This week was a jumble of life-learning and holiday experiences. I didn’t keep notes as we went, so this is terribly rough, but some idea of what we did.
If you’re interested, you can find my summary of the week’s learning notes behind the cut.
Math
- did several mental math problems (mixing one digit addition and subtraction) in the van or at the store; it keeps his mind engaged when he might otherwise be getting grumpy
- did several three or four digit column addition problems during the week, for fun, on the white board
- estimated the number of seeds in a pumpkin, then came up with a new estimate after 100 seeds were counted out; used the final number to estimate the number of seeds in pumpkins of different sizes; estimated the number of pumpkins to grow from one seed, and then the number of pumpkins to grow from all the seeds in one pumpkin
- learned about adding time (minutes:seconds) while he helped me make a cd of BabyGirl’s favorite songs
History
- talked about the history of Halloween / Samhain, about our personal history re: celebrating Halloween, our family’s history and so on
- read History Dudes: Vikings, History Dudes: Egyptians, and all of the Magic Tree House books (some several times) - most of which involve history
Science
- talked and read about growing pumpkins and growing other plants
- played with several science “toys” including his electricity box, a magnifying lens (for several hours!), and his nature box
- examined the preserved bat (hide, skull and teeth, wings) sent to us by PisecoSis; compared it to our own preserved chipmunk hide and the squirrel-in-progress; verified taxidermy as an appropriate hobby for 6 year olds
Language Arts
- we seem to have turned a corner regarding vocabulary in books, in which JediBoy finally feels comfortable coming to me to ask what a word means - he did this a handful of times this week, though since I wasn’t keeping good notes I don’t remember what the words were.
Spanish
- listened to several cds of Spanish songs, including Boca Beth and Little People, plus songs on other cds including De Colores
- played with BabyGirl’s birthday present from Grandma - a baby doll that tells her body parts in Spanish
Fitness & Health
- had karate on Tuesday and Thursday
- basketball practice on Wednesday and a game on Saturday
- played in the snow on Wednesday!
- ran, and ran, and ran while trick-or-treating on Friday
- played baseball and other variants with Pappy in the yard on Saturday and Sunday
Misc.
- celebrated Halloween in lots and lots of ways
- made spooky ghosts, pumpkin drawings, bat cut-outs and other Halloween-related art
- wore at least a dozen different “costumes” from his dress-up drawer during the week
- read all of our Halloween kids’ books - most several times
- had Halloween portraits taken
- enjoyed presents from The Great Pumpkin
- went trick-or-treating with a huge group of friends
- carved a pumpkin - two days late!
- celebrated BabyGirl’s birthday at a party on Saturday, and helped with all the pre-party planning: choosing songs for a cd, copying the cd, choosing food at the store, baking ice-cream-cone-cupcakes, etc.
Reading
- JediBoy read lots of books this week including all of the Magic Tree House books we own (39), all of the Halloween books we had out (about 35), the History Dudes books and most of his castle books, and a pile of books that Pappy and Nita brought, plus a big stack of books at Barnes & Noble on Sunday night.
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