Elementary - our week so far.

Geometry
DD6 & DD8 did some geometry revision.
DD8 went first, she started with a game - can you show me an acute angle etc.
DD6 had to name the angle I made and then make me whatever angle I called out.

then they progressed to naming the parts of an angle (side, amplitude & vertex) and making 3 part cards.

Geography
We have been working on Asia and our focus this week is China.
They had a paper doll to colour, draw the flag, find China on a map of Asia and reading various books. I am quiet excited for tomorrows lessons as I found a Chinese supermarket and have bought loads of foods for the girls to try. 

Math
DD8 is working on factors and DD6 on multiplication. We also did some word problems as a quick revision of previous topics. DD6 has also been working on memorising her number bonds to 10.

English
DD6 is writing a story about a girl called Nettle and DD8 is doing some writing for her dolphin project.
DD6 has reviewed Suffixes and DD8 has been learning some Latin roots and their meanings (then playing guess the word games)

Science
Working on memorising the elements on the periodic table and researching them (DD8 was doing calcium and after reading the book and writing up her finding she got to play with a pearl, a bone and some chalk to look at the different ways we find calcium in the natural world - DD6 was doing gold and silver and luckily I have some old jewellery that I was able to break down for her to play with, she also liked researching why silver tarnishes and cleaning an old silver cup)

Nigerian Practical Life

DH is from Nigeria and one of his earliest memories is helping to make pounded yam. (in Nigeria it is considered good hospitality to present a dish of pounded yam and soup to visitors) Traditionally this is done with a 4 foot mortar as in this Yam Pounding painting

We have adapted this for one of our Practical Life lessons - I boil the yam and pop it in a bowl next to a large pestle and mortar.

The child pops the yam in the mortar and pounds away - as you can see they have great fun doing it.

Once pounded a small amount of water is added to make it into a smooth paste - this is rolled into a ball and placed in a bowl ready to serve.

Another great African PL lesson was shared with me by a good friend - grating plantain, the grated plantain is fried to make delicious crisps.

Value for Money Schooling

Don't you just love it when children invent new uses for materials??

This my Apple Tree Counting game - DD4 uses it for number recognition, basically its a wooden card with 10 holes and a number written on the side, she has to place the correct number of 'apples' on the tree. (COE she only had enough apples for the numbers shes doing, not enough for the last number and shes gone wrong somewhere)

When she had finished with it today DD2 'borrowed' it and decided that it would be fun for fine motor skills (fitting the pegs in holes)

and that proved so much fun she carried on

and on

and on. It turned into a colour sorting exercise - some trees got red apples and some got yellow apples.

Next they were playing with their magnetic fishing game

which developed into sorting the different fish types (DD4's idea)

then matching the correct fish to the correct picture on the frame.

Bit of a bargain for a £1.50 charity shop game.

Homeschool Mothers Journal

In my life this week...

We had some ups and downs - the biggest down was someone kindly hitting our parked car, wrecking the wing mirror and a £200 bill from the garage to replace:(

The best up was celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary and the 'party' the girls made for us :)

In our homeschool this week...

We've had some fun art and the girls have been super helpful and good (I've got flu). We managed to stay on top of school and that feels like a big achievement this week.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Last Fridays trip was cancelled (due to car damage/garage) so have my fingers crossed that we can go to Chester this week to walk on the Roman walls and visit the museum. We also have a nature walk planned with another HS family.

My favorite thing this week was....

Our anniversary celebration

What's working/not working for us...
Love my new book - more Greek and Latin roots - have been making colour coded cards/games and can't with to play them next week.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

How much is too much extra curricula activity and where should the 'clubs' stop?

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

Marie Curie 'Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.'

 

Proverbs 31 woman - wk 5

Week 5:  Proverbs 31:22-24  Are you or a family member always hunting for a clean pair of socks?  Does the laundry seem to be getting the best of you?  Maybe you are always behind on doing the dishes.  Write a post sharing  how you deal with the never ending loads of laundry and dishes.

Do we ever truly deal with the laundry??
As I sit here writing I am skiving from the never ending pile of laundry that builds up - with 4 small girls who love to play its easy for them to get changed 2 or 3 times a day :(

I try to keep a tight rein on the housework and the girls all help out with their chores but we do often experience a 'bad week' like last week when I was down with flu - the fact that I had prepared lessons meant we got through them all ok but the housework did slide - as a result I spent 4 hours cleaning on Fri - NOT FUN - and the girls were playing and I sooo wanted to join in.

As a general rule I try to stay on top by doing abit each night and having them do their chores first thing in the morning - this lets me spend the day with/focus on the girls and this way I don't miss the important things like seeing them 'teach' each other or being there to answer questions or seeing the hugs they give each other or the smiles on their faces when they see an egg hatch etc...

My big secret - I've learnt not to stress if someone is wearing odd socks today (DD4) or if I haven't hoovered yet. I know cleanliness is next to godliness and I'm still working on it.

PS sorry I missed last week but was ill - FYI re preparing ourselves/children we do insist they know how to make the basic foods (bread, pasta etc), sew clothes (DD8 has made 2 dresses), save money, grow veg and pay tithes.
We are slowly building a food storage and savings storage. I am also striving to prepare our family spiritually to turn to the Lord in times of stress - they already know they can pray and receive answers to any questions they have and they know where to turn to for help.