Homeschooling Week 4: What Does the Fox Say?

This week was a bit rough but as usually we pushed through and ended up with some really great projects!

Language Arts: We are moving along in the language arts text book. This week we read a historical fiction piece about a little boy who comes to America from China and his time on Angel Island. Again there was a lot of comparing and contrasting. I am really hoping that we start a novel soon because this text book work is the opposite of what I wanted homeschooling to be. The Accelerated Reading website is back up and running as well as a reading log for the week. There is a book series by Julie Sternberg. I have been trying to get Phi to read them all summer and this week she picked up the 3rd and last book in the series and of course loved it. She went through them quickly and next library visit I hope she picks up the other 2.

Math: This week we started with the concept of algebra. I am very thankful that Phi seems to be really understanding the concept. She did another tutoring session and they seem to be going really well. Here is hoping math continues to be smooth sailing this year! Finger crossed everyone!

Social Studies: The first exam of the year! And by exam I mean it was the end of the chapter review questions that Phi had to answer. Joey and Phi worked 2 days on this and did a really great job. This means that our chapter on California and it's resources is done. Hoping that we continue learning about California!

Science: This week we talked about animal habitats, resources and competition. The assignment was to pick an animal and build a habitat. Phi picked the red fox. We made the habitat to show how foxes use underground dens.

Phi also had to present some information about her animal. At back to school night Phi's teacher told us about this site called "Powtoons". This site lets you make really cute powerpoint like presentations relatively easily. We used the site to make a this.......

Phi also has taking a liking to typing lessons. We are using the BBC Dance Mat site and she asks to "play" everyday. She is logging in a lot of typing minutes on her typing log. Speaking of logs we have 3 different ones that have to be turned in weekly. To make things easier for all of us I took the pdf versions the teacher sent us and used them as a template to make spreadsheets on google drive that are easy to fill-in and accessible from anywhere. 

So that about sums up week 4 for us!