept on with our other subjects!!

 

Week 30

We had a successful science lab this week!  We made the LED light turn on using lemons, washers and wires that Nathan stripped the coating off of.  We also had an optional art activity.  It was optional because it was using bleach to draw a picture.  I hate using bleach but Nathan wore an apron as a precaution and was successful drawing a cat.  For history, we played a gold rush game because we just finished a lesson on that.  Nathan won the most gold!  I can’t tell if the boys are loving the read aloud but I enjoy it!  I have no idea on the mystery part of it.  

 

Week 29

We had a few days of school this week before Easter break.  We did an Oregon Trail game—not the game I grew up with in school but it was still fun!  Nathan beat Samuel to Oregon and had the most money in the end.  Both of them lost most of their family, animals and supplies along the way, though.  

 We had a family Easter celebration on Good Friday because of work schedules.  We dyed eggs, found hidden Easter baskets, played Uno, watched a movie and ate pizza.  It was nice to have a little time together.  

Week 28

 

Our science experiment involved making an arch dam.  We were supposed to use mud and gravel, as well as the clay provided, but we got 5 inches of snow!  So, we just used clay and tested them out.  

This is the inflatable planetarium we visited for our field trip this week.  We were also given solar eclipse glasses so we’re ready for the upcoming eclipse!

This was our black and white art project.  This took us a few art classes but this was a good week to get it done.  I am still recovering and can’t read for very long so this kept them busy instead!

A short week is coming up for an Easter break.  We’re actually so close to the end of the year!  Amazing!

Week 27

 No pictures this week.  We had a shorter week to make it more like spring break and to give me a break because I ended up sick by Friday.  We still had plenty of work time and I’ll try to be on picture duty this week!  

Week 26

 

This week, we had a science lab where we experimented on different materials to see if they were waterproof.  It ended up being a hilarious time.  Nothing ever turns out as expected!  Haha.  We also started the first steps in our art project.  Everything else was the usual.  Our new read aloud is pretty good, I think.  We’ll see what happens in the story!  Next week should be fun because most schools here are on spring break but we are not taking a week off!  They will be thrilled.  I may let them have a shorter week but not a whole week!

Week 25

 

This week in art, we did another monochromatic project but this time with oil pastels and watercolors. We also did a science lab but I forgot to take pictures!!  We were measuring how far a rubber band stretched to lift a bag of beans vertically up to a stack of books vs. up an inclined plane to the top.  It was a simple lab but it worked out!  We also did an extra reading and comprehension questions about Frederick Douglass for History.  It was a full week!  We finished our read aloud and I am already looking for more books by Richard Peck because this one was hilarious!  

Week 24

 

This week, we did a digital art project using a monochrome theme. We also had our first science lab in our next book, which is focused on canals and dams. Otherwise, it was school as usual. It’s nice to have full weeks to accomplish everything!!

Week 23

I somehow managed to not get any pictures this week. We had Monday off because I was at a retreat all weekend and needed a day to get life back in order! Other than that, it was school as normal! I’ll try to remember pictures next week.

Week 22

Last week of school was a full, busy one! We did a fun history game where we made decisions along the way with Lewis & Clark to see if we could survive. It was pretty funny! The boys also finished their papers on monarch migration. Our read aloud is so funny! I recommend it. It’s called “A Year Down Yonder”. The picture above is Nathan at my van when it was parked in a lot while I was at a retreat. It was so fun to see the messages him, Sam and Kathryn wrote on my dirty windows!

 

Week 21

This week, the boys started writing their paragraphs on monarch butterflies.  They also filled out a worksheet about Thomas Jefferson.  We also finished our read aloud on Madison.  Samuel started his new math level and we did a science lab on coding (pictured above).  It was a busy week even though it was a short one!  We had Friday off for Samuel’s birthday!!!

                 Samuel’s 17th birthday was spent playing games, eating out and rearranging his bedroom to fit his new presents!  Time flies!!!

 

Week 20

 

Even though schools were out a couple days again this week, we stayed on course and had a full week of school. We started our digital art project, which is pretty challenging for me to teach because I'm not super familiar with the program.  We also finished the latest history book (there are about 10 in the series) and we did a pop up history figure activity to sum that up.  Otherwise, the boys are doing great with their writing now that we're using IEW.  Samuel will be wrapping up his math level this week (he's finishing last year's before moving on).  We're keeping busy!!

Week 19

 

This week of school ended up being shorter than planned. We were hit with two big snowstorms and then a blizzard warning and then wind chill warnings. Lots of winter weather and snow days! I always take the 1st snow day other schools get because it’s so exciting! They ended up with a lot of days off and I couldn’t let the kids have that much time but we did cut down on work. It was exciting and these winter months can be rough in the homeschooling world! Next week looks quieter so we should get plenty of work in then.  

Week 18

 

We started back at school on Wednesday!  We had a full day and jumped right back into all the things.  The picture is of the boys copying the KWO (key word outline) we were working on for Writing. On Friday, we skipped our language arts because we had an extra history project.  We did an escape room that centered on Valley Forge.  It was info that we had read in our new read aloud (which is about James Madison) and read in our history lesson so it should be engrained in us now.  It was a nice start to just have a little bit of work before we start back with a full week on Monday!