Week 36 Overview

We did it! We studied hard for 36 weeks of school! 180 days! We now have two 4th graders and one 7th grader! Amazing!

Here is what we worked on our last week of school. Note: History is so long this week because... it's SO good! I had to tell you everything. I couldn't help it. I hope you read it.

Bible ~ Revelation
This was our final book of the Bible to discuss. While there are many things we still don't understand about this book of prophecy, we know that Jesus will return and we look forward to that day.

We looked at all the books in the Old and New Testaments this school year. My greatest hope is that all our girls leave 3rd and 6th grade knowing the promises of God and the sacrifice of Jesus AND for sure knowing they are children of God because they have accepted Christ as Savior and Lord. Not just saying He is your Lord (for saying it doesn't make it true for you personally), but submitting to His authority AS LORD. May He truly be the Lord of our lives.

History ~ 
Explorations in the North ~ The New-Found Land
Merchant, John Cabot, wanted to find a quick way to get to India, so he tried sailing into the North Atlantic Ocean. He came upon an island East of what is now Canada. He was amazed at the number of codfish in the waters, so he claimed the land for England. The colony of St. John's was started in Newfoundland, but did not live there during all seasons, as winters were too cold and icy. Ships that didn't leave early enough would be frozen into the waters. The first settlement in Canada was a warm-weather colony only for many years.

Jacques Cartier's Discoveries
French explorer, Jacques Cartier, was sent by the French king to claim land for France in 1534. Cartier planned to sail west through the North Atlantic Ocean, find a river to cut through North America, then sail on to China. He met the Micmacs, a native tribe. Canada's name was established when Cartier asked the Micmacs what the land was called and they spoke the work for village in their language. It sounded like "Canada". He also met the Hurons, another native tribe. Cartier traveled with some down the St. Lawrence River in hopes of finding China. Once Cartier learned it would not lead him to China, he kidnapped the Huron leader and took him back to France, so that he could attest to the tales of treasure that were surely somewhere in this new land. The French king believed the tales and sent Cartier on another trip. Unfortunately, when he returned with the "treasure", it was common quartz and the French laughed at him. It wasn't until 70 years later that the French established the first year-round colony in Canada.

Spain and England's War
With four countries now claiming land in the Americas (Spain, England, France, and Portugal), there were some problems. Mainly, the Spanish had become huge and powerful and had more settlements in the Americas than any other country. Philip was the king of Spain, but he used to be the king of England. He was married to Elizabeth's older sister Mary (Bloody Mary), but when married died and he offered to marry Elizabeth, she declined, and he wasn't king of England any longer. Philip became frustrated with English ships in Spanish waters (the English were making money selling to the West Indies), so Philip threatened war if Elizabeth didn't stay out of Spanish waters. She promised. But, she still let her ships rob Spanish ships. Once he found out se was lying, he built the Spanish Armanda and war commenced.

The Spanish strategy was to sail up beside an English ship, throw hooks over onto the deck so that they could pull the ships together, jump over and take over. The English strategy was to use their guns on both sides of the ship to shoot the Spanish ships full of holes. The English won in 1588 even though their navy was half the size of Spain's. 70 Spanish ships destroyed and 20,000 Spanish soldiers lost their lives.

Well, that's it for Ancient and Middle Ages history. We stop here at the end of the Renaissance, ready to pick back up next school year in Early Modern Times through The Modern Age. We can't wait!

Math 6th Grade
Our hard-working 6th grader has been working hard for a second week in her new math curriculum. Here are some topics she's reviewed or studied new this last week: Fractions (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing, reducing, and finding equivalent fractions), Decimals (adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing), ratio and simple probability, interpreting graphs, area and angles of triangles, using a compass and straightedge, and more!

Math 3th Grade
The girls finished their last reviews in their curriculum and continued working on mastery of multiplying 2 digit by 2 or more digit multiplication, long division, and complex word problems.
They have come SO far this year! Third grade is really a huge step from second, more so than other years, and I can't wait to see what the basic math computation test shows when they take it in June.

Science 6th Grade
Rivers, erosion, Amazon River, riverbeds, oxbow (or billabong) lakes, waterfalls formation, how rivers have played an important role in the location and growth of civilizations, canals, how waterpower has been used, aquifers, springs, formation of stalactites & stalagmites, movement of glaciers, abyssal plain and continental shelf, the four ocean zones, goods shipped by sea, characteristics of glacial valleys, cause of tide change, and globes (from The Young Naturalist).

Science 3rd Grade
Main electricity, direct versus alternating current, circuit breaker, static electricity, how magnets are used, electromagnets and magnetic fields, how electricity is generated and brought into the home, and the electromagnetic spectrum.

Reading
We finished Master Cornhill. What a great book! We also finished our poetry book: Favorite Poems Old and New. We have read the entire book, which is nearly 600 pages, including over 700 classic and modern poems. We loved some and, well, there were certainly ones we didn't, as well as the ones that left us thinking "hmmm".

Each of our students has read so much independently and we celebrate their growth in independent reading stamina, widening their genres, choosing a variety of topics and thicker books, as well as more challenging texts. They have done amazing!

Our girls have read MANY more books than listed below, but we only documented most of the chapter books. There are numerous other chapter books, nonfiction books, poetry books, and picture books that they read each week.

Sarah Cate and Emma have documented over 50 chapter books read EACH! Wow! That's over 100 together!

Elise? Well...reading is Elise's first love and she reads faster than anyone I know, including all adults. And she documents...barely any of them. She was assigned and completed 20 middle school chapter books related to our weekly history lessons. In addition, she documented 33 chapter books of her own choices. But, she's probably read well over a hundred chapter books this school year. We never really know from year to year because she just doesn't keep track. But, she reads while eating, while brushing her teeth, while doing... anything. In fact, we often have to tell her to stop reading. Haha!

Writing
We wrote a couple more letters this week. We also drew a self-portrait and wrote All About Me to compare to the beginning of the school year.

Piano
We had our Family Music Night at Mrs. Dix's home and it was a very fun night and exciting to see how far all of our girls have come.

Sarah Cate has recently started Lesson book 1
Emma just finished Lesson book 2A
and Elise is at the end of 2B

For Piano Maestro, here are the levels we are ending the year with:
1st year student, Sarah Cate - 46
4th year student, Elise - 84
4th year student, Emma - 115

Basically, 
We are so proud of all they each have accomplished in every area! Our end of year testing will be on June 7th and we can't wait to show what we know!

Be sure to see our Week In Photos ~ Week 36!

HAPPY SUMMERTIME!