Monday, August 31, 2009

Menu Plan Monday

Trying to get back in the swing of things with menu planning. It's hard when your garbage disposal is broken and your sink is leaking! Hopefully that will be fixed soon.



We're trying a couple of new things this week. First up is the recipe for tonight--I hope it will be good!

Monday: Crock-Pot Peppercorn Steak
Tuesday: Buttermilk Chicken Tenders with french fries
Wednesday: Chicken Fajita Quesadillas
Thursday: CORN/DIY night
Friday: spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread
Saturday/Sunday: Chinese Lemon Chicken with rice and veggies one of these nights, and we'll probably go out the other night.

Hope you all are having yummy stuff this week for dinner! We are making progress with math--today Jamie completed it in under 30 minutes! So happy!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Weekly Wrapup: Week 1



I have decided to try and write a little bit about our schoolwork for the week at the end of each week. Even if it's short I think it will still be good to have a record of what we've done at the end of the year. So, without further ado...

This was our first week of homeschooling for 3rd grade! Both Jamie and I were excited to get going. We are using Sonlight Core 2 this year with Sonlight 2 Intermediate LA and Science 2, and Horizons 3 for math. In addition we are doing "Conquering Cursive" as a cursive workbook and SongSchool Latin. I will be adding in some music theory/music reading lessons later on in the school year as we progress, but I wanted to ease in with a little less work at first.

This week in math: Completely review. Unfortunately this did not make Jamie dawdle any less. Worst length of time to complete 1 page front and back this week was 2 hours. On the up side, he had cut it down to around 40 minutes by the end of the week--but I know he can go faster. Trying to think of some creative solutions to get him to focus. We are also trying to do a Calculadders drill 2-3 times a week. This week we did Calculadders on Monday and Wednesday.

This week in history: We reviewed all of what we learned last year in the Usborne Book of World History. I did more of a question/answer format than the "reading names/dates while your child follows along" method the IG suggests, and it went well. We are forging on into new territory next week. We also started reading Explorer's News (like it), Red Sails to Capri (it's ok), and Window on the World (hated it so much I gave it away to a friend today). We are going to be looking for something good to replace WoW with--I have gotten a bunch of good suggestions from the Sonlight forums. We also started the Geography Songs book/CD. Jamie listened to the "Continents and Oceans" song and proclaimed it "One of the dumbest songs I have ever heard." Let's hope they get better! :)

This week in LA: We started Diamond Notes which so far seems to be a great writing program. Jamie read "Clara's Bookwagon" and started reading "Long Way to a New Land". We began cursive work as well as doing lessons in MCP Phonics C and Wordly Wise B. Jamie continues to have no problem at all with spelling words, and his handwriting has improved.

This week in Science: We have studied several different animals, including chimpanzees, bears, and tigers this week.

Electives: We worked through 2 lessons in SongSchool Latin this week. I am trying to alternate days with this and cursive, doing cursive on M/W/F and Latin on T/Th. Once cursive is easier for him I will move cursive in with LA every day and probably switch Latin to M/W/F and do music theory on T/Th. Jamie is enjoying learning Latin so far.

Extracurricular activities: Friends came over on Friday for a playdate and a trip to the bowling alley. The children's choir Jamie is in at church has their final performance on Sunday.