Week In Review: Weeks 3 and 4

Well here I am again sharing a Week In Review post, but really it's  Two Weeks In Review!  HA!  Oh well, life has been hectic lately!  I was doing so well the last few weeks of summer with getting my cleaning schedule under control, and a life schedule under control, and then BAM school started! I feel like school is taking up my whole day, having a 5th grader is really different than having a preschooler or even early elementary.

Language Arts:

What I have found out from the past few weeks is that 5th grade is going to be a tough year for us.  I have realized that we are really lacking in the English Grammar department.  For the past few years we really just focused more on literature and reading, and only a slight portion was grammar related.  He is really struggling with the added expectations I have put on him this year.  I am so happy with the curriculum I chose to use and think he will get up to where he needs to be.  As a reminder we are using Learning Language Arts though Literature the purple book and Wordly Wise 3000 grade 5 book.  I realize I said that we were lacking in grammar and then we are using a literature based program, seems contradictory in a way.  In actuality though, I think with using this program, he is reading passages from books he likes and then applying grammar rules.  I have never used this program before and I am so happy that we chose it.  It, so far, is a good fit for our needs at this time.

Bible:

We have begun our Bible curriculum, which is Apologia's Who Is God?, and I love it!  The boys are doing well, and learning to dig deeper into what they think and feel about certain topics.  We have been talking a lot about how we can know if something is true or not.  This has been wonderful for them, especially the 5th grader who is at that age where he is trying to figure some things out for himself.  I am happy that they both seem to know that the Bible is true, and what God says in the Bible is truth.

History:

These past two weeks we have also done some digging deeper into History.  We have learned about Stonehenge, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Early Egypt, the Sumerians, and the Minoans.  We had fun wrapping Noah up like a Mummy!

Read Aloud:

For our read aloud time, we just finished up reading the Christian Heroes then and Now book on Jim Elliot, and we have begun reading The Golden Goblet.  The Golden Goblet I think might be a bit over their heads, so I'm not sure we will continue with it or not, we are currently on chapter 3.  On Friday instead of reading The Golden Goblet, we read The Magic Treehouse book Mummies in the Morning.  They both really liked that one and thought it was funny that we read the whole book in one sitting.  They make me laugh, because its only like a 60 page book.  Silly kids!

Preschool:

In preschool we began our Letter of the Week curriculum and have done letters A and E.  We will be working through the vowels first and then move into the consonants.  I really am impressed with how well my little 4 year old is handling school this year.  Not to say that we don't still struggle, but for the most part he knows what is going to happen and is happy to do his "numbers" (that's what he calls his workboxes).

Field Trips:

Last Friday, we took a field trip to the local Apple Orchard, that was a great time!  We were hoping to get to pick some apples but found out that they were not open for picking until Labor Day.  We might go back after Labor Day just to pick some apples.  On the upside though the playground was open and the kids were able to play.  There is usually a cost but since it was early in the season it was free.  My kids were super excited for that part!   We also picked up some yummy apple cider doughnuts, apple cider raisin bread, apple cider, and of course a few apples!

I really do plan on taking more photos of our school days, but like I said at the beginning it's been crazy!  I really do love this homeschooling journey that we are on, and am so excited to have the opportunity to be with my children everyday and see them learn!

Cleaning House Month One {Update}

A few weeks ago I shared how we were using Cleaning House by Kay Wills Wyma to rid our family of a sense of entitlement.  This is going to be a long process and I plan on taking this one month at a time for the next twelve months.  Lets see if I can stick with it!

For the first month we have been working on simply making beds and keeping our bedrooms tidy.  When I say 'we' I am also referring to my husband and myself.  Sad to say it, but our bedroom was also a source of major clutter, it seemed that our bedroom would often become the dumping ground for anything that we just didn't have a place for.

The plan was that our kids would earn a quarter a day for the entire month for making their beds and picking up their rooms.  Each child has their own jar of 30 quarters, and each morning I would walk around and check their bedrooms.  There was no warning, except for the first day when I informed them that this check would take place about 8:15 every morning.

I am so happy to say that at the end of this month (August), there were very few quarters lost!!  Elijah our 10 year old, lost only 2 quarters for the whole month.  Noah, who is 7, also only lost 2 quarters.  Zach, who is a young 4, only lost 5 quarters.

They each got into their routine and would immediately get up, make their beds, get dressed and then make sure their rooms were picked up.  What I love about this method was that each child knew what was expected and didn't get upset about loosing quarters because they understood from the get go what was expected.  I had explained to them there would be no second chances, and no warnings given when the room checks would take place.  This went for Saturday and Sundays as well, not just the weekdays.

I am excited to see the big difference in their rooms and their attitudes towards keeping tidy rooms.  Honestly, I wasn't going to do this with my 4 year old (he just turned 4 in the middle of August), because I didn't think he could handle it.  With only about a week of training he was able to make his bed on his own.  I realize that 'making a bed' could mean different things to different people, so let me clarify what we determine is a 'made bed', for us it means pulling their covers up and straightening any stuffed animals that are on their bed.  Since the 7 and 4 year old share a room and have bunk beds, its a bit more difficult to make the beds.  They each only have a comforter on their beds, I don't have time to mess with flat sheets!  It also allows for a simplified bed making process.

Here are the before and after photos taken of their rooms.

I did not give a warning that I would be taking photos for the after picture.  Not sure you can tell from the picture or not, but Noah's bed is a bit untidy at this moment.  He will be cleaning that up soon.  I do feel a bit bad for him, he's a child that loves his things and doesn't want anyone *ahem* little brother, messing with his stuff.  So he crams all of his worldly possessions into his bed.

This month we will be tackling kitchen patrol.  Each child, not sure yet we will include Zach in this, will be responsible for planning, shopping and preparing a meal.  I'll let you know how this turns out at the end of September!