Homeschool week #6: 9/28 - 10/2

The weather really turned on us this week! All of a sudden it became quite cool and wet here in PA.

We had a good school week. It goes by so fast, at least for me! We have 3 full days on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday, we school in the mornings, go to Swim & Gym at the YMCA, and then do a little more school work when we get home. On Friday, we have a normal morning and then go to their classes at St. Vincent in the afternoon. This week, the kids will begin their religion education classes (The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd).

Here's a look of some things we did last week...

Maria had a review week in Latin, which was good since our schooling thus far has been on and off with visitors :)



In history, we've been learning about colonial America. I've been enjoying studying this with her so much! I'm learning a lot of things that I don't remember from my own school days. And, we get into good discussions at times. I also really like one of her history spines, Landmark's American History. It tells a lot of the stories that you don't hear in your typical textbook.

Maria writes a page about what we read 3 days each week. Here's a page about the beginning of the colonies of Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Here's a page about what children did during colonial times.

In art this week, Maria learned about value, the lightness or darkness of the drawing. She was supposed to draw a picture with 3 different values, light, medium, and dark.

Here is Maria's spelling test for this week. She learned words with the /er/ sound spelled with "or" after a "w" (a.k.a. "the /er/ of works).

For the last section of the test, I dictate several words to her that she must then use to write her own sentences.



In physics this week, Maria learned about friction. To demonstrate this idea, she pulled books on the floor and then pulled them after placing them on some pencils.

Here's the page she wrote with her notes from our reading and with pictures of some examples we discussed.

There is a short video at the end of this post of the demonstration.



Here is Cati's science lesson for the week. She was learning about air, more specifically, that air is made of something that takes up space.

One day she played with a balloon, observing it empty and after blowing it up.

(I love how I always have at least one picture with Chiara involved in a lesson!!)



Here's the lab sheet she wrote about this.

On another day, she played with air in a glass in water. For a better explanation, watch the videos at the end of the post.

Here's the labsheet about this experiment. She concluded that air is made of something that takes up space.

In art, Cati was supposed to arrange her own still life to draw with pastels.

Here's her arrangement...

Here's her drawing... (we'll work on her spelling of "favorite"!)

Here's a fact practice sheet that Cati did this week: 100 addition facts.

And here's a lesson practice sheet.

In history, we talked about the beginnings of Islam.

Here's some cursive copywork.

Cati is preparing to make her 1st Confession in December and to receive her 1st Communion in the spring. So, we're doing lots of different things to prepare. She studies the catechism, of course. She's also started doing some more hands-on things from Catholic Heritage Curriculum. This week, we talked about the parts of the church. She knew where everything was in our church, except for the confessional - pretty important when you're going to start using it in 2 months. Our priest let us tour it at our leisure after Mass one morning this week.

Here's a cut and paste project she did about the parts of the church.

Here's Cati's spelling test from this week. She learned about when to double the final consonant of a word before adding a vowel suffix.

The only thing I have to show for Matteo this week is a Math page. We've been working, though! He reads to me everyday. He reads short-vowel words with consonant blends and diagraphs. He started reading long vowel silent "e" words a few weeks ago, and he's doing very well with it. He also practices phonograms everyday. He knows almost all of the single letter phonograms, many of which have several different sounds, and he's been working on the different /er/ phonograms: er, ir, ur, wor, and ear. I also read to him at the end of our lessons. This week he's been choosing Dr. Seuss stories, mainly "The Grinch who Stole Christmas."