Learning Log #5 (Sept 17th - 21st)

This week we were preparing for a vacation that was coming up the next week, so some of our studies were a little out of the ordinary.

We continued our model of starting off each day with a devotional (sharing what we read from our personal scripture study), and continuing to memorize our "Character" poem.  Most days, after we did our devotional I continued to read to them from Little Britches.  

Our trip next week will be to Disneyland and then to visit family in Arizona, so to prepare for that we made a special trip to the library and checked out books on the states we'd be going to (Nevada, California, and Arizona), as well as some geography books, relevant to those states.  We did a little comparison of the states, looking at the charts for population, geography, and economy.  We also watched a documentary about Walt Disney, since we'll be visiting his park.

Since we're gearing up for our vacation, for Science this week we studied the Grand Canyon, and Death Valley, watched a Mystery Science lesson about erosion, and did our own experiments in the backyard for erosion, involving the hose. 

Another fun, unusual thing happened this week.  We had our first day of co-op!  William learned about Lewis and Clark, Libby got a brief intro into American culture in the 1940's (what she'll be learning more of all year long), Garrett learned about Morse Code, and Keira got an intro to her class that will be about logic, reasoning, habits of scientists, and Newtonian math.  It was a great start!  

This is what else each child did on their own:

KEIRA
Math: Keira finished up her review units for math this week.  When we get back from vacation she'll be ready to start on her Fractions unit.
ELA: She did a lot of reading this week on Death Valley, as well as some reading from graphic novels we got from the library.  

She also continued to read Carry On Mr Bowdich, though she's ready to stop, because she doesn't like the story.  She says it's too sad.
Piano: Not much to say here.  She had another lesson, and practiced nearly every day.
Violin: Same thing here.  She went to lessons, and practiced nearly every day.
Entrepreneur: Keira hasn't started her mentoring for this course yet, so she continued to work on her cross stitch.  She finished her practice pieces, and is working on a portrait of her cousin.

GARRETT
Math:  This was Garrett's last week of review, too.  He'll be starting division when we get back from our trip.
ELA: We picked out several graphic novels from the library this week, and that is what Garrett read from during the week.
Piano: Another lesson, and practice every day.  He's making progress!
LEGO Architecture: Garrett finished building his changing seasons kit this week. He learned about dormer windows, pitched roofs, and window awnings, during the construction of his house. 


LIBBY
Math: Libby still has a bit of review left.  She continued it this week, and will have another week of review when we get back from vacation.
ELA: Libby picked out a few different picture books from the library this week, and read from those throughout the week, as well as books from our Reading Rainbow app.
Piano: Libby has begun learning to read notes now.  Up until this point she was learning to play by ear, and learn chords on both hands, but she is now ready to start learning to sight read.
Tech: For her photography class Libby was given the challenge to take pictures in bright places, shaded places, and dark places to see what would happen.  She learned that some light creates blurrier pictures than other light.


WILLIAM
Math: Will did some lessons from Math Seeds this week.  He's enjoying learning from that website.ELA: For reading, Will enjoyed been read to from the Reading Rainbow app, as well as doing a few lessons from Reading Eggs.
LEGO Architecture: Last week Will started his Batmobile Lego project.  This week he continued on it, and finally completed it.  He learned that everything needs to be securely put together to work properly.