Week 31- Life on the Northern Plains--- Ok well really

 So this week we did the Dakotas. Spent a lot of time on Mount Rushmore. But let me be honest... Spring fever took over. We wrapped up studies in LA, Math, Spelling, History, and Sci in prep for our Spring Break! So there is not much to add this week.. here's the brief over view......

Reading- Ying finished up the  Tales from the Odyssey series with The Final Battle. Yang Read Sarah, Plain, and Tall.

Math- Reintroduction of multiplication through arrays. We will start on the memorization of facts after the break.

Spelling- Lesson 31

Language Arts- We are nearing completion of time4learning 2nd grade LA. few more lessons and then we'll have to see where we go....

Read aloud- We tried a book called Navigating Early. I had pre-read parts and the story is great but it just didn't work as a read aloud with my kids. Its very complicated in style. I am sure a great middle school read but not for 2nd and pre-k even as read aloud... So we've moved on the recommendation from our children's librarian that's totally from left field called Bunnicula by James and Deborah Howe.

Science- The girls put together there whole human body they had been working on in co-op. We also study more about forces and engerey ( ya that lap book didn't work but the info was great... we just ran out of time and attention span!)

History-- We read the assigned stuff  on the northern plains but the girls are still very into the Civil War so we revisited one of favorite  local site the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. We spent a little time in the museum and watched the movie about the battle for Atlanta. Then we walked the trails and looked at the old fortifications and talk about the battle.

Ninja's Go Wild

 Hulk turned 5 this week! He had a great birthday party at a local martial arts studio with some friend from his class and families from our church. Hulk's favorite part was getting to cut his cake with a real Samurai sword.

It's hard to see but there are Ninja's hiding in this construction site...lol

Tug O' War

United by rail..... Divided by greed..Week 30....

This week we've covered the transcontinental railroad. MFW does a nice glossy version of the tale which we expanded on to show a bit of the uglier side. I don't really like just showing the up side of history, because very rarely was history a win-win proposition. We read a lot of books but also found some great resources online to include Math problems involving the railroad and great videos on You-tube. Here were our favorites:
  Video from Education portal on transcontinental railroad:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl0lxIMMb9E

 Free reading comprehension worksheet on the Transcontinental Railroad. Listed as 4th grade:

http://www.k12reader.com/worksheet/transcontinental-railroad/

Math worksheet with interesting facts on the transcontinental railroad. My girls could do about 1/2 of problems. Definitely written for 5+grade and up....
http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/wy/nhtic/education/lessons/transcontinentalrailroad.Par.61847.File.dat/mathskills.pdf

Science- We have Skipped over magnets because the girls did an extensive study in K. We have been expanding or study of Energy and forces. We are using a lapbook I found to do some hands on motion labs and to wind up our study prior to Spring Break!

Math- We are moving forward after a long period of review of adding and subtracting with regrouping, and reintroduced multiplication. We are mainly focusing on concept and will being with memorizing facts after spring break.

Learning to Lose and follow through...

My girls are playing their first season of U8 recreational soccer. It's going to be a long season. You know that team in every rec league that's so green you feel kinda guilty playing them? You can tell them because the kids don't know what's going on, how to score, and the coach is practicing meditation on the sideline to get through the game. Guess what? My girls make up 1/3 of that team. We probably won't win a single game. We may not score a single goal. But I will still consider it a winning season for my girls. In fact, they will learn more from this season then any other they will play.

    In the age where "everyone's a winner", my girls are learning to lose. They are learning to handle their disappointment. No fits. No stomping off the field. No taking our ball and going home when things don't go our way, or a referee makes a poor call. They are learning respect for authority,teammates, and opponents. They are learning to shake hands, and hold their head high because the soccer score does not define them. They are learning to show the love of Jesus Christ even when it doesn't feel good.

Their parents are learning how to lose with them. I grew up playing sports. I spent most of my time on the team at the other end of the spectrum. I was a ringer who played on a team of ringers. We won a lot. Not all the time but a lot. I learned from that but not this lesson well. I find myself having to step back. Having to pause the rephrase my criticism as encouragement. Having to remind myself that this is good. No,it's no tons of fun to watch. It's natural to want to win. But my attitude is the model for theirs. If I scowl and pout, so will they. If I choose my words poorly, so will they. So, I vow I won't because this is about something greater than a ball and a goal.

Birthday Week....And honest Abe...

Pikachu Cake...lol.. the Homemade kind.

The girls have spent this week anxiously awaiting their 8th Birthdays. Its been interesting getting any work done... Luckily, Daddy helped us out last weekend by taking the kids of a field trip to the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History. He was dreading this but had resigned himself to it. He actually enjoyed it, and was pleasantly surprised. He was amazed at what the kids could tell him about things in the museum, and once they got the hands on "education center" he was home free. The kids showed him a cotton gin, and explained what it did. Then they found a working telegraph, and spent a long time writing messages. They watched the 20 min movie about " The Great Locomotive Chase" and The General. This is all leading up to our study of the Civil war. Where we live the Civil War is everywhere. We pass monuments daily. "We" as in the state still debate the Stars and Bars annually. Our neighboring church still bears bullet holes in the old sanctuary. So, we are probably going to spend more time and depth in this area the MFW ever intends.

   The question I've heard a lot from friends not living in the south is "how will you introduce/handle the issue of slavery?" Well, the public school system has already introduced that for me. Slavery is introduced in K here. It's called "Black History Month" & Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. My K'ers learned about Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, and were read Dr. King's "I Have a Dream". In 1st grade it was George Washington Carver and the Tuskegee Institute. When the girls first asked "Why would people keep slaves?", we went back to the bible. Why did Pharaoh want the Israelites as slaves? It was priceless to see their little minds connecting a bible story they knew so well with the realities of modern life. We will keep it maturity appropriate but you can't ignore the history here.

Moving on.... We celebrated the girls birthday @ the American Girl Bistro. We had lunch with their dolls and each one got to pick out a new outfit/accessory for their "girl". Ying is patiently waiting to cut her girls hair off. Told we had to wait until Mommy made an appt with Miss Amanda who does her hair.

Ying with her doll "Mayson".

Yang with "Anna"

The night before their birthday they celebrate with friend from church at our monthly "Celebrate Family" Event. It was a great time of fellowship and roller skating and laser tag.Hubby and I got in on the action and managed not to fall.

Hulk Flying like a mad man with his Helper.

If only she could figure out the stopper....

Everyone also finally got some cold soccer in but they had a blast. We lucked into a great coach who keeps them moving continually. They much prefer this to softball and all the standing around waiting. You could see how much running club had helped as they were still going strong after an hour when others were fading. Luckily running starts back up very soon after the time change. 

Ok... on to the academics of the week...

Bible- Continue memorizing Matthew 28:20. But the girls also got bibles on their Nooks. So they have decided to start reading the Bible from the beginning. They are up to Genesis 6 right now.

History/Geography- OR and MN, Abe Lincoln's early years. Yeah it was dry.

Math- Algebraic thinking... lots of find the missing part of the equation problems. after they got good at solving them they had to make up word problems to represent the problem. This was a little tricky. they could easily make up problems for the equation solution but making the one with a missing piece was more difficult.

Reading- Book 4- Tales from the Odyssey : The Grey Eyed Goddess by Mary Pope Osborne.

LA- Minimal Time4Learning and some dictionary work. The preformed their play "Trouble on the Farm" in co-op.

Sci-Left this to Co-op this week. They did an experiment about the digestive system that lead to me hearing "That's so disgusting, but really really cool!" all week. They built measuring car again in Lego and worked on measurement.