Week 12

 

I can choose to bring joy to people around me.

I can be kind even when it’s hard.

I can create a positive change in the world.

 “Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.

-Mother Teresa

Math- We are still reviewing for J. This week we did angles, area, decimals, and improper fractions, which she understands well. By the end of next week or early the week after, all 4th grade material will be reviewed. We got a slow start with switching math programs, but are well on our way.  A is learning subtraction with remainders and will be next week as well.

PE- Taking advantage of the warm weather while we still have it. We also saw who could hang on a bar the longest and did more obstacle courses and sock dodge ball.

Science- The kids are eager learners. A has already completed all 13 life science lessons and the same with the zoology videos. And is looking for something new to learn.  We also made homemade air fresheners.

Art- We made paper pumpkins.

LA- The kids love to write stories and are both avid readers.

History- Like A, J is cruising through her history lessons. J learned about the Civil war this week. She also learned about more states and presidents. At this rate, she'll be finished by the end of next week.

Presidents according to J- 32nd president was FDR (Franklin D. Roosevelt). He seemed like a good president and ended up serving FOUR terms and he would have served a fifth if he hadn't died in office. He was the president that made it so they could give weapons to allies during WWII but still remain out of the war, then Japan attack Pearl Harbor.

The 33rd president, Harry S. Truman, was vice president and became president once FDR died and he set the atomic bombs on two places in Japan to end the war. His middle name was just the letter S, it didn't stand for anything.

Dwight D. Eisenhower helped in WWII and helped end the Korean conflict.

John F. Kennedy started NASA, but he didn't live to see people go to the moon, because he was assassinated. He also started the Peace Corps.

Lyndon B Johnson grew up in a town that was named after his family, yet he had a tough time during his childhood. He was the first member of active congress to volunteer for military duty. During the war, he got off a plane to use the bathroom. When he came back, he was told he would have to board a different plane because the other one already left. Later that day, Japanese troops bombs the plane he was originally going to get on and no survivors were found. As president he signed the civil rights act that outlawed discrimination.

Richard Nixon helped astronauts land on the moon, was the first president in China, and ended the Vietnam War. He is the only president to resign from office. He did so because of the Watergate Scandal which involved a break in at the Democratic Nation Committee Headquarters.

Gerald Ford was the only president to become president that was not elected as president or vice president. He survived two assassination attempts.

Jimmy Carter served only one term but he did so much in and after his term. He made peace with Africa and other places. He also negotiated lots of treaties to help with world peace.

Ronald Regan was an actor. As president he gave lots of speeches including one that was after a space ship exploded killing all aboard. He also gave one at the Berlin Wall.

Stay Curious

J couldn't remember how many days there were in a year. I told her 52 weeks and she times it by seven to get 364. So in a regular year there is actually 52 weeks and one day! Leap years have 52 weeks and two days! I just learned something new.

All about K

This week, we made homemade playdough and created patterns using the game Mastermind. This covered science, fine motor and math. We also did more reading. 

*For reading skills, it is more important to start with common letter sounds, rather than letter names. K has learned the letter sounds for M, S, A, E, T. In that order. We will be putting these letters together so he can read words like: mat, sat, me, see, etc. Doing it this way, rather than learning letters in alphabetical order, quickly gives functionality to the alphabet and gets the learner reading words far sooner than waiting until all letters are learned.