Little Homeschool on the Prairie: Week In Review-Week #21

Last week was busy and I am just now getting up our Week In Review!

We are in Sonlight Core C week #21

Scripture memory this week:

John 14:26

Bible

We are doing The Narrow Way family devotions by the Parables and the kids are loving it. They told me they wanted a break from Grapevine. We are studying about faith. What is it and looked up several verses in the Bible this week.

Read-out-louds

We finished, "Michelangelo" by Diane Stanley. Started, "Good Queen Bess""Story of Elizabeth I of England" For our poetry "Aesop's Fables" and "A Poke in the I".

Physical Education

Little Man worked hard in PE this last week. He ran 9 laps around the gym today. It made me tired just watching him run. They then had a timed relay with grabbing a bean bag. Little Man must of had a good day because he was the fastest this time. Not usually the case but he sure was proud of himself. They finished off with lots of push-ups.

Therapy

Bug did Speech Therapy which she completed some of her yearly testing with the OWLS (Oral and Written Language Scales) she did very well and we continue to see some improvement in her skills. There are a few problems that are still consistent with her.

She did Occupational Therapy and Physical Therapy this week. We had an appointment free week! We did add one therapy for the next few weeks~Horse Therapy! Bug loved this. At first she was a little scared to get on the horse.

She rode on a Welsh Pony. His name is Lollipop. He was a big gentle boy who is getting his exercise also. I was told he quite round and he is on a weight lose program.

Bug relaxed rather quickly and was a star student. She had Lollipop following her commands rather quickly and kept her balance well.

What fun! Therapy on a horse. Little Man was a bit envious and wants to ride a horse himself. I guest I better find a place to have him get on a real horse. He has rode on pony at the local park. He informed me, "Mom it isn't a real horse thing being lead around on a tied up pony going in circles" He doesn't miss a beat~smart boy!

Window on the World

The kids visited several cultures this week: All in Africa. The Vagla,Wodaabe, and the Xhosa. For some reason I had a first ~we didn't locate each region on the map or stamp our passports. The kids told me it was okay :0). We learned about the believers and the hardships they face. How hard they work on just surviving and providing for their family with the basics that we take for advantage.

History

We are starting the Reformation Period this week. The kids were introduced to Martin Luther and I took this study a bit further as we learned about the antisemitism that he later brought against the Jewish people. Martin Luther did a good thing translating the Bible from Latin to German. Another area of study how the Protestant Church was formed and the persecution it brought among Europe among the Catholics and Protestants. Our field trip this week went along this theme with our homeschool group. It wasn't planned making it go along with the study this week. It just happened to be the subject we are studying!

The kids learned how the Church of England began and how Henry VIII and how he married six wives so he would have a son to be heir to the throne. Most of them were executed for not producing an heir for the throne. Eventually his daughter Elizabeth became Queen of England. She was beloved and a good Queen to England.

Science

Weather is still our topic of study and this last week we learned about Tornado's. How are they formed and Tornado safety~ especially in Kansas how can you ignore that.

We did practice tornado drills. Which the kids thought it was a lot of fun running to our shelter. I pray that we never have a real one come our way.

We watched some movies that I got from the National Weather Center here in Wichita. It has all kinds of weather safety, experiments. They have a DVD for all ages. Of course- we had to make a tornado. We do this one every year. This year the kids had a lot more fun with it.

I would think most of you know how to do this experiment. We added food coloring to the water. In the past we have added glitter. Which is a lot of fun and pretty. Then we added the plastic Monopoly houses. Little Man wanted to add an army man and a toy cow! Boys! I told him to save it for next year.

Don't you love those faces when they're having that much fun.

Little Man added the sound effects to the tornado!

Then we created a super cell. If you look at the funnel you can see that it is larger all around. You just shake it hard when the bottle gets lower. More sound effects from Little Man having the cows moo, people screaming and things breaking up. Are all boys like this?

Language Arts, Math, and Misc Studies

The kids got a lot done this week in the 3R's. Bug is learning more this year about how to use a dictionary, Thesaurus, and other reference books. She likes looking at this type of material and finding things. She calls it a treasure hunt.

She also had to identify parts of books like the table of contents, glossary, and title pages is another thing we touched on this week. So many other fundamentals of grammar she is learning. She does extremely well in grammar.

Math facts are still a struggle and I still haven't started on her multiplications. She is having fun doing the facts on her iPad. I pray it will help her overcome learning them. If not I will have to re-evaluation my plans. I may introduce the calculator to her.

Little Man this last week was introduced to nouns and pronouns. So far he is taking it all in with ease. He is still wanting to get through school at the speed of light and has to re-write some things. He gets sloppy and I can't tell what he is writing!

Art

We are studying the Reformation period in art. We didn't finish our drawings last week and will continue it this week. We learned about the elements in art and how to define them in drawings to make them stand out. Like spacing and dept of a picture.

Field Trip

Our field trip was to the Kauffman Museum. It has a lot of Kansas history. Mostly the Anabaptist-Mennonite history.

The first thing the tour guide did was introduce the kids to immigration of the Mennonite to Kansas. What they saw when they came to this new country. How hard they had to work to live.

We learned about the sod houses. Bug remembered our study on the different types of sod houses. Then they went into a log cabin.

Next was the animals of Kansas. They had a room of preserved animals and got to touch the skulls, and hides.( See Little Man reading the information on the display! I love it.)

It was pouring raining on the last part of the tour and we went outside to look at the houses, and the barns. Learned how they kept the house warm, lighted, and much to Little Mans horror a bath in a large round pail. We were soaking wet on the 35 minute ride home.

After the guided tour we walked around and explored the museum alone. Bug found the insect drawers of all the pinned insects!

They had a display of the, "The Mirror of the Martyrs" Which touched on our studies this week. They seen a stake which still had the chains to hold the hands above your head. It was burnt from the fires. Most of it was from the Reformation period. They also had an exhibit on the Jewish persecution from War World II.