Week of 10/26/2014-11/01/2014

Reading/Language Arts : Read and discussed fables and entered them into the reading journal. She also read a science book about astronomy and the night sky.

Math : This week we used Star Wars workbooks a lot, and played several math games each day. She practiced her 2 and 5 times tables and did Splashmath.com once a day.

Social Studies : Mimzy identified the continent of Africa on her globe and drew an outline map of it, complete with compass rose. We looked at some of the different climates found there, and discussed some of the animals that could be found there. She did research to learn how a girl in Africa spent her day, and watched some interesting documentaries on YouTube. She wrote about the daily life of a girl in Africa in her journal and drew a picture. 

Science : Mimzy spent a lot of time outside this week following the life of a squirrel. Using her research and National Geographic website, she wrote an essay about squirrels (including their habitat, predators, behaviour, eating habits, etc) and drew a picture of a squirrel's habitat. 

Health : This was a review week, so we discussed what we'd learned over the past few weeks: safety when alone or in a group; community safety; who can you trust?; keeping a clean room; and paramedics.

Art : Painting, drawing, and discussing Van Gogh's "Starry Night."

Music : Singing and rhythm work.

Craft : We made Halloween crafts while watching The Nightmare Before Christmas, and carved pumpkins!

Extra : Karate lessons, spanish lessons at Duolingo, as usual. She went swimming and practiced swimming in the deep end and jumping from the diving board. 

Week of 10/19/2014-10/25/2014

Reading/Language Arts : Mimzy read the book "Ben and Meg" about two children who are also taught at home using Oak Meadow curriculum, and wrote about it in her reading journal. We also read a lot of stories for Science!

Math : Mimzy worked a lot on greater-than and less-than problems, going up to the thousands. We also started working on subtraction word problems once more, they tend to be the trickiest. She practiced her 2 and 5 times tables and did Splashmath.com once a day.

Social Studies : This week Mimzy did a fun worksheet where she had to follow instructions and use her navigation skills to map out a castle and fill it with furniture. She drew a map of Ancient China, complete with compass rose, and we researched how the boundaries of China have changed from ancient times to present day. She located China, Africa, and the British Isles on her globe (all places we read myths about last quarter.) We also located our continent, country, and state.


Science : We read a story about a young girl and her garden. The story discussed how a garden transforms from green land to a garden plot through ploughing, harrowing, working with a rake and spade, etc. Mimzy drew a beautiful picture of her own garden in her workbook, with the tiny seedlings in neat rows. We also learned about monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous plants, and she drew and labeled examples of each.

Health : This week we learned about how emergency services work. We discussed how to call for help, and roleplayed that Mimzy was a paramedic while Shark and a large doll were people who needed help. She wrote a list of steps an EMT takes when they arrive at the scene, including checking for breathing, looking for injuries, etc, all the way up to delivering the injured party to the emergency room at the hospital.

Art : She did some beautiful, detailed art in her journal!

Music : We played with her Legend of Zelda ocarina and practiced some of the songs in the book that came with it.

Craft : We did a lot of crafts with raffia this week, including dolls, a bird's nest, and a wreath.

Extra : Karate lessons, spanish lessons at Duolingo, as usual. Raking leaves and playing games in the leaf piles. We went swimming and practiced treading water.

Week of 10/12/2014-10/18/2014

Reading/Language Arts : We did a lot of reading work in Science this week, so we took a break from it in reading class this week. Instead, she worked on homophones, did crossword puzzles, and learned about some tricky language aspects like kn/gn, wr/r, and i before e.


Math : Did problems involving even and odd numbers, and wrote down her 5 times table. She also practiced reciting her 2 and 5 times tables and did Splashmath.com once a day.

Social Studies : We discussed how a compass works, and she drew a compass rose. We identified which parts of our house faced the various directions. We discussed continents, and identified our continent on her globe.

Science : This week Mimzy read three different science stories and entered them into her journal. We discussed how plants require water and sun, how clouds made rain and how rainwater affected all life, and how a fruit tree produces it's fruit.

Health : We talked about how a clean environment affected health, made a list of things she can do every day to keep her room clean, and actually cleaned and organized her bedroom.

Art : We painted still-life paintings using fresh flowers as the subject.

Music  : This week we learned to sing several new songs, including some of her favorites like "Let it Go". We looked up the lyrics online, and practiced them several times until we'd gotten them right.

Craft : This week was busy with big projects so we didn't do a craft!

Extra : Karate lessons every day this week due to an upcoming tournament, Spanish lessons at Duolingo, as usual. We also went to the Zoo for homeschool day, and Mimzy learned about African animals. We also raked leaves and spent a lot of time outside in the crisp Fall air!

Week of 10/05/2014-10/11/2014

Late update for this week due to sickness, and we also had a slow week due to it. It seems like we've all been sick since last Thursday! UGH. But the good thing about homeschooling is that there are no "sick days"!

Reading/Language Arts : A bit of a change this week, we read two fables (Little Red Hen and The Boy Who Cried Wolf) instead of reading out of the Animal Friends book. Mimzy also did a crossword puzzle using all homophones.

Social Studies : We made a book all about our family! Including our daily lives, stories we've handed down, etc. Meara also illustrated each page.

Science : This week we discussed Newton's second law of motion and did experiments to explain that F=MA. She also did some fun worksheets about beetles.

Health : We discussed how to deal with strangers, when it's ok to speak with or help a stranger (when an adult you trust is with you), and how to not judge people based solely on their appearance.

Music : Playing with different instruments, Mimzy compared the different sounds made by a 12-hold ocarina, a 6-hole ocarina, a harmonica, and a recorder.

Extra : Karate class, we also signed Mimzy up for the swim team this week, and she had a birthday! Duolingo and Splashmath as normal. No special arts and crafts this week!

Time Flies!

Mimzy and I were discussing time today, and I ended up doing a small presentation with her to illustrate how much time there really was in a year. We started using red dots to show individual seconds, then increased to 60 red dots to represent one minute. I put the 60 red dots inside a black square to show it was one minute. Then I copied 60 representations of one minute to illustrate an hour. At this point I had to copy the entire hour in order to shrink it down to continue the lesson. We went on to show one day, one week, one month, and one year, shrinking when necessary. We tracked the seconds, hours, days, weeks, and year numerically. Mimzy was shocked when she realized the full scope of how much time was in one year! I also went on to explain numerically how many seconds, minutes, hours, and years she has been alive for. It was a fun lesson!

Week of 09/28/2014-10/04/2014

Mimzy had a blast watching the musical production of Aladdin Jr.!

Reading/Language Arts : Finished reading the Tale of Paddy Muskrat, and entering it into the reading journal. The poem we learned this week was "A Snail" by Maud Keary.


Math : Did problems involving even and odd numbers, and wrote down her 5 times table. She also practiced reciting her 2 and 5 times tables and did Splashmath.com once a day.

Social Studies : Read “Fair Exchange -- A Celtic Folktale" and drew a picture relating to the story.

Science : This week Mimzy collected leaves and  identified that they came from 9 different trees (The Ohio Public Library Information Network was an invaluable resource). She was then supposed to press them in wax paper, but we had a hard time finding wax paper, so instead she drew them. We also discussed laws of motion. We discussed how to measure and speed, how gravity affected speed, and how inertia worked. We also did some experiments relating to these topics.

Health : This week we discussed community safety, including how to help keep others safe and how to safely cross a street. We also made a list of where to go and who to talk to in various places we go regularly to find help if there is a problem or emergency. 

Art : Painting with "real" watercolors instead of the cheap dry palettes, also lots of drawing relating to her other assignments.

Music  : Learned lots of new songs to sing, and we also went to see the musical Aladdin Jr!

Craft : Lots of painting! Our big craft project was a bust since we couldn't find wax paper until the end of the week.

Extra : Karate lessons, Spanish lessons at Duolingo, and seeing the musical Aladdin, Jr. We also went to the library and she sat in on the story time sessions.