The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar

This week's FIAR book was The Wild Horses of Sweetbriar by Natalie Kinsey-Wornoc. It's a sweet book about a girl whose family moves to an isolated island for a year. As the title suggests, there are wild horses on this island. The boys loved shouting out "FLORA" or "FAUNA" during our science discussion of the book. (My ears are still ringing! When will I learn not to encourage them to shout out answers? lol) My favorite part was that the girl, after she grew up, decided against visiting this favorite place of hers for fear that it isn't quite all that she remembered. Besides the flora & fauna discussion, we also talked about the pros & cons of living in isolation, first person narration, similes & metaphors, paint spattering for effect, & food preservation (canning & drying are both discussed during winter preparations on the island). We didn't get a chance to put together a lapbook for this book, so we will definitely revisit this for an afternoon of cutting & pasting.

I'm on the verge of Spring Fever Burnout (as evidenced by the many learning activities crossed out in my lesson plan book), so we're going to take a Teacher's Inservice next week. Haha! We'll visit Grandma & Grandpop, I'll read gobs of books, and we'll all take a much-needed break from school.

Finally - Multiplication!

Jimmy was really excited this week - we finally got to multiplication in his math lessons. My little nerd has been teaching himself multiplication for about 2 years now. =) He was so excited that he has started doing a better job in all aspects of his math lessons. Today's speed drill, for example, was his best time ever. He completed the 1 minute speed drill in 1 minute 9 seconds. The previous record was 1 minute 17 seconds. Go Jimmy!

This week's FIAR book was Andy & the Circus by Ellis Credle. It was a loooooong book. I ended up only reading it 3 days this week. Our lessons for the book were on social studies (helping others even when it puts our own desires at risk), art (the book's monochrome illustrations, using short lines to outline a cloud to give a fluffy impression, performance art at a circus & not at a circus), and science (there is a lot about balance in this book). The discussions about balance will come in handy this summer, since Randy hopes to get Jimmy off of training wheels.

On Thursday, my poor little bubs went to the dentist for fillings. It was the second of 2 visits. We learned that we have all been bad about taking care of their teeth. The boys learned better brushing techniques & Mommy learned that she needs to floss their teeth & brush Caleb's teeth at his evening brushing. I feel horrible that I let this happen. Thankfully, Jimmy did not need fillings in any of his adult teeth (Caleb doesn't have any adult teeth yet).

At the dentist appointment, I did some light school with Caleb while Jimmy got his teeth done (he was first). We did his phonics lesson, his catechism, and his German memory work. I had planned to do math, spelling, & memory work with Jimmy during Caleb's turn, but Jimmy wasn't feeling well after his fillings. He seems to have a more difficult time coming out from being under the gas than Caleb. Plus, the dentist had to numb a little of Jimmy's mouth for one filling. Poor guy just wanted to snuggle. So Jimmy skipped school on Thursday.

Speaking of skipping school, I had originally planned on taking the week after Easter as a school holiday while Randy & I were on vacation. Those plans changed; we are no longer going away. Easter is more than a month away... & I'm starting to think that we all need a school break. I have learned in the past that the boys - Jimmy especially - tend to have fabulous mental breakthroughs during our school breaks. I think I'm getting a little burnt out, too. As I joked with my MIL, it might be time for a teacher inservice! =)

Lapbook

This week, we started our Five in a Row (FIAR) curriculum. We've used that for every year since we started homeschooling. It's a literature-based curriculum that uses classic children's books to discuss social studies, language arts, art, science, & math. In past years, this curriculum has been the focus of our schooling. It is designed to be the main curriculum with just a need to add an additional math & phonics/reading curriculum. Some people use all three volumes of FIAR each school year, one for each trimester of the school year. I, however, use one volume a year. This year, we're on volume 3. Volume 3 only has 15 books. Instead of spacing the books out over the school year, or using each book for more than the usual 1 week, I decided to use FIAR for the second half of the year. (In the first half, we read through a History and a Biology curriculum.)

Our FIAR book this week was The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco. It's a cute story about a grandfather who takes his granddaughter Mary Ellen on a wild hunt for a bee tree. At the end, Mary Ellen learns that some wonderful things take work but are worth the effort. Just like the run through the countryside was worth the sweet honey, the time it takes to read a book is worth the adventure experienced.

This year, I decided to give lapbooking a try. I've heard great things from other FIAR lapbookers. A lapbook is a folder with artwork, flipbooks, and minibook fact books glued inside. Jimmy made a lapbook for The Bee Tree with a map of Mary Ellen's bee tree hunt, a hexagon/honeycomb mini worksheet, a vocabulary flip book (of vocab words from the book), and an onomatopoeia flip book (onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like the thing it is describing, like "buzz"). Caleb made a lapbook for honeybees, with a diagram of a honeybee, a "busy bee checklist" of a bee's daily activities, a flipbook of bee dance moves (dance is how bees communicate how to get to the good pollen), and some bee clip art. We all had fun, but I think maybe Mommy needs to let the students do the cutting & pasting next time. ;)

Jimmy's big news of the week is that he has finally gotten to multiplication in his math lessons! He has been looking forward to this for, oh, about 2 years now. lol

Caleb's big news of the week is that we are 1/4 of the way through his phonics lessons! He is doing a fabulous job & is well on his way to becoming a great reader.

Life Interruptus

I like my routines. I thrive on routines. This week tested that. But I think we all survived! I had a work meeting on Thursday that disrupted Wednesday (trying to get some of Thursday's work done ahead of time), Thursday (they just did independent work), and Friday (Thursday's catch-up plus Friday's usual work). Rather chaotic.

Caleb is really doing well with his phonics/reading program. This program wasn't Jimmy's style; it really shows how different the boys are. Jimmy had a fantastic spelling week. He got them all correct on this week's quiz. This week's words were because, ball, brother, other, fight, stand, lunch, and laugh. (We get our spelling words from Jimmy's misspellings in his journal.)

Besides getting 100% on his spelling quiz, Jimmy got 100% on both parts of this week's math test (written & oral).

So despite the craziness for Mama, the boys seemed to do just fine!