More April!

In history we have been working on Ancient Rome. Key words we learned are empire, roman numerals, forum, and toga.

Jayden had his final writing class of the school year. They worked on some of the uses and cases of pronouns, including pronoun reference issues. They also talked about what the entries in the dictionary actually mean, how to use the pronunciation guides, and compared dictionaries to see how they differ.

Caitlin started her instructional floor hockey league! She picked her t-shirt number... #1. Anyone else surprised?

 

This month the kids went to their first ever (drop off) camp day. Thankfully I was working so I didn't get to be that nervous mom that dropped them off and lurked in the bushes. Instead, Juan dropped them off and they had a BLAST! It is an outdoor science program with it's own private lake! I was able to get these pictures from their facebook page, and it was comforting to see candid, happy shots of them!

The kids worked on a unit called "Lake Ecology". They explored the water cycle, water sheds, and water conservation.  

 Here the kids are having a "water cycle dance off". 

 

They even got to go on the lake! Caitlin went in a canoe and Jayden went by himself (cue my heart attack here) in a kayak!

During one of the classes this month a lot of kids were out, so the kids got to practice new moves with a smaller teacher/student ratio.

 Jayden and Caitlin started doing some Khan Academy, practicing math online.

 We also started a new challenge. The kids have to make healthy choices every day, including fruit, veggies, and exercise. If they complete all three tasks daily they get to fill in a happy face on a chart I made them. They can cash in their 7 happy faces on Sundays for ice cream! Here they are eating a grain free paleo chicken pot pie. Instead of broccoli I used sweet green peas, but it was delicious! Jayden thought it was "so so" but ate it anyway, and Juan liked it enough as well.

 Here is Jayden's floor hockey practice pics this week.

 

 And finally, here are their gym class pics. The kids played dodge ball, capture the flag, and tag.

First Half of April

We are halfway through April and we have been SO busy, as usual!

Here are the kids at their gym class:

The day before Easter we went to a town Easter egg hunt. It was COLD! They had fun collecting eggs though.

 On Easter we had our own Easter egg hunt at home.

 Unfortunately the kids weren't feeling too well. This is what our Easter looked like:

After a nap Caitlin seemed a little better. I downloaded a math app for Caitlin called Medieval Math Battle. She loves it!

 Jayden is still really into Legos. This is one of his creations from April.

I had a school project to do and I had to visit an art museum. I took the kids with me and, surprisingly, we all had a great time!

 

After our art trip the kids did some painting of their own. 

A homeschooling friend recommended a math program called Beast Academy. This math curriculum has a textbook that is set up comic book style. It teaches concepts in a cute and funny way, while still doing a thorough job explaining each topic logically. The workbooks are full of puzzles, mazes, and other challenges to get kids to think outside the box. So far Jayden LOVES it. He actually asked to do EXTRA math work!

  The kids also earned new stripes on their karate belts!

The weather is FINALLY starting to warm up! We spent an afternoon at the park, enjoying the first day outside without coats in what felt like 8,000 days!

We stopped at Home Depot for something and found a bunch of starter plants on sale. We plan on having our own little garden this summer so we grabbed some and temporarily have them on our window sill.

And finally, Jayden started floor hockey! I love watching him step out of his comfort zone to try new things! <3