January 25 - 29

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's favorite thing this week was finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.  He was so excited to finish the whole series.  The order of his favorites goes like this.  First, Goblet of fire; second, Half Blood Prince; third, Deathly Hallows; fourth, Chamber of Secrets; Fifth, Prisoner of Azkaban; Sixth, Sorcerer's Stone; and Lastly, Order of the Phoenix.  

The next series on his list to read is the Percy Jackson series.  

MARISSA

Marissa is loving her new math book.  It is colorful and for the most part, she is able to work on it without a lot of help or instruction.  She likes math, but really doesn't like working on the computer or iPad very much so we've been on the lookout for a fun workbook that would be good for her.  

CALEB

Caleb's favorite thing this week was Musikgarten class.  They finished up their study of American Indians by making a totem pole with each child adding their animal.  Caleb's animal is called "Strong Gorilla" with all sorts of powers and abilities.  They got to eat popcorn, nuts and seeds and corn chips to learn about the different foods that Native Americans from different parts of the American continent ate and how they lived.  He had a lot of fun with this unit!

OTHER

BEAR LAKE

The kids got lots of extra PE time in this week with our weekend trip to Bear Lake.  Preston and Marissa got to ride a snowmobile with their dad and all three kids spent hours in the swimming pool and sledding down a huge hill.  It was a blast and great to get out of town for a few days!

January 18 - 22

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's favorite thing this week was purchasing the "Overlord Dragon" set with Christmas money from his grandparents and putting it together this week when it arrived.  

We've also been working on putting together a better arrangement for the growing number of Legos.  He helped me design a Lego area for his room and with the help of a friend, we built a new toy room for the kids to play.  It was a really good learning experience from start to finish for all the kids on sorting and donating toys, and designing, constructing, painting shelves and then cleaning and organizing toys.  

MARISSA

Marissa's favorite thing was her tech class this week.  Her Doodle Crate arrived in the mail and she made clay luminaries. She was able to do them without any help at all.  That has been a really good tech class for her this year.  Her luminaries turned out so cute!!

CALEB

Caleb's favorite thing this week was finishing his second "Dick and Jane" book.  He is starting on the third one and then will earn a small Lego set when that goal is complete.  His reading is improving so much and his confidence is growing as well.  

OTHER

LANGUAGE ARTS

Marissa started a story for language arts this week.  She brainstormed what it would be able, the setting, characters, etc.  Then she had to come up with a title for her story and make a title page.  The following day, we worked on her story using narration and my typing skills.  It's a work in progress, but going to be fun if she finishes it.  

Preston had to draw a volcano using pastels as part of his language arts' lesson one day.  He did a pretty good job, but he definitely prefers to do art assignments of his choosing instead of assigned ones.  

NUTRITION

We've been learning a little bit about nutrition, health and cooking.  The kids were being goofballs with their fruit this week so I took a couple pictures to remember these cute kids at this moment in time.  

P.E.

Preston has karate and Marissa has tumbling, but we still try to get outside and keep active the rest of the week.  With the weather so unpredictable this time of year, we try to get out whenever we can.  This week, climbing was our favorite thing! 

TYPING

Typing is a regular part of Preston and Marissa's routine, but this week Marissa decided to quiz herself by filling out the keyboard by memory.  She did an awesome job!

January 11 - 15

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's been working really hard on math this week.  He is learning about fractions.  He's been learning about equivalent fractions, least common denominator and adding and subtracting fractions.  We pulled out fraction magnets to grasp the concept of which fractions were bigger and it helped to have a visual while he was learning.  

MARISSA

Marissa's favorite thing this week was working in the kitchen.  Preston learned about Italy in his language arts' book and had an assignment and a recipe to make gnocchis.  All the kids helped me make gnocchis, which turned out really fun.  Their dad is from Argentina and he grew up with his "Abuela" making gnocchis for them.  It was fun for the kids to learn a recipe that was meaningful and delicious.  Marissa wanted to keep helping in the kitchen so we made waffles as well.  She also made me breakfast in bed one day with fruits made into cute animal shapes.  She's excited about helping in the kitchen!

CALEB

Caleb started reading "Dick and Jane" books this week.  He is doing really well and his confidence is growing.  And...no he doesn't get dressed half the time.  He lives in pajamas and never wears shoes (even in the winter playing at the park).  

OTHER

SCIENCE

The kids wanted to spend a little bit of time learning about the Solar System so we pulled some fun blow up planets out of the attic and learned the names and where each planet is located.  Our oldest brother is taking astronomy as a junior in high school and had to give a presentation on Mercury recently.  It was fun to learn a little bit more about Mercury from him and to study a little bit about planets - and then play "poison planet ball" on the tramp with all the blowup planets.  ;) 

RELATIONSHIPS

One of the things we love about homeschooling is the relationships we form and the skills our children are able to learn being around siblings more often.  This week, I witnessed friendship and love from Marissa as she helped Caleb with his new phonics workbook (without being asked).  Later in the week,  Marissa was having a sad day.  I turned around and Caleb was comforting his big sister while I was finishing our read aloud on the couch.  They are all sweet, helpful and have a level of empathy for others that is beautiful to watch!  

December 21 - January 8

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston's favorite thing the past few weeks was finishing "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince."  He loved it!  He said it is his second favorite book so far.  He just started "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" and is excited to finish the series.  The cool part about finishing book 6 is it put him over his 50 chapter book mark.  We had an agreement that he would earn a Lego set after he read 50 chapter books.  We later amended it to define a chapter book as 200 pages for the larger books he was reading.  He finished his "50th book" at the end of December meaning he read approximately 10,000 pages this past year, which was a HUGE accomplishment for him.  He earned a Ninjago Lego set and put it together in no time at all.  It came with an exclusive mini-figure "Pink Zane"  that is now one of his favorites.  

MARISSA

Marissa did a review for language arts.  The unit reviewed the concepts of the letter "a" saying "ah" and "uh", the letters "wr" and "wh" and words with open syllable vowels.  It was a fun review with games.  She loved cutting out the pieces and doing all the activities to practice words she has been learning for a fun review.  

CALEB

Caleb is working on reviewing reading with "I See Sam" books and "Bob" books to make sure his fluency is good and to practice easier books than the level he has learned.  We have been adding in spelling words using words found in the books to practice handwriting since that is something he needs to practice more while he is learning to read.  He did really well.  I have to remind him how to form letters and writing is definitely a difficult skill for him still, but he figured it out and his spelling was great without help from mom.  

OTHER

BUILDING AND ENGINEERING

I can safely say building and engineering got A LOT of practice the past few weeks.  Presents mostly fit into this category.  The kids got magnetic shapes and dominos from Grandma and Grandpa and spent lots of time building with those.  Preston and Caleb got Lego sets from everyone imaginable (including each other).  Let's just say, we will be building a new, bigger display shelf for all the Legos to have a spot in the toy room in the next few weeks.  Caleb got an awesome Mine Craft Lego set and put it together all by himself.  Preston got the Razor Crest Star Wars set (which was huge and super awesome and he put it together in a few hours - he is an incredible Lego builder).  We had a great time celebrating the Christmas holiday and learning at the same time.  

Building his Mine Craft set

Caleb's Mine Craft set - COMPLETED!

Building with magnetic tiles

Marissa built a big house for her new doll with magnetic tiles.  Later, Batman rescued her when she started playing with Preston.  ;)

Preston's "Wu's Battle Drago" set that Caleb bought him for Christmas with his own money :)

Another structure built with magnetic tiles

Preston's favorite Christmas present!

Preston's Razor Crest set (so AWESOME)

Caleb's Mars Research Shuttle Lego set he got from his Abuela (grandma) for Christmas

Preston building with dominos 

Preston and Marissa building with dominos

More dominos

Caleb's Spiderman Mech that Preston bought him with his own money for Christmas