Week 5 - Mexico, Deserts, and a Birthday!

Whew, what a week! We decided to cut it short by a day (kind of) so we could have Friday off to get ready for Miss Kaylin's 11th birthday party! We did two days in one on Thursday, so really, we did everything that was scheduled, thus the "kind of", haha. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Our week started out with some new curriculum and ideas. I had been a bit overwhelmed/disatisfied with Maryella's reading curriculum. We decided to switch gears with that. She's not quite at the level of reading she needs to be at right now, so we're sort of doing some repeat work from now until around Christmas time. In January, we will get the next level of curriculum, which is really where she should be right now. The new stuff is called All About Reading. It got some terrific reviews, so I'm hopeful that it will be what we need to help Maryella blossom into an awesome reader! Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of her with her new curriculum, but this is her board with the letter tiles that are the main part of the program. She drew our family in a pirate ship, and I snapped a picture of that because I thought it was cute, lol.

We did all of our regular subjects and I am finding that I'm getting more and more comfortable with everything. This week, I added in lots of extras for them to go along with things they were learning. I've made tons of file folder games as well as found other games to play. I got one called Very Silly Sentences that we had a ball with. It reinforces a lot of things they are learning in English and it made us laugh a lot!

Here, Kaylin is playing a math game we found called Math Wrap Ups. She's practicing her multiplication tables here, but she's been doing the division one too.

On Monday, we also started our 2 week study of Mexico. The girls had filled out "passport applications" the first week of school and were so excited to see that their passports had arrived along with a special surprise... airline tickets!

I had made these back during the summer for each of the countries where we will be "traveling".

I set up the kitchen chairs like an airplane and they even packed bags after we ate lunch. They checked in at the airport, boarded the plane and Pilot Jeff flew us to Mexico. In flight entertainment included some introductory information about Mexico as well as showing them where it was on a map. They were even served an in flight snack - fun!

When we landed in Mexico, they had to go through customs and have their passports stamped. They had a ball with that! They wanted to know if we could do it everyday, lol.

The rest of the week, we studied more about Mexico - listening to songs, learning Spanish colors,

making Clay Sun Faces

and having lots of fun with that!

Painting those was, of course, a huge hit! They love anything involving paint! (And if you are wondering, Elianna chose to make a camp fire instead of a sun. Whatever!) And yes, I had to do one too!

We also talked about the rest of the countries briefly in Central America and the Carribean. By the end of the week, we were ready to play the first installment of the Geography Game. I was afraid it wouldn't go over too well, but to my surprise - they LOVED it!

I think my biggest surprise was that Maryella had learned where Canada, Greenland, United States, Mexico, Belize, Bahamas, and Haiti were all located! WOW! How many 6 year olds can do that?

We were also introduced to deserts during our Mexico study. This week, we learned how cacti are thin when it hasn't rained in a long time, but they can swell with water overnight when the rains finally come. Here they are seeing it for themselves by using produce bags.

We made bead lizards when we were talking about desert lizards. I found these little craft kits for $.49 each! Talk about a bargain!

We also learned about some of the animals that are able to live in the desert and some of the special abilities they have of coping with the heat.

There is a big difference in temperature in the shade verses the sun! We put a "desert tortoise" outside in the shade and the thermometer read 82 degrees.

In the sun, the thermometer got up to a whopping 108 degrees! Gracious sakes! We were all a little shocked at that! No wonder those desert animals find ways to stay out of the sun! (And us humans, too!)

We also did a science experiment with ice cubes to see some of those coping mechanisms in action. Ice cubes melt faster in the sun than they do in the shade or underground - just like animals can stay cooler when they rest in the shade or burrow under the sand or dirt.

All in all, it was a fun week, topped off by a very fun disco birthday party!

I can't believe we have an 11 year old now! How is that possible?!?!?!

Seems like just yesterday we were bringing her home from the hospital.

I'm so thankful for my precious Kaylin! She's such a wonderful combination of energy, laughter, naivity, sweetness, responsibility, and fun. Happy birthday sweet girl!

Week 4 - United States and Forests continued...

It was another fun week in the USA! The girls learned so much and had a great time. Here are some of the highlights of our week. Every morning, Kaylin and Annlee begin by doing their Progeny Press study together.

On Friday, they got to celebrate finishing their 4 week study with an art project. They were supposed to paint a picture that showed perspective. Maryella also got to participate (because she begged when saw paint!) and I decided to try it as well.

I think they did a pretty good job! Top row is Maryella's and mine, bottom row is Kaylin's and Annlee's

While they are doing that, Maryella and I work on her reading and phonics.

We also spend our morning doing all kinds of other things... They practice typing skills

Read books from our book basket

Work on Math

Sometimes working "on the go"! Here they are schooling while Elianna takes dance class.

Spelling tests on Fridays

After lunch, we do geography and science. This week, we attempted to color a map of the US only using 4 colors and not letting any of those colors touch. It was a tough task! Kaylin got it though! And after working on various activities like this for 2 weeks, Kaylin can label 31 states, Annlee can label 26, and Maryella can label 6!

We also do a lot of crafts with our geography which makes it really fun. Here we were working on a quilt project at our own little "quilting bee" - just like the early Americans.

Final product

Here are our vocabulary cards for this week - butte. Maryella did hers all by herself this week! Kaylin's is the one that looks like the sunset. Annlee's is on the bottom.

When Elianna comes home, she sometimes asks to do school. I've been letting her do some fun projects with the letters she's already working on at preschool.

These past two weeks, we've been working on lapbooks for the United States. These were our first ones ever and we had lots of fun with them! Here is the inside of them

Another view of the inside

Forest and animal booklets

I think the favorite thing was making little forest animal booklets. The girls drew all these animals and had a ball with that! The ones above are some of Kaylin's as are these.

Here are Annlee's

And Maryella's. I think she got a little tired with her last few, lol.

Here Maryella is working on decorating the outside. She did that Statue of Liberty completely by herself! Wow!

They were all so proud of them! (I know Maryella doesn't look it here, that's a different story altogether, haha)

This picture makes me smile. Elianna was so interested to see the lapbooks. Annlee read everything to her and it just made me melt!

To celebrate completing our 2 weeks in the United States, we ate lunch at Steak and Shake. We wanted to do barbeque, but we got vetoed. I guess you can't get much more American than hamburgers and milk shakes!

Stay tuned to see where our "travels" will take us next week! I'm pretty sure at least part of our adventures will include some new curriculum... More on that later, but here's what I will be in the middle of all weekend!