Week in Review: Feb. 22 - 26, 2016

We had completed this week of homeschool in North Carolina! We are still trying to get used to a new area - find libraries, grocery stores, parks, and fun stuff. We did an entire week of school though. I always find it easier to do school when we are not "home" {Louisiana}. So many people and activities vie for our time and attention, and it really distracts us. When we are away from "home", it seems we complete much more in school and have more down time.

We finished Week 4 in BiblioPlan: Ancients this week. I cannot tell you enough how perfect this has been for our family so far. Being able to include everyone at their own skill level is just wonderful. We learned about Abraham this week. We read about him in the Bible each morning, and then we read from other sources - Story of the World; the BiblioPlan Companion; and Journey Through the Bible. We had some good discussion, and although we have read this story many times, we learned some new things. For instance, Abraham's father, Terah, worshipped idols and was probably an idol-maker {according to Jewish tradition and other historical writings}. Sarai was even named for a false god! We also learned that Ishmael is credited with being the father of Islam {which I already knew, but the kids didn't}.

The kids made a notebook page on Tuesday about Abraham. I don't give them any instructions; I only give them the topic or theme. I asked them to make a notebook page about Abraham with some interesting facts. That was it. I am including a picture of all 4 of their notebook pages to show how different they all are and how all ages can participate.

{Top Left- Silas, age 5; Top Right - Mercie, age 8;

Bottom Left - Eli, age 10; Bottom Right- Mikaela, age 13}

We had a creative writing or copy-work assignment on Wednesday. Mikaela had to pretend she was a news reporter, reporting on the birth of Isaac. Eli and Mercie did copy-work from the different reading materials.

{Mercie's copywork  - The Abrahamic Covenant}

On Thursday, we worked on our map, mapping Abraham's journeys. Even Titus wants his own map to color, and he does a pretty darn good job. I am glad that even my Kindergartner and 2nd grader are getting mapping practice, even if they don't quite understand. We also added to our timelines.

{Eli's map and Mikaela's timeline}

We did not do science this week, as we are waiting on a new curriculum to come in. It's Christian Kids Explore Biology, and everyone will be participating in this! I am so excited to incorporate family-learning again, and I would love to have as many subjects as possible be completed together. So far, it's Bible, History/Geography, and now Science.

Mikaela worked in Principals of Mathematics and Easy Grammar each day. She is still reading and journaling through "It Couldn't Just Happen!" She and Eli started a new review product on Thursday - literature guides from Memoria Press. She is reading "Door in the Wall", and he is reading "Robin Hood".

Eli is reading and working through Life Of Fred's "Fractions" book. It is very easy for him, and he breezing through it. He and I work a lesson a day in Rod and Staff for grammar, and we do most of it orally.

Mercie has been working on multiplication and division in Singapore math. I also ordered the "Littlest Math Book" from The Thinking Tree for her to use, and she loves it. It starts out pretty simple, with addition and subtraction facts, but she has completed nearly half of it! She is also working through Rod and Staff grammar orally, and she completes a page in her Fun-Schooling Spelling Journal and her cursive workbook daily.

We are reviewing a phonics curriculum with Silas that we are both loving. It's Foundations A from the Logic of English. It's a multi-sensory approach to phonics that is absolutely working for him. I am so excited and so pleased with it! He is also working through Math U See Primer.

We had a pretty quiet week this week, and I enjoyed it! How was your week?