Weekly Wrap Up

This week the children and I finished up "Little House in the Big Woods." Next week we'll get to start "Little House on the Prairie." We are using a binder builder (think lapbook, only bigger) from A Journey Through Learning. Each day we usually read one chapter and then work on our narration paper and 2-3 mini-books. All three children pitch in and help. My youngest daughter does a lot of the cutting and copywork, and the older two do the bulk of the writing. Of course, we let the younger one jump in on the oral narrations before we write down the things we've learned in our binder-builder. I truly allow the children to make these types of projects their own. I allow them to cut (even if it is a little messy) and I allow them to choose how to lay out their pages (even if is not the way I think would be best).

This was our 4th week of our new school year and can this Momma brag for just a minute? I am so proud of the improvements my son has made in math this year! We have been using Khan Academy's website to practice one math concept at a time and then once or twice a week I print out a worksheet using a worksheet generator I have access to through Math Mammoth to help assess his progress for our portfolio. Before our year began, I was doing some research on teaching math and came across some helpful information from Dianne Craft. One of her suggestions for a child struggling in math is to simply focus on one math concept at a time and that is exactly what we've done. So many math programs will introduce a new concept and then the page is filled with a few problems of the new concept and then filled with many other types of math programs. This can be confusing and distracting for a child struggling in math. For some children, this is okay, and for others, it is not. I am learning more and more how you cannot teach all your children the same way. However, this is one of the awesome blessings of home education because we can teach to our own child's learning style!

I had T and K work together on a little contraction game I found online. You can use this free printable too. They did great! It was sort of an assessment for me, because I wasn't sure they knew all of them, but they did!

K was excited to get back to her piano lessons this week. She also did a great job organizing a lot of her beads that she uses to make jewelry. I love having this sort of thing around for the girls to create in their spare time. I wonder if Charlotte Mason would count jewelry making as a handicraft? I think so.

The children enjoyed a lot of outdoor play this week. Last week we were dealing with heavy amounts of rain here in Pennsylvania and some of it was trying to come in our basement. That is why I did not write a weekly wrap-up post last week because Wednesday-Friday we were dealing with either water coming in my son's bedroom or getting things cleaned up. We are all fine and we didn't lose anything except for some carpet and padding. We are a lot better off than other people I know and especially people who live near the Susquehanna River.

How about exercise? Do your kids exercise? When the weather is nice we go on walks, play Wiffle Ball and basketball, and the kids just run around and play (which is exercise). Now that the weather is starting to cool off, I am thinking more and more about ways to get the kids moving. We have a Wii and that has been fun in the past and I'm sure we'll use it more when Winter comes. My youngest daughter found an old Pilates workout video of mine this week and she loves it because it makes her feel like she's doing ballet. I think she'll enjoy using this to get her body moving this Winter.

How was your week? I am linking up this post over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up. Head over to "meet" more home educating families and see what they've been up to.