Not Back to School Picnic!

Last week we met up with one of our homeschooling groups for a "Not Back to School Picnic." We all get together and enjoy the park in the beginning of the school year, which is far less crowded now that most kids are back in school.

It's a wonderful experience to wake up in the morning and not have to rush around waking sleeping children, packing lunches, and rushing them off to school. We are fortunate enough to get up and go at our own pace in the mornings.

All of the parents usually have a smile on their face at some point, the kind of smile that we all recognize. It's the smile that says "This is nice!"

It definitely is not without challenge, and some days  think it would be so much easier to ship them off for 8+ hours a day. But truthfully, I don't think it would be easier at all!

Look at how unfortunate these weird, sad, and unsocialized children appear! ;)

I am so grateful for our network of homeschoolers!

Sports

Caitlin decided that she wants to do soccer this year. This is the first time she is in a class all by herself and she is loving it.

Last weekend we kicked off the soccer season with a practice. She was not too pleased when the other girls were kicking her ball. She was not understanding the concept of the exercise since it was different from the regular soccer games she has seen.

 

The following day she had another practice and her first game. All of us as well as the Ramirez clan came to cheer her on.

Getting ready

Ready to play!

Group talk

Action shot

In other sports related news, the kids earned their second stripe in Karate!

The kids' aunt came over last week and they had a lot of fun with her.

Pop the Pig

Hedbanz

Zombies

Last week Jayden also had a football evaluation. He will be participating in Flag Football this fall.

Caught the ball!

He is SUPER excited and can't wait to start!

Science & History

We finished up our muscle unit with an episode of "The Magic School Bus Flexes Its Muscles". The kids really love this series. The point of this episode was to explain that bones, joints, and muscles are body parts that work together to allow us to move.

Jayden and I worked on a lapbook called Human Body: Muscles. It is a speedy lapbook from Currclick. We love speedy lapbooks. Jayden really loves lapbooking and the speedy lapbooks are short and simple, and not at all overwhelming.

In history we read about Sargon of Akkad, the first Sumerian dictator. We learned (yes we, because I learn too!) that the Sumerians were not united prior to Sargon's dictatorship and often fought one another. We also discussed military dictatorship.

Jayden is always incredulous when we discuss timelines. Whenever he sees dates like 3000 BCE I can see the wheels turning in his head. Caitlin doesn't get it quite yet, so I explain that this was over 5,000 years ago. I don't think she grasps just how large that number is, but she is always impressed with big numbers.

Week 5

Week 5 brought a new set of spelling words. Jayden has gotten 100% on every spelling test so far.

 In writing, Jayden worked on correcting choppy sentences.

In Grammar he is working on capitalization.

 Caitlin is still working on her sentences.

Her first two sentences tell what day it is, and her full name. Her final sentence says whatever she wants it to say. Beneath it she always draws a picture.

 She is still working in her math workbook, practicing addition.

Both J & C are working on greetings in Spanish.

Cait's worksheet came from here.

Jay's worksheet came from here.

Continuing on with the human body unit, we are now working on muscles. The children learned that muscles pull, not push. They also learned that as muscles contract they shorten. After our reading we worked on an experiment which demonstrated the muscles (the brown string) shortening as they contracted. The kids recorded their findings.

We also looked over our library books on the muscular system.