We recently wrapped up our study of the United States. It was interesting revisiting some of our favorites from last years study of Adventures in US History and then tacking on a few new things.  I was encouraged to see just how much boys learned last year.  Here is the first worksheet they finished, filling in the states they remembered from their study last year. I thought I would show my eldest son’s work in case their is anyone else out their with a child dealing with visual disorganization/possible dyslexia.

Our favorite new read this week was Cynthia Rylant’s beautiful book, “Appalachia: The Voices of Sleeping Birds.” We read through it several times and really loved how we came away with a greater understanding of personality of place.

We enjoyed Tales of the Kingdom and Hero Tales this week. Both boys have been keeping reading journals with their thoughts and ideas from each story. Nothing too formal being done here. I really want them to enjoy these two books and carry meaningful conversation rather than have them fill out worksheets or write out answers to questions.

Speaking of handouts, we did drop Book of Animals. This week we stuck with Properties of Ecosystems and Living World. The boys and I used our plexiglass easel to make a tempura paint/dish soap mural of the forest layers. This really connected with my boys. Getting their hands dirty, holding races to label the layers and reading living books about the forest made for deeper learning they could relate to.

We will continue to mash our own science together this year based on the biomes and PoE sections we read. The kids are interested in making dioramas of each biome. I’m not sure I can handle making one for each, but I think we’ll end up making a few.

This is our final week with **just** MFW ECC. We are now mixing in all of our Math, Latin, Language Arts etc. So much to look forward to.

One final note. Its so ridiculously hot outside. Every time we have a rainstorm, the kids beg to go outside for “a quick splash.” Its always worth it.