Friday, January 29, 2010

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Snow Day Edition

It's Weekly Wrap-Up time!  I had planned for today to be a half-day teacher in-service day because I desperately needed some planning and catch-up time.  I couldn't have planned it better -- we wound up having a snow day anyway.  We rarely get snow and we weren't really expected to get any accumulation today, but around 1:00 it started "pour down" snow -- huge, wet, white, fluffy flakes.  The roadways are still clear, but there's certainly enough of the white stuff on the grassy areas for my snow-deprived Southern kids to enjoy.  It's beautiful and they're having a blast.

This week has pretty much been another muddle through week for us -- hence the need for some serious planning time.  I plan to get back to Chemistry for our science studies next week, so I want to print out the free periodic table cards that were the CurrClick freebie a few weeks ago and have them ready to go.

We're also nearing the end of Story of the World: Vol. 2.  I think this will be where we part ways with SOTW for awhile because it's leading right in to American History, which is a high interest topic for me and one that I'm very excited to share with Josh and Megan.  They were too young to get anything out of our study when Brianna and I delved deeply into America history several years ago.  Another reason for the need for a big planning session -- I don't want to skim over this great course of study.  If you have any great American history resources that you really enjoy, I'd love to hear about them.

I am so pleased with how Megan is improving in her multiplication.  As you may recall, we put the math book on the shelf a few weeks ago to really focus on multiplication since our math text was beginning to introduce division and Megan clearly did not have a good handle on multiplication.  I wanted to start at the very beginning with her, so she's been focusing on the two's for the last couple of week. 

This week, she passed that level on Timez Attack and completed a five minute drill of two's (100 problems) with 100% accuracy and with time to spare.  I'm so proud of her.  It's obvious that the steps we began implementing last week are really helping.  Now, we'll move to three's, which I don't think will take her long to master, thanks to the Schoolhouse Rock song.




I love those videos.  We have a couple of CDs that we listen to from time to time in the van.  There's nothing like drilling facts into kids' heads when they can't escape.  ;-)

We've been learning about George Handel with a book and CD set that I'll be reviewing soon for Zeezok Publishing.  The kids and I are really enjoying the book because it's written in a very engaging story format.

Well, enough talk.  Time to get to that planning that I haven't managed to get to yet, what with all the laundry, dirty dishes, working out and cooking of meals.  Thankfully, I've already been to the grocery store this week, so we don't have anywhere we have to go tonight or the rest of the weekend, really.  A whole week of planning time.  Just what I need.

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Posted by Kris at 3:18 PM
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17 comments:

  1. I find myself really needing some planning time, but I don't think I'll get it till after Blissdom. I'm so glad the math sites are working for Megan. Enjoy the snow!!!!!!!!

    PS - Where have you been on Twitter, girl? I miss you :)
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  2. Ooo! I love American History too. Here is a booklist on my blog for the Civil War, though most books are a bit young they are still great resources, and Little Women is on that list:
    http://ourbusyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2009/12/booklists-for-history-part-2-civil-war.html

    How are you going to cover American History? Chronologically or through biographies or what?
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  3. @ Cheryl -- Does that tell you how busy I've been? I haven't had time to even think about Twitter in -- what? -- two weeks? Seems like it's been at least that long.

    @ Tristan -- I'll cover American history chronologically, using great books like Johnny Tremain and Across Five Aprils (loved those two with Brianna), biographies, and as many hands-on activities as we can reasonably fit into our schedule. I'll be sure to take a peek at your book list when I start planning. Thanks!
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  4. No fair! We didn't get any snow! :(

    We are doing some re-planning around here, too.
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  5. Thanks for hosting the Weekly Wrap-Up...even if I make it over here only every other week. :)

    I have had a busy week or two as well. This weekend is going to be full as well..sigh. Wish I had time to do a little teacher planning as well.

    Thanks again,
    Barb
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  6. Timez Attack looks like a great resource! My daughter is having a hard time with multiplication. I think we'll give this a try.
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  7. We got snow too! So much fun since we don't see snow too often around here either.

    I love American History as well! I noticed in your curriculum list that you use Truth Quest. I would love to hear how you use it and how you like it. I am thinking about it next year but am afraid it will require too much planning and not provide any structured work including tests. I am not a huge fan of SOTW and would probably use something else as my spine.
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  8. @ Lisa -- We haven't been using TQ much lately. Brianna, the one who uses it, has been following her interested in an independent study of history. She's really been into it and following a very logical, chronological path, starting with WWI, so I haven't wanted to interrupt her.

    I'm thinking of using it with Josh and Megan, though, as we get into American history. It's what I used with Brianna. It doesn't provide any tests and it does require more planning on my part. Honestly, I usually wind up using it more or less as a book list.
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  9. We had some unusual snow this week too. And to think we went all the way to Michigan last month so the girls could see some and we didn't even have to waste the trip. LOL And we barely saw any snow in Michigan.
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  10. Thanks for the info Kris!
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  11. I loved School House Rock as a kid. I introduced it to my daughter and she appreciated it just as much. It really helped with times tables. For me as a child it helped me memorize the Preamble. Since you are starting American History and help in that arena too. Gotta love Elbow Room. Also check out the Liberty Kids episodes.
    Blessings
    Diane
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  12. @ Diane -- The Preamble song is one of my favorites (second to Interjections). We'll definitely be pulling it in when we study American history. Thanks for the other suggestions, too.
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  13. We had a muddle threw week too, I think we were too excited and tired from last Sunday and just started the week off wrong. Hopefully next week is better.
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  14. I really like this "weekly wrap-Up" link up idea!
    I think it would be a great accountability tool for me to do!
    As soon as things settle down here (we just moved into our new home yesterday), I'll be linking up too!
    Thanks!
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  15. I love Schoolhouse Rock. How many times a week do you do SOTW? We are STILL on vol. I. We didn't do school alot in the fall so we are a little behind. But it seems like you just started Vol 2 yesterday! :)

    I really need to get back into doing weekly wrap ups.
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  16. @ Nekey -- Sometimes we do a chapter a week, sometimes two. It just depends on whether we're doing any supplemental reading and hands-on activities or just reading the text. We'll probably just be reading for the rest of Vol. 2, since we're reading to get to American history.
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  17. re history: my recommendation is that you NOT ditch story of the world entirely, but instead study world & u.s. history concurrently: a chunk of world history followed by a chunk of u.s. history from the same time period, or vv if you prefer. this is what we do and i would never again do it any other way. after all, world history still continued even after the colonies were formed, and furthermore, world events of the time have INFLUENCED american history. i know we all studied american history in a vacuum when we were growing up, and i did the same thing w/my older kids, but then i was enlightened! :-) i wanted better than that for my younger kids.

    so you can't wait to get into american history? great, do it!-- but when you get to a certain point, say the mid-1700's, STOP and go back and do an overview of WORLD history during that same time period. if you use sow for that, you can move through it fairly quickly so you can get back to the u.s. then go into the revolution, westward expansion, etc, and again, stop before you get to civil war and go back and finish sow 3 to get a picture of world events. etc, etc.

    when i embarked on this course, i found a great resource to help me pull together a study of u.s. & world hist with the emphasis on u.s.: biblioplan. it organized our history into world & u.s. chunks and gave spine readings, individual & family lit, & writing ideas. unfortunately (imho), bp has reworked the curriculum so that it now mixes u.s. & world together rather than alternating them in chunks and no longer places greater emphasis on u.s. you could try to find the 2005 version, though. (i might even be willing to sell you mine, tho' i'm not sure about that.) even with the changes, tho, i think it is a valuable resource for the price.

    thanks in part to bp, what i have used for the u.s. portion of our history is history of us by joy hakim. yes, it is secular, but very well written. i read aloud from it some and have my 8th-grader read some on his own (tho usually not my 5th-grader) and some we skip bc there is a lot. maybe too old for josh & megan?, but could be a good background source for you to read.

    sorry, i know that was looooooong. it's your fault for bringing up history... :-)
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