Review of last week and this week's plan

I shared last week what our plans were. We were super ambitious, but we actually got a lot of things on the schedule done. I, too, am shocked, especially if you read about our science experiment fiascoes.

All in all, it was a good week. The kids' favorite activity was probably drawing a plantation, which really surprised me. Jerimiah in particular really thought about how his plantation should be organized. I loved that he wanted nice accommodations for his slave quarters. We ended up having a really good discussion about slavery in general, which lead to talking about how we treat others and what the Bible says about loving others. They also enjoyed their cloud books, which I will try to get a picture of soon. It's a dark, rainy day here. My cell phone just can't handle that!

The silhouettes were a bust. We didn't have enough light. We made them, but they didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. They also weren't as enthusiastic about all the cool websites I found. Some held their attention, but I was surprised at how quickly they wanted to be done with the sites overall.

We didn't do the Williamsburg site or the Colonial map because we went fishing instead. We didn't catch anything, but we saw a ton of egrets and herons. 

We discovered the Jerimiah loves listening to and reading along with books on CD. Our library has a great selection of age and reading level appropriate books on CD that we can check out with the book itself. Then he can read along. We will be getting a new one each week. Anthony wants to try them out as well.

This week, we are continuing our studies of weather and Colonial times.

Monday- Science

We began Science today by reading Rumble, Boom, which is a good overview of thunderstorms. We studied Thunderstorms at Weather Wiz Kids. We also studied Lightning at the same site. We watched this video on YouTube that explained how lightning forms. We also checked out the very helpful animations on Scijinks.  The kids loved every single thing we looked at today. (Mark that down on a calendar!)

For language arts, we are working on writing a paragraph about lightning. By the end of this year, Jerimiah should be able to write an essay, with an introduction and conclusion. We are building up to that by improving his paragraph writing skills. Anthony should be able to write a short paragraph by the end of this year.

Tuesday- Social Studies

This week, we will be studying Native Americans during Colonial times. The goal is to look at colonization from a Native American viewpoint, as well as learn about Native American groups and history from that time. We will look at this Thanksgiving interactive, which includes lots of information about the Wampanoags. We will also be making use of this site to learn about Northeast Woodland Native Americans. From that site, we will be reading the Wise Owl powerpoint and discussing the "moral" of the story. In addition, we will be reading parts of Indians of the Northeast by Lisa Sita.

Wednesday- Science

We will study Wind at Weather Wiz kids, followed by Tornadoes from the same site. As long as it's not raining, we will do this experiment to find out what's in the wind. We will also continue to work on our Lightning paragraphs.

Thursday- Social Studies

We will continue our study of Native Americans by using the same site as Tuesday, but this page. This covers the Native Americans of the Southeast Woodlands. We will read the Invisible Warrior powerpoint and discuss. Then we will compare and contrast the two stories. I'm still looking for a fun Native American craft or other activity to do. We'll see what I come up with. I'm leaning towards a dreamcatcher, but we'll see what kind of financial investment that takes. We may make paper canoes too.

Friday- Science

We will be wrapping up our weather unit by learning about Temperature and Weather Forecasting from the the Weather Wiz Kids site. (Can you tell I love this site?) We're going to give science experiments another go with a make a thermometer experiment.  We will finish up our Lightning paragraphs as well.

Whew! What a week. Our week-long projects/learning include reading "Little House on the Prairie" aloud. We should be working on that book for a couple of weeks. The kids really loved "Little House in the Big Woods." I hope that this enthusiasm carries through the entire series. I loved those books as a kid.

What do you have planned in your homeschool?