Homeschool Week 16: En El Rancho Grande

Language Arts: This week Phi finished reading "Esperanza Rising".

This was the first book this year that I did not read along with her. She read it on her own and I was very impressed with her retention and comprehension. Reading comprehension was not one of Phi's strengths over the last few years, but this year it has really improved. I love this story (I read it years ago) and I am beyond thrilled that school are reading the story of a young girl from Mexico that has her life turned upside down when she moves to Central California to live as a migrant farm worker.

The novel study that the teacher used for this book did not focus so much on the story but more on the history of the farm workers in California as well and current statistics. Any book that lets me teach a little about Cesar Chavez and the Repatriation Act of the 30's is always going to be my favorite. When teaching about repatriation I immediately thought of that scene from Mi Familia with Jennifer Lopez. Of course I found a clip on YouTube. The first 5 minutes are a emotional example of what the Repatriation Act did to some California families. (Watch the  first 5 minutes!)

I cry every single time.  My guess is that we won't be starting a new book until after the holiday break.

Math: This week was 5 review worksheets with a fun holiday theme. Each page had about 7, 2 digit by 2 digit multiplication problems and 7, 3 digit by 1 digit division problems. Then you use the answers to fill in spaces in certain colors to reveal a holiday picture. Fun but still time consuming so we used one of Phi's homework passes and only did 4 pages.

Science: Review time! This week was just answering the end of the chapter review questions. Our chapter about earths surface is over!

Social Studies: This week we moved on to the next section and talked about what life was like on the big Ranchos and Pueblos of California. We talked about the differences and similarities and how by working together they helped to boost California's economy. I love how much I am learning with this homeschool thing! Did you know that a rodeo back then was an event that happened twice a year where rancheros rounded up all the cattle in the area and sorted them out to who they belonged to? Besides the questions she had to answer Phi made a triangle diagram showing a rancho and a pueblo. On the back she wrote about each location and about the jobs at each.

And because I could not get this song out of my head the entire time we were talking about ranchos...