Weekly Wrap Up: History/SK Work/Math

This post is linked back to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up. http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/2012/12/weekly-wrap-up-no-words/

Esther working on her Mm page and looking through My First Picture Dictionary for words that begin with Mm.

SK Work

We continued into the third week of Sonlight's Language Arts K Program (Beginning Letters and Sounds).  Esther has been enjoying the work and it quite capable of sitting for the 20-30 minute time it takes.  We are on letter Mm this week! :)

Heather writing out a message in the Norse Alphabet.

History

We have continued with our Viking Study as part of our Canadian History (Donna Ward's All Inclusive Canadian History Bundle).  Along side of the Discovering Canada Viking book  we added Viking Adventure as a read a loud.   The kids have been enjoying this book immensely and will often beg for more chapters to be read from it. 

What I thought was neat was that one of the characters (on older man) from Viking Adventure is trying to convince a young boy to learn to read and write so that the boy can carry on the tradition of writing down Viking events and tales to preserve their heritage.  He is aware that he is approaching the end of his life soon and needs someone to fill his spot.  At the same time we studied some Norse writing and alphabet from the Discovering Canada Viking book.  The kids were very excited about the co-relation and practiced writing out Norse letters, making them into messages to record events.  I love how when the information we are studying comes alive for them and out of their own initiative run with the material.  That's when real learning happens, they embrace the knowledge and make it their own.  I love how we have the freedom to do this in homeschooling!

  

Esther often listens in on all these read a louds but I will pull out some of her books to go along with what the other kids are reading.  She looked through the Viking Section in Usborne's Living Long Ago Book.

Science

The kids trying desperately to find the the camouflaged lizard in its habitat.

We dug into Apologia's Creatures of the Fifth Day with some readings and lap book activities.  They really do enjoy the Apologia's series and had specifically requested Flying Creature for our next science section.  We do science twice weekly with a reading from the Apologia text and follow that up with a lap book activity.

We have also been working through a book we choose for our Book Club called:  It Couldn't Just Happen by Larry Richards.  We are taking that in little chunks with daily readings from it.  There is a lot of information in that book, so we are sifting through it slowly so as not be overwhelming.  

Math

We've been using Jump Math for the two older kids this year.  Heather has completed Right Start from A-D and has a good grasp on math.  She is finishing up her grade 6 math in Jump and will be on to grade 7 soon enough, and ahead of schedule.  She's been working long division this week with no problem at all.  She is naturally gifted in math.

Graham seems to work better with a Jump Math Work Book.  It's components are similar to Right Start and we pull out all the manipulatives and games to compliment his learning style.  He's been doing so much better with this approach and finds it less complex to wrap his mind around.  I like how the Jump Math takes things in steps and breaks it down for them to see it all.