Thursday and Friday

Okay, here's some brainstorming on planning:

Ds:
-science: has been wanting to work with this Science in a Bottle thing we have. I just need to sit down and look through it to see what he will be able to do from it, on his own or with someone else.
-French: I'd like to do something a little different for him with learning letters/sounds. Hm... maybe Sandpaper Letter hide-and-seek. It's the 2nd period for the Sandpaper Letters, just using a little larger space. I place up to 5 letters around, perhaps naming them as I go, then I ask him to find me a specific sound, then we practise how to write the letter. Once he knows more sounds/letters, then I can place more than that around.
-math: He's LOVING the simple worksheets I've been making him for math. I use a program called Basic Facts Worksheet Factory, a free download from Schoolhouse Technologies. He saw dd have a page the other day and he had to have one, too. (See how important it is for them to see others doing things to inspire/encourage them?) He's asked for one each day since. He's getting quite good at them. He discovered yesterday that the questions were all in order (all +2's) and stopped figuring out the answers. They all do it at some point. So I gave him mixed up ones today and will continue to give him mixed up ones. I'd also like to maybe do a sheet on my own next to him by using some of the materials we have. He's relying too much on fingers and who knows what and it's really best if he sees it all.
-As an extra thing, I wouldn't mind doing some geography work with him. Talk about three continents: ours, Europe (he can associate that with Grandpa, who's from England) and Africa (where some friends are from).

Dd:
-math: her MathSmart3 book is not working for her. There's little explanation so she approaches each question as though she doesn't understand what to do but she doesn't wait for me to show her anything, either, and ends up getting all stressed out (no model to show her if she's doing it right or not, even though she usually is) and having meltdowns. So we've put it aside for now. I need to go through math objectives, maybe local grade 4 objectives for now, and draw up a simple list and see what she would like to do first. I might add in some things I know she can do and enjoys doing from another grade level, like working with integers or perhaps beginning pre-algebra.
-French: I bought this little grammar activity book from Scholastic and laid it out on the table today. I asked her to pick just one to do. She seemed to enjoy it. They are rather easy, but not so easy that she'll always get 100% on her own. I also want to read with her.
-social studies: encourage her to pick another country for her Around the World project.
-English: she has a story on the computer that she works on regularly as well as a new story she's begun planning on paper. I don't think I need to direct her with this at all!
-science: probably the science thing with her brother

The 12yo:
-just put him back on his routine! He is doing very well with it. That's enough for the last two days this week. Besides, we have a Clue story we began that he's going to want to work on!

The 15yo:
-help her with her last unit in social studies; hopefully she can finish it in two days, which would put her ahead of schedule and give her more time to work through assignments/essays and exam prep
-she has her unit 2 test to do tomorrow (which I think I will approach a little differently: go through each section with her talking about what it is and where it matches up in the textbook (open-book test) so that she begins it with a little more confidence than todays); start her on unit 3 on Friday (I don't even remember what unit 3 is! Should perhaps have a look)
That's ALL I insist on for her before she's done her social studies exam, which she's in total agreement with. Everything else is up to her.

Well, best be getting to those math objectives for dd!