Week 13 - Learning Together

The first week back from break is always a little rough.  After battling our way through Monday, the rest of the week went fairly smoothly.  I'm starting to evaluate how Luke's curriculum is working for both of us, and I'm contemplating making a few changes.  I love Sonlight's core curriculum.  Luke is being exposed to great literature and we've had really good discussions based on the stories.  He loves the Usborne books that we use for History and Science.  I feel that he needs a little more structure, however, with Spelling and Grammar.  I may be making some changes after our winter break. 

Most of our school stuff was status quo, but here are highlights from our week.

YouTube Fun
Luke has been excited about his upcoming, castle-themed birthday party, so he was very excited when we read about castle life in his Living Long Ago book.  His favorite facts were about moats.  He learned that moats contained spikes, crocodiles (in stories), and human waste.  Afterwards, all three kids watched a documentary on Windsor Castle which they loved.  I love my little nerds!

Luke looks bored, but actually he was just completely engrossed in the movie.

We also have been studying fish in Science, so they watched a few videos on how to gut a fish.

Bible
Our church has begun an Awana program and our boys count the days down to Wednesday night.  They love earning badges and playing games.  Ben especially loves listening to his Awana Cubby cd and I found that he and Olivia will listen (to the same story over and over) while I work one-on-one with Luke.  Bonus!

Military Appreciation

This week, we wrote and mailed letters to three US soldiers serving our country and away from their families.  I think this is my favorite project this year.  We researched the different branches of the Armed Forces and Luke made each picture represent that soldier's branch.  Aaron even played "boot camp" with the kids!

Ben's Letter of the Week
This week, Ben learned about the letter M.  He loves his letter crafts!

M is for mouse!
 

A New Skill
I decided to teach the boys a new (and helpful) skill this week.  They are learning how to do the clean up process after lunch.  They are officially in charge of clearing the table, rinsing the dishes and loading the dishwasher.  Ahhhhhhh!   At the moment, this task is new enough that they are actually arguing over who gets to do it.  I know that problem won't last for long!

Sibling Time
Thursday and Friday were nice enough to actually get outside for a little while.  After a month of crummy weather, sickness and hospital visits, they were anxious to get out and I was anxious to have them out!  On Friday, all three kids played together for almost and hour!

I had to remind them at least a dozen times to keep their hats on their heads!

As part of Ben's letter M practice, he made the letter M out of play-dough.  Olivia was very excited to play along with him and Luke finished his work faster than ever so that he could participate with them.

They have also been enjoying looking at Christmas catalogs brought over by my mother and grandmother.  Luke and Ben even circled items in the books they thought Olivia would enjoy!