Weeks 32-33

 We are approaching the finish line of the school year and only have alittle bit left in the Adventures curriculum, and then we are kinda doing our own thing. We are finishing up the last few states, and each girl has chosen a lap book from A Journey Through Learning to complete on the historical subject of her choice. Ying chose to do more on the Civil War, while Yang chose The Great Inventors. Each lapbook is a large undertaking, and will take us approx 3 weeks to finish. We've chosen ones this time that require more independent writing, and will allow us to show our year's progress in Language Arts. We are working on crafting strong sentences and paragraphs, and making sure we are clearly on topic (answering the question asked). The lapbooks are designed for grades 2-7 and come with study guides. Since, the girls are just finishing 2nd, I am not requiring more research than the 1-2 page study guide that comes with each section. I think these are appropriate length and detail. I find them very similar to the writing in The Story of the US by MFW. We are also continuing our way through the last few states in the west and southwest. We really enjoyed making Navajo Fry Bread while talking about New Mexico.

 Poor Ying had to sick back and watch because she had strep throat....

Any project she can Yang can get her hands into is her kinda thing.

But Mommy does the frying...lol

 We finished our bread off with some worm honey.

We've switched spelling curricula starting this week. Spelling by Sound and structure just didn't seem to click. We did the whole 2nd grade book but just never seemed to really connect with the girls. So we have switched to Spelling Skills: Grade 3 by Harcourt Family Learning. This book combines spelling, vocabulary, light grammar work, and dictionary skills. Each week they have a short passage to edit, mainly for spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.  After just a few weeks I can already see major improvements in their writing and spelling. There is a corresponding writing book to this curriculum and I am definitely getting interested in it.

Science- the girls are winding up there human body study through co-op working there way through the sense and nutrition.

Reading- Ying is bucking at anything challenging right now so really we are just reading alot of little books. The last two weeks she's done the Dragon Slayers Academy, Flat Stanley, and The Civil War: An Interactive History. Yang has worked her way through all the Sarah, Plain and Tall series.

Read aloud- The kids loved Bunnicula so much, we have moved on the another book featuring some of the same characters called Howliday Inn.