Number 5

I'm still working on tweaking this schedule. I've thrown a few things out. Changed the order of when we do certain things. I'm looking for a way to reduce paperwork, but keep up the learning curve. Next week I will FINALLY be able to get a family membership to the Orlando Science Center! And, if I'm really careful with my pennies, maybe a membership to the local YMCA as well! Whoo hoo! The OSC has some fantastic programs available for the kids and I can't wait to take advantage of those.

Bible/History we're still in Mesopotamia. I had the kids draw a map of the region and label the rivers, cities, mountains and bodies of water. We continued reading from Life in Mesopotamia. They told me today that they really don't like the LifePacs we're using. I like the info they give us, but I find some of the worksheets they include to be monotonous as well. So I think we'll still read them for the info, but not necessarily use all the worksheets.

In Science we finished up the last of the outer planets. I've been trying for 2 weeks to make a "scale model" of the solar system but it's just been way too icky outside for us to do it. You need a minimum of 177 feet of open space (if your Sun is only 1/2" wide) to do this! HERE is the website I'm using. We've also begun reading from a book called The Mystery of Gravity by Barry Parker.

Our literature study has moved into the realm of Fiction. We're learning to create characters and settings. I'm reading several different kinds of fiction books aloud. Right now we are reading Haunted Waters by Jerry B Jenkins (the Left Behind author). There are several titles available in this mystery series. I think they're pretty interesting. Slow take off in the first book. We're into chapter 10 and just now seeing some action! At least they are short chapters.

In Art we are studying color value, beginning with black and white. Interestingly enough, I've just received a photo challenge from a friend to do a photo study in black and white this month! How cool is that? We've been reading from Looking at Pictures by Joy Richardson and What Every Artist Needs to Know about Paints and Colors by David Pyle. The first book takes a look at how pictures are saved, restored, displayed in museums and addresses the issue of Why? The second book is about how colors and paints were discovered and evolved into what we have today. This book is more of a technical book, but there is a lot of neat information in there.

The kids are doing great with the decimals. I found some great math books at the library. Every day we do a puzzle from Arithme-tickle by J. Patrick Lewis and a puzzle from Learning Adventures in Math, Grade 5-6. They LOVE doing math puzzles! We also read Piece=Part=Portion by Scott Gifford and Zero: Is it Something? Is it Nothing? by Claudia Zaslavsky.

We weren't able to get anything done in Music, Geography, or our Cultural Studies this week. I'm really not liking the Spectrum Geography book for Grade 4 that we're using. I think I'm going to ditch it and work on geography without a workbook.

K is still reading Dragon Rider and J was reading Summer Reading is Killing Me. He just finished it today. I'm still waiting for the library to deliver a couple books on costuming for me to read.

So that's where we've been and where we are now. Have a great weekend!