August 30 - September 3

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston attended a kickoff for classes he will be taking this fall on Thursday.  It was all all day event with hiking, biking, climbing and repelling.  They also did a service project, piling up big sticks and logs to prevent forest fires at a local bible camp.  They had a book discussion, activities like archery, 9 square, water balloon volleyball and nerf gun wars.  Dinner, dessert, a speaker and then a dance.  It was an incredible day and he can't wait to get started with classes next week!

9 Square

Repelling

Rock climbing

MARISSA

Marissa's favorite thing this week was completing her Doodle Crate that came in the mail for her tech class.  It was making her very own working clock.  She got to paint and design it and then line it all up and put the parts together to make it work.  It was so fun for her and now hangs proudly in her bedroom!

CALEB

Caleb decided he wanted to do a Kiwi Crate when he saw Marissa's arrive so we pulled out the box (we have a few left in the attic from previous years).  He chose one that was all about stars and the solar system.  Caleb got to make a lantern with constellations on it.  We pulled out a book with constellations and he chose 4: The Big Dipper, Scorpius, Leo and Orion.  He did a great job and his lantern is so much fun, especially in the dark.  

He also made a gear that turns around to show how the earth rotates and orbits the sun and how the moon orbits the earth.  It was a little technical, but he loved it once we figured it all out.  

When we were reading all about stars, one of the optional activities was to make s'mores in a homemade solar oven...so of course we had to try that.  That may have been the highlight of the whole day!  ;) 

OTHER

Caleb is obsessed with gardening, cooking and nature in general.  We didn't get much of a garden going this year because it was super busy, but we did end up with a couple tomato plants that grew on their own.  Caleb was thrilled to picked a cherry tomato from his plant this week!  We also are lucky to have friends who own a farm close by.  They invited us to go pick peaches.  We've been enjoying peaches, peaches and cream and peach cobbler for a week! Caleb also got really excited to find a ladybug outside one day.  

As part of Caleb's garden, he used his screen time allotment this week to build a garden in Minecraft.  He also put a dog named "Pinkie" in his garden because Marissa's favorite stuffed animal is a dog named "Pinkie."  Cute kids! 

Marissa loves her bunnies!  We had them neutered this week.  Well, that was the plan at least.  We were all surprised to get a call from the vet telling us one of the bunnies is a girl.  Their names are Oreo and Ash and we were told they were both boys.  Ash is actually a girl.  The kids could not believe it and said her name must really be Ashley.  We still call her "Ash" for short though.  

Caleb built his Minecraft Lego set that he earned for finishing his curriculum last week and Preston filmed him to put on his YouTube channel.  

August 16 - 27

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston finished reading "The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings" this week.  He loved it and is looking forward to watching the movie.

MARISSA

Marissa's favorite thing this week was painting during our read aloud of the book "Call it Courage."  She loves to create and finds many opportunities to fit art and creativity into her every day learning.  

CALEB

Caleb finished All About Reading, Level 1 this week.  He's excited to get started with AAR, Level 2 next week.  He earned a Lego set for completing an entire curriculum and spent some time putting that together for his building and engineering class as well.  

OTHER

P.E.

We went on a fun hike in Centerville.  The kids all loved identifying plants and small animals we found along the way.  We saw mushrooms, butterflies, a gray squirrel, humming bird and more.  The kids also LOVED playing on the rope swing when we got to the top! :)

SCIENCE

We went to the zoo for a field trip.  We decided to feed the giraffes because we got there right at feeding time.  It was so cool to see their long tongues reach out to grab the piece of lettuce.  

BIRTHDAY

Caleb turned 8 on August 18.  We celebrated with time swimming.  He decided he wanted to make his own cake this year.  Marissa ended up helping him a little bit, but the two of them made his birthday cake all by themselves.  Pretty amazing!

May 10 - 14

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston had a review section in his language arts book this week.  He reviewed sentence diagramming, run-on sentences, semi-colons, prepositional phrases and spelling words.  He did a great job!  I love that we have found something that is helping him progress in his reading, writing, spelling and grammar without being too all-consuming.  

MARISSA

Marissa finished her language arts book this week and got to move onto a new level.  Reading has been difficult for her to pick up, which affects her writing and spelling as well.  We have decided to move more slowly and go at her own pace and it is making all the difference.  She doesn't worry about which level she is on, but is proud when she accomplishes something big...like finishing a whole book!  

CALEB

Caleb has been focusing mostly on reading and writing, but still attends his Musikgarten class each week and finds time for building for his tech class.  This week, he created a couple of original Lego structures for building and engineering.    

OTHER

SCIENCE/P.E.

We explored rocks and fossils this week while we were in Moab.  We hiked to Delicate Arch for the first time.  It was just Preston, Marissa, Caleb and mom, and we made it (even though we didn't realize Caleb's shoes were way too small for him and his feet were hurting so bad from hiking so long).  It was so much fun to get in some extra outdoor time like hiking and swimming as well as a whole lot of reading!

May 3 - 7

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston built a really cool trap door out of Legos this week.  Here was our attempt at catching it on video.  

MARISSA

Marissa's favorite thing this week was making a tote bag for her tech class.  She is so artistic and creative.  I love how much fun she has creating! 

CALEB

Caleb has been focusing mostly on reading and writing.  We have gone back to an old handwriting book to really practice his letters again.  

OTHER

SCIENCE

We discovered the "Over and Under" books at the Treehouse Museum a couple of years ago, but we didn't realize there were so many of them.  Since we are spending some time working outdoors and trying to get a garden planted, we decided to read some books about nature in different areas.    

NON-FICTION

We are loving reading non-fiction picture books to learn a little bit about a lotto different people.  This week we read "Me...Jane" about Jane Goodall and a book called "Manfish" about Jacques Cousteau.  We really enjoyed them.  We also read a book called "Swirl by Swirl" about shapes in nature and talked a little bit about the Fibonacci sequence and other patterns in nature.  

April 26 - 30

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston wrote a story to describe the picture for his writing workshop this week.  He did a really good job!  

MARISSA

Marissa also had a writing assignment in her language arts book.  She wrote about what she likes about school.  I'm not sure if she was trying to earn something with all the mom flattering, but I'll take it.  ;)

CALEB

Caleb is working really hard on his reading with All About Reading.  Here are a couple of pictures of him reading and working on the word activities.  

OTHER

HISTORY

This week we read a book about the Statue of Liberty.  It talked about how it was a gift from France and also about how it represents freedom, liberty and people coming from all over the world to the USA.  

EMOTIONAL GROWTH AND CHARACTER BUILDING

We found books that might be my new favorite from the library.  I think we will be purchasing these for our home in the future.  They are called "The Good Egg," "The Bad Seed," and "The Cool Bean."  Loved them!