Homeschool Week 20: The Eureka Daily

Language Arts: We have finished By The Great Horn Spoon. Phi read the last 3 chapters this week and we completed the last 2 novel studies. I didn't have the time to read along with Phi and so she was very much on her own when it came to understanding the story. This story was okay, definitely not my favorite this year but it seems to be the only grade level book on the gold rush. Now that this book is over I am hoping we start something new right away.

Math: This week was the hardest we have had yet. Phi is really struggling with just getting the motivation to work on math. Her retention when it comes to math is also working against us. If she comes in with a good attitude and concentrates we can end math with her feeling confident and understanding the subject matter. But the next day she can't remember a thing. I really believe her attitude plays a big part in this. I am trying to make it more fun and we played some on-line games but she still needs to learn the basics. Right now its adding and subtracting mixed numbers.

Social Studies: We continued learning about the gold rush. We learned how President Polk was the one who gave a speech that started the whole rush. It was amazing the things people believed about gold in California. Her assignment was to develop her own newspaper. It includes a story and picture about a 49er, a map of the California gold fields, an ad for the Panama Shortcut route and all about Sutter's Mill. This was fun to put together and thanks to templates on google drive it was easy!

Science:  This week was a recap on the planets. We looked at their distance from the sun and how the outer and inner planets differ. It was an easy week with just a few questions to answer.

This was a really hard week emotional for us. Phi is having issues with seeing us as teachers and parents at different times. I really think math is giving her such a difficulty that she thinks anything else would be better. She wants to go back to her private school which we won't do for a few reasons. I reminded her that her Poppa and I made this decision based on a lot of different things but the main reason is because we only have our kids with us for such a short time. And we want to be with them as much as we can. We feel that by homeschooling until 6th grade gives us more time with our children. It also allows us to teach and learn together. Homeschooling has brought out some of our worst sides at times, but it has also brought out some of our best.