December 10 - 14

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four lessons in his math book this week.  He is working on adding and subtracting money, which is perfect since we have been working on adding money for our Disneyland fundraiser.   

Marissa:

Marissa completed four lessons in her math book this week.  She loves it!  She also has been asking me to quiz her on multiplication facts (something she is figuring out on her own).  So far, she is thrilled to realize how easy 0, 1, 5, 10 and even 2 can be.  I taught her a trick for figuring out 9.  She is SO EXCITED to learn a skill before her book teaches it to her.   

Caleb:

Caleb LOVES numbers.  He completed three lessons in his math book.  He also played a matching game, a sorting game and a game that includes dice to work on counting and simple addition problems.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four lessons in his language arts book this week.  He had several poems to read, which were all about summer and bugs (didn't match up well with our seasons, but we thought they were fun anyway).  One of them was a poem we have in our big Robert Louis Stevenson poetry book.  He recognized the poem before I said anything, which was a fun payday mom moment for me.  I guess he's paying attention even when it doesn't seem like it.  ;) 

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four lessons in her language arts book this week.  She isn't loving language arts right now so we are taking it easy and completing sections that are less frustrating for her.  She also did journal entries complete with illustrations for extra writing practice.   

Caleb:

Caleb completed three lessons in his language arts book this week.  We are mainly focusing on writing letters right now since fine motor skills are still a major struggle for him.  He loves laying out letter tiles and sounding short words out.  He especially loves putting nonsense words together and giggling after he realizes they don't make a word at all.  We also read a lot of stories out loud as a family.  That's our favorite time of day!  

HISTORY (WORLD GEOGRAPHY)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

We attended "Scooge: A Christmas Carol" at Beverly's Terrace Playhouse this week for World Geography.  Our friends Owen and Slade from co-op class are part of the play so we attended the play to watch them perform.  Owen plays the part of Tiny Tim.  It was so sweet to watch Preston be so excited for his friend to perform and do so well.  Marissa had already been told by Slade all of the parts he was in so she kept me informed throughout the play of what was happening next and how well her little buddy was doing.  It was very fun to participate in something that was so meaningful to us.  We took older brother, Dylan, with us and left Caleb with grandma since dad was at work.  We decided two hours was  a little too long for a 5-year-old.  Caleb got to watch his cousin's choir concert and then play at grandma's house instead.  It was a perfect night!  

We talked a little bit about England and the accents the actors had in the play.  We talked about Charles Dickens and different books he has written.  It was so much fun to discuss with the kids!  

Ready to attend the play "Scrooge: A Christmas Carol"

TECH (BUILDING & ENGINEERING)

Preston:

Preston put together his Tinker Crate this week.  It was a catapult arcade game.  We had so much fun assembling it and have had lots of fun playing the game ever since!  

Marissa:

Marissa completed the second half of the Kiwi Crate this week.  She was still learning about hydraulic power and put together a magical aquarium that colors and then erases as the hydraulic arm moves up and down.   

Caleb:

Caleb had a part of his farm kit still to put together from a month or two ago.  He and Marissa assembled the barn and put together the vegetable garden.  They had a lot of fun turning the vegetable garden into a memory matching game.  I love when they are creative and make up games without any nudging from me.  

OPTIONAL (PE)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class this week.  He is still working on learning the katas for the belt test in a couple months.   

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.  She continues to work on perfecting her back handsprings, add more together in a sequence and works on back tucks and back whips with a spotter.   

Caleb:

 Caleb attended his karate class this week.  He learned a self-defense sequence and was reminded that karate should be used to defend ourselves until we can get away and find someone to help us.  It was good for him to learn.