Weekly Review: A Puzzle, a Superhero, and Learning to Read

Tobias in a rare moment holding still for the camera.

January is slipping past and this week was no different. Monday we began learning about atoms, molecules, and compounds. Of course half the fun of chemistry is making reactions so we used yeast, water, dish soap, and hydrogen peroxide to create a foamy mess.

Math has found some of the kids moving ahead as usual and some slowing down for a concept. Daniel is working on long division with and without remainders. This was his topic last week as well and we didn't move forward as he still doesn't have it down. He is slightly frustrated as math usually comes easily. Makayla was introduced to combining radical numbers today. I decided to cover adding, subtracting, and multiplying radicals today.

Makayla and two of her reptiles - Olympia the ball python and Norberta the bearded dragon.

An exciting happening for Makayla today was that her veterinary medicine teacher from Landry Academy, which closed recently, opened the Veterinary Medicine 2 class up on a new platform and is holding it anyway. They are continuing their studies and dove right in to exploring different specialties this week.

Our family reading of the Book of Mormon is going well. We started the week at the beginning of 2nd Nephi. Our goal is to read about 6 pages per day, and to read extra on any day that it works out well to do so. That builds up leeway for days when we just don't get the whole family together in one spot long enough to read. As of Thursday evening we have finished 2 Nephi chapter 24.

Tuesday seems to be our smoothest day each week. We just slide along familiar tracks. We started the school day with more reading in the Book of Mormon. In science we built some atoms with candy and paper plates as we began learning about protons, neutrons, and electrons. The Periodic Table is next!

Math today included introducing division and simplifying radicals today for Makayla. It went well.
During the morning I also pulled out one of our Ravensberger puzzles to do at the table. Several children helped along the way and we finished this lovely pirate-ish puzzle.

We love Ravensburger puzzles!

My highlight for Wednesday would be the fun of listening to Oliver read aloud. He finished The Cat in the Hat yesterday and started Grasshopper on the Road by Arnold Lobel. He is starting to show more fluency (reading without sounding out) for words he had been sounding out before January began. Still a good ways to go but progress needs celebrated!

Oliver did math as Spider Man today.

By 7:30am Thursday morning breakfast and chores were done and 6 of the 7 boys were deep in the dress up tub working to become pirates, superheroes, and one member of the Wild Kratts team. Emma was practicing piano, Makayla was already reading her history book, and I was trying to find a few minutes to get myself ready for the day. We did a game to get to know the Periodic Table of Elements today.

Caleb started All About Reading Level 1 today. I am not sure exactly which lesson to place him into as he is already sounding out CVC words so we will just try a few different lessons until we find one with a concept he needs to practice. He loved feeding the monster bones that had words for him to read on the back today. Mason and Samuel were entertained using these lacing cards. They were quite serious about their 'school work'.

Everyone worked diligently today and we were happy to wave goodbye to this school week by the end of the afternoon. Tomorrow we're taking the day off! Mason and I will spend half a day meeting with most of his specialists for a 6 month team appointment and everyone else will relax at home with Grandma to keep an eye on them.

That's it for us! Have a great weekend!

Linking to Weekly Wrap Up.