April 20 - 24

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book this week.  He also worked on math facts in the MathSeeds app several times.   

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book this week.  She also worked on math facts in the MathSeeds app several times.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three assignments in his math book this week.  He also watched his online “Math through Music and Movement” class on YouTube.  They read a book called "Dinosaur Deals."  It was really cute!  He doesn't like Zoom classes very much, but he does like listening to books being read over YouTube so we're doing that more and more.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also completed three modules in TTRS and 30 minutes of reading every day.  He is currently reading "Ralph S. Mouse" for his silent reading and has a goal to complete 50 chapter books this summer.  

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four assignments in her language arts book this week.  She also completed two modules in TTRS and 20 minutes of reading every day.  She made an acrostic poem for one of her language arts assignments, which was pretty cute.  

We found ourselves on a Story Time reading on YouTube this week, which was really fun.  One of Marissa's favorites was a story called "If I Was An Astronaut" that was read by an astronaut while she is up in space.  It was so much fun and created a curiosity and desire for more information.  We watched several more videos about astronauts and how they live while they are in space.  YouTube is definitely not my favorite as you never know what you will get, but with mom's help, we are finding some gems that we love and will revisit in the future.

Caleb:

Caleb completed three lessons in his “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” book.  He also watched his “Sing, Read and Write” class on YouTube.  They are continuing to read chapters from "Mr. Popper's Penguins."  All the kids are enjoying listening to the chapters being read aloud by Caleb's awesome teacher.

Another fun story we read came from a YouTube channel of a grandpa reading a book.  We listened to "The Mysterious Tadpole" and loved it so much!

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston & Marissa:

Preston and Marissa attended their “Let’s Rock American Government” Zoom class for ZigArts this week.  They listened to several bills and voted on them.  They will be presenting on their bills next week.   

Caleb:

Caleb (and the other kids) watched his “I Love America” class on YouTube.  She read a story about Thomas Edison.  They were really excited to learn about all the invention and even about how many times he tried and failed at many different things.

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

The kids all made crayon rocks this week for art.  They also watched a movie about starting a business.

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class over zoom two times this week.  It is hard for us to time it to make it to the live classes each day, but he is also getting in extra exercise with the trampoline, his bike and scooter.  We also FINALLY put together the basketball hoop.  Preston is THRILLED and practices every single day!

Marissa:

Marissa rode her bike, went for walks and jumped on the trampoline for P.E. this week.  She also practiced clogging in the garage.  

Caleb:

Caleb listened to his CD for his Musikgarten class this week and practiced singing some of the songs.  He also practiced his penguin performance for his "Sing Read and Write" class.  They are performing to Schubert's Military March.  He LOVES that song!  

April 13 - 17

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book this week.  He is working on basic multiplication and division.  He gets confused, but we are reviewing the concepts over and over and he is starting to pick up the concept of simple multiplication and division.     

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book this week.  She also completed three lessons on the Math Seeds app this week.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed five lessons on the MathSeeds app this week.  His sister is mad at him because he is two maps ahead of her, but he spends more time on the app than she did and is much more motivated by video game type rewards than Marissa.  Caleb also practiced singing his "Scales and Arpeggios" song for his “Math through Music and Movement” class at ZigArts and watched a YouTube video from his teacher reading a book called "Probability Pistachio."  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book this week.  He also completed three modules in TTRS (he's getting so good at typing and it really has improved his spelling and reading - I LOVE the curriculum).  He also completed 30 minutes of reading every day.  He is almost finished with "James and the Giant Peach."  

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four assignments in her language arts book this week.  She also completed two modules in TTRS and 20 minutes of reading every day.  She worked on the readers in her language arts as well as finishing another book in the "Deckawoo Drive" series.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three lessons in his “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” book.  He also read a couple more "Bob" books to continue practicing his reading.  

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston & Marissa:

Preston and Marissa attended their “Let’s Rock American Government” class over Zoom this week.  They continued their presentation of their bills for votes of the other student legislators.    

Caleb:

Caleb attended his “I Love America” class at ZigArts this week.  He watched a YouTube video from his teacher reading about book called "Roughing it on the Oregon Trail."  He decided he didn't want to draw a wagon and instead just watched the video intently on the iPad.  

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

The kids practiced a new kind of art called water color resist this week.  We have been sent videos from our "Art of Business" teacher and are trying new things at home to keep working on our art skills and find which types of things we want to sell through our business.  

Marissa called her work of art "A Rainy Sunset"

 

Caleb titled his art "The Rainy Day"

This was Caleb's extra painting that was an abstract work

He calls it "Terrified Storm"

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended his zoom karate class four times this week.  

Marissa:

Marissa practiced her tumbling on the trampoline.  She also rode her bike and scooter around the neighborhood and to the park.    

Caleb:

Caleb listened to his Musikgarten CD and practiced singing and dancing to the music.   

OTHER

Easter fun!  

Working on the garden together!

Building forts and clubhouses...

Picnics and read-a-loud time when the weather permits.  We're still working on Anne of Green Gables.

New trampoline mat.  Big brother jumped right through the old mat so we ordered a new one and after a few painful days of Caleb living without his tramp therapy, we are back up and running with the trampoline.  

March 30 - April 10

MATH

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his math book over the past two weeks.  We have also been playing a lot of games together as a family.  

Marissa:

Marissa completed four assignments in her math book over the past two weeks.  She also practices math facts using the MathSeeds app when she has extra time.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three lessons on the MathSeeds app over the past two weeks.  He is getting up so high that I'm shocked how difficult the lessons are, but he seems to be able to figure them out using logic so we are using that for math for the most part for Caleb right now.  

Caleb got a new game in the mail called "Sneaky Snacky Squirrel" that he has played in his Musikgarten class.  We played it several times as a family.  It's simple, but really fun.  We've been filling in math with extra games during this time at home.  

LANGUAGE ARTS

Preston:

Preston completed four assignments in his language arts book over the past two weeks.  He also completed three modules in TTRS (sometimes 4 - he's trying to get ahead).  He also completed 30 minutes of reading every day.  He finished reading "The BFG" and then everyone got to watch the movie together.  It was so much fun!  He decided to read another book by Ronald Dahl so he started "James and the Giant Peach."  

Marissa: 

Marissa completed four assignments in her language arts book over the past two weeks.  She also completed two modules in TTRS and completed 20 minutes of reading every day.  She's reading fun books that are the "Deckawoo Drive Series" books which follow the "Mercy Watson Series" books.  She is really enjoying them, but the words a pretty hard so I have to sit with her and help her quite a bit.  Marissa has also decided to start working in a new handwriting book because she really wants to learn cursive.  

Caleb:

Caleb completed three lessons in his “Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons” book over the past two weeks.  He has also been reading "Bob" books to me, but I'm going slow so he doesn't get frustrated as he breaks through the early reader stage.  

As a family, we are reading "Anne of Green Gables."  We are about half way through so it will be a few more weeks before we finish, but the kids are LOVING it.  We have a plan to watch the movie when we finish if we can find it somewhere.  

AMERICAN HISTORY

Preston & Marissa:

Preston and Marissa attended their “Let’s Rock American Government” class through Zoom this week.  They presented bills to the committee for a vote.  Marissa's bill is about keeping people safe during storms.  Preston's bill is about not judging other people.  It was a good experience for them to have to prepare and present their bills in front of the class online.    

Caleb:

Caleb was sent a lesson and assignment for his "I Love America" class.  We watched a movie about Rosa Parks and he and Marissa drew a picture of a bus.  We also listened to "American the Beautiful" and started practicing it in case we are still able to have a performance at the end of the year.   

ENTREPRENUER (The Art of Business)

Preston, Marissa & Caleb:

We have been practicing different kinds of art for class this week.  We were also sent a link of a video about being an entrepreneur that we watched together.

OPTIONAL (Karate, Tumbling, Musikgarten)

Preston:

Preston attended his karate class over Zoom two times the past two weeks.  It's not quite the same as being in class, but it has been so good for him to still get to practice and get some exercise as well as check in with a sensei.  

Marissa:

Marissa has been practicing tumbling on the trampoline.  She also rode her bike and scooter to the park and around the cul-de-sac.  

Caleb:

Caleb has been listening to songs from his Musikgarten class and dancing and singing to them.  We also try to complete some sort of craft or art project like he would get to do if he were able to attend his class.  

OTHER

Preston & Marissa:

Preston and Marissa switched from spring break to FaceTime piano lessons.  It wasn't ideal, but they were able to go through the next songs so they can continue to practice and progress.  

The kids have spent a lot of time building forts - both inside and out! 

Marissa created an outdoor "washing station"

Tea parties in the backyard!

Lots of building is happening around here these days!

We've played a lot of dress-ups to fill our need for theater the past several weeks.  

We helped big brother make a mouse trap car for his engineering class!  Everyone had a great time...and it actually works!