Weekly Wrap Up

We have had one of those weeks where you actually get a lot done! I love those weeks and they seem to come far and few between around here. It seems that I always feel that there is/was more that I needed to get accomplished. Not this week! We have been busy and productive and (for the most part) in really good spirits! In the last weekly wrap up that I did, I had to admit that I had been slacking on science. Well, not this week! On a side note, I finally decided to go ahead and order the Alpha Omega LifePac for D and D. We jumped ahead to Life Pac #5 because we were already studying matter before I decided to order the curriculum so we just kept on with what we were talking about.   We started the week off with a simple experiment about physical changes.  Like all good scientists, we started off by reading our directions!

Next, we labeled our cups (little brother did "c"), and put the ice cubes in the cups (one had cold water, one had hot water, the other three had no water, but one of those went in the freezer, one in the refrigerator, and the other on the counter).  We did our observations and filled in our chart.  We learned that, in this experiment, water was still water even though it might have changed its form.  Physcial change - woohoo!

Later on in the week, we talked about chemical changes.  This was a really "cool" experiment (at least that's what my kiddos said).  We started out by measuring some baking soda and putting it in an empty water bottle.  Then we measured the vinegar and used a funnel to pour it into a balloon.  As soon as we placed the balloon on the top of the water bottle, it began to inflate.  You see, we had taken two different types of matter and mixed them together to create a totally new matter.  Chemical change - woohoo!

Yes, I know they are wearing the same shirts as the earlier pictures.  I've already addressed this little issue before.  I enjoy doing laundry.  I do it frequently.  Apparently too frequently, and so my kids basically wear the same clothes everyday.  It doesn't matter if I put the shirts in the very bottom of their drawer, they will dig them out.  Anyway, moving on . . .

We also read a great book about matter called What is the World Made Of?  All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases.

In math, the boys are just trucking along!  Little man is a little over half way through with his first grade book even though he is only in kindergarten.  He is not some kind of math genius or anything, it is just that the curriculum we use makes this totally doable.  The older boys are on schedule to finish their 3rd grade book and move on the to 4th grade book before we break for Christmas.  However, I might slow down a bit and just start the new book right after the break.  We will see. 

In History, we finished up the Aztecs and Incas and are still discussing the Mayans.  Our read-aloud book has been The Sign of the Beaver, and all of the boys are really enjoying this one.  Our last read aloud, um, not so much.  So it's nice to really be enjoying this one!  The bigger boys finished up reading Pocahontas and the Strangers and are now reading Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims.  To be perfectly honest, they have enjoyed the book about Squanto a little bit more than Pocahontas.  I think it is just because they are full fledged in this whole "we don't like girls or anything at all that has to do with girls" stage right now.

Little man was super excited because he read his first "real' book this week.  He has enjoyed his Abeka and Sonlight readers, but I could tell he was getting a little bored.  So, I pulled out an oldie but goodie and he was so excited.  I could tell that he felt so grown to be reading a "real" book.  We've started another "real" book, Put Me In The Zoo, but when we finish it we will go back to our readers for a little while.  He was so proud of himself (oh, okay, so was I) that I had to take his picture with his first "real" book.

I guess that about sums up our week for the most part.  Oh yeah, we also did four different baseball games and two different football practices!  Don't forget to head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what everybody else has been up to this week!