November 22 - December 3

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston has had a few really busy weeks.  Lots of papers, books, presentations...and his belt test for karate.  He earned his brown belt and is looking forward to progressing even more and earning his black belt in the future.  He's been taking karate for three years and has improved so much.  He's also grown A TON!  I put a picture from his first belt test and his most recent belt test for contrast.  It's so crazy! 

Preston had to complete a summary of King Leer for his Shakespeare class.  He chose to create a stop motion video.  It was super time-consuming, but well worth the effort.  It turned out so great!  

MARISSA

Marissa has been focusing a lot on reading.  She finished reading "James and the Giant Peach."  She also hosted a "read-a-thon" with Caleb and they had a great time reading lots of story books.  

CALEB

Caleb worked on reading and math, but his favorite is always playing games.  We played several games of chess this week.  I'm the only one in the family who can consistently beat him now.  I refuse to go easy on him since I know he can learn so much from an opponent a step or two ahead of him.  I have no idea how he learned, but his brain seems to think in logic and strategy.  

OTHER

NONFICTION PICTURE BOOKS

We loves discovering new picture books that teach us about a real story.  It's become a new favorite genre.  We can learn so much without it taking weeks and months.  Here are a few we have read the past couple of weeks.  

Crayon Man was so much fun and inspired us to get out the crayons to color.  And then the paints came out.  Gotta love a good art day!

FALL WALKS

We love taking walks and exploring nature, but we especially love it in the fall when lots of leaves are on the ground.  Here are a few pictures from our outdoor activities.  

November 15 - 19

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston had a writing assignment for his Key of Liberty class.  The topic was "How do you overcome roadblocks in your life?"  It was really touching to read what Preston wrote.  

MARISSA

Marissa finished reading "Davy Crockett" for her class book discussion this week.  She loved the book and got to make a "coon hat" after hunting for the "fury strings."  She had so much fun and learned a lot! 

Marissa also gave a presentation in her class.  She chose to do her presentation on Argentina because that's where her dad is from and she really wants to visit the country one day.  She did a great job!  

CALEB

Caleb worked on his handwriting a lot this week.  He's starting to get the hang of it more and more.  

He learned about Florence Nightingale in his Heroic Youth class.  Then he got to take turns being a doctor or nurse and played a game of Operation.  So much fun! 

OTHER

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG

The kids got to go see "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" with My Tech High this week.  I had a conflict so grandma was their adult chaperone.  They LOVED it and had such a great time spending time with grandma!

November 8 - 12

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston read "A Single Shard" for his book discussion this week.  He also completed a presentation in his Key of Liberty class.  His presentation was about Loyalists, Tories, Hessians and Redcoats and their role in the Revolutionary War.  He used the game Risk to show the different groups of people and what they did.  It was pretty good!  He told me afterward that he felt like the speaking part of his presentation was better this time (than his first presentation) but his creativity using stop motion was better in the first presentation and only kind of creative using the Risk game.  I like that he's thinking of ways to improve since he has one more presentation to do for his Shakespeare class in December.  

MARISSA

Marissa worked on language arts and math quite a bit this week.  She wrote an acrostic poem about birds and copied a poem in cursive for her handwriting.  She also memorized a cute poem called "The Dragonfly" but for some reason blogger doesn't like the movie files I am trying to upload at the moment.  :/

CALEB

Caleb has been focusing a lot on reading and writing this week.  He practiced adding a silent "E" to words in his phonics program this week.  He also learned the first stroke in his cursive program, which they call "climb the hill and hold."  We're taking it really slowly because he struggles with fine motor skills, but we're excited for this writing program.  

OTHER

MATH & SCIENCE

We have been loving Generation Genius.  After lunch, we often watch one of the videos in math and/or science to take a bit of a break from written work.  

November 1 - 5

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston finished reading "John Adams" for his book discussion.  He also finished reading Act 3 in King Lear for his Shakespeare class.  

MARISSA

Marissa took art outside this week and painted a fall picture.  She loves creating beauty everywhere she goes!

CALEB

Caleb is working hard on his reading.  He read "Sammy the Seal" without any trouble.  I'm so proud of how far he has come!

He still loves math AND games so we opened a new game this week.  He and Marissa have played "Prime Climb" several times and enjoyed every minute of it! 

OTHER

SCIENCE

Marissa and Caleb had a great time exploring snap circuits this week.  They went through page after page of instructions to figure out what they could do.  I LOVED that they didn't need a lot of help to explore and had so much fun that they got them out multiple days in a row.  

MATILDA

Marissa and Caleb also got to go to a play with our friends.  Preston's friend, Owen, is in the play, Matilda, and his mom invited the younger kids to go watch the matinee.  They LOVED it!!  

October 25 - 29

WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS

PRESTON

Preston read Act 3, Scenes 1-5 in King Lear for his Shakespeare class.  He also wrote a paper about "How do Lear's friends - and yours - show their affection?"  

He also worked on more of his memorization of the Declaration of Independence.  I can't wait for him to know the whole thing.  It is amazing to listen to him!

MARISSA

Marissa read Meriwhether Lewis for her book discussion for her Ninja Scholar class.  One of her favorite parts were when they started on the road down the Missouri River and met the Indians, especially a chief named Black Buffalo.  He liked peace instead of fighting.  She also liked when Meriwhether put out the fire when the Indians attacked at their house when he was young.  That was really fast and smart thinking.  

Marissa also made a barn owl because they were very common at the time of the last two books that they have read for class (Benjamin Rush and Meriwhether Lewis).  Other common birds of the time were robins, eagles, and starlings.  

CALEB

Caleb learned about Teddy Roosevelt and the value of enthusiasm in his Heroic Youth class this week.  They learned to be explorers with the globe, searched through explorer books, put together puzzles and drew pictures about things they are enthusiastic about.  

I love watching things he learns about transfer to every day life.  I found him in the van waiting to go home flipping through an atlas I had left in there.  Makes my heart happy! 

OTHER

FAMILY DANCE

The kids and Marcos (dad) went to a family dance with our school last Friday.  My father passed away and so I could not attend as I had to meet with the mortuary that day.  The kids had delicious food and then danced the night away with a fun cowboy theme.  The dance even took place in a barn!  How great is that?

HALLOWEEN FUN

Marissa and Caleb had a great time decorating the house with Halloween decorations.  They did it all on their own while I was helping take care of my dad.  I came home to a very spooky, festive home.  

Caleb got to make "earth juice" in his Musikgarten class with root beer and dry ice.  He was so fascinated that we had to learn all about dry ice when we got home from his class.