Weekly Update: Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Islam, and Deserts

This week we continued the magic carpet ride from Iran to Iraq, with a quick stop at Mecca in Saudi Arabia. I want to spend more time on each country, but our world tour will take many years if I don't keep on moving!

Geography/Science/Literature: We colored the map and flag of Iraq. We read the chapter book, Seasons of the Sandstorms was really great, a fun and entertaining way to learn about the golden age of Baghdad. Some of the Gilgamesh stories were a little intense, but not too scary. We sent some prayers for the suffering people of Iraq and pray for peace to come to their country. I wasn't planning on going to Saudi Arabia, but it was briefly included as we learned about Islam, Mohammed, and Mecca. We read many books about deserts, camels, and also natural resources and how we get oil from the Middle East.

Reading: Govinda picked out a favorite McRuffy Kindergarten reader to read for review each day this week. The top picks were The Mule Ride, Greg's Grape Ride, Mop, Mop, Mop, Quack and Quill, and Goat and Toad.

Handwriting: We finished Handwriting Help For Kids this week. We will reference back to it when needed. Our favorite was the 'ice cream scoops family', the letter 'u' was 'take a big scoop of ice cream, then put down your spoon', the letter 'v' and 'w' were making ice cream cones. It will be very memorable and fun. I think this short program really helped differentiate between letters that start on the left, middle, and right side, which was our goal (because an 's' will end up sideways if you start it on the left).

Math: We did lessons 148-155. We practiced more adding and subtracting, skip counting, greater than/less than, pattern blocks, tangrams, number words, story problems, and measuring centimeters with a ruler. The week ended with a new game, The Half Of It Game. It was another fun one that we will play again. We have one more week left of McRuffy K math! It has been a fun introduction to math with lots of hands on play.

We are ready to start McRuffy 1st Grade Phonics/Reading/Language Arts next week! I was going to wait another week or two to review more, but he is eager to learn more, since easy reader library books have shown him that there is still much to learn in phonics. I'm so thankful that he is so eager to learn more and advance in his reading. This is such a reward for a homeschooling family!