We've been mixing in schoolwork throughout the last several busy weeks.  We enjoyed a couple of fun Christmas parties and then a lovely, quiet Christmas weekend at home.  And, we have actually been having quite a few productive and educational moments, in addition to the joy of the holidays.  Here's a bit of the fun and learning we've been up to:

Caleb completed a math segment on rounding and adding numbers in the thousands.  He also started a new section which adds together multiple numbers in the hundreds.  It is impressive to me how comfortable Caleb is doing math.  Even when new things are hard at first, within a few days he will have gotten it down.  He has had to do a lot of adding lately and his memorization and "mental math" skills are really improving.

Smiley is counting in the teens.  He is writing up to 12 and one of the pages he did for the number 12 was a clock with 12 numbers on it.

We have been reading lots of holiday and winter stories together, along with the Beatrix Potter stories that help Smiley learn new letters and Caleb's nature stories like The Tale of Solomon Owl.  Caleb is also enjoying reading Frog and Toad books aloud.  Caleb writes word lists, that lately have been focusing on word endings and rhymes.  He is also learning to read and write the months.  (He is learning the months in Spanish too.)

Smiley practiced letters, including learning U and V.  He learned a U is the shape of an upside-down umbrella and a V is the shape of a valley.

We are continuing to read and learn about the continent Africa.  We also began learning about the continent South America.  After Caleb had a long Skype-call with his grandpa, who was in Ecuador at the time and lives in Venezuela, he marked both countries on the map he drew.  When we study an area, it includes so many things in Social Studies and Science, including reading and drawing maps, practicing with directions, learning about animals and habitats, discovering different cultures and music, and more.   

The kids did fun art projects for the holidays, including making paper snowflakes and making Christmas cards for friends and family.  At their classes at Riverwood, Caleb decorated candles for Christmas presents for his family and Smiley cut out and decorated cookies for the school party.  They received new drawing markers and Bendaroos for Christmas, so they have been very busy crafting lately.

It can be harder to get outside and be active in the winter, so we have all been exercising together with a really fun Get Fit America DVD from the library.  The boys also helped cook and clean, played their new Leappad learning games, made a pie for Christmas dinner, practiced with their new archery sets, learned and sang lots of Christmas songs at class and at home, and lots more!

Our 2nd grader turned 8 this month!  We took a few days off of school while Grandparents visited and did some fun birthday stuff.  Last week we got back into our routine at home, and I am finally getting around to posting some pictures.  Here's a bit of the fun and learning we've been up to.

Since the beginning of the school year, Caleb has been hearing fables from specific regions and studying those areas further.  The first area was China, and now we spent some time learning about Africa.  He can locate Africa on a map and has learned about the climates, wildlife, and lifestyles of the area.  The picture he drew includes some African animals, including the biggest land animal in the world (African Elephant), the world's fastest animal (cheetah) and the world's tallest animal (giraffe).  Caleb thinks Africa is a pretty cool place!

Smiley is doing well learning letters.  Over the past few weeks, he has made pages practicing letters R, S, and T.  In the pictures, the R page has a rat from a Beatrix Potter story we read.  The S page has a snake, and the T page is a tree he made a T into, out of construction and tissue paper.

In Math, Caleb learned about place value in the thousands.  He can now write and read large numbers in the thousands.  Smiley continues to enjoy practicing counting and writing numbers.

Caleb and I are enjoying reading Solomon Owl, as well as other books we get from the library.  He works on word lists, paragraphs, and  poems/rhymes.

The kids have spent some time outdoors each day, enjoying the cold, but sunny days we've been having.  Caleb is doing great on his new bike he got for his birthday.  The boys have also enjoyed hiking around our hills and climbing trees; they help cook and clean-up (pizza dough, tortillas, and oatmeal were their jobs this week), work on art projects, including homemade Christmas cards, read and read (Adventures of Tintin is the new favorite) and lots more!

It was Thanksgiving week and we did get some schoolwork done . . . if the kids had gone to Colville public schools they would have gotten the whole week off, with snow days at the beginning of the week and Holiday days at the end.  But alas, Mom makes them do schoolwork even when it snows and even though no school bus would ever have ventured up our road.  (Though, I admit, we did have lighter-than-average schoolwork expectations.  Everyone needs a Holiday!)  Here's a bit of the fun and learning and eating that went on this week:

Smiley practiced letters and numbers; he reads them, he writes them, he finds numbers in fun counting books, and plays games with letter cards.

Caleb is learning to measure inches in math.  He also practices subtraction and addition facts he has already learned.

We are reading a number of great books about the life and culture during America's first Thanksgiving.  The books, by Kate Waters, have photograph illustrations of real people in authentic time-period costumes. 

Caleb also worked on his handwriting and Language Arts words lists.  Smiley learned the letter Q; he made a Q into a quail on his Q page and we read fairy tales about Queens.

The kids also made a whole bunch of beautiful candle lanterns (the same kind that Smiley made last week) to decorate our long Thanksgiving table, they helped prepare the holiday meal, making soup, cornbread, and roasting the turkey, Caleb discovered that all his math skills have enabled him to play Yahtzee and we played several rounds, they read lots and lots, watched a foot of snow melt away in the rain, practiced spelling while playing Bookworm, read about weather and water systems, and lots more!

Looks like Winter has arrived a little early this year!  The kids had a great time enjoying several days of snow this week.  They also spent one day in Chewelah at Greenwood Institute d'Art, one day at their classes at Riverwood, a day at home helping Dad, and a few days at home with Mom doing schoolwork and getting outside to sled as often as possible.  Here's a bit of the fun and learning we've been up to:

Caleb is learning to add more than 2 numbers together, and doing "mental math" when possible.  He got the hang of it quickly and is pretty good at it.  He also practiced subtraction and story problems.

Smiley practiced writing and counting numbers and we played different games with math blocks and number cards.  We count and sort everything, while building with lincoln logs, cooking, etc., counting forward and backward.  He traced his 10 fingers for his 10 page.

Smiley practices with letters, everything from writing them in his notebook and drawing pictures to playing active games with letter cards.  The pictures here show the owl in a tree he drew for his "O" page, a collage of things shaped like O's, and a pirate boat for a "P" page.

Caleb wrote about stories we read.  We finished Farmer Boy and began reading The Tale of Solomon Owl, in addition to a book of fables and other short stories we pick out from the library.  He also works in his handwriting book which is really good practice for him to slow down and write neatly.

We began studying Thanksgiving, which has included lots of stories about how and where the Thanksgiving Holiday was started.  The kids also worked on crafts, including a lantern Smiley made in his weekly class.  Caleb finished making his wooden knitting needles and began learning how to knit.  We started listening to the third book in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, as well as read from other books, studied icicles and weather, made homemade tortillas, colored, went sledding and took walks in the snow, and lots more!

We are deep into fall here in the mountains.  The kids enjoyed the first snowfall of the season (although it was gone by the next day) and temperatures at night are in the low 20's.  The boys have began attending homeschool-enrichment classes on Wednesdays at Riverwood Community School, in Colville.  Smiley joins the mixed Preschool / Kindergarten class for a morning of crafts, stories, circle time games and songs, and outdoor play.  Caleb joins the mixed 1st / 2nd graders for Spanish class and knitting lessons, and participates in their outdoor play and story time.  The kids were very excited to join a few old friends and make some new ones.  I was happy that the enrichment classes will help round-out the academics we do at home.


Here's a bit of the fun and learning we've been up to:

Smiley has been working on letters M and N.  In addition to writing the letters and talking about the sounds they make, Smiley uses fun things like clay or Popsicle sticks to make letters.

Caleb worked on word lists, and paragraphs and illustrations about the stories and fables we are reading together.  He also started writing in a journal.  He loves that it is his choice what he writes about in the journal; even video game and movie characters are OK!  Caleb practices handwriting and reading daily.

Smiley listens to seasonal nature stories.  After one such story, he drew a picture of a tree that loses it's leaves in the fall, next to an evergreen that stays green all year.

Caleb also enjoys seasonal stories and we have been closely observe the weather changes.  He made a wind detector to see wind is made when air temperature changes.  He drew a picture of one experiment that uses hot, colored water that rises above cooler water.

We are practicing using maps.  Caleb copied symbols from a Washington State map after locating the different legend symbols on the map.  We have been watching a great BBC documentary called Wild China that has helped bring our Chinese stories and maps to life.

Smiley practices writing and counting numbers.  The picture shows him drawing a spider with 8 legs while practicing the number 8.

Caleb practices math every day.  He has been working on adding money and began reviewing subtraction facts.

The kids helped sew bean bags which we used for a variety of games.  Caleb actually sewed one completely on his own and it turned out great.

The kids also listened to the audio books of The Spiderwick Chronicles (we went through the whole series in one week), helped put our garden beds "to sleep" for winter, picked out library books to enjoy, danced to live music at a local Open Mic and played on their own recorders at home (they even put together a "show" of musical entertainment for Mom and Dad), helped cook dinner, took walks and exercised outside with friends, did puzzles, colored pictures, and lots more!