Sorry my week in review posts have been so sporatic. I've been super busy taking care of my injured husband who was hurt in a work accident and mothering our children. Homeschooling persists and continues to be a blessing to our family in a thousand or more ways. So I shall try to recount the last month in our homeschool. Science and the Bible have made our learning adventures so much fun. In this science demostration filled up several balloons with air and several more balloons with 1/2 water. When placed over an open fire, the balloons with air burst instantly, but the ballons filled with water do not burst. We learned about the magnificent heat capacity of water. We can really appreciate the amazing properties of water, especially considering the parellels between water and salvation in scripture which we looked at. With a fraction book from the library in hand, all the kids were given spaghetti noodles and a knife and created fractions. The little kids were cutting in halves and thirds and Kyle was making equivalent fractions: adding, subracting, multiplying, and dividing them. In this demonstration we learned about air pressure and how like air pressure; the Lord provides "wind beneath our wings", giving us support. We also talked about peer pressure:What is is, the effects of it, how to deal with, and what how you will most likely be affected by it. e.g. The pressure to drink, do drugs, be sexually immoral, greedy, lazy, rebellious, disobdient, etc. We speak with our children candidly about the spiritual war and the battles will they will face. We aim to prepare them ahead of time. Teaching them, training them, giving them strategies. We are so thankful for the homeschool. Not only are we, (imperfect; but wise, mature, Godly people) their primary influence for the vast majority of their waking hours. But we actually have the time to give academics and character/soul formation equal attention. And should we become unbalanced in our pursuit of teaching academics and character formation, let the weight rest on the latter. Kaden is still playing his surgery games online. Kason has adjusted very nicely to the Writing Road to Reading. The whole family is learning the 70 phonograms. We are more than half way through. The 70 phonograms combined with the spelling rules have helped Kyle tremendously in spelling. The system is so systematic and logical I'm convinced this is the way to raise a good speller. Kendal found out about computer time :-) With the help of Writing with Ease, Kyle has nearly mastered putting thoughts into words and then onto paper. We have spent more of this year on writing composition than mechanics. I am finally learning how seamlessly I can integrate writing mechanics into everyday assignments. I gave him 4th grade math SOL for reading and math. He scored nearly perfect in Language Arts and about 70% on Math which was to be expected b/c he still has 1/3 of his math book to go. All the problems he missed had to do with fractions, percents, decimals, geometry, and probability. After he completes his math book which addresses all of these, I'll give him the test again before I give him his end of the year final test. I also printed off several released 4th grade math tests for him to work on throughout the summer. Math is still not his favorite subject but he is a diligent worker and does it well. The twins have shown incredible improvement this last month!!!!!!! Especially in the areas of before and after, sequencing, patterning, breaking down words, spelling, writing, following directions, and reading comprehension. All skills which have been so sorely lacking. Even Peyton's speech teacher has remarked how much she has improved in such a short amount of time. Her speech teacher gives her weekly homework, which I'm able to do with both the twins and they have really improved a lot in those areas. They both perfectly narrated a story to me! A huge feat in this house. Oh my beloved Kindle!!! I can't wait to post pictures. Is it too dramatic to say it's transformed my life!! I absolutely love it, how did I ever live without it! I can't say enough great things about it. The Kindle is a dream come true. Thousands of books at my finger tips for me and my whole family to enjoy! And since we use many "school books" from the last century they're all free. So we are happily enjoying so many books right now. Snuggled up in bed with hot chocolate we are plodding our way through the classics; how delightful.