The End of Space

Well, we finished our space study this past week, so now we're just in countdown mode until our last day of school which will be next Thursday. Here's Reilly with her finished planets book that she's been working on. I'm SO proud of how great it turned out! She was thrilled to get to read it to Papa at dinner that night!

I REALLY wanted today to be our last day, but I just couldn't justify slicing days off of school. Plus, I figure that way any days that we have school this summer will count toward next year! Also, I'm one who likes something to look forward to and building anticipation, so it will make it that much sweeter to stick it out for these last 4 days. I think that I'm going to call up the other members of The RFHG* and see if they want to get together and go to the zoo next Thursday for a last day of school outing - take lunches and the whole shebang. That was another reason I wanted to wait til next week, so that I can actually have something "big" planned to make it special!
We've started doing several card games to practice math facts and it's working SO WELL! We do the "Make 10" game where we have 5 cards in our hand, 4 cards laying face up, and a draw pile. When it's your turn, if you have 2 cards that can add up to 10, either in your hand or by matching with one that is laying out, you can take them and set them aside. The first one to get rid of their cards, wins! (We could also do this with the as a "Make 9" game. OH, and the face cards are out of the deck and ace is 1). Then yesterday I introduced "Math War" where I shuffle the cards (minus the face cards) and then lay out 2 of them. Reilly has 5 seconds to tell me what the numbers add up to and if she does, she gets to keep them. If she can't, I tell her the answer and I keep them. She's not lost this game yet, although it's a little more stressful for her because of the time limit. I keep having to remind her, "Honey, it's just a game!" She likes it though, and both of the games have really helped with her skills with the addition facts. Whoopee!

*The RFHG - The Regular Friends Homeschooling Group...my friends who homeschool who I always call when I need company on a field trip! Officially named in this post about Valentine's Day!