Homeschool Week 26: Making Progress

We only had four days of school this week because we traveled to a missions conference.  Because of that this post will be shorter and have fewer photos (some of you will rejoice in that, ha).  We were able to still squeeze in a lot so here is a look at what we did for week 26.  We only have 10 more weeks of school to go!  I just thought I'd add that in to make myself smile.

In Bible we covered the stories of Jesus Heals Jarius's Daughter, Jesus and the Children, and The Lost Lamb.  We learned a new song "One Door".  The words to this song say "One door and only one, and yet its sides are two: inside and outside, on which side are you?  One door and only one, and yet its sides are two; I'm on the inside, on which side are you?"  We have talked a lot lately about salvation using the door as an illustration.  Pray for the tender hearts of my precious boys as I strive to share the gospel with them each day in Bible class.  It is one of the joys of my life and probably my most favorite thing about homeschooling them.

In Language Cruz focused on vocabulary words ending in er, ir, and ur.  He finished up Storybook #9 and took his bookend assessment.  He aced it so we will be moving on next week.  He has shown an interest in wanting to read books outside of his curriculum books so we started adding him reading during our nightly read-aloud time.  He reads a book of his choice before I read a chapter in our book from History.  Most of what he chose to read last week were Dr. Seuss books.  Those are a lot of fun and it has really boosted his confidence.

playing Go Fish with some of our phonics sounds cards

He has 10 words each day on a spelling test and he has to write sentences with each of those words as well.  Here is a sample of some of his sentences.

Ben's language lessons covered the letter P.  His memory verse for the week was Psalm 147:1 "Praise ye the Lord, for it is good to sing praises unto our God."  His nursery rhyme for the week was The Muffin Man.

In Math Ben practiced counting to 100 and we introduced number 17 for writing practice.  Cruz's math lessons were on subtraction: doubles.  He takes a math test at the end of each week to make sure he has mastered that lesson before we move on.

the boys building with our math blocks during math class 

In History we continued learning about pioneer days. 

On this day we did a side study on milking cows.  We watched several YouTube videos to teach us about dairy farms.  I wanted to take the boys out to try this but we didn't fit it in.  Maybe we can make it up in the coming weeks.

Our History activity had us making an oiled paper window.  We learned that before many people could afford glass window panes, oiled paper was another way to still let some light into a log cabin.  We had already read about it in our chapter book Little House on the Prairie before we got to this lesson and the boys remembered it.  It was an exciting time in the book when Pa made a trip into Independence and returned home with glass for the windows of their new cabin.  To make ours we used white paper, cooking oil, and a cotton ball.  We spread the oil all over the paper and let it dry.  When it was ready we taped it to our window along with an un-oiled sheet of paper to see the difference in how much more light it let in.

wiping oil on their paper

comparing our papers

We learned about the State of West Virginia.  This turned into a side study on coal mines.  Cruz was very interested in that so we watched a lot of videos about it.  He learned a lot and was very fascinated.

Each week we find and mark on our map the State that we are learning about.  Here is Cruz marking West Virginia.

In Health we learned about water safety.  We learned some good habits for swimming and boating.

Here are Cruz's two journal entries for the week.  I am always anxious to see what he writes and how he illustrates it.  This little notebook is going to be a treasure of mine one day.

What I like to wear is... my camo pants and my ninja turtle shirt.  I love colored socks.  I wear my boots to the village and my crocs at home.

When I grow up...  I will be a daddy.  I will have 3 kids.  I will have 2 girls and 1 boy.  I will live in a mansion in New Hampshire.  I will be a cruise ship driver.  This one made me laugh out loud.  He drew his cruise ship and named it Pink Panther.  He told me that he would make sure that I had a room on his ship to live in.  Some days he can really make me smile!  I have the best job in the world!  I can get overwhelmed at times but I really do love my role as mom and teacher.