The Spelling Breakthrough

Today I, Ammon, figured out how to spell words.

You may wonder why I didn't learn this before, but spelling has always been hard for me to do. I can read the words just fine, but trying to write them down hasn't worked well.

But today my mom and I sat down and figured out exactly where I needed help, then she showed me how to fix it so I could learn to spell.

And guess what?! She gave me a HARD word from the 8th grade spelling list (the word was 'antibiotic'). AND I SPELLED IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!!!!!!!!! She gave me more words from the same list (predicament, orthopedic, antithesis), and I spelled them right, too!

I CAN SPELL!!!! HOORAY!!!!!



Mom's Note: You should have seen his chest swell with pride when he got that first word right. I knew he had it in him but we just needed to find the lightswitch to turn on his brilliance. I am so proud of him. FYI he could also spell the smaller words he was struggling with just a few weeks ago. It really was as if a light went on inside his head. This really was a spelling breakthrough for him.

God's Creations poem by Ammon

God's Creations
By Ammon

Galaxies of worlds unknown.
Oceans of waves overlapping one another.
Deserts of sand blowing in the wind.
Sunrise and sunset on a beautiful day.
Comets racing across the sky.
Rainbows of colors after a rainfall.
Elephants trumpeting their happiness.
Apples and bananas growing from the trees.
Tiger moms cuddling with their cubs.
Icebergs, cold and white and frozen.
Ostriches, dark and big and fast.
Night is now setting, so
See all that God has created.

NOTE: This is an acrostic poem. You can read the definition of acrostic here.

MOM'S NOTE: Yes, he really did write this himself. I helped him brainstorm ideas but these were his words.

The Month in Review--September

NOTE: The week in review was getting to be a little too much to keep up with (not to mention a little boring), so I've switched to the Month In Review format instead. That will free up some time to focus on the more interesting/exciting things happening in our homeschool. --Elissa

We accomplished so much in September! Our co-op is turning out great! We all love our classes and Mom says that it isn't as bad as she thought it would be to spend six hours on Tuesdays at the school.

By the end of the month, here's where we all stood in our schooling:

AMMON

-Math: Math-U-See Beta weeks 4-12.
-History: From the fall of Rome (about 286 AD) through the Byzantine Empire with Emperor Justinian and Empress Theodora (527-565 AD).
-Grammar: Letters lessons (practiced the proper way to write and address a letter) and Well-Trained Mind First Language Lessons Level 3 Lessons 1-9 (nouns, forming plurals of nouns, pronouns, memorizing The Land of Nod by Robert Louis Stevenson).
-Science: The study of Sound (half of the six-week unit at co-op). Also did cooking projects, participated in a Science night at Ben's pack night, and listened to Ben's and Daniel's science lessons (see Ben's post).
-Reading: Various books--he really didn't keep track of the titles. Did finish "The Silver Chair" by C.S. Lewis (book 5 in The Chronicles of Narnia series) and started "The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Jester during read-aloud time with Mom.
-Art: In ceramics he made pinch pots (some plain and others with designs on the side), a pinch plate, a coil coaster to place the pinch pots on. In drawing/painting he drew scribble art, drew a boot (realistic drawing), and then did an owl with charcoal. At home he also made a Byzantine-inspired mosaic with paper squares and crafted his own "Barbarian" war axe from cardboard.
PE: Tag games, relay races and scooter games at co-op. At home, rode his bike and dueled with brothers using toy lightsabers or anything else that could be turned into a "weapon." Lots of running involved in that!

BEN

-Math: Math-U-See Alpha lessons 1-4 (place value, counting to 100, adding +0)
-History: See Ammon's history section above.
-Grammar: First Language Lessons Level One lessons 1-13 (intro to nouns, dictation, memorizing The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rosetti).
-Science: Animals (Rhino, Buffalo, Giraffe, toucan).
-Reading: The Magic Treehouse #2: The Knight at Dawn. Various Dr. Seuss books (his favorite).
-Art: In Ceramics class did pinch pots and coil plates. At home he also made a Barbarian war axe with cardboard.
-PE: Same as Ammon (see above).

DANIEL

-Math: Counting, sorting, shapes. No formal math program, just everyday math.
-History: See Ammon's history section above.
-Science: Animals (see Ben's science section above).
-Reading/Phonics: Worked on ABC book (added pictures of things on the proper letter page) and practices letter sounds while doing it. Also worked on a few lessons in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons with Mom. Not quite ready for more, so Mom put it aside to focus on phonics with him.
-Art: See Ben's ceramics above. Also did paper mosaics with Ammon and lots of drawing on his own.
-PE: Participated in brother duels (see Ammon's PE section above).

ELIZABETH

Since she is still really young, even for preschool, she mostly worked on her colors and shapes with Mom. She also loves to spend time painting and dancing to music. She also worked on phonics with Daniel.

GRACE

She mastered the art of sitting up and worked on learning to crawl.

Is It Math? Is It Science? It's Cooking Time!

Earlier this week we quickly finished up our schoolday in order to free up some time to do a cooking project. We needed snacks to take to school, so Mom decided it would be fun to make them.

First we started with making soft pretzels. We each helped Mom dump the ingredients into the mixer, and then we set the dough aside to rise.

While it was rising, we made peanut butter balls. It was fun taking the "peanut butter dough" and rolling it into balls, then rolling the ball into powdered sugar or crushed corn flakes. Those went into the fridge and out came the pretzel dough.

We rolled the dough into long snakes. Then Mom showed us how to make a U shape with the dough and fold each end to make a pretzel shape. It was hard for some of us, be we all managed to figure it out eventually.

Then Mom plopped them in boiling water for a little bit and then shook salt all over them. Then we put them into the oven to finish cooking.

YUM! They were so good! At first we were unhappy that they wouldn't be like the crunchy pretzels we buy from the store, but they were so good that we ate the entire batch right then and had to make a second one for school the next day!

And we tried the peanut butter balls, too. YUMMY! But there were enough of those that we didn't need to make another batch. Besides, we were getting full from all the pretzels we ate.

So was it math we learned? Yes. We counted the cups of flour and figured out how many 1/2 cupfuls of honey we would need to equal 2 cups. We also learned time as we calculated what time the dough would be finished rising.

Was it science we learned? Yes. We talked about how dough rises (thanks to the yeast) and learned about friction and ways to reduce it as dough stuck to the table and we put oil down to stop it from sticking.

But most of all, it was Cooking Time! We love Cooking Time!