Homeschool week (1/11 - 1/15)

We started back to school this week! It's been a good week, although somewhat difficult getting the kids to understand that vacation is over. They got all of their work done, albeit a bit slower that I would like. The only activity we have going on right now is Good Shepherd (religious ed), so that gave us a little extra time. Step Up classes at St. Vincent will begin in 2 weeks.


MARIA

I didn't do any homeschool posts for a few weeks before our Christmas break, so I'll start with a brief look back at some science...

Maria and Cati worked with minerals for a few weeks. They had a set of unknown minerals and observed their color, streak, hardness, and other characteristics to identify them.

In the end, they identified them all correctly!

Right before Christmas, we started studying rocks. We went on a rock hunt and collected rocks and we observed them. This week we started talking about different rocks, beginning with igneous rocks. We talked about how they are made from melted rock, and we demonstrated this by example. We melted some "rocks" (sugar, chocolate chips, marshmellows, and salt), mixed them, and cooled them to get a new rock, FUDGE! Here is Maria's lab sheet from the demonstration.

Maria started learning about prepositions in grammar.

She's been enjoying playing the piano (see the videos below), and this week she started some written music study.

Here are three narrations from history that Maria wrote this week.

She read about how Texas broke away from Mexico and became a state...

She learned about how people travelled west in wagons and some of the difficulties they faced...

She read about some inventions that helped with US expansion in the early 1800s. She decided to write about the telegraph.

Maria started learning about adjectives in latin...

In math, Maria studied decimals.

In spelling, she learned words using the /er/ of early ("ear" words) and words spelled with "ph". Here is her dictation test.

This part of the spelling test is called the "Writing Station". She is given 5 words that are words with suffixes or homophones, and she must spell them correctly and use them in her own sentence.

CATI

Cati is now focused on First Communion Prep, and in addition to her usual Catechism study, she started studying the Mass and making a "Mass book." This week she chose a picture for the cover.

There's Elena, who is always working with us in the school room!

Cati learned about subject-verb agreement in grammar.

She read this book for literature this week.

In writing, we studied the poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." Here is a narration that she wrote on one part of the poem.

Here's a look back on the beginning on our rock study in science. Here are Cati's observations on her favorite rock she found on our rock hunt.

Here is her lab sheet from our igneous rock demonstration this week.

She learned how to write the letter "Q" in cursive this week. She had to really concentrate on writing a "q" instead of a "g" in lower case.

In history, she learned about the crusades.

Here is a coloring sheet about the Crusades. She was very proud of how colorful it is!

I forgot to scan her narration about the Crusades!


In math, she learned about subtraction with borrowing.

And she reviewed addition with regrouping. She loves the Singapore workbooks that usually have a little game involved - notice the rabbit that she found when coloring the spaces with the correct answers from the top of the page. It's amazing how something this simple makes work more fun! She loves any kind of craft or art work!!

Cati started Level 4 of our spelling curriculum this week. The first week is 20 dictation sentences that review rules learned in the previous levels. She did 5 sentences per day. It was a nice review after our long Christmas break. Here is her work from one day.

MATTEO

Here is a handwriting page that Matteo did this week.

Matteo reviewed addition through 5 this week.

I wish I could show you what a great job Matteo is doing with his reading!!! I'm so impressed with his progress!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Chiara from this week. I'll try to do better this week! But here are a couple of more pictures of Elena. She's SUCH a great baby. She sits on the floor with us during lessons and plays. You can see here that she has gotten into our math manipulatives - you can never start too early!!

Here is Maria practing the piano this week. She just doesn't want to let go of those Christmas hymns!