Homeschool Week 4: Hawaii Action News Report with Sophia L.

Louie

Louie got her tablet issued to her and this made the week a bit easier. She was able to sit with me and working on apps and listen to stories while I could keep working on my own computer. As much as I would love to give my girls 100% attention when they are working I can't because they are working the same time I am. 

Language Arts: We are very thankful that Louie's teacher has slowed down to 1 letter a week. This week we are working on the letter "Cc". We are doing the worksheets and watching fun videos and I have found lots of awesome apps to help teach letters but it's just not sticking with Louie. We even went as far as to by her a Chewbacca. Because Chewie starts with C. 

Reading: This week we did a really fun project that her whole class got to participate in via Google Docs. We watched a YouTube video of the cute Eric Carle story called "Head to Toe". We watched it 3 days in a row and talked about the different animals and the different movements they made. Each day Louie could remember more and more of the animals. The assignment was to come up with our own animal and movement. Take a photo and add it to the google drive doc. Of course Louie picked a...

Louie and Poppa also looked at 2 characters and compared and contrasted them. Because it's her favorite book Louie choose "Rosita and Conchita" and compared the 2 main characters. They did such a great job at looking at what the sisters had in common and pointing out their difference.

Writing: We are continuing with the writing program and this week we talked about topics. Since we have been working on a continuous story we have already talked about a main topic so this week we talked a lot of Peach the bird, her friends and their adventures. In her writing exercises she introduced a new character, an elephant who will be staying with Peach for 3 days.

Math: This week we looked at how to determine which groups have less and which have more. We also working on number recognition and the number 4. This was a hard one for her to write. She is still working on it.

Social Studies: Conflict resolution was the topic this week. We talked about ways to deal with when someone makes her angry. And Louie can go from happy to pissed off in about .2 seconds so this was a well overdue discussion. We listened to a Winnie the Pooh story all about the gang getting into a fight over what Eeyore should do. We talked about how fighting makes everyone involved feel. I asked her how she felt when Poppa and I were angry with each other and she said that she didn't feel anything and she didn't care when we were mad. I asked her how she felt with her and her sister fought and she told me that they never fight. Apparently she has no idea what arguing or fighting is because her and her sister fight constantly. Anyways, we went over a few made-up situations where she may get upset and we talked about way to resolve it. Things like, walking away, sharing a toy, finding something else to do, or counting to 10. She thought that last one was hilarious. We ended the discussion with a sing-a-long to "Why can't we be friends?" by War because why not?

Science: Louie and Poppa talked about how a scientist shares they information they have learned. To do this Poppa and Louie did a fun Chromotography experiment with some markers, paper towels and water.

Bonus work: Poppa and Louie started working on the days of the week. They had an interesting technique but it worked. Mom Monday, Taco Tuesday, Work on Wednesday, Thinking about Thursday, and Farting Friday.

Phi

This week was all about the big state report. Phi has been researching and taking notes, writing a script, putting together costumes and scenery. We even asked for a week extension and we are super excited that it's done and Phi is really proud at how it turned out. 

Language Arts: We took it easy this week. She finished the book Hatchet. In her words, it was awesome. I am glad she liked it. I have always struggled to find things she likes to read. She recently read her first Goosebumps book and loved it. So we did an extra library trip so that she could get more. Anything that gets her to keep reading.

Math: This week we talked about how place values are 10 times as much as the value they are next to. This seems like a really simple concept but this new common core math makes it so DAMN confusing. There are a lot of times when it comes to math when I need to step back and try to explain things to Sophia as simply as I can.

Social Studies: This is the big week. We have been working 4 weeks for this. This is the week that the state reports are due. Phi has spent the last 4 weeks researching and putting together an amazing video report. Instead of a boring paper she decided to do a News Cast. I am so proud of her. It came out amazing! 

This week is also the big State capital and US Map fill-in test. She is ready for the fill-in part but as I write this on Tuesday morning she still has about 12 more to memorize!

Science: We looked at the different classifications of animals. We started with vertebrate and invertebrate and then looked over what makes a mammal, reptile, fish, bird or amphibian. The assignment was to discover a new animal and classify it. Phi came up with "The Fuzzkin". A very cute fuzzy mammal that lives on top of the clouds. They are hunted by big birds and eat the tops of trees.

Now that the big state project is out of the way and the novel is done I am expecting some fun changes to Phi curriculum next week!