Island Mama's Adventures: Week (s) in Review: The first 2 weeks.

Our first two weeks of school were great! I wouldn't say we are now homeschool pros, but there is definitely a difference between this our 3rd year of homeschooling and the first two years. I for one am much more organized, know what to expect and am way more laid back! I am not tied to my teacher manuals and know that's its okay to replace a textbook lesson with a game when things appear to be falling apart. I have learned that homeschooling is not an event, it is a lifestyle!

Here's a look at our first two weeks:

For language, Micaiah spent the last two weeks reviewing grammar in the First Language Lessons Level 2. We are hoping to finish off that book very soon and start on Level 3. He has been enjoying reading books about sports such as American football, baseball and cricket and also about local sports legends like Champ Hunt and Calvin Bummy Symonds. He has enjoyed taking a break from our All About Spelling curriculum to check out the Big IQ spelling program we were given to review. (You can read my review here.) I am planning to merge the two programs together, using AAS to teach and BigIQ to review. Since I really like the AAS program and he really likes doing his spelling on the computer we get the best of both worlds!

We also have been using Big IQ for math drills and used these 2 weeks to finish off our Horizons 2 Math-- there were a few lessons that we didn't get through. I also threw in some pattern block math problems from a book someone gave me.

Although Eli is reading very well we are still working through The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading I want to be sure he has a good understanding of phonics while we continue to build on his sight words. I plan on reinforcing the phonics work when we begin All About Spelling Level 1 in a few weeks. I have ordered a couple All ABout Reading readers and am looking forward to getting those to add to our reading work. Eli is also using Big IQ math and spelling each day but I am still working out what works best for him for math going forward. He hates worksheets but loves anything hands on. He was given a Zoob set for his birthday last month (thank you Granny and Grandpa!) I turned that into a math lesson (counting, adding, sorting, patterns) and he spent the week putting together a motor cycle with the set.

History

Eli started Sonlight's Introduction to world cultures so we were learning about dinosaurs and the first people- what they wore, what they ate, where they lived. Micaiah continued with Story of the World Book one. He was fascinated with the story of King Tut and the discovery of his tomb.

Science

The kids attended their monthly homeschool class at BAMZ where they learned about endangered animals.

Although we didn't have any formal science lessons at home we did spend some time outside observing catepillars. The boys were trying to have caterpillar races but I don't think the caterpillars were too cooperative!

We also observed what happens when you put marshmallows in the microwave. We were following these directions to make marshmallow volcanoes using marshmallows, peanut butter and red sprinkles for Wacky Snack Wednesday. They didn't turn out much like volcanoes but the kids got a kick out of seeing them puff up. Eli kept shouting "they're gonna explode!" We ended up with a sticky mess but they enjoyed eating them too!