February 25 - March 1

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book this week.  He is working on early multiplication skills.  He gets frustrated so we are doing a lot of extra practice with wrap-ups and math tables.  He also learned about Fibonacci numbers with the other kids (see below).   

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book this week.  She caught on to perimeter quickly and is eager to work on multiplication skills along side Preston.  We also learned about Fibonacci numbers because we were playing with seashells and Marissa noticed the shape and pattern.  We watched a really cool YouTube video that explains Fibonacci in nature (and then watched several more).  Marissa LOVED it!  She thrives when math makes sense and is relatable to something in real life so this was an awesome discovery for us.   

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his math book this week.  He also played with seashells during our study of Spain and sorted and counted them.  He was also very interested in Fibonacci numbers and the cool patterns that are everywhere.  It was a really good introduction to a more complicated subject for him.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He has also been working a lot on his reading skills.  His out loud reading is becoming more and more fluid, which has both of us (well, me mainly) shouting for joy!  Preston has struggled with so many learning challenges over the years (pretty much beginning with his time in the NICU as a newborn baby) and has faced an uphill battle to learn not only academic skills, but life skills as well.  He spent years in different therapies to develop his brain, fine motor skills and cognitive abilities.  His academic career started with special ed preschool and an IEP followed him around for years until we decided to continue at home without extra intervention from the school district, which was frustrating to diagnose and difficult to coordinate.  I have spent countless hours worried about this child and  how to help him succeed despite the many obstacles he has faced in his short life.  Watching him make real strides and have a breakthrough in his ability to read, comprehend, spell and understand grammar has been nothing short of miraculous.  Little by little, Preston is making progress and his reading is improving.  He is reading more and more for pleasure, which has me super excited for the day we will make our way to bigger chapter books when the world will open up for him in an unimaginable way.  

Marissa: 

Marissa completed two assignments in her language arts book this week.  She also spent extra time reviewing early readers like her Bob books.  We are going to continue reviewing and practicing extra out loud reading rather than push through language arts curriculum with frustration.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed two assignments in his language arts book this week.  He had a lot of extra practice with letters and numbers this week because I recently reorganized our school closet, which brought new excitement to old games, puzzles and activities.  

HISTORY (WORLD GEOGRAPHY)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

We are still studying Europe (at a slower pace since we have had field trips and illness to contend with this month).  This week we learned about Spain.  We watched a YouTube video about Spain, learned a little bit about Pablo Picasso and learned a few words in Spanish.  Our kids are somewhat bilingual (dad speaks to them in Spanish, but they usually reply in English).  They understand almost everything, but only speak a little so far.  I pulled out some fun teaching tools and taught the numbers 1-20 in Spanish for our co-op class.  We learned the numbers and a word for each number.  It was good practice for my kids and new information for our co-op friends. 

The kids played with seashells after learning that a big part of Spain is surround by ocean (the Atlantic on one side and the Mediterranean Sea on the other side).  Marissa decided this was a great time to get out her seashell collection and many games were played as a result.  We also got a lot of extra math practice in during this spontaneous seashell discovery.  

TECH (BUILDING & ENGINEERING)

Preston:

Preston built with Lego's for building and engineering this week.  He created a spaceship with some of the loose pieces in his Lego bin.  Preston is taking two friends to see the Lego Movie 2 for his birthday in two weeks and has been talking about the first Lego Movie nonstop.  He was apparently inspired by Benny's spaceship when he started creating this week.

Marissa:
Marissa finished the second half of her Kiwi Crate on polarized light for building and engineering.  It was really cool to see how the colors changed based on how she rotated the lens while wearing the special glasses.

Caleb:

Caleb built a small Lego set he had left over from Christmas that was still in the package.  It required quite a bit of help from Preston, but he loved playing with it once it was all put together.

OPTIONAL (PE)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class three times this week.  He is excited and nervous for his belt test in two weeks. 

Marissa:

Marissa attended her tumbling class this week.  She might be changing classes to be in the best level to continue learning so we are trying out a new class time next week to see if it will work.   

Caleb:

Caleb attended his karate class two times this week.  He seems to know everything he needs to know for his belt test in two weeks, but he's used to following along with his sensei so we will see what happens.  

OTHER

Marissa:

Marissa had a piano recital this week.  She did awesome!  She had two songs, one composition she composed herself and played with her teacher and an ensemble piece she performed with her class.