Week In Review-4/27/12

In our homeschool:

Math:
We were finally able to begin lessons in our Right Start Level A.  So far, so good.  Evan loves it.  I hope he continues to love it.  Several times during our lessons he told me how much he loves this math.  I really, really wish that I started Evan with this in the beginning because it’s so much more comprehensive than the Singapore math.  We really enjoyed the Singapore math but it would have been much better used as a supplement. 

The lessons we completed this week were:

Lesson 1- Quantities to 3
Lesson 2- Quantities 1-4 & Sorting
Lesson 3- Quantities 1-5 & Matching
Lesson 4- Quantities 1-6 & Making Triangles & Quadrilaterals
Lesson 5- Quantities 1-7
Lesson 6- Quantities 1-8 & Ordering
Lesson 7- Quantities 1-9 & Parallel Lines and Planes

Much of it was review (Evan mentioned many times during our lessons how easy it was).  It is recommended that you spread 1 lesson out over 2 days but because it was mostly review, we covered more than we should have.  We’re re-learning how to count/look at numbers.  That was the main thing this week.  Instead of counting to 8, for example, you look at eight as 5 & 3.  This is a totally new concept for me but it makes sense.  Evan learned how to use tally marks, and the abacus for counting (in this new way).  I am fully convinced that as we get deeper into the curriculum, he will be challenged more.





Developmental/Readiness Skills:  Developing the Early Learner Levels 1-4 (Developing the Early Learner, 1 through 4)
Developing the Early Learner: Level 2 is now complete and we have moved on to Level 3 .  The amount of difficulty is increasing.  The auditory/memory was a challenge this week.  I think it would’ve actually been hard for me.  There was a page full of pictures.  I had to choose 8 and tell him the name of each of the eight that I chose.  Then, Evan had to wait for 2 minutes (without looking at the page).  Next, he had to circle only the eight pictures that I chose.

We worked on the following:

Visual/figure ground
Auditory/rhyming, memory
Comprehension/language, categories, sequence
Motor/maze (2)

		Developing the Early Learner Worksheets VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Language Arts:  Spell to Write and Read
Evan knows all but a few of the basic 26 phonograms.  We practiced writing uphill letters in cursive.  I was very impressed with how well he executed them.  I wrote the first letter of the line, explained how to do it and he did the rest:



Literature:  The Chronicles of Narnia 7-Book and Audio Box Set
We listened to the rest of The Magician's Nephew (The Chronicles of Narnia) (chapters 11-15).  We also listened to the first 6 chapters of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (Radio Theatre) .

Bible:  I Can Study Jonah & Ruth Alone With God - King James Version (Alone With God Bible Studies)
Chapter 4 in the book of Ruth is where we’re at.

Character Building:  Child's Book of Character Building: Growing Up in God's World - At Home, at School, at Play, Book 2
Our lessons were all about initiative…he was pretty motivated from these lessons.

Science:  The World God Made
We will begin Science next week...if all goes well.  The plan is to do school year-round this year.  My plans don't always work out but for the time being, this is the plan.  The World God Made looks like it will be a fun fit for the summer.

Life stuff:
This week we had some BEAUTIFUL weather (at the beginning).  We took full advantage!  Much time was spent outside.  I snapped some pics and here they are:

Sunny Days VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We noticed some serious ant colonies and the boys were quite interested…I wasn’t so happy.  That’s why you’ll notice in the pictures that there’s a lot of corn meal sprinkled all around.  The ants are no more (at least in that area)…for the most part .

Ants VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Evan had his second soccer game of the season, and soccer team pictures.  Many of the kids on his team should not be on a team IMO.  They are BARELY 3 and have no interest whatsoever in playing.  It makes me feel bad for them because they just don’t want to be there.  It also makes me sad for the kids that do play…the poor things are exhausted after the game because 1/2 the team doesn’t want to play to sub them out.  Evan, being 4 1/2 actually enjoys playing and does quite well.  He’s one of the super tired kids at the end of the game.

Soccer VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I made another tasty recipe and decided to share.  It’s super easy (the way I like it) and it’s gluten free.  I haven’t decided what to call them.  They’re Swedish Pancakes but I baked them in muffin cups (got this idea from Pinterest and it is now my fav. way to make pancakes).  I was thinking of maybe calling them berry crepecakes, but that’s not completely fitting, hmmm.



Here’s the recipe:
1 1/4 cups Mama’s Gluten Free Pancake Mix
4 eggs
3/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup milk (I used skim)
fresh strawberries cut up
whipped cream

Just put the first 4 ingredients in a blender, food processer, Ninja, Bullet (whatever you have).  Blend until smooth, it shouldn’t take long.  Spray the muffin pan with nonstick cooking spray.  Pour pancake batter into cups about 1/2 full.  Put some strawberries (or any fruit, chocolate chips or whatever you prefer) in each cup. 



Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes.  Top with whipped cream.  Enjoy!  These taste delicious hot or cold.  I plan on making a bunch of these ahead of time and freezing them.