easing back in
After flying all day on Sunday and finally getting settled into bed at 2am, I've been struggling against some major jet lag all week long. I have to believe that it has to do with being nearly in my 3rd trimester, but I have been moving very slowly. I've also noticed that the kids have fallen asleep earlier and slept in late. With that being said, getting back into our school routine has been rough but we took it slow and had a pretty good week, all things considered.
Zoey is a voracious reader so I thought she might enjoy having her own Goodreads account to track her reading. She set a 2019 goal of 50 books; something I am positive she will accomplish. She does personal reading for a minimum of 20 minutes a day from a chapter book of her choosing and at the end of that time she logs into her Goodreads and updates what she read. It's been good because it helps her practice her typing skills, along with testing her reading comprehension by coming up with a succinct summary. It's been fun for her, and admittedly very entertaining for me to read her reviews, haha.
We learned about past and present tenses this week and I have to say, I learned some things. There were a couple of rules I had never heard before that would have made the learning of the tenses and correct spellings a lot easier back in my day. Man, I feel old. Zoey did great and I am always impressed by her ability to pick things up so fast.
Des and I have been doing a lot of reviewing together of the alphabet. I've found that he is much more of a math-brain. He loves numbers and picks up those skills so fast! Letter formation has been such a struggle for him so I'm always trying out new ways to teach how to remember the proper formations. We used play dough this week and that was a hit.
Des usually only spends 45-60 minutes a day on school work. If I push him too much he gets easily frustrated, so less is definitely more in this case. While I work more with Zoey he has to play quietly, and lately he's been LOVING these Melissa and Doug blocks I got for a steal. I think we need an additional set because both kids love them and will play for a very long time.
Play dough is something the kids also love to play with. I usually like the toys neatly put away after they are done with them, but since they've gravitated to the play dough multiple times each day, I just leave it out. Even if it drives me nuts, haha.
Very hard to see the crayon circles in the above worksheet, but Des has been loving the Pre-K Language Arts book he's been working on. He's doing so great, so I'm glad he's enjoying it!
For history this week we finished up with learning about Ancient Egypt. For science we studied winter weather. We read lots of books, did lots of copy work, and Zoey aced her spelling test.
Some plans for the next week:
Science - Moon Unit with Exploring Nature with Kids (it was supposed to be this week, but slow moving week, you know)
Art - Study George Inness, specifically "A Winter Sky"
History - Work on Zoey's Oral Presentation on Ancient Egypt
Language Arts - Memorize a poem, go through 4 lessons, read 2 chapter books
Field Trip - Local Nature Center + Library
Resources seen above:
The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts in Level 1 and Pre-K
Alphabet Printable from Simply Learning
Vehicle Clip Cards from The Measured Mom
