Our Trio of Children

Weeks 15-17!

2010-01-24T19:34:00.000-05:00

We started school back up after our Christmas break feeling refreshed, and ready to start some new things! So far the 3 weeks since have been quite good! Here's a rundown...

L:
Math: Continues to work on memorizing multiplication facts, and working through his math book. Took a test on Friday of week 17 and scored an A!

Spelling: Continuing to work through Spelling Wisdom...using copywork/studied dictation to learn to spell. This is working well for L and he enjoys it...so that's a plus!

Writing With Ease 2: We are almost done with this book...completed weeks 32-34. This includes narration and dictation of passages from books. He will complete this in 2 weeks.

Pictures in Cursive Primer: have moved onto copying words that are associated with the pictures. Working out well so far!

Reading: Daily reading aloud is improving his reading skills. Currently, I let him choose what he reads to me...he likes that!

Logic: Weekly logic pages...these 3 weeks the pages were covering analogies.

L has also started several new things...
Writing Tales 1: This is a curriculum that teaches writing in such a fun way! It has been a hit these past 3 weeks! Each story is presented and used for 2 weeks. During the first week, L has to rewrite the story in his own words, staying true to what happened in the original. Then during the second week, he gets to write a rough draft of the story with his own creative touches in it. Then we edit it together, and at the end of the week he writes a final copy of his own story. There are also grammar, dictionary, copywork, and spelling concepts reviewed through the 2 weeks dealing with the story. I decided to let L practice his typing skills using this book...so he is typing each story on the computer and then we can print them all out. He is really enjoying this!! A Big THUMBS UP for Writing Tales!!!!

Daily Language Review: This book is also working out well. It has 1/2 page of various grammar concepts each day...it includes editing for spelling, grammar, and punctuation mistakes, along with many other grammar concepts. Each day is different, and it is working out wonderfully!

G:

Started Speech Therapy on Dec. 31st. She needs some help correcting the way she says the "sh," "ch," and "r" sounds. She goes once every two weeks, and we have worked on her review pages each day during her school time. She is already improving on the "sh" and "ch" sounds!

Math: Took a test on Friday of week 17 and scored 100% on it! She does well in math!!!

Phonics: She is working through the end of Explode the Code book 5. These weeks she did lessons 8-10, and she will finish this book next week! She worked on sounds like "ey" in "honey" this week.

Grammar: She worked with what makes a sentence complete, the different kinds of sentences, and Capital letters on proper nouns. This is one of G's favorite subjects...Yay for Growing with Grammar 2!

Writing: She is almost at the end of Writing with Ease book 1, as she completed weeks 32-34. This includes copywork and narration skills. She needs to work more on listening and answering questions in complete sentences, but this book is doing well for her on that.

Logic: Her logic pages also included work with analogies.

Pictures in Cursive primer: She struggles a bit more than L in cursive, but is doing ok with it.

Reading: Her reading aloud skills have improved so much! She is really starting to enjoy reading to me and choosing books!

Together:

History: We finished Story of the World book 1 (Ancients!!) This means we have learned about the fall of Rome. We are ready next week to start the Middle Ages!

D: Continues learning letter sounds, numbers, colors...plays with puzzles...enjoys painting...sings lots of songs...and loves his Thomas trains!!!!!!! He's having fun being 3!!

I feel we have been very productive these last 3 weeks, and look for that to continue! I'm so happy with the progress the kids are making, and we are getting school done in a much more timely manner than we used to! Hope it keeps getting better!

Weeks 7-14

2010-01-24T19:03:00.000-05:00

OK, so once again, not so good at keeping up with updating this! Sorry about that! So here are some highlights for the weeks through Christmas...

G played soccer during October...kept us very very busy during each week! She really enjoyed it though, and it was great for her to break out of her shell a bit, so it was totally worth it. Both L and G started basketball in November, and that continues once a week through March. G started off not liking it, but has made a few friends and now really enjoys it.

In math, both kids kept moving forward...and scored A's on quizzes and tests to prove they are retaining it. They both continued on with grammar, writing, weekly logic pages, history, reading, etc. All this to quickly say that we remained on track and had a productive first 14 weeks!

We also started meeting with some other homeschooling friends twice a month for an art class. That has been very nice for us as well!

G turned 7 in October and we celebrated by going to pizza hut on her birthday. Then we had a small costume party complete with mini pumpkin pies a week later at her grandparent's house. Her big gift was a mp3 player and in I-dog.

D turned 3 in November! He had a party at each of his grandparents' houses...and was thrilled to get lots of Thomas the train and Diego stuff!

We all got sick the week before Christmas, so we only did 14 weeks of school instead of 15...no stress about it though, since we school year round!

We had a very nice Holiday...spending time with our family was wonderful! We started the new year refreshed! I'll post about the past 3 weeks in a little while!

Weeks 5 and 6!

2009-10-11T20:39:00.004-04:00

Weeks 5 and 6 were busy, and it doesn't look like we are slowing down anytime soon! I'm just going to do a quick rundown of some highlights here, so not everything we did will be included in this report.

Math: L is working hard to memorize the x3 table. He enjoys multiplication...just takes him some time to memorize them all. G worked on facts that involve the number 11 (for example, 7+4=11, 3+8=11, 11-9=2, etc.) She finds math easy at this point. (Yay!)

Grammar: L did some work with adverbs. G learned about the subject and predicate parts of sentences. Grammar remains "fun!" for them both.

They both love the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker. Ancient history is fun. We are still reciting Ooey Gooey, while learning the next poem. For writing, G did copywork and narrations, and L did copywork, narrations, and dictations for weeks 24 and 25 in their respective books. Both of their reading and phonics work has improved dramatically since the spring...I'm so proud of how well they are both reading! Logic has been a fun once a week add on this year, and they enjoy it so far. We started reading the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, beginning with The Lightning Thief. The kids enjoy Greek myths and this series is tying right into that. We are enjoying it so far.

We met with some other homeschool friends for park day on Tuesday of week 6. That is always an enjoyable time, out in nature at the park with friends! This time though, we all went on a leaf hunt and then did leaf rubbings at the pavillion. That was a lot of fun for the kids! 2 1/2 year old D really enjoyed picking up leaves to put in his bag! L and G liked seeing how the rubbings worked on the paper. That was an enjoyable morning out!

Soccer started for G. (L's age group was cancelled due to lack of parent coach volunteers.) She has had several practices and 2 games already. The first game was in the rain. I'll share a few pictures from it. The second game was cancelled due to heavier rain on thursday...and made up yesterday. This soccer league will keep us very busy this month, but it is really good for all of us to get out even in the colder weather! We are very proud of how G has participated and given her best in the games so far...she is overcoming her shyness a bit and it is very good for her!

D's preschool hasn't officially started yet...I'm looking at starting once he turns 3 next month. He spends a lot of time learning letters, counting, drawing, putting together puzzles, playing with his trains, learning about (and acting out!) animals, etc. He's even memorizing poems with us! He's learning quite a bit without doing anything formally with him yet!

We are really off to a great school year! I hope the next 30+ weeks go as well as these first 6 have! Here are a few pictures from leaf collecting at the park and G's first soccer game in the rain! There's also one of D when he spontaneously made a "T" with 2 rulers on the floor. Enjoy!

Weeks 3 and 4!

2009-09-28T10:50:00.005-04:00

Weeks 3 and 4 went really well! We are off to a great start for this year! Here's a peak at some of what we did:

L age 9:

Math: Began working with multiplying by 3. Worked with place value through hundred thousands. Took a test at the end of week 3 and scored 96/100! Took a quiz at the end of week 4 and scored 97/100! Used our new multiplication Learning Wrap Ups, and they are a hit!

Grammar: Worked with adjectives that tell whose or which one (this, those), adjectives that compare (bigger, tallest), and the articles (a, an, the). He continues to enjoy diagramming!

Phonics: Week 3 worked on suffixes -ous and -or (like the words marvelous and professor.) Week 4 worked on suffixes -ist and -ity (like the words organist and festivity.) I am glad we went ahead and did the last book of the Explode the Code series (book 8) this fall even though his reading is going well. It is really cementing the larger words in his mind.

Spelling: He did exercises 3-5. These included words like practice, content, everything, laborer, worthy, and hire. He is enjoying doing spelling by the "studied dictation" method, and I really like the way it incorporates words in context instead of random lists. So far so good with spelling!

Writing: He completed weeks 22 and 23 in Writing With Ease 2. These included copywork, narration, and dictation from selections like "The Hare That Ran Away" and "Little Women."

Free Reading: He read aloud to his siblings at night before bed. They got through chapter 8 of Time Warp Trio's Knights of the Kitchen Table.

G age 6 1/2:
Math: She is working on telling time, counting money, and a lot of addition and subtraction. Some new facts included 11-8=3 and 7+4=11. She took a test at the end of week 3 and scored 95/100! She took a quiz at the end of week 4 and scored 98/100! She particularly has enjoyed the new addition and subtraction Learning Wrap Ups and they give great extra practice on the facts!

Grammar: She finished the 1st grade level of Growing with Grammar at the end of week 4 and is ready to move on to the 2nd grade level! She did work with adjectives also during these two weeks. Grammar is a favorite of G's!

Phonics: She did lessons 8 and 9 in book 4 of Explode the Code. Lesson 8 was about dividing words that have a consonant between 2 vowels after the consonant (vc/v.) Lesson 9 covered words that end in y (sounding like a long e.)

Reading: We are working through Phonics Pathways and her reading is going well. I have been just setting the timer for her and reading as far as we get in the time set. It is working well.

Writing: She also completed weeks 23 and 24 but in Writing With Ease book 1. She did copywork and narration from selections of "The Velveteen Rabbit" and "How to Eat Fried Worms."

Both L and G Together:

Cursive: They both started working through the primer book of Pictures in Cursive. Each day they work on 2 letters in cusive right now. During weeks 3 and 4 they did through lesson 9 which included all 5 vowels, and consonants through P. L especially enjoys learning cursive.

Poetry: We started poetry memorization in week 4. We are using IEW's (Institute for Excellence in Writing) Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization. We memorized poem 1 in week 4. I want to share it because the kids think it is great! Even 2 year old D started memorizing it!

Ooey Gooey, by Unknown Author
Ooey Gooey was a worm,
A mighty worm was he;
He stepped upon the railroad tracks,
The train he did not see!
Oooooey Goooooey!

Greek: We started the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker in week 4 also. This is a huge hit so far! We are decoding Greek letters into English to solve the mystery of who took the Urn from the museum. It is great so far and I am enjoying it right along with them!

History: We learned about Ancient India, life along the Ganges River, and Buddha.

Logic: Both did 2 lessons in their logic books about Relationships between words. For example...give a word that fits in with this group...torch, lamp, candle...and G said "flashlight." Or this one...blue jay, robin, hawk...and L said "woodpecker."

D age 2 1/2:
He is continuing to learn his letter sounds (thanks Leapfrog!!!) and enjoys being read to. The Duty Box continues to be a hit, although I need to get some more activities to put in it now to keep it from getting too repetitive.

We instituted "Monday Funday" in week 4 and will continue it for a while. We did the daily subjects of cursive and math, and then spent the afternoon on poetry, Greek, and whatever fun things come up!

Our homeschool is off to a terrific year! Looking forward to many adventures in our learning!

Weeks 1 and 2!

2009-09-11T23:10:00.006-04:00

Weeks 1 and 2 are now completed and we are off to a great start! Here is what we accomplished.

Week 1 began on Monday August 31, 2009. For this week we focused on Math, History, and getting used to the new "D" Duty box.

In Math, both L and G did a lesson each day. On Monday it was obvious that they hadn't done any flashcards for a month, but by Friday I could tell they were getting back into the groove! That was my biggest goal for the first week (we actually started a week earlier than I had planned for the purpose of making up for a month of no math.) Speed drills continue to be a huge hit for math...each of the kids checking to compare how they did on previous days! What a great motivator that is turning out to be for them!

For History, we learned a bit about Ancient Rome. We all really enjoy listening to the Story of the World on CD (read by Jim Weiss.) We also did the map work and coloring page from our activity guide. We have also been listening to Jim Weiss' audiorecording of Greek Myths. L in particular is fascinated by the Greek Myths and it makes way for a lot of discussion, which has been wonderful.

We started a new thing this week also for our Preschooler D (he'll be 3 in November, so we are calling him a Preschooler now, which he thinks is really cool!) L and G worked together to decorate a shoe box which we now call the "D" Duty box (we use his full name in place of the D.) It became the hit of the week! Each day during math time for L, G has "D" duty. She takes the box in to the living room with D and together they do whatever I put in the box for them to do! It's basically semi-structured play/learning time for them to do together. Then when L is finished with math, they switch places, with new items in the box. Some things that they've found to do so far are puzzles, reading books, playing a matching Thomas the Train game, rolling a soft ball through two cones, and putting stickers on paper. D loves the "Duty Box" and it gives each of the kids 1 on 1 time with him. It also gives them less distractable time for math, which is very important. So far, it's a hit!

On Tuesday of Week 1, we also had Park Day with our homeschool group. This is always a great time to get together with friends, socialize, and play for a couple hours twice a month. We are going to miss park day when the weather gets cold (but it may be replaced with bowling day then!)

So that was Week 1.

This week was Week 2. It was a 4 day week because of Labor Day. We added in most of our Language Arts classes this week to the Math and History. I'll just give a quick overview.

Math: daily practice is going well, flashcards and speed drills are well loved by both L and G...working on getting the facts down solid! L's favorite is multiplication, and G's favorite is addition.

Grammar: G worked with rhyming words this week. L started the chapter on adjectives.

Writing: Both did week 21 in their respective books...this includes copywork and narrations for G and copywork, narrations, and dictations for L.

Phonics: L did week 1 of book 8 for Explode the Code. This week it was about suffixes -ness and -less. This is the final book of the series, and he continues to enjoy it. G is in the middle of book 4 and covered dividing v/cv words into syllables like ho-tel and ti-ger. She also is working hard on her reading using a new book called Phonics Pathways. This week we set the timer for 15 minutes each day and read until it beeped!

Bible reading: each day the kids read aloud to me from their own Bibles and then we discussed what the days' passage was about.

Spelling: L started a new book titled Spelling Wisdom. It incorporates spelling into usage of the words in sentences instead of just word lists. He did the first 2 passages this week and declared that he really likes spelling! For now we are using the book this way...
day 1: copy the passage, spell each word aloud, practice any word that is unfamiliar both aloud and writing it. later in the day be prepared for mom to ask for the spelling of any of the words at any time.
day 2: review the passage. Write it while mom dictates it line by line. If it is all correctly spelled, move on to the next passage on day 3. If anything is missed, review again, and do the dictation again the next day.
As the passages get longer with more unknown words, I expect that we may need more days to go from copying it to studying the words to being able to take dictation on them. L especially enjoyed showing me that he could spell the word "ought" in exercise 1 this week!

History: This week we learned a bit about Hannibal and the Punic Wars. Again, we all are enjoying learning about history!

Science: We took an informal field trip of sorts to a friends house today to buy some fresh farm chicken eggs. They raise chickens and sell the eggs, and we wanted to try the fresh eggs! So it became a short play date and mini field trip as the kids got to see, pet, and feed the chickens! They really enjoyed that (Thanks again K!!) and we would love to visit their home again to play and see the chickens!

We also turned in our registration today for soccer for both L and G. They are both excited to play soccer again and can't wait for practices to start! Basketball starts in November, also, and they are excited about that as well!

G also lost her 4th tooth...leaving a large hole on the top of her mouth! It's too cute, but makes it difficult sometimes for her to eat!

We have gotten off to a great start! Next week we will add in cursive writing practice and earth science. And D will start Heart of Dakota's Little Hands To Heaven preschool curriculum for ages 2-5. I hope he enjoys having some school time with mom along with his "D" Duty Box time with his brother and sister! Looking forward to a wonderful year! Here are a few pictures! Enjoy.

New School Year!

2009-09-03T13:16:00.009-04:00

Well, the 2009-2010 school year has begun! I just wanted to take a minute and share the curriculum we will be using this year.

L is now in 4th grade.

Math: Christian Light Education (CLE) Math

Writing: Writing With Ease (finish level 2 in the fall), then Writing Tales 1 (start in January)

Grammar: finish Growing With Grammar level 3, then Mad Libs, Daily Language Review grade 4 (Evan Moor), and maybe Punctuation Puzzlers.

Spelling: Spelling Wisdom

Phonics: Finish the Explode the Code series with book 8

Reading: Unsure...looking at Mosdos Press' new 4th grade book "Ruby"

Cursive: Pictures in Cursive Primer, book 1, and book 2

Greek: Greek Alphabet Code Cracker (we may go on to the Hey Andrew! series or Greek for Children if he is interested.)

Latin: We may put this off, or we may start in January... The Great Latin Adventure book 1

History: Finish Story of the World 1 (ancients) and then move onto Story of the World 2 (middle ages)

Science: A Child's Geography (earth science)

Poetry Memorization: IEW's Developing Linguistic Patterns Through Poetry Memorization

Bible: read the Day By Day Kid's Bible

Logic: Logic Countdown, and Logic Safari 2

Music: Piano and theory using several resources

Computers: Web Design for Kids (...and Curious Grown-Ups!) http://www.webdesignforkids.net/

PE: Fall Soccer
Basketball (November through March)

G is now in 2nd grade.

Math: Christian Light Education (CLE) Math

Writing: Writing With Ease (finish level 1 in the fall, then on to level 2)

Grammar: Growing With Grammar 2

Phonics: Explode the Code books 4-7

Reading: Phonics Pathways

Cursive: Pictures in Cursive Primer, book 1, and book 2

Greek: Greek Alphabet Code Cracker (we may go on to the Hey Andrew! series or Greek for Children if she is interested.)

Latin: We may put this off, or we may start in January... The Great Latin Adventure book 1--VOCABULARY ONLY for her!

History: Finish Story of the World 1 (ancients) and then move onto Story of the World 2 (middle ages)

Science: A Child's Geography (earth science)

Poetry Memorization: IEW's Developing Linguistic Patterns Through Poetry Memorization

Bible: read the Day By Day Begin-To-Read Bible

Logic: Primarily Logic, and Logic Safari 1

Music: Piano and theory using several resources

PE: Fall Soccer
Basketball (November through March)

D will be 3 in November (Preschool!):

Heart of Dakota's Little Hands To Heaven Preschool curriculum

Lots of games and manipulative toys!

Structured daily play time with each of the other kids during their math hour.

Praying for a wonderful year!

It's June now!

2009-06-02T22:28:00.003-04:00

So I haven't been very good at updating my blog again. I think I need to pencil in one evening a week after the kids are in bed to devote to putting up a weekly report!

We have started our 2nd week of our 10 week summer term of schooling. It is going very well. I tried a different way of scheduling and so far it is working well. I made a chart and we have little boxes to check off as we do each subject every day. We like the satisfaction of checking off the box!

We have started a new math curriculum and finally found a winner! It includes flashcards and a one minute timed drill every day...who would have thought that L would like timed drills! I'm so happy we have finally found a math book that he looks forward to instead of dreads!

We are working through Writing With Ease, and both kids enjoy it. Growing With Grammar continues to be G's favorite subject, along with Song School Latin. And L still really enjoys learning cursive writing. We are working through ancient history and having a great time with it.

Most of our subjects for the summer are based on 3 or 4 days a week (except for math, which we do every day.) So today, we decided to do math and then focus the rest of the time on History. We had a big History day! We had a lot of fun learning about the baby Moses, the Exodus from Egypt, the Phoenicians in Carthage, Ashurbanipal conquering many cities around him to build up the Assyrian Empire, and Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians taking revenge on Ninevah and the Assyrians. The kids particularly enjoyed hearing why The Hanging Gardens of Babylon where built and remain one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It's amazing how much I am learning right along with them! They enjoy the stories, color related pictures, answer questions, and mark appropriate maps for each chapter. History is a favorite subject for us all right now!

Our science has been reading library books, and planting a garden, starting with seeds. It's the first time we have started a garden with seeds, and we aren't sure how it is going to turn out, but it has been a great learning experience for us all!

We also are busy right now with our 4H projects, especially L who will be judged for the first time as a 4H member on Monday June 15. His project is on First Aid. He's already a bit excited and nervous about being judged!

Well, I just wanted to share a quick update. I hope to really become more regular with this! Have a great rest of the week!

It's been too long!

2009-04-30T22:59:00.004-04:00

I haven't posted here in a few months...I need to make this more of a priority! So this will be a quick update and I'll share a few pictures!

Since mid-January, we have dealt with several illnesses...flu, colds, and a stomach virus. That has caused somewhat of a setback in our schooling schedule, but I'm not too concerned because we will school through most of the summer anyway.

The big things are that L has finally gotten his addition facts down, and about half of his multiplication facts! We also have decided to change from Horizons Math to Christian Light Education Math (or CLE). This decision was a long process, but as of today, the materials are ordered! We gave Math U See a try, but it just didn't work for us (even though the kids like the blocks!) So we brought our Horizons books back out, and L will finish his next week, and G will finish hers the following week. At that point we will start CLE. The kids had input on choosing this math curriculum, especially L...it has great reviews from people who use it already...we are excited to try it out. You can read more about it here if you like... http://www.clp.org/store/by_subject/4. L will start with grade 3, and G will start with LightUnit 106 of Grade 1.

Everything else is going well...L's favorites right now are Cursive Writing and Writing With Ease. G's favorites are Growing with Grammar and Song School Latin. Baby D is learning his letter sounds (his favorite right now being "T") and counts to 11. I will give a regular weekly update hopefully this weekend!

We have enjoyed some outside time with the beautiful weather last week...and the kids had fun searching for earthworms! I'll share a few pictures from that. Also a big event happened on Monday...G lost her first tooth! She was very excited about it!

This week also marked the end of our Homeschool Enrichment Day for this year. We will have the spring concert tomorrow night (May 1). Both L and G will be performing with their sign language class, and G will be singing with the children's music class (which I teach).

We also joined a homeschool 4-H group. L is doing a project on First Aid. He will present it to a judge in June. G is a Cloverbud (the younger group of 4-H), and is doing an Introduction to the topics of 4-H project just for fun. I also plan to update on their progress with this over the next 2 months.

I hope that all of you are doing well...I will try to do a regular weekly update over the weekend, and I'll work at doing this every week! Enjoy the pictures!

Weekly Reports for 1/5-1/9 and 1/12-1/16

2009-01-18T15:55:00.003-05:00

I'm going to combine the weekly reports for the past two weeks since I didn't post it last week. (It didn't get posted because I ignored the request that I take a break on the Wii Sports game and overdid myself on Thursday the 8th playing tennis and baseball...I was hurt for 3 days.)

Weeks 13 and 14 have been very productive! Here is a rundown.

Math:
L completed 9 lessons and a test. Topics included place value to the thousands, addition in the hundreds (i.e. 287+212), subtraction (i.e. 48-23), and adding 3 or 4 numbers (i.e. 5+2+4 and 3+5+2+4). He has complained less and completed math in a more timely manner than he was doing before the Christmas break, so we are much happier about that! Let's keep it up, L!

G completed 9 lessons. Some of the topics she worked on were place value to the tens (tens and ones), counting by 3's, addition (i.e. 72+5), subtraction (i.e. 19-3), and shapes being divided into equal parts (beginning fractions.)

For both of them, I am considering a different math called Math-U-See. We may start out supplementing the Horizons books with it. If it works well, we will consider switching over to it alone. It has a different approach and stresses mastery of facts as well as giving a thorough understanding to the whys behind the math. I think it would help L to learn his math facts and not rely on his fingers as much as he does for counting. I will update more about this later.

Phonics:
L completed lesson 7 and 8 in his book. Lesson 7 focused on oo saying two sounds (as in boot and book). Lesson 8 focused on ea saying two sounds (as in eat and head.)

G also completed lessons 7 and 8. Lesson 7 was a review lesson, and Lesson 8 focused on ending pairs of consonant sounds (i.e. -sk in mask).

Grammar:
L's topics for the past two weeks were alphabetical order, the dictionary, the two parts of a sentence (complete subject and complete predicate), simple subjects and predicates and diagramming, compound subjects and diagramming, and compound predicates and diagramming. The introduction to diagramming sentences went pretty well.

G focused on Statements in week 13 and Questions in week 14.

Grammar continues to be a favorite for both of them!

Writing With Ease:
Both of them did week 3 in their books (L in book 2 and G in book 1). L's work for this includes copywork, narration of a passage, and dictation. G does copywork and narration of a passage. Both of them are doing ok with this, but it is still new to us so we are still learning the process. I have total faith in this curriculum though and feel it will help them become good writers.

Latin:
The past two weeks we have learned words for family members and people. We continue to enjoy learning from Song School Latin together! Here are the words we worked on.

pater = father
mater = mother
soror = sister
frater = brother

puella = girl
puer = boy
vir = man
femina = woman

History:
We did 3 chapters of history over the past two weeks. I am thrilled that we have decided to make history more of a priority. Since I bought the cd's, we have been listening to history during lunch and then working on the coloring pages and maps. I am going to pick and choose a few projects as we have time. Here is what we covered:
Chapter 6: The Jewish People (Abraham and Joseph). They each made a coat of many colors with different colors of construction paper, and told Dad the story that night at dinner.
Chapter 7: Hammurabi and the Babylonians...they learned about Hammurabi's code.
Chapter 8: The Assyrians...they learned about king Shamshi-Adad who was a dictator taking over the "whole world". He just killed anyone who didn't do what he told them to. We learned that after he died, Hammurabi conquered Assur and added it to his Babylonian empire, making him the new "King of the Whole World." He was much less cruel then Shamshi-Adad had been. We also read about the story of Gilgamesh.

We've also had a lot of physical education time. In week 13 we got some snow, but it wasn't extremely cold...so the kids spent some time playing in the snow. D enjoyed the snow until it got on his hands...then he screamed. This week we got 6-8 more inches of snow, but it was bitterly cold (wind chills of -20 and -30 degrees fahrenheit), so we stayed in. We bought Wii Fit though, and it arrived on Thursday. The kids and I have been diligently doing 30-60 minutes of exercise on it each day since! We love it! It's exercise that I want to do!

D has been busy building with blocks, coloring with crayons, looking at books, singing abc's, counting to 10, and just being a 2 year old!

I have worked on scrapbooking also. I put together a Christmas book of each Christmas over the past 10 years since Tim and I met. It includes just pictures of us (no other family members or anyone else). I have 3 Christmas scrapbooks that are alike, and book 1 spanned from 1999-2007, book 2 will include 2007-2015, and book 3 will have 2015-2023. Each year gets 2 pages. By the time book 3 is completed, L will be 23, G will be 21 and D will be 17, and we will have a complete record of all of our Christmas' together through their childhoods! I'm so excited about this! So far I have pictures in place from 1999-2008, and next I have to go back and put the year on each 2 page spread and add words or stickers as I decide to.

I baked bread for the first time, and also made homemade pizzas. I've also tried a few new recipes from my new books. One of the biggest hits was Chicken Cordon Bleu...we all really liked it and it is definately getting put on a recipe card in my book! Tim had a tooth pulled on the 15th, so on the 14th decided he wanted to eat steak and he wanted it cooked on the grill. So at temperatures around 0 degrees with about 6 inches of snow on the ground, he fired up the grill on the patio and cooked steak. I have to say, it was delicious, even though I thought he was a bit silly to do that in such temperatures!

We have had a very productive 2 weeks! This week we start back with Enrichment Day. It will run 14 weeks from Jan. 20 through the end of April/beginning of May, every Tuesday afternoon. We are looking forward to this week!

Christmas Day!

2008-12-26T14:38:00.002-05:00

We had a wonderful 1st Christmas at our new home! Here are some of the gifts Santa brought: 4 Wii games (L got Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam and Super Mario Galaxy, G got Wild African Safari and Animal Crossing: City Folk), L got a new keyboard and mouse for his computer, G got a Baby Alive Sip and Slurp doll, D got lots of Lego Duplos and a Percy duplo set (from Thomas the Train). Other gifts included books, Curious George dvds, the set of Liberty's Kids dvds, etc.

Tim got some tools, clothes, and solar panel stuff! He spent the afternoon making a solar panel of his own. He is really interested in being able to create electricity!

I got some cookbooks, clothes, and a very special gift. We had about 13 rolls of film from when we were first married and when our oldest L was born that we never developed. Tim had them developed and bought me a photo album to put them in. Not all the pictures turned out, but I got some really good ones in it!

We just had a very nice day! Here are some pictures! I hope all of you also had a Merry Christmas!

Update from the past month

2008-12-24T23:18:00.002-05:00

I have not been good about posting here, so I will just post about the highlights from the past month. I promise to get back to weekly reports in January!

D turned 2 years old a couple days before Thanksgiving. We had a small party on his birthday at home, a party with Tim's parents the next night, and a party with my family on Thanksgiving day. We can't believe he is 2 already! The gifts that were highlights were a Thomas the Train kids sofa from us, a wooden train from Granny and Pappaw, and a radio flyer first bike from Grandma and Grandpa! Here are some pictures from the 3 parties.

Tim and I went to his work Holiday Party on December 6. His parents came over and spent the night with us and watched the kids. They played games and watched a movie together while we had a Date night out...Just the 2 of us was very nice! We would like to do that again sometime soon! Here's a picture of us all dressed up!

We put our tree up on December 14th. The kids enjoyed helping to decorate it! Baby D tried to put up some ornaments too. Here is a picture of the kids in front of the tree.

We went to the mall to see Santa on December 20th. D actually sat on his lap for the picture with L and G, but he wouldn't smile. L and G rode the train ride also, but D just screamed about it...amazing how much he loves trains but refused to go close to that one! Here is also a picture of L and G on the train.

On the 21st D tried on Daddy's big headphones and enjoyed listening to a little music! It must have made him sleepy because the next thing we knew he had fallen asleep on his sofa in the living room! (He wore his coat around for a while that afternoon because we were all dressed warmly to combat the -30 degree windchill outside...he wanted to wear his coat!)

On the 23rd I made a few dozen Peanut blossom cookies. And on the 24th (today) I made 6 dozen Buckeyes and about 3 dozen sugar cutout cookies. The kids got in on the baking when it came time to cut out shapes and sprinkle colored sugars on them! Here are pics of the finished products as well!

We ordered pizza tonight for dinner and then got a call that a gift was waiting for us to open. It was from Tim's parents...it was a Wii! We had a lot of fun for about 3 hours playing all the games in Wii Sports tonight! Here are also pictures of the kids playing bowling.

For school we have gotten through week 12. We are now off for Christmas Break, and will start back up with a better routine on January 5th.

And now it is almost time for Santa to arrive here, so we had better get off to sleep! Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all of you.

Week 6 Report

2008-11-07T19:21:00.005-05:00

This was our first week back to school in about a month. It turned out really well! Here are some highlights from each subject...

Math: (Horizons)
L- Read tally marks for numbers, did a word puzzle by answering addition problems, reviewed place value of hundreds, tens and ones
G- Learned about the half dollar, did addition with 70's and 80's (i.e. 72+3), place value of tens and ones

Phonics: (Explode the Code)
L- words with ar and or in them (for example, swarming and homework)
G- words beginning with a blend with an r in it like tr and dr (for example, trim and dress)

Grammar: (Growing with Grammar)
L- Sentences, fragments and run-on sentences (he's quite good at telling the difference!)
G- What a sentence is (a complete thought), Beginning sentences with capital letters and ending with a punctuation mark (so far only a period)...she says grammar is one of her 2 favorite subjects!

Reading: (CLE Happy Hearts which is new this week, and Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading)
L- Read first story aloud in Happy Hearts about a girl who always loses her shoes and learns a lesson about it. L also began learning to use a dictionary. We looked up the vocabulary words in the story. He now says he loves to use the dictionary and asked me to give him extra words today to look up!
G- read words and sentences using the short e sound (as in pet) and the short i sound (as in win)

Writing: (Writing with Ease)--new this week for both
L- did Week 1 of book 2...he did quite well with narration of the excerpts I read, and did his first dictation this week. So far so good!
G- did Week 1 of book 1...she did very well with copywork of short sentences and pretty good at her first narrations.

Latin: (Song School Latin)
Both together- This week we did chapter 5, which was a review of chapters 1-4 (good week for review to get back into it!) Latin continues to be a favorite of all of us, and on the days we don't do any written latin work we enjoy listening to the CD that comes with the book. Even baby D walks around singing "Salve salve!" (Salve means Hello!) He loves the first song on the cd! (and Latin is G's other favorite subject!)

Science:
Both Together: We read chapters 1-4 in The Burgess Animal Book (some was a second reading since we started it before, but we went ahead and started back at the beginning. We've had fun learning about different types of hares and squirrels, and also learned that they are all members of the rodent family. We are enjoying this book very much! We've been reading it during breakfast to start our day, and it is going well!
Thursday is science day: This week we talked about atoms and molecules, watched The Magic School Bus Meets Molly Cule, and did experiment #1 in our Adventures with Atoms and Molecules book. It consisted of putting water in a cup and adding a drop of food coloring to see if molecules move or not. We learned that molecules do move but it takes a while in liquids. To demonstrate Molecules, I told them that each member of our family is like an atom that bonds together and makes our family molecule! They really liked that analogy!

History:
No formal history this week. We did spend some time discussing the election process, and the kids went with us to vote on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday we discussed that the new president won't actually become president until January and that he and his family have to move to a new city and live at the White House.
Hoping to add in formal history study next week.

We went to Enrichment Day also on Tuesday. L is really enjoying basketball. G likes my music class. Baby D likes playing with the trains in the nursery!

On Wednesday evening we spent some time outside enjoying the beautiful weather and raking leaves in our new yard. The kids really enjoyed teaching baby D how much fun it is to jump in the leaves!

Our new house is coming along. I'll post a picture of the front of it on the day it became ours (it was raining though so the picture is from inside our van!)...I haven't taken any pictures yet of the inside with all our stuff here because I'm not finished unpacking! I'll do that soon. From the front the house looks so small, but it really isn't that small...it's a tri-level so half of the house is underground basically and you can't tell that from the front. The only room that is on ground level is the living room and that is the room you see with the windows in the front. We still have cleaning to do this weekend at our apartment, and we are hoping to get it finished up quickly.

It's been a very nice first week back to school! I hope you enjoy the pictures of the kids in the leaves!

G is 6!

2008-10-22T22:00:00.003-04:00

Today our baby girl turned 6! In the midst of packing and preparing to move, we spent most of today celebrating this milestone for her. Throughout the day today she talked on the phone to Granny twice, Daddy (at his lunchtime), Grandma, Papaw and Grandpa (all different phone calls!)

This evening we invited a couple of girls over and we had a nice little party.

We ate pizza, cake and ice cream. The kids made puppets out of paper bags and played with balloons. G opened her gifts, the big gift being some animal finger puppets and a mom-made doorway puppet theater! Then the kids had fun putting on a little show with the puppets.

Everyone had a great time!

After the girls left, G and I put together one of the puzzles that her brothers got her. Then we painted her fingernails and toenails after she put on her new penguin jammies.

It was a nice birthday. G declared that she doesn't feel 6 yet, though! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Homeschooling report

2008-10-17T07:24:00.002-04:00

OK, so as I said in the post below this one, we haven't done much schooling for the past few weeks. This week we haven't done any, and we won't for the next 2 weeks as we are moving next weekend.

We are still attending Enrichment Day on tuesdays though. That is going pretty well. L is enjoying all of his classes. He is taking music, beginning sign language, God's World News, and Basketball. He is really enjoying what he is learning in basketball! G is taking art, beginning sign language, a younger God's World News class that is also incorporating Five in A Row books, and music. She is doing a bit better with classes than she did last year, but is still having trouble staying in class after the first one. Baby D prefers going in the nursery and playing with the trains, and if I'm not in her class with her she has trouble staying. It's something we are working on, but can be frustrating for me. She is doing better than last year, so that is some progress.

Teaching the two music classes, chasing D around, and keeping up with where G is for 4 hours exhausts me, but we gain a lot by attending these classes!

L went to his first sleepover this past weekend. A good friend of his turned 9 and his mom had 3 boys over for pizza, video games and a sleepover. L was nervous at first to stay at someone else's house, but when I picked him up the next morning the mom told me he was very well-mannered and had a lot of fun. The boys are sad that we are moving, but we'll still stay in touch. We'll only be 10 minutes from him.

The kids' 2 other good friends (9 and 7 year old sisters) are also moving before the end of this month. We had the opportunity to see where they are moving over this past weekend also. We will be in touch with them also.

G has been very helpful playing with baby D while I have been packing this week. She really enjoys playing with him, and he obviously enjoys it too! G's birthday is next week and she's been doing some math by figuring out how many more days! She knows that her birthday is 2 days before the house becomes ours, so for instance yesterday I told her we'll have the house in 8 more days. She subtracted 8-2 and told me happily that it means her birthday is in 6 days! We will have a small party for her here with pizza and a couple friends. I will try to get pictures from that posted before we move.

We will be without internet for a period of time, but we aren't sure how long yet. I will also update with pictures of the house after we get our internet connection turned on there.

The next 2 weeks will be mostly about moving, but we will continue with enrichment day on tuesdays, and next week g's birthday is on wednesday. This is a very busy time for us!

Our new home

2008-10-16T23:08:00.003-04:00

Well, we have been very busy and I haven't had the opportunity to update my blog. I have some news for those of you that haven't heard yet.

As you can see below, we turned down the first house we made an offer on.

After that we spent a couple of weeks looking at A LOT of houses. We found a nice home, put an offer in, and everything went quickly and smoothly! We will close on the house next friday (october 24) and we'll start moving in the next day!

It is a tri-level home, which we found very unique. It also has a partial basement. The ground level has a living room. Then you go up several steps and there are 3 bedrooms and a full bathroom. If you go down several steps from the living room, you walk into the dining room, kitchen, family room and a half bathroom. Off the family room is steps going down to the basement. There are also steps in that room taking you back to ground level outside (a back door.) So the family room, kitchen and dining room are all half under ground. We have a 2 car detached garage, and a large chain-linked fenced in yard with a covered patio.

We are really excited and very very busy packing!

I will update after we move with pictures!

School is now on hold until we get moved in...we will make up for it next summer, much to the kids' dismay! Too much to do right now though.

As it turns out, 2 of the kids' good friends are also moving this month...so we don't feel so bad about seperating them from their friends. We will continue to stay in touch with them.

That is all for now.

(NOT) Our House!

2008-09-16T07:59:00.007-04:00

EDITING TO SAY: We have said no to this house sadly. The home inspection yesterday showed several major problems as well as some minor ones...adding $10K of repairs immediately is not something we want to deal with, so we said no. We will continue looking for several more weeks, and I'll keep updating here with what we find. If we don't find something soon enough to move before winter, we will begin searching again in the spring. This one just wasn't meant to be.

As I said in the Week 3 report below, our offer was accepted on the house. Pending tomorrow's inspection, we will be moving in early November!

Edited since we are no longer buying this house.

Week 3 Report

2008-09-16T07:32:00.004-04:00

Here is a quick run down of last week. We have been very busy, and will be this week also, so here you go.

Our favorite subject so far is Latin! We are really enjoying the Song School Latin books and especially the CD. Even Baby D is trying to sing along!

The basics all have gotten done, but we haven't done a lot of extras yet. (What I consider the basics at this point: Reading/phonics, math, grammar and latin.) We will be doing some history so we don't get behind in that, but we probably won't do much geography and science until we get settled in to our new house. I will probably also wait until then to add in New American Cursive and Writing With Ease (we are still waiting on the book 2 workbook for L anyway, due to ship on Sept. 28th). We have so much to do over the next 2 months...and if we need to do more school through next summer to make up for just doing the basics now, it's not a big deal. That is the wonderful flexibility of homeschooling!

On Monday evening last week L had Cub Scouts.

G started to get a headcold on Sunday, Baby D woke up tuesday morning with it, and L woke up wednesday morning with it. By Friday Tim was also not feeling well. So we had a week of sickness (which contributed also to the week of mostly the basics.) None of them are 100% better even now, and I have a scratchy throat this morning. Somehow I didn't get sick last week.

Our offer was accepted for our house at 5:00 PM friday. We will close on or before November 10. We will have the home inspection done on September 17, and then we have until the 19th to change our minds if anything major is found during the inspection. So everything is rolling along and we are getting excited about owning our own house again!

Enrichment day starts today...since I'm a teacher we'll have to be there early today to get into our classrooms before registration begins for the classes. I'll be teaching the 7-9 year olds music class at noon, and the 4-6 year olds music class at 3PM. Our day there will end at 4. I'll post about how it went in our week 4 report!

It's going to be a busy Fall!

Week 2 Report

2008-09-08T08:00:00.004-04:00

Week 2 was still a lighter week but we still accomplished a lot. Both kids worked on reading, math, and latin. L did some grammar work. G worked on printing several capital letters neatly.

We didn't get to history because of a delay in receiving library books, but will start in week 3.

We also read the first chapter of The Burgess Animal Book for Children for some science. It has 40 chapters, so we plan to read about 1 per week throughout the year (unless we get really into it and decide to keep reading!) In chapter 1, Jenny Wren lets Peter Rabbit know that there are many things about the world he doesn't know, like he has cousins called Marsh Rabbits that like to swim. She gives him the idea to ask Old Mother Nature to teach him more about animals in daily school lessons. L, G and I all enjoyed the first chapter and look forward to reading more.

We made use this week of our new Whiteboard, which I am going to really like having up on the wall! This week we put the date, our latin vocabulary words, and our memorization for the week (days of the week song). G needed to learn it and L needed to review, and writing it on the board helped both of them! I caught G singing it to baby D the other day while looking at the board!

G's reading is improving and she is excited to learn! L has come so far with his fluency, and we will start a more formal reading book in week 3. It will also include using the dictionary to look up vocabulary words.

Baby D is 21.5 months old and his vocabulary has just exploded over the past few weeks. His favorite thing to talk about is Thomas the train, or "Tah-tahs" as he says it. We hear the word "choo-choo" many times throughout the day, as he has developed a huge love for Thomas! Although he is a bit particular about which trains he likes. We have found that he doesn't like the ones with square faces. He will look at the face of any train we hand him, and if it is round he will play with it, but if it is square he throws it down. He also has shown this preference while watching a Thomas video, whimpering and becoming clingy when a square faced train is on. We think it is cute, and it's definately funny to watch!

My mom had surgery the friday before Labor Day. Everything went well, and I need to call her today to see how this weekend went.

Over Labor Day weekend we were with my hubby's parents. On saturday we drove about an hour from their house and went to a place that has an amish buffet, a pond with ducks that you can feed, and a couple stores. The food was the best buffet food we have ever ate! The kids really enjoyed feeding the ducks and looking at the water. One of the stores was a toy store where I could have spent a lot of money for the kids...they had thomas, playmobil, games, puppets, dress up stuff, papo figures, etc. I would like to go back there and shop! On Sunday evening we had a fire in their yard and made s'mores. We also had a cook out. It was a nice relaxing weekend!

The end of the week we were busy outside of school time looking for a house. We couldn't believe it but we found an older house that we really like and we are making an offer on it today, pending an inspection of course. Keep us in your prayers that everything goes well. I'll update as we know anything! (I'll post pics after we know if we got the house!)

Week 1 Report

2008-08-29T22:59:00.003-04:00

Our first week of school went from Wednesday, August 20 through Tuesday August 26. It was a light week to start things off. Both kids did some pages of math and phonics. L worked on some grammar. G worked on some handwriting. They each have a few things from last years' books to finish, and the first couple of weeks will be devoted to that (which will get their brains moving for this new school year!)

L did 2 days of the Writing With Ease placement (the last week of year one), and we'll do the other 2 days next week. His copywork sentence was pretty good, but he didn't do as well with the narration. Since we don't have the workbook for year 2 yet, I think we will work a little on copywork and giving narrations until it arrives (expected ship date is still a few weeks away). I will also hold off on starting G in the year 1 book until then as well.

Our highlight of the week was starting Song School Latin. We did lesson 1, and had so much fun with it! We (myself included) are all excited about learning some Latin vocabulary this year! Song School Latin is written for grades K-3, and looks like it will give us a fun intro into latin. Our 4 words this week were: Salve (Hello), Vale (Good-bye), Magistra (teacher), and Discupuli (students). I have been singing the songs all week using these words!

Next week we will add in some science and history, and be on our way to a great school year! I wanted the first week to be light after being off for the past month or so, and it ended up being light and fun! We are looking forward to a great year!

L Turned 8!

2008-08-29T22:40:00.003-04:00

We had a party with some of his friends (there were 9 kids total including L, G and D). We ordered pizza. The kids played with balloons. Then we played a Pokemon Bingo game with pokemon stickers as the prizes. I made a Pokeball cake, which all the kids thought was too cool! L received a pokemon toy and a bionicle from his friends. From Mom and Dad he got a MP3 player and an I-Dog. L was happy when he learned that I had already put some of his favorite music on it and it was charged and ready to listen to! From G and D he got a gift card to download some music from walmart's website, which he did the next day! After opening gifts, we went outside and everyone had a chance to swing at the pinata, and filled their bags with candy!

L had a great time, and we can't believe he is 8! Here are some pictures from his party!

Our Vacation 2008

2008-08-29T21:44:00.004-04:00

In the beginning of August, we went on one of the best vacations we've had! It was so relaxing and fun, and we had a great time!

We started off by visiting the Cincinnati Zoo. It was in the 90's outside, but we were still able to enjoy seeing the animals. Among our favorites were the giraffes, penguins, tigers and monkeys.

From there we went to our hotel. We stayed in Florence, Kentucky. We spent the evening in the pool there...it was small, but still refreshing!

The next day we went to Newport, Kentucky. We spent some time in Newport on the Levee. We ate pizza at Dewey's Pizza for lunch...some of the best pizza we've ever ate, definately in the top 3! Then we went to the Newport Aquarium. We spent about 3 hours there. A few highlights were seeing the rare shark rays Sweet Pea and Scooter, seeing a huge sea turtle, and petting the sharks in Shark Central. This was our 2nd time at the aquarium, and we will be going back again! Before heading back to the hotel, we spent some time in some of the shops there, and also about an hour in Barnes and Noble.

Our last day was spent in Cincinnati at Coney Island park. It is an amusement park and water park that is great for families. We had so much fun! We especially enjoyed the huge pool area. Dad and L had so much fun on the water slides! This is another place we plan to go back to.

We had such a fun time and came home exhausted! I hope you enjoy the pictures!

July 2008 update!

2008-07-31T23:55:00.005-04:00

Ok so this turned into a monthly update this summer! I promise to be back on track once school starts up full time again on August 25! Here's what we've been up to this month.

For the 4th of July weekend, we went to Tim's parents house. We saw the fireworks from their front lawn on the 3rd. Then on the 4th we went to a larger fireworks show about 20 minutes from their house. L and G really enjoyed the fireworks this year, but baby D wasn't too sure about them. He didn't really cry though (unlike his big siblings when they were toddlers!) Ever since then he talks daily about the booms and points up to the sky!

While we were there that weekend we also enjoyed several cook-outs, swimming in the pool, and going fishing! It was the first time the kids have really been fishing! Well, the fish in the pond we went to were very hungry, and it was very easy to catch them! (All were released back into the pond.) So every one of us was able to catch a fish (except baby D who just got to watch and play with a small fishing pole without the string!) It was a very nice weekend!

The next weekend was the Fireman's Jamboree in our little town. L was in the parade with his scout pack. It was the first parade he's been in and he really enjoyed it! The rest of us enjoyed watching him! Later that evening we went to the festival and the kids rode some carnival rides, and we all had snowcones. We also sat and listened to the live band that was playing for a while. It was a nice day!

L and G participated in the summer reading program, which ended this week. Both of them met the goal of reading (or being read to) 25 books in the 6 week program! Their favorite program was the last one (this week). The presenter had different animals with him and he allowed the kids to hold/touch them. He had a 9 foot long Bermese python (which they each got to help hold), a scorpion, a tortoise (which L got to hold), a tree frog (which G got to hold), a tarantula, and a few others. He was very good with the kids, and all 3 of us agreed that it was a great presentation! Unfortunately I didn't have my camera! The other highlight of the program for them was the picnic lunch a few weeks ago. The kids all enjoyed eating outside in the grass in front of the library.

My parents came for a visit last week. We all enjoyed the day with them. They bought L a new bigger bicycle for his birthday (which is coming up soon!) He was really happy about that! L enjoyed playing basketball with Grandpa. G enjoyed teasing Grandpa. Baby D enjoyed walking to the basketball court with Grandma! We also went out to eat together. It was a great day!

We've done some light school this month...not too much structured, but a lot of reading and discussion. One of the big topics was different animals. A favorite discussion that comes to mind is the day we each chose what animal we would be. L picked a sabor-toothed tiger, and G chose a penguin. Then they both changed their minds several times as we talked about characteristics of different animals. G has been telling us "I'm half ____" (insert animal in the blank!) She changes often. Currently she is talking about wolves. She has been a bit obsessed with penguins lately though, and has watched some videos on National Geographic Kids about penguins this past week!

I am in "planning mode" for school to start back up! I will be placing the last of my book orders tonight, as soon as I am sure of what we will need! Once the books are all here, I'll be working to get everything ready for August 25th!

I have started doing an exercise video and really enjoy it (first time for everything!) It is Leslie Sansone's Walk Away the Pounds. The one I bought comes with the water-filled weights and includes the 1 mile, 2 mile, and 3 mile workouts. I did the 1 mile every day for about a week, and have been doing the 2 mile workout 3-4 days per week since. I enjoy it, and that's motivation to do it! G likes to join in with me and do some of the movements. Baby D likes to march with it for a few minutes, and then tries to grab at my legs (makes it difficult!) So I am going to try to do it before they wake up in the morning at least half the time!

Yesterday was Tim's birthday! We went out to eat at his favorite place...the China Buffet! Instead of a cake, I made a Chocolate Pudding Pie (his favorite!) He enjoyed starting the process of putting together his new computer (will take a few days or more to finish, but he likes the process!)

It's been a busy and fun month. We are all anxiously looking forward to next week when we will be traveling to a Zoo, an Aquarium, and an amusement/water park! I will post pictures from our vacation when we return. We hope you are also enjoying your summer! Enjoy the pictures!

Updated list of what we will be doing in school this year!

2008-07-27T19:58:00.007-04:00

OK, so I've made a few changes since I posted the list...here is an updated list of what we will be doing this year! We will start school August 25th.

L:
Phonics: Explode the Code 7 and 8
Math: Horizons 2 (go on to 3 when we finish 2)
Handwriting: New American Cursive
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 3
Writing: Writing With Ease
Reading: finish any of Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, keep reading library books
Spelling: none formally until we finish ETC (phonics), will decide then what to try

G:
Phonics: Explode the Code 3, 4 and 5
Math: Horizons 1
Handwriting: New American Cursive
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 1
Writing: Writing with Ease (workbook 1)
Reading: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, reading library books Spelling: none formally for now

Both:
History: Story of the World 1 and activity guide, probably will include a simple timeline
Science: Chemistry for 16 weeks, Physics for 16 weeks, Plant study for 6 weeks (all using WTM recommendations and other things I'm putting together)
Latin: Song School Latin (written for grades K-3)
Music: at Enrichment Day (taught by me), also Recorder practice, possibly start on Piano
Geography: informal look at the continents, oceans, and the 50 states (using maps, books, other references)
Art: at Enrichment Day
Nature Study: will do informally when we get time to

Extras:
Weekly Enrichment day (co-op) (classes to include Music, Art, Jewish Festivals, God's World News, and 5 in a Row, along with basketball for L)
Cub Scouts for L
Possibly scouts for G?
Spring Soccer for both
Basketball for L from October through March
Both will participate in the BookIt pizza hut incentive reading program from October through March

And LOTS of read alouds!

And for baby D who will be 21 months old at the start of our new school year, I'm putting together some things to keep him busy during our school time. More later on that!

Now to work on a daily plan and get everything ready to start! 4 weeks left for planning!

Weekly report for June 9-13 and 16-20

2008-06-22T01:29:00.003-04:00

Ok, well this won't be a full rundown of the past two weeks, but just a few highlights. Our summer session of school is going well (despite L's complaints almost daily about being the "only kids in the universe who are doing school in the summer!")

We've done all the basics every day...math, reading/phonics, handwriting, grammar...and some history...but I'm going to tell you about a few of the extras we've done these past 2 weeks.

We've been reading about some different animals and about zoos/zookeepers. We will continue to do this through the summer in preparation for a trip to the zoo and an aquarium. The kids are excited, since we all enjoy seeing all the different animals. And I'm curious to see how baby D reacts to all of the animals and fish.

On this past tuesday, our library's summer reading program started. The kids enjoyed a presentation by Ronald McDonald at the library! We will be late to this week's presentation because of D's doctor appointment, but we hope to make it to see as much as we can. The kids have read some extra books this week to start to earn some prizes!

Baby D had to have a lead test done this week before his 18 month check up next week (he'll actually be 19 months this coming week...) He cried of course, but did very well with it all things considered...he didn't try to pull away or anything. It went so much better than I anticipated!

I signed up for 2 different free 1 month subscriptions this past week...Discovery streaming (lots and lots of educational videos online for schools/homeschools), and Pokemon Learning League (uses Pokemon to teach different math, science, life skills, and Language Arts concepts)...I'll let you all know how they work out!

Today we went swimming to celebrate one of the kids' friend's 7th birthday... but it was cut short by a severe thunderstorm. I was able to get some pictures of the kids in the pool before the storm...I'll share them below. We've had quite a bit of severe weather in the past month.

We are off to a good summer and hope to post regular updates here to share with all of you. Hope to hear from everyone soon!

Planning for next school year

2008-06-07T16:09:00.002-04:00

I think I have almost everything worked out for next school year. Here's the list of what we'll be working on.

L:
Phonics: Explode the Code 7 and 8
Math: Horizons 2 (start where we leave off, go on to 3 when we finish 2)
Handwriting: Getty Dubay Italic finish book C and go on to book D (cursive)
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 3
Reading: finish any of Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, keep reading library books
Spelling: undecided still, but looking at All About Spelling and Simply Spelling

G:
Phonics: Explode the Code 3, 4 and 5
Math: Horizons 1
Handwriting: Getty Dubay Italic book B
Grammar: Growing with Grammar 1
Reading: Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading, reading library books
Spelling: possibly none, but may sit in with All About Spelling if that is what I decide on

Both:
History: Story of the World 1 and activity guide, continuing on with it, then move to book 2
Science: still undecided, looking at R.E.A.L. Science: Life though
Latin: Song School Latin (written for grades K-3)
Music: Themes to Remember, Recorder practice, possibly start on Piano
Art: hopefully at Enrichment Day again!
Nature Study...may not be organized, but taking a fun nature walk approach, continued from summer.

Extras:
Weekly Enrichment day (co-op)
Cub Scouts for L
Possibly scouts for G?
Spring Soccer for both
L wants to play basketball in fall/winter?
Both will participate in the BookIt pizza hut incentive reading program from October through March
???

Have I got everything covered? It looks like so much when I write it out like that! I just need to decide on Spelling and Science...any thoughts from fellow homeschoolers?

Weekly report for June 2-6, 2008

2008-06-07T14:18:00.004-04:00

I haven't been good about getting weekly reports done, but here is a quick one from this past week. It was our first week of our summer session of school. I'll give a quick rundown of what each of the kids did in each subject this week.

L:

Grammar- Different types of sentences (statements, questions, exclamations), and joining 2 sentences together using the word "and" (i.e. He played soccer. He played basketball. = He played soccer and basketball.)

Phonics- Words beginning with spl, spr, str, etc.

Math- telling time, shapes, numbers in the hundreds, estimating if numbers are closer to 10 or to 0, adding 3 numbers (3+7+5), adding 3 digits with 3 digits (324+125), and subtraction (16-9), ordinal numbers, word problems.

Handwriting- Seasons of the year and months of the year (sentences and the words)

Reading- working on a pokemon chapter book

G:

Phonics- 3 letter words with the vowel "e"

Math- counting through 80 (which she is quite good at counting over 100), adding numbers in the 30's and 40's (35+2, 42+3), choosing which number is greater, choosing which number is smaller, writing the number that comes before, writing the number that comes after.

Handwriting- numbers 4-9 and Capital T

Reading- blending double consonants (miss, egg, fuzz, etc.)

Together:

History- We learned about the first sumerian dictator, Sargon. They learned what a military dictatorship is. They each colored a picture of Sargon and found his empire of Akkadia on the map in between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Science- We learned about Venus this week. We found out that Venus is the hottest planet, and is covered with volcanos. We made lava by melting butter and had it "erupt" over some flour on a plate, then we let it sit for a while and found out that it hardened back into "rock" (or butter!) We will finish this chapter this weekend as we didn't get all of the reading finished yet.

Baby D: He is enjoying coloring with crayons, and his very favorite activity is kicking a ball! His list of words is growing...here are some of his most common words to say...mama, dada, baby, up, out, cooka (cookie or cracker), anana (banana), apple, cup, ball, kick it, kitty, ny-ny (night-night), bed, bath, duck, quack-quack, etc. He is now 18 months old and is enjoying being outside! He's growing so fast!

We had a really good first week of summer schooling...now the public school kids are out though, so hopefully we can keep our momentum up and get school done in the mornings so the kids can play with their neighborhood friends in the afternoons! I will try to get a weekly report up each week through our summer session, so please check back! Hope everyone is having a beautiful weekend!

Week of vacation

2008-06-07T12:23:00.005-04:00

We had a week of vacation the week of Memorial Day. We chose to visit with family and do a few small things. It was a nice week!

We went to hubby's parents house on Friday night because my step-son and his girlfriend were going there also. We enjoyed visiting with them. On Saturday morning we traveled to my parents house and spent the weekend with them. We enjoyed going out to dinner with them on Saturday, and having a cookout on Sunday. It was a nice visit!

Then we went back to hubby's parents house and his son was still there. We had a cookout there on Monday. We all enjoyed taking a ride on the go cart!

Tuesday we went to Chuck E Cheese's. We all really enjoy that when we are in town there, and we always spend a few hours there.

Wednesday we went to a reservoir about 20 minutes away that we used to go to a lot when we lived in the area. That was one of my favorite things to do. We walked around and looked at the lake and watched the boaters. L and I had fun kicking the soccer ball back and forth. Hubby showed L how to skip rocks, and G and D also tried! We watched a bunch of Canadian Geese, including some babies! Hubby helped the kids make a make-shift fishing rod with some leftover materials found at 2 of the fishing areas there. L and G both tried it out, but nothing was caught. They really enjoyed making the rod together though. It was an enjoyable afternoon!

Thursday we made the trip back home because I had an appointment on Friday morning. We relaxed at home! On Saturday evening we went to a drive in theater and watched 2 movies...we are hoping to do that again this summer!

Here are some pictures from the week off...hope you enjoy them!

Mother's Day Questionnaire

2008-05-11T17:38:00.005-04:00

Here are L and G's answers to this cute questionnaire about me (my comments are in parentheses at the end of each!):

1. What is your mom's favorite song? L: country and classic music; G: she likes all the songs (well, L's right about the styles I like...and G just assumes I like all of them!)

2. How old is your mom? L: 32; G: 32 (both right, my birthday was just 3 days ago!)

3. What is your mom's favorite food? L: chocolate; G: chocolate (they know me well!)

4. What does your daddy call your mom? L: honey; G: momma (actually it's Honey Bee, but close!)

5. What does your mom call your dad? L: Tim; G: dad or Tim (yep)

6. What is your mom's favorite color? L: Purple; G: Pink (hmm, I like blue, purple and pink...)

7. Why does your mommy love you so much? L: cause she had me; G: because I'm her daughter (they go for the obvious)

8. What is your favorite thing to do with your mom? L: take a walk; G: play games (both fun things!)

9. What makes your mom so pretty? L: her face; G: a ponytail in her hair (she likes ponytails)

10. How does your mommy make you feel better when you are sick? L: lets me sleep on the couch and feeds me soup; G: gives me medicine (he thinks it's fun to sleep on the couch!)

11. What TV show does your mom like best? L: House; G: 7th Heaven (both right, my 2 favorites!)

12. When are you the most proud of your mom? L: when she plays with me; G: when she lets me play (what about all the teaching, cooking, cleaning, laundry, chauffering, taking care of everyone, etc!)

13. What does your mom do best? L: cook; G: taking care of me (cook???? Lol, ok!)

14. Where does your mom work? L: home and teaching music at co-op; G: nowhere (nowhere?)

15. How do you show your mom that you love her? L: kisses; G: hugs and kisses (good answers guys!)

Update for the past month and a half or so

2008-04-21T21:49:00.002-04:00

I am sorry that I haven't updated in a while. We've been busy! I'll give a basic run down of events that have happened since Baby D's surgery, and I'll include some pics at the end.

Baby D's Surgery and Recovery: He did very well, and the incision site looks good. The surgeon said it would stay red for at least year or so. We have a final follow up appointment on May 1st, and we hope that it does look like it should at this point.

L's first Cub Scout Pinewood Derby: His Papaw helped him with his first pinewood derby car, and on race day he came in 4th place! His car did great, and L was thrilled at how good he did with his first race!

Weekend of March 15-16: Tim's parents, and his 20 year old son and his girlfriend came to visit and we all stayed at a hotel. We celebrated Easter, Tim's mom's birthday, and Tim and I's 8th anniversary. We enjoyed the weekend very much!

Easter Sunday: We learned about the real meaning of Easter. We also colored Easter eggs, and had an egg hunt. Baby D thought the eggs were balls (his favorite toys!) L and G received soccer stuff in preparation for soccer season. Instead of making a meal for us, we went out to eat at a China Buffet restaurant we enjoy...it was nice and no mess to clean up for me!

Spring Soccer started: L and G are both in soccer right now. Practices started the first week of April. The first game was cancelled due to rain, so they played their first games this past weekend (a couple days ago). L is on an Under-8 team and they played a good game. G is on an Under-6 team where they have 5 kids on each team and play with no goalies...G was thrilled when she scored a goal in the game! Both of them are enjoying the experience, and even Baby D is learning to dribble the soccer ball! Games will continue through mid May. And somehow both L and G got soccer shirts with the number 5 on the back...easy to remember what number they are at the games!

Enrichment Day is coming to a close for the year: The last day will be next week, and then we'll have the spring concert next friday. Several weeks ago we participated in the Project Fair (similar to a Science fair but any project can be shown). That same evening was Kindergarten Graduation and Special Awards presentations. G was a Kindergarten Graduate (even though we will continue school through July)...she looked cute in a little cap and gown, and each child was awarded a Diploma! We also gave both L and G an award as well. It was a very nice evening.

School: We are still going strong, although we have taken a few days off for nice spring weather! (an advantage to homeschooling year round!) L's reading has taken off and he's enjoying finding new chapter books to read from the library. G's math skills are going well. I'll do a regular weekly report on Friday this week. In May we will be bringing science and history back into our regular routine in full force instead of the sporadic way we've been doing it the past couple of months.

Rainbows and storms: We caught a beautiful rainbow in the sky amidst thick dark storm clouds during a tornado watch...the rainbow was beautiful in the middle of a scary looking sky.

Dentist visits: We've all had our teeth checked and cleaned in the past couple of weeks. Tim had a few cavities filled/replaced last week. L had his first filling of a small cavity done today (and did very well with it, although he didn't like the numb feeling.) I have 2 fillings that will be done on Wednesday. Because of moving and Baby D being born...we hadn't been to the dentist since before we moved. It will be good when we are finished with these things.

Swim club at hotel: We found out that the hotel Tim's parents always stay at offers a swim club membership that you pay by the month for. We decided to do this for the month of April, and used it 2 weekends in a row. It is a fairly cheap and enjoyable thing for us to do. We did have a problem last weekend with a rash from the chemicals being a bit off, but they are giving us extra weeks free for dealing with that.

Sick last week: All of us were sick last week...not sure if it was connected to the rash from the pool or just a coincidence of timing. I was sick in varying degrees for the entire week, the worst being on Wednesday...I had a fever and was achy along with what we thought was a head cold, more like the flu for me especially that day. All 3 kids were also sick various days through the week. We are all feeling much better now though.

Well, that gives you an idea of some of what has been going on here. I hope you enjoy the pictures, and I will try to get back to regular weekly updates! I hope all of you are happy, healthy, and enjoying spring!

Baby D's Surgery

2008-03-02T22:30:00.002-05:00

On thursday afternoon, L and G were picked up by their Papaw and taken to stay with them. After T got home from work, we were on our way to the hotel. We had a 1 1/2 hour drive. It wasn't a bad drive, but we were very nervous about the surgery the next morning. At the hotel, we ordered pizza and watched some television.

Then we tried to go to sleep. No such luck. Baby D had slept on the way there, and was wide awake. He nursed one last time for the night at 11:45 PM. He couldn't have anything after midnight. I hoped he would fall asleep right away, but it ended up being very difficult to get him to sleep...it was almost 1:30 before I was able to close my eyes hoping to get 3 1/2 hours of sleep...no such luck there. Baby D was awake at 3:45, only 2 hours and 15 minutes later, and he was not happy that he couldn't nurse. T tried to get him to lay closer to him, but he just whined and whimpered. So I gave him a sip of water (he was allowed water until 4:30 AM) and paced back and forth across the room. He finally fell back to sleep at almost 4:30 AM. I closed my eyes again, but now was worried about the next few hours, and decided to just get up at 4:45 and start preparing for the day. We had to leave at 6 AM to head to the hospital. I had less than 2 1/2 hours of sleep....T and D both had less than 4 hours of sleep each....we were nervous, scared and exhausted as we were off to the hospital. (D ended up falling back to sleep for another 1 1/2 hours before we had to wake him again.)

Once there we had to sign some paperwork, and it wasn't long before we were called back to get started. He weighed in at 19 pounds, and everything looked good to proceed with the surgery. We talked with the anesthesiologist (finding out we weren't going to be able to stay with him during the anesthesia process)...we were very upset about that, mostly because we weren't prepared for it. Then the surgeon came in to talk with us. He explained what was going to happen, and marked with a pen above the location of the surgery. Then we both hugged and kissed baby D and he went with the nurse and we went to the lobby to wait and worry.

Once the surgery was over, the surgeon came out and updated us. Everything had gone well and he was in recovery. They would let us know as soon as he was awake.

But we waited and waited...finally they called his name and we went back to see him. We were told that the reason it took longer was because the surgeon had to fix it after he woke up. He cried really hard when he woke up and caused a blood blister to happen (I can't remember right now what it was called, hematoma or something?), so the surgeon removed the steri strips and repaired it, then put new strips on and put a pressure bandage on to stop the bleeding.) He was also given more pain medication at that time.

His eyes were open when we seen him, but within minutes he was sound asleep again. I held him for a while, putting an ice pack against the eyelid while his vital signs were periodically checked. Once he was released, we were able to dress him to leave the hospital. He slept right through it all, and slept all the way to T's parents house, an hour and 20 minutes away.

Once there he woke up for a while. He was very unstable trying to walk, and didn't talk much (his throat was probably sore from the breathing tube.) He nursed and was awake for a few hours. Then we took a 3 1/2 hour nap. When we woke up again, he tried eating, and did very well. He was still his happy self, until the tylenol wore off.

Saturday we took off the pressure bandage, and the area looked caved in. By the end of that day though, it started to fill out and look more normal.

Sunday morning the steri strips came off, and we were able to see the incision line for the first time. His eye is very bruised and his eyelid is still swollen, but he's a trooper and is doing well. He leaves it alone most of the time, which really surprises me. We're just being very cautious that he doesn't bump it.

Right now he is asleep. We are exhausted. Here are some pictures showing the process as it unfolded over the past 4 days. We are so thankful that he is doing well, although his eye is very bruised, swollen and red still. It was a scary and stressful time for us, and I must say that I'm glad to be on the other side of it now. I won't relax much until I know that it is healing well...his follow-up appointment is on thursday.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. I know that they were answered...our sweet baby boy got through this safely, and still managed to smile in spite of the pain and discomfort he's going through.

Baby D's lungs are clear!

2008-02-27T14:09:00.003-05:00

He was checked by the pediatrician yesterday, and she said his lungs sound better than any she has heard in a week, and his pulse ox. number was higher than hers...and his ears have cleared up. No more pneumonia, no more double ear infection. So we should be able to proceed with the surgery as planned on Friday morning.

Oh my, in 2 days our 15 month old sweet baby is having surgery...it's really hit me today and I am very nervous...please say a prayer that everything goes well and there are no complications.

What's on your desk?

2008-02-27T12:47:00.007-05:00

Lee at my5wolfcubs ( http://my5wolfcubs.blogspot.com/ ) tagged me with:

"What's on your desk?

You can tell a lot about a person by the state of their desk and what they keep on it. So, share what's on your desk. You can take pictures, take an inventory, or do both. Don't have a desk? That's okay, just give us a glimpse into the space where you pay bills, write letters, grade papers, study, or work on the computer.

When you've finished your photos or inventory, post it on your blog and tag five more people to do the same. Don't forget to share the rules with those you tag and ask them to share their posts with you when they are done."

I have our school binders and 3 hole punch on the bottom shelf; a box of envelopes, Baby D's good board books (that I don't want him to ruin), and my schedule planning binder in the bottom middle shelf; the kids baby books and highlights magazines in the middle top shelf; and odds and ends (index cards, extra stapler, sharpies, cds, etc.) on the top shelf. On the very top of my desk is my computer, my old camera, G's camera, a stapler and printer with paper. I also have the dvds and cd that are all checked out from the library on my desk.

I also have book shelves on the sides of the desk...one is full of kids books and other books and also has the game Jam Pack Jam on it (it needs cleaned out again!), and the other has all our school books on it.

Now, let's see these moms' desks!

Lisa at http://koinoniaacademy.blogspot.com/
Sheryl at http://www.hazelnutacademy.blogspot.com/
Kristiana at http://cellista.wordpress.com/
Karen at www.homeschoolblogger.com/testimony
Dawne at http://oneroomhomeschool.blogspot.com/

Wordless Wednesday

2008-02-27T12:38:00.002-05:00

Well, it's almost wordless...

Thinking about History and Science

2008-02-22T18:51:00.002-05:00

These two subjects are not getting done like they should...so here is what I'm thinking.

For history, I need to break out of the thinking that we have to do all the projects in the activity guide for story of the world 1. I need to pick and choose what projects will be beneficial and fit into our schedule. So this weekend I will make out a plan for history that we can stick to. We really enjoy SOTW 1, so we need to make it more of a priority, even if we don't do every project.

Science...well we haven't been doing the Astronomy book. I am pretty sure I've decided to put it on hold until May. Our co-op Enrichment Day ends the last week of April. From May through Mid July we will have school time at home 5 days a week instead of the 4 we've been doing. At that time we will finish the Astronomy book.

In the mean time for science here is my plan. We will continue reading books and watching the Magic School Bus videos like we've been doing. We will also start doing a weekly Nature Study. This weekend I will try to put together a plan for what I want this to be for us. I mentioned it today to the kids and they seem eager and excited to do this...and it will give us a reason to get outside together more often. Now to research how I want to go about this...

Ok, just putting my thoughts down in writing. Any thoughts from fellow Homeschoolers would be appreciated!

Weekly report for Feb 18-Feb 22

2008-02-22T15:37:00.004-05:00

We had a pretty nice week! We didn't have Cub Scouts because there was no school Monday for President's Day.

Tuesday's Enrichment Day went pretty well. In art the kids made valentine boxes and exchanged valentine's with all the kids aged 4-9 (this would have been done last week but we didn't have co-op last week due to snow). In Ohio history they talked about presidents from Ohio, and each child had the opportunity to tell why they would want to be president. In Community Helpers they made Thank You cards for recent guests to the class, and they played charades acting out different community helpers. Show and Tell for G was the letter P (she showed a purse). L's class can show anything they want and this week he showed his Pokedex game. Their music classes went well, especially L's...we played rhythm tic tac toe which was a big hit! Both classes listened to excerpts from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

At home we had a good week also...here's a quick rundown of some highlights:

L:
Phonics: words that end in -ed can sound like "t" or "d" (lesson 2 in Explode the Code book 5)
Grammar: Adjectives describe nouns
Reading: Magic tree house chapter book "Night of the Ninjas"
Math: addition, subtraction, telling time, relationship of addition facts with subtraction facts (for example, 3+4=7, 7-3=4, 7-4=3), subtraction word problems

G:
Phonics: 3 letter words with the vowel "a" (lesson 2 in Explode the Code book 1)
Reading: remembering the word "the", continuing 3 letter words, sounding out very well
Math: addition, counting by 10's to 100, finding the number that comes between (for example, between 41 and 43 is 42), beginning measurement with ruler

I've also created Chore Cards for each of the kids. Right now they each have 9 things to do each day, and it is working out well. G even offered to help Mop the kitchen and downstairs bathroom today (which isn't part of her cards!) As they get more comfortable with the list, I will add new chores to their envelopes. They like being able to give me the card when they complete each job! I'm hoping this will continue to motivate them to help out more!

We are having a snowstorm again today...hoping that the snow is about finished for this winter!

Baby D's surgery is next friday, so we'll have a short school week next week. I'm hoping to post our weekly report on Thursday afternoon next week.

We had a good week! Hope everyone else did too!

TechFest in Dayton

2008-02-21T21:45:00.002-05:00

We had a great time at the TechFest this past Saturday. There were many different activities and booths for the kids to explore. A few highlights are shown in the slideshow below...

They designed, created, and flew their own straw rockets!
They each solved an engineering problem geared for their age level.
They played with k'nex gadgets that were put together.
They made geometric shapes out of gumballs and toothpicks!
They made water molecules using marshmellows and pretzels.
They created static electricity.

And the Number 1 Highlight (which we were not allowed to photograph)....They got to touch real human organs...yes, brains, lungs, stomachs, livers, kidneys...and also real human bones. Oh the smell was not pleasant at that booth, but it was a big highlight of the day anyway! They were thrilled to get to do that!

We ended up not eating in Dayton because the wait at the restaurant was for over an hour...so we decided to drive the hour back home and ate at a China Buffet that we enjoy. We had a nice day! Hope you enjoy the pics!

Weekly report for Feb 11-Feb 15

2008-02-15T12:19:00.008-05:00

We had a good week and everyone is feeling better this week! We were expecting 5-7 inches of snow on tuesday so our co-op day was cancelled (and we ended up not getting as much snow as expected)...so we had a snow day on Tuesday! The other 4 days we did school as usual!

Here's our rundown:

L:
Math: Continue with addition, subtaction, beginning fractions, even numbers, etc.
Grammar: Making contractions, and reviewing verbs
Phonics: Lesson 1 in book 5-- adding "-ed" at the end of words
Reading: OPGTR lessons, and reading a Magic Tree House chapter book
Spelling: He is enjoying Sequential Spelling 1...time will tell how it works for us though
History: We read about Ancient Egyptian Mummies and Pyramids. He is very interested in these things and mentioned he'd like to be an archeologist and go to Egypt to find a mummy in a pyramid and bring it back to put it in a museum!
Handwriting: He worked ahead on his own...he enjoys the handwriting book, but has to be reminded often about getting sloppy by writing too fast...

G:
Math: Counting to 50, and by 10s to 100, addition with a number line
Phonics: Finish lesson 1 and start lesson 2 in ETC book 1...3 letter words with short a sound
Reading: OPGTR reading off the whiteboard
History: Ancient Egyptian Mummies and Pyramids
Handwriting: lower case g and q

We had a really productive week! Now we need to keep it up with no more sickness! 2 weeks until D's surgery...please keep us in your prayers that it goes well.

Tomorrow we are going to a TechFest...an afternoon of hands on activities and speakers all related to technology, and geared for kids grades K-12. You can check it out at this website... http://www.ascdayton.org/TechFest2008/ (copy and paste the link, I couldn't get it to work as a link.) We are really excited about it...I will post pictures from the day by the end of the weekend, so be sure to check back and read about our field trip!

Hope everyone else's week was productive and fun!

Cub Scout Banquet

2008-02-09T21:26:00.000-05:00

L had his cub scout banquet tonight. Luckily everyone is now feeling well enough that we were able to go.

He earned his Bobcat badge, and also his Tiger badge. However, the tiger den isn't completely finished with the requirements...but they will be over the next couple months. They decided to go ahead and give the boys the badge tonight with all the other cub scouts.

The Tiger den did a fun little skit. There was lots of good food and many wonderful desserts (which were judged and 9 prizes were awarded.) L was very proud wearing his uniform, and we all enjoyed the evening!

Here are a few pics.

Weekly report for Jan 28-Feb 1 and Feb 4-Feb 8

2008-02-09T20:44:00.000-05:00

We have had a busy couple of weeks, but school has been a bit on the backburner. Last week we did almost everything that was planned. L finished Explode the Code 4...that was a highlight of the week!

This week has been a bit different. Monday we did school as normal. Monday night D spiked a fever, and thus began our week of sickness. Tuesday morning D still didn't seem well, so we didn't go in to Enrichment Day until about 11 AM. I wore David in the baby carrier so the only one he would cough on was me. By lunch he was coughing a lot. Long story short, we spent 1 1/2 hours at the doctor that afternoon. The next day L and G were sick (L especially)...we spent 2 hours at the urgent care office since we couldn't get into their regular doctor. You can read more about this in the 2 posts before this one.

So we did very little school the rest of the week. By Friday evening I could tell a difference, and today has gone better. So Monday is back to school as normal (although what "normal" is I'm not sure since it really hasn't been since before Christmas.)

Here is a look at some of what we did get done the past 2 weeks:

L:
Phonics: started new workbook, Explode the Code 5
Spelling: started new spelling book...Sequential Spelling...he loves it! It's a big hit with him! I'm hoping the enthusiasm keeps going!
Reading: Reading through a Pokemon chapter book.
Grammar: Past and Present tense verbs and linking verbs
Math: 2 digit addition, subtraction,telling time, counting money, beginning fractions, etc.
Handwriting: He enjoys writing, but struggles with being neat because he tries to go too fast...we continue to work on this.

G:
Phonics: started new workbook, Explode the Code 1
Reading: working through reading 3 letter words in OPGTR
Math: Counting to 40, addition with a number line
Handwriting: continues writing lower case letters

Hope you had a better week than we did! I have felt like a nurse and a pharmacy this week. Enjoy the pictures.

Now all 3 kids are sick

2008-02-06T23:11:00.001-05:00

L's ear started hurting last night, and this morning was hurting so bad he was crying. G developed a runny nose and cough. So I took them both to the doctor today (in light of finding out how sick D is, we just didn't want to wait.) We've just been passing around this cold/flu for over a month now.

L has a bad middle ear infection and a touch of bronchitis. G has rhinitis (basically a runny, inflamed nose), tonsillitis and a cough.

So now we have 3 sick kids in the house. I hope that they get better quickly and that I don't get it.

Baby D is sick

2008-02-05T22:52:00.001-05:00

He had another cold (I think it's #4 since Thanksgiving) that started over the weekend. Last night he started having a fever. Today he had a lot of coughing that just seemed like it wasn't stopping. We only went to the last 3 hours of Enrichment Day classes so that my music classes wouldn't be without a teacher. I wore D in my baby carrier almost the entire time so that no one would be tempted to touch him or get too close, and he would cough into me and not onto anyone else. So we went to the pediatrician this time after leaving the church. We wanted to make sure he wasn't too sick because it can affect him being put under anasthesia. I thought I'd hear that he just has a cold that will need to run its course.

It turns out that this time he has an ear infection in each ear and has pneumonia. His blood oxygen level was good, so the pediatrician is hopeful that we can treat it before it is too bad. She had me do an albuterol treatment while still at the office. His blood oxygen level went up, so it showed that it did work and helped open up his lungs. So she sent us home with prescriptions for an albuterol inhaler with a spacer and mask to administer it to him with, and also augmentin to get rid of the ear infections.

She's hopeful that he'll be recovered fairly quick and it won't interfere with his surgery in 3 1/2 weeks. I'm hoping she is right. We have to just watch and wait to see if he gets better or worse in the coming days. He'll return to be checked the week of his surgery.

Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers that he recovers quickly and is able to have the surgery on time as scheduled.

D's Surgery date is set

2008-01-29T15:32:00.000-05:00

Well, we finally have a date for D's surgery. It will be on Friday February 29, 2008, at 7:30 AM. The surgery itself should only take up to 30 minutes, but they allow 1 hour just in case they find out once they get in there that the cyst is attached at all to the bone. The surgeon moved it around and said it did not feel like it is attached because it is free moving, but they still allot that time just in case.

I think I am most worried about him being put under general anesthesia. On the children's hospital website, it says they do allow parents to be in the room when the child is put under using the mask...I'm not sure if I think it would be good for me to see that or not, but on that day I probably will decide to go in if we can. He will be 15 months old then, and I'm not sure how scared he'll be about it because he won't really know anything about what is going on.

I'm also unsure about the 2 hour drive back home afterwards...not knowing how he'll react to the anesthesia or how much pain he'll be in that day is a bit frightening to me.

I've been so anxious about knowing the date...and now I know...so it's time to start preparing for it. 4 and a half weeks. I think we should have his picture done professionally before the surgery. I'm going to have to get that set up.

A dermoid cyst is basically a benign (not cancerous) tumor. In children they are most commonly found at the outer edge of the eyebrow...and that is exactly where D's is. His wasn't detectable at birth. We felt it starting at 3 1/2 months old. It has grown quite a bit since then. We want to get it removed now rather than waiting because we don't want him to remember the surgery, and we want him to have minimal longterm scarring.

So now there's a lot on my mind...I just wanted to share the date with everyone now that we know.

Weekly report for January 21-25

2008-01-25T14:58:00.001-05:00

We didn't have a normal week. Monday we did "School Light" since the public schools were out...two friends came over and spent the afternoon playing with the kids. Monday night L had his first Tiger Den meeting...that went well. The boys worked on 2 skits for the banquet in February. L and I will be working on everything he has missed so that he can be caught up with the other Tigers.

Tuesday we had Enrichment day. The kids learned about Johnny Appleseed in Ohio History. They learned about Police officers and traffic safety in Community Helpers. My music classes learned about rhythm (the older class reading quarter and eighth notes and clapping them, the younger kids repeating sentences after me in the correct rhythm with the rhythm instruments), we listened to The Four Seasons by Vivaldi and drew pictures that depicted each season, and we learned the beginning of a new song.

By bedtime on Tuesday, D, G and I were all feeling the beginnings of a cold. Wednesday morning L woke up feeling the same way. We spent the rest of the week all sick. Dad was the only one not feeling too bad, although his throat started to get scratchy by friday also. We didn't do anymore formal school this week.

Instead, we did read and look through various books. L had some practice reading with me through the week...we alternated reading a page each in several books. On friday we did read 3 books pertaining to Dinosaurs and watched The Magic School Bus: The Busasaurus movie. Then I had the kids each draw a picture of dinosaurs. Then they each had to tell me 3 things they learned about dinosaurs. (well, G actually answered my questions about dinosaurs, and L picked 3 things to tell me that he remembered.)

I still haven't heard about D's surgery yet, and it's very frustrating to have to wait...but I'm trying to be patient. I called on Wednesday and was told they were having a difficult time coordinating the Doctor's schedule with the Hospital's. I will update once I know more.

D decided he likes straw cups this week...YAY! He won't drink from sippy cups yet (he throws them down), so I'm glad to be able to just give him a cup now! He is 14 months old today!

We are on the mend, and should be healthy again by next week, so it will be back to our normal schooling on Monday! Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Weekly report for January 14-18

2008-01-21T11:15:00.000-05:00

I'm doing this a few days late, but here it is! We had a very busy week. I'm just going to give some highlights...

L: The new things for him this week happened in reading and math. In math he started adding 3 numbers together (example 5+9+6) and continued improving on counting money. In reading, he finally has shown interest in reading for fun by himself, coming to me for help only when necessary. He also then told me about what he read afterwards (which shows he is comprehending it!) YAY! One night he pulled out a bunch of science related books we have here and started looking through them and reading things that interested him. This is a major breakthrough, and I hope it continues!

G: This week she finished her phonics workbook and will move on to Explode the Code 1 once it arrives! She also is quick to tell me she can read things now that she is reading 3 letter words! In math she is counting much more fluently, and has started to count by 10's also! She has a real advantage by listening and being interested in everything L has been doing! It really is helping her grasp things when it's her turn!

We also had several other important new things happen this week. Monday night was L's first Cub Scout Pack Meeting. He was so nervous, but ended up seeing a few familiar faces once we got there which really was great! When we came home, he was so excited he talked about it for almost an hour! We will attend his first tiger den meeting tonight (monday).

Tuesday was our first day back for Enrichment Day. It was at a different church, so was a day of adjustment. I like not having to drive as far...it cuts off about 15 minutes total for the day of driving from what we did before.

Thursday we had a consultation with the ophthalmic surgeon. He confirmed that the bump along D's eybrow is a Dermoid Cyst. We will be going to Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus for surgery to have it removed. He will be put under general anesthesia (which is the scariest part for me to think of.) I am waiting to hear from the hospital to find out when the surgery will be. I hope they call soon, I don't like waiting for things like this. I will update here once I know more.

We ended the week by making M&M cookies...G enjoyed helping me add all the ingredients! So that was our week...hope you enjoy the pictures. Today starts a new week!

Weekly report for January 7-11, 2008

2008-01-12T16:41:00.000-05:00

We are back to school and I'm back to blogging! We have had quite a productive first week back, after not having school for 2 1/2 weeks!

L has had a great week! He worked hard on Math this week...and accomplished a lot! He started adding 2 digit numbers, learned the basics of what fractions are, and began the beginnings of multiplication! In reading he read words with the two different sounds a "c" makes. In his phonics workbooks, he read words that end in "le" like apple and handle. In Grammar he did two weeks worth of lessons...the first 3 on noun/verb agreement, and the other 3 on present and past tense verbs. His handwriting pages were much neater than he has been doing!

G also has had a good week! She worked on adding numbers, counting to 20(concentrating on the teens...she gets mixed up on 13 and 14 for some reason?), and began counting by 10s in Math. In her phonics workbook, she worked on the letters Z and Q. And she did 3 lessons in the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading...these included 3 letter words, sentences using 3 letter words, and introducing the sight word "the." Of course she tells me all the time she can already read and doesn't need to learn it! Her handwriting was quite good also this week!

Together they did the chapter on early writing in Egypt and Sumer. They did the coloring pages, answered review questions (and L narrated to me about the chapter), colored the map, and we did a fun project. We made clay tablets in which they each carved a cuneiform symbol representing the first letter of their name...and they painted heiroglyphic pictures representing letters onto a paper scroll. We discussed what happens to stone, clay and paper over time, and might still decide to put their tablets and scrolls outside in the winter weather for a few days to see what the effects are.

There was leftover clay also, so they both decided to make snakes. After baking them, they both painted their snakes! They really enjoy art projects!

Our read aloud book this week was My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett. We all enoyed it very much, and look forward to reading the 2nd book in the trilogy next week.

Baby D's big news is that he is walking more and more! He's getting so big! He's also trying to say words a bit more...sometimes saying "up" and "eat."

Enrichment day will begin again next tuesday, and will be at a different church which is very close to where my Hubby works. We are all excited to start that back up again as well!

We signed up L and G for Spring Soccer...they are so excited, but it doesn't start for 2 more months! And L and I will be attending his first Cub Scout Pack Meeting on Monday night. If he likes it, he will become a Tiger Cub Scout. I'll update on what he thought about the meeting in next weeks report! Next thursday is also our consultation with the Ophthalmologist about surgery for the cyst by baby D's eye. I will update on that next week also.

Here's to another great week!

Weekly report for December 3-7

2007-12-09T12:42:00.000-05:00

I haven't been doing well with updating my blog because of the holidays, D's 1st birthday, and everyone in our home battling a cough and cold. But here is a short report for this past week.

We had our last day of Enrichment Day for 2007 on Tuesday. It will begin again on January 15. Friday night we had our Christmas concert. I combined my two music classes and they sang 4 songs...Happy Birthday Baby Jesus, Away in a Manger (with motions), Jingle Bells (with bells that I made), and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. Being the youngest of everyone who performed, we went first on the program. They did very well, and I am very proud of them! The concert was enjoyable, and the refreshments/fellowship after was a very nice way to end the evening!

Our contribution to the refreshment table was 3 dozen homemade M&M cookies, which L and G helped me make on Friday afternoon. I didn't take any pics of them though...so I'll have to be sure to take pics when we make our Christmas cookies!

We had a Snow Day on Wednesday, in which we did little school that day, and the kids enjoyed the 4-5 inches of snow we got! The local schools actually closed Wednesday and Friday, and were delayed on Thursday...we did school as normal the other days, but took some time Wednesday to enjoy the first big snowfall!

They are doing very well with their school work. L's reading is coming along, and on days when it comes easier to him, he happily declares that he really likes reading! In math he is really enjoy the new Horizons book...I'm glad we went ahead and started with the first grade book, because Horizons seems to move quickly and covers a lot of material! I have read that it seems to be a year ahead (so 1st grade would be like our usual 2nd grade) and I can see that being the case. He is moving quickly, doing a couple lessons each day, so that he can catch up...he's really grasping the material, which makes it a winner for me!

G is also doing Horizons math now, the kindergarten book. We started out moving through a couple lessons a day, but now will slow down to 1 per day as it gets more difficult. She is doing great with it...the only problem is she writes numbers backwards a lot (mainly 2,3 and 5). In phonics she basically does most of it independently and will say "I know what to do already mom!" We will give Explode the Code 1 a try once she finishes this book (in January) and see how it goes! We will also start adding in the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. She is eager to learn, but I don't want to move too fast with her!

We also have been working on this all week! (What we really do in homeschool for December...LOL!)
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1177162938

A few weeks ago I organized all of our art supplies into a stack of drawers and put it in the closet. Ever since I did this, the kids are wanting to make projects and draw pictures for hours every day! It made everything more accessible, and they know where everything goes for easy clean up! I am so glad I did this!

We will do 2 more weeks of school and then will take 2 weeks off for Christmas Break...I will try to get the weekly reports done for the next 2 weeks on time! Enjoy the pictures.

Baby D is 1!

2007-11-28T22:32:00.000-05:00

Baby D celebrated his 1st birthday on November 25th! He had two parties! The first was on his first thanksgiving day with Grandma and Grandpa and Mommy's side of the family! His second party was on the 24th with Granny and Papaw on Daddy's side of the family! He really had no idea about any of it, but we all had a good time!

I can't believe my baby is 1! I'm a bit happy and a bit sad that he is growing so fast! Here are some pics from his parties...hope you enjoy them!

Wordless Wednesday

2007-11-28T21:36:00.000-05:00

Weekly report for November 5-9

2007-11-09T23:32:00.000-05:00

Week 11 we were back to school after a week off, and we were busy!

On Tuesday we didn't go to the morning Enrichment Day...instead we went on a field trip with a group from our homeschool group (others from enrichment day). We went to a local symphony orchestra concert for kids. It was an hour long concert with a music olympics theme. I was unsure how the kids would do, but they really enjoyed it and we had a great time! Here is the list of what we heard.

Olympic Theme by John Williams
Flight of the Bumblebee (fastest), by Rimsky Korsakov
Bugler's Dream (played throughout the concert), by Leo Arnaud
Oriental Festival March from Aladdin Suite (loudest), by Carl Nielsen
The Snow is Dancing from Children's Suite, by Claude Debussy
Thurtle from Carnival of the Animals (slowest), by Camille Saint-Saens
Perpetual Motion (longest), by Johann Strauss
Overture to the Barber of Seville (shortest), by Giancomo Rossini
Night on Bald Mountain (scariest), Modest Mussorgsky
Friska from Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 (most fun!), by Franz Lizst

The kids acted on their best behavior, and really enjoyed the concert. We will definately be watching for more opportunities like that!

We did go to the last two classes of Enrichment day on tuesday, so I could teach my music classes.

Our week at home was quite productive! On Wednesday our new books from Rainbow Resource Center arrived in the mail, and the kids were very excited! We are adding in Horizons math, and started it that day! They also got their writing books. G also got her new phonics book. We now have a Base Ten set of blocks too that I hope will help L with the new concepts in Math! Lastly, we got a fandex of composers that shows a picture and short bio of around 40 different composers...this will be helpful at home and in my music classes at enrichment day.

Phonics:
L: A review lesson with dividing words into syllables to make them easier to read.
G: The letter "C", with review of other letters previously learned.

Reading:
L: Took a break from OPGTR and did some "real" reading...his most proud book read was Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss.
G: Sounding out more 3 letter words.

Math:
L: Moving quickly through the beginning of Horizons 1, however had the new concepts of using the symbols for less than and greater than, and using a number line.
G: Did first 6 lessons of Horizons K, counting to 10, writing 1 and 2, recognizing left, right, middle, etc. She found most of this easy...but I know that the book will get more difficult quickly.

Grammar:
L: Common and Proper nouns, most emphasis on Proper nouns this week.

Spelling:
L: Did 2 lessons this week. The first lesson he spelled every word correct on the pretest and posttest. The second lesson was more difficult and we will review again on Monday (words like soap, toe, home...he had some trouble remembering which way each long o sound was made with this group of words.)

Writing:L: Wrote sentence using all letters of the alphabet, and begin page 1 in his new writing book.
G: Traced and wrote different shapes that make up letters, and did page 1 in her new writing book (lower case i.)

Baby D:
His newest things this week were making new sounds with his mouth, and climbing up all the stairs!

Astronomy:
We learned about Mercury this week. We quizzed on why Mercury is extremely hot during the day and extremely cold during the night (it has no atmosphere to hold in heat). Having no atmosphere also makes it much more susceptible to getting hit by asteroids and having craters all over it's surface. For our project we made some craters in flour with pebbles, and then made a dough model of mercury and put craters all around it.

History:
We started learning about the Ancient Egyptians. This week we learned that the Nile River floods every year, and we learned one myth about why it floods (the story of Osiris, the king of the gods, and Set, his evil brother who tries to kill him so he can become king...he tricks him into getting into a coffin, and then pushes it into the Nile. Osiris' wife Isis searches along the Nile until she finds the coffin, and sees that Osiris has drowned. So she wraps him in linens, and he comes back to life...so the myth goes that the Nile floods every year to remember Osiris coming back to life to be king of the gods again.)

We also learned why the flooding was good for the farmers living along the Nile (waters the land, and brings silt, or rich soil, to the crops.)

We talked about the king of Upper Egypt (white crown) and the king of Lower Egypt (red crown) fighting to become ruler of all of Egypt. King Narmer of Upper Egypt defeated the king of Lower Egypt and became the first Pharoah. He combined the pointy white crown with the red band crown and made a double crown to symbolize ruling over all of Egypt. Our project this week was to make a double crown like the Pharoah wore. We also made a Pharoah's crook (like the shepherd's crook). See the pics below.

Music:
We listened to the second theme of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor. We also reviewed the previous pieces we've studied.

We had a pretty good week! Looking forward to week 12!

Weekly reports for October 22-November 2

2007-11-02T15:41:00.000-04:00

I didn't get our weekly report up last week for several reasons. One, we were in a scramble to get a new vehicle after ours basically died, and second we went out of town to celebrate G's 5th birthday with family.

Monday (10-22) was G's birthday and we didn't have school. We got lunch from McDonald's, and had a party with a couple friends that night (see post below this one!)

Tuesday was Enrichment day, and went well.

Wednesday through friday...we covered all the basics, but didn't get to history and science.

Wednesday night while trying to fix our van, we found out it was done. So we spent the next 2 days searching and ended up buying a really nice used Nissan Quest on Friday evening. Then we drove out of town for the weekend.

We celebrated with a lot of family and a few friends at Chuck E Cheese on Sunday before driving back home.

This week we took off from school to do some much needed decluttering in the bedrooms (I'm still not done, but will finish this weekend hopefully!)

Monday evening we went to our town's halloween parade. Tuesday was Enrichment day...G made a Robot out of a shoebox (and then showed L how to make his own at home later), and L painted leaves with watercolors. Tuesday evening we also went trick-or-treating.

We will begin fresh after a week off on Monday. I think a week off every couple months to regroup will be good for us...it was this week. The kids made use of the time to work on art projects and listen to music. They also played outside, and L helped G learn to use her new scooter better.

Back to school on Monday!

Our Birthday Girl is 5!

2007-10-22T20:49:00.000-04:00

G turned 5 today! We can't believe how fast she has grown! We had a little party tonight with a couple of the kids' friends. We ordered pizza, and the kids decorated their own cupcakes. G picked out chocolate with chocolate frosting and star sprinkles! We also scooped out the inside of a pumpkin! We'll carve it tomorrow night.

G received a Doodle Bear from her friends (two sisters.) She got a Hello Kitty purse, stickers that have her name on them, and 2 small bottles of nail polish from her brothers L and D. And Mom and Dad got her a Melissa and Doug Stamp Set and a porcelain tea set!

The kids had fun drinking juice from the tea cups, drawing on the doodle bear, and stamping on paper! They ended the night playing with Dad with the balloons!

G had a great birthday! She said she feels old! We will travel this weekend to celebrate with family at Chuck E Cheese's (her choice!)

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Weekly report for October 15-19, 2007

2007-10-19T21:35:00.000-04:00

Week 8 began with a trip out of town to visit relatives, and ended with Baby D having a cold and myself feeling like I'm getting one too. We also spent Thursday night sleeping in the basement because of an all night tornado watch (I am a bit terrified of tornadoes, so decided we'd all be safest just sleeping down there!)

Our school week went well though. Here's the rundown:

L:

Phonics: Lesson 3 in ETC book 4. He read words this week with double consonants in the middle (i.e. rabbit, summer, etc.)

Grammar: This week we discussed nouns that name places. He still says Grammar is easy.

Reading: We continued with 4 more lessons in OPGTR written out on the whiteboard. Some days he is really focused and reads pretty smoothly, other days he's easily distracted...normal I'm sure for a 7 year old boy.

Spelling: We just did one lesson this week because he struggled a bit with remembering if a few words had c or k in them (bake, take, make) and kept wanting to spell place with an s. If only the english language didn't break the rules so much! He continues to enjoy spelling tests, and I may retest on these words Monday to see if they are sticking in his mind.

Math: Continued working on number pairs that add up to 10...he seems to be getting that now...so we'll work on another concept next week.

G:

Phonics/Reading: Read lists of words I made for her (i.e. words ending in -ot), finished the week by reading the Bob Book "Dot" with some help.

Math: G finished Singapore Earlybird 1B this week. She made shapes out of toothpicks, and did several workbook pages on shapes. She also reviewed simple counting and addition.

Together:

Music: We continued with Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, theme 1. We will continue listening to this next week as we add theme 2. We also reviewed Vivaldi's Spring.

Astronomy: We finished the chapter on the Sun. We acted out rotating and revolving, as shown in one of the pictures below. We used a basketball as the sun, L as the earth, and G as the moon. They rotated and revolved around each other (and got dizzy!) We also demonstrated a solar eclipse by shining a flashlight on the globe and putting a styrofoam "moon" in between to show the shadow of darkness that is cast on that part of the earth during an eclipse. We also made a pinhole viewing tube to allow us to safely look at the sun...however, we weren't able to test it out because it was a very cloudy day today. We hope to try it out over the weekend.

Enrichment Day on Tuesday:
Went well again. The highlight was the new rhythm instruments we tried out in my music classes. I also played my clarinet for the classes, since we were discussing woodwinds...they all enjoyed that. It was a rainy day, so we didn't get to picnic...but the kids still enjoyed lunch with a friend of theirs.

Baby D finally took off crawling up on his hands and knees (before this week he pushed with his feet to move while still on his tummy). He also quickly figured out how to go up the step between our living room and dining room (too bad going down isn't so easy!) His 4th tooth also came through. I can't believe he'll be 11 months old next thursday!

Hope that you enjoyed reading about our week!

List of Read Aloud books for the year

2007-10-13T00:54:00.000-04:00

I've been working on gathering a list of read aloud books for the year (not including science and history read alouds, those are a seperate list). Here's what I have so far. Feel free to give me more suggestions if I'm missing anything great for my 2nd grader and Kindergartner!

A Bear Called Paddington, by Michael Bond
Blueberries for Sal, by Robert McCloskey
Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey
How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World, by Marjorie Priceman
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, by William Steig
The Little House, by Virginia Lee Burton
Katy and the Big Snow, by Virginia Lee Burton
Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, by Virginia Lee Burton
The Story of Ping, by Marjorie Flack
Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson
The Seven Silly Eaters, by Mary Ann Hoberman

The Trumpet of the Swan, by E. B. White
Charlotte's Web, by E. B. White
Mr. Popper's Penguins, by Richard Atwater
My Father's Dragon (trilogy), by Ruth Stiles Gannett
The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
The Cricket in Times Square, by George Selden
The complete tales of Winnie the Pooh, by A. A. Milne
The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis

So there it is, a list to get us started so that we can be more consistant with read alouds outside of history and science. I think I need to also work on a list for those as well (might make it easier to request them on time each month from the library!)

Weekly report for October 8-12, 2007

2007-10-12T20:29:00.000-04:00

Week 7 has now come to an end!

Here's how L's week went:

Grammar: We discussed nouns that name people. L thinks it's too easy (that's good to hear!)

Spelling: We tried doing 2 lessons this week, and it went pretty well. He kept asking, "Mom, can I take a test today?" He really enjoys spelling tests. When I asked him what he likes about them, he said "I like the challenge. If I don't remember how to spell a word, I have to think about it and see if I can get it right. I like that!"

Phonics: He is enjoying reading "bigger words." I think it makes him feel like he is reading now, although he still says he can't read. This week he read compound words ending in -ing, -ed, -ness, and -est.

Reading: Using the whiteboard to do the lessons is working so well for him. We are now getting through a lesson a day of OPGTR...which is great! It's no longer a huge frustration for him!

Math: We played with blocks for math this week...L needs to have more of an understanding of adding and subtracting before we can move on. We did this with blocks, and will continue for another week at least.

Writing: L wrote a letter to a friend this week. I need to get it and last week's letter in the mail.

G's week:

Phonics/Reading: G finished her phonics book this week. She also practiced sounding out more 3 letter words.

Math: She joined L for block play! She also did some work in other workbooks we had around.

Together:

Astronomy: We read about the Sun this week (and will continue next week.) They each drew a picture of the sun for their notebook. We talked about how gigantic the sun is compared to the earth (comparing a beach ball to a pea), how far it is from the earth to the sun, and why we should not look directly at the sun. We also read a couple library books about the sun being a star.

Music: We listened to the first theme of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D. We will continue this next week as well. We also reviewed Vivaldi's Spring. The rhythm instruments for music class at the co-op arrived, and we checked them out here at home. The kids really enjoyed them! I can't wait to take them for our classes on tuesday!

Enrichment Day on tuesday went well again. G fingerpainted in art class, and L made a piggy bank out of a 20 oz empty bottle. My music classes reviewed things from last week, and learned about brass instruments. They learned what to do with their lips to make a sound on brass instruments. The older class practiced rhythms with the boomwhackers. Both classes did the chicken dance!

A highlight of the day was the visit by local firefighters in Community helpers class. L and G really enjoyed seeing the firetruck and ambulance up close! They also enjoyed helping to hold the hose as one of the firefighters sprayed the water.

We also had a picnic lunch. That might be the last for a while, as the temperature has dropped 25 degrees since tuesday!

We had another good week! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Weekly report for October 1-5, 2007

2007-10-05T19:25:00.000-04:00

Week 6 is now completed. We had a busy and exciting week!

Sunday we went to the Columbus Zoo! We had a great time, even though we didn't get through the entire zoo. L's favorite animal of the day were the manatees. G's favorites were the elephants and the penguins. Dad liked the fish and the monkeys. Mom liked the elephants and manatees. And baby D didn't notice too many of them, but really seemed to like the fish, and called the gorillas "kitty!" We had a nice day and the weather was beautiful!

Tuesday was week 3 for Enrichment Day. In art class, L made a clothespin dog, and G made a pine cone bird feeder, which she was excited to hang in a tree at home! In Ohio history, they talked about different types of land in Ohio, and made a puzzle of Ohio. In Community helpers they continued discussing Firemen. They learned what equipment firemen wear, and discussed the importance of fire alarms in your house. G's show and tell class talked about words beginning with "c", and L's class continued talking about the poster they each made about themselves.

And in my music classes, we learned about conductors and conducted with straws. We worked on hearing the musical concepts up/down, loud/soft, and high/low. We also played games with the egg shakers again. We sang some songs, and got out the boomwhackers and got familiar with them. L's class started learning to read the notes on the spaces, "F A C E", and then we used those notes while playing the boomwhackers. We had fun in both classes!

Here at home, we covered almost everything that I planned for this week.

L:
Phonics: Began book 4. Worked on lesson 1. Seperating compound words into the two words they are made up of, and practice reading compound words. He's doing very well, and is excited to be in a new book that looks so much harder than book 3!

Reading: Worked on reading words with the sounds "nk", "scr", "str", "spl", "spr", and the silent e. Using the whiteboard continues to work very well for him, and he is motivated by getting to erase as he reads!

Grammar: Learned about nouns. We are really enjoying Growing with Grammar, and it seems to be working so well for him.

Spelling: He continues to do well with spelling, and I think we may begin to move a bit quicker through it for a while (at least until it gets difficult!)

Math: We are moving into addition/subtraction of 2 digit numbers, and we reached a place where we need to stop and work on it for a while before moving on. So next week we will abandon the book, and work on understanding the concept of regrouping into groups of 10 by using legos. I'm going to work on getting ready for this over the weekend. We also need to work on memorizing the number bonds for making 10 (9 and 1, 8 and 2, 7 and 3, etc.)

G:
Phonics: Finished "h" and worked on "d"

Math: Worked on deciding what is first, second, third, fourth and fifth.

Writing: Worked on writing upper and lower case vowels this week.

Reading: G continued with -at and -am words, and read the Bob Book "Sam" again. Next week we will add new words.

Both:
Music: We finished Vivaldi's Spring from the Four Seasons. Both kids can recognize the theme and the composer, and G has declared that it's her favorite. Then on Friday we listened to the Four seasons in its entirety during school.

History: We finished the chapter on Nomads. The kids colored the coloring page of the shaduf (one of the first tools used in farming), and did the mapwork, outlining the tigris and the euphrates rivers, shading the seas, and coloring in the fertile crescent where the nomads began to settle down and become farmers. (I put these pics of their work in their slideshows above). We also read the book, 'It's disgusting, and we ate it!" The kids were grossed out at the thought of eating Grasshoppers! (and so was Mom!) We also made a little hut for stuffed animals using materials in our yard and an old wash rag, on a small scale of how nomads used materials they could find to build huts. L especially is enjoying history so far.

Astronomy: We are working on learning the names of the planets in order. We are singing them up and down the scale...eight planets going up each of the 8 notes in the scale, then going down we sing, "and Pluto's not a planet anymore!" It seems to be working, but we need some more repetition to get it down completely. Next week we'll continue this, but we will be moving on to the Sun.

Baby D:
Started pulling himself up on the chair!
Started to cruise along the furniture!
Got his 3rd tooth in!

And I started reading Homeschooling with a Meek and Quiet Spirit. I'm only on the 2nd chapter, but it's starting off to be as helpful as I heard it was.

We also had a caterpillar somehow get into our house, and G found it. They both held it and looked at it closely before we let it back outside. We have had a great week! Hope you enjoyed reading about it!

Weekly report for September 24-28, 2007

2007-09-29T13:43:00.000-04:00

Week #5 just seemed to fly by! We haven't been doing well with our routine...we've not been waking up and starting first thing in the morning, so not everything got done this week. My goal for next week...get started on time every day!

L finished ETC 3 (phonics workbook) this week, and was SO EXCITED about this! He pulled out ETC 4 on Friday and begged to read some of it. I feel like his reading is really taking off, and it is so great to see him so excited about it! He can't wait to start book 4 on Monday! I've included a picture of him working on the last page!

In math L worked on adding 2 digit numbers. We practiced making groups of 10 to find the answer. I also made a number line for him to visually count up from the starting number to find the answer. He seems to understand, but needs more work on this to really grasp the concept.

He aced his spelling test this week, and says he really likes spelling tests! I am finding that he enjoys using flashcards to practice his words every day.

Grammar was a review of sentences this week. He wrote a letter to his cousin (which I need to get copied and put in the mail.) In OPGTR (reading) he worked on the sounds th, thr, wh and ph. He didn't understand why ph says the sound "fff"...I told him that I really don't either, but it's another sound you just have to memorize.

G worked on the letter "h" in her phonics book this week. In math she worked on even numbers and sequencing of stories. She did very well with the sequencing, and spent some time practicing writing numbers. She is still writing some backwards consistantly, but fixes and and does it correctly after I write it for her to look at.

Enrichment day on tuesday went well. They are enjoying making projects in their art classes...L made a bird from a paper plate and spoon, and G made a fish in the ocean from a paper bag and blue paper. They like having the different classes and meeting new friends.

My music classes went pretty well also. We made egg shakers. We used plastic Easter eggs, filled them with a handfull of dried beans, and hot glued them together. Then we played some rhythm games with the shakers. We will use them again next week. The older kids found "C" on the piano keyboard, and the younger class played "Name that tune." Both classes learned a song, "Make new friends", which we will use for a few weeks. I'm finding that it's not easy to fill an hour of time for the classes, but we are getting to 45 minutes comfortably. I also made a bit of progress on learning the kids names...we'll see how much I remember on tuesday!

G did so much better during my music class this time...I'm hoping that she got the disruptive behavior out of her system the first week!

We are considering going to the zoo tomorrow (sunday), so I may have zoo pics as part of next week's report!

Here are a few pics from week 5.

Festival weekend in our old hometown!

2007-09-24T00:20:00.000-04:00

We spent the weekend traveling back to our old hometown for it's Harvest Festival. We went to the parade Saturday afternoon, and then enjoyed a few hours of festival fun! The kids really enjoyed the rides (and daddy enjoyed a few too!)

Then Saturday night we had a fire and roasted marshmellows at Granny and PapPaw's house! That is always a favorite fun thing to do!

We enjoyed the weekend...it's always wonderful to visit with family, and we just couldn't miss the annual Harvest Festival! Hope you like the pics.

Weekly report for September 17-21, 2007

2007-09-23T23:50:00.000-04:00

I'm a couple days late on the weekly report for our week #4, but here it is, and I'll keep it short and sweet this time! We had a productive week! L is doing so much better with his reading now that I'm making use of the whiteboard for his work in the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. The whiteboard helps focus his eyes on only the words he's reading. He also has the added bonus of getting to erase each line after he reads it (which is a great motivation for him right now!)

G worked a bit on writing this week as she copied both upper and lower case vowels. She also tried her hand more on writing the numbers in math! She's writing some of the numbers backwards, but is showing me that she knows what they look like (just needs to reverse them so they face the right way!)

We had a turkey sighting early in the week! It wandered off from it's home (a nearby farm) and we seen it come through by our condo. Here's a pic of it!

Tuesday was our first Enrichment Day...and while we were all exhausted by the time we returned home, it was a fun day and is off to a great start! The classes both L and G are in were full of kids...and what a source of motivation that is for a mom who was feeling a bit alone in the world of homeschooling! The kids enjoyed all of their classes and are looking forward to Tuesday!

My music classes went pretty well also. It was kind of an intro to how much fun music is! We played name games, we listened and moved to fast/slow music, we played "name that tune," and we played some musical games. L did very well as my student in a classroom situation, but G tried to push me a bit (I was told from another teaching mom that it's very common for your own child to cause a problem in your class because they think they can...hopefully she'll get over this quickly.) I have some great ideas to plan for in the coming months...just have to work out all the details. And baby D slept in his stroller through both classes! It all went pretty well.

A highlight of our week at home was our cave painting activity for History. We learned about Nomads (as L will tell you, they are people who wander around from place to place so they always have food). Since some Nomads lived in caves and drew pictures on the walls about the animals they hunted, we made our own cave wall paintings. Here are pictures of the proud artists!

We didn't complete everything we had planned for the week, but it was very productive none the less. What we didn't finish, we'll make up for tomorrow! (Flexibility is one of the great benefits of homeschooling for us!)

I'm going to be teaching music at our co-op

2007-09-14T19:47:00.001-04:00

For whatever reason, our Enrichment Day was in need of a music teacher for ages 4-6 and 7-9 (the 2 classes G and L will be in). I wasn't sure about volunteering because baby D is so young, but I've been assured he can be in the classroom with me, so I'm going to give it a whirl! Being a music education major in college, and having music in my life for as long as I can remember, I feel that I'll do fine...once I get over the hump of getting over my nerves and get through the first few weeks!

I have a few days to plan for Tuesday's first day of class...so I'm a bit nervous, but excited to have this opportunity! I know that they have a nice set of Boomwhackers, which I've not worked with before, but have seen in action once. I'm excited to learn about those! And I'm looking to find some decent kids rhythm instruments for a good price for them to buy for the classes. I know I will make use out of rhythm instruments just about every class for these ages.

I'm looking at doing units on the different instruments, well known composers, and rhythm and beginning music reading. Plus lots of singing (not my strong point at all, but they are young kids!) and music games. I am also looking at doing units on Saint-Saens Carnival of Animals and Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. These are my ideas to get started with...we'll see where it takes us!

I'll also have the opportunity to have the kids perform in 2 concerts if I feel like we are able to. Exciting!

It will be interesting to be L and G's teacher in a classroom situation...different from home I'm sure! I'm looking forward to it! (and I'm really nervous!!!)

Weekly report for September 10-14, 2007

2007-09-14T16:57:00.000-04:00

We had a productive week #3! G continued to do well with phonics, math and reading. L did a lot better staying on task this week! I took a tip from a mama on the Well trained mind board and wrote his reading assignment today on a whiteboard. He focused so much better because there weren't a lot of extra words on the page...it really worked well! I'll keep writing it out on there if it keeps him on task like that! I wrote G's words on it also. They both enjoyed erasing their words after reading them!

We started history and science this week. In science we are studying astronomy. This week was an introduction to the solar system. The kids especially enjoyed learning about gravity and showing me how it works! We read a couple extra books from the library, and also watched a couple solar system themed Magic School Bus movies.

In history we discussed how historians find out about the past. We did a family history booklet and L asked questions of me and hubby, and their 4 grandparents. We also learned about archaeologists and how they dig to find artifacts and learn about the past. Today we did our Dirty Dig project. We don't have a sandbox, so we improvized and used a shoebox size plastic box and 2 bags of brown sugar! The kids used a spoon, a plastic fork and an old toothbrush to find the "artifacts" and then we decided what the "artifacts" told us about the culture that had lived there. Four of the pictures below are from our dig.

Our music listening for this week was Vivaldi's Spring, from the Four Seasons. G in particular enjoyed dancing to it every day!

We started reading aloud book 1 from the Dragon Slayer's Academy: The new kid at school. We are about halfway through it, and the kids are enjoying it (especially L).

It's great to look at the binders and see them getting full with many reminders of hard work. We are of to a great year!

Things I would love to make time to do

2007-09-10T22:44:00.000-04:00

(these are in no particular order...)

1. Teach myself Latin so that I'll feel able to start teaching the kids in a few years (why I want to do this is a whole different posting which I may do later!)

2. Write a music history story book for grammar stage (grades 1-4) students. I would like to take the notes from my college music history course and put it on a young child's level. While I'm at it, I'd like to write one on music theory also.

3. Get much better at sewing so I can make clothes and stuff for us and the kids!

4. Really sit down and work on the scrapbooks I want to make of our wedding and of the kids. I'd also love to make one with pictures from thoughout my life. And yet another as a kind of Family Tree of my family and hubby's family so the kids can get a feel for where they come from.

5. Become better organized and declutter our condo/townhouse/apartment (whatever you want to call it!)

6. Finally be able to give some music/clarinet lessons. Baby D is still a bit too dependent on me to do that right now, but maybe someday soon.

7. Spend more quality one-on-one time with hubby and each child.

Ok, that's all that is on my mind right now...just wanted to see it in writing. Thanks for reading it, if you've made it this far! For the moment I need to get our homeschooling days into a good routine and still keep up with the major things around here! But I can dream, right?!

A name for our homeschool

2007-09-09T00:37:00.000-04:00

All schools have names. So I think that our homeschool should also have a name. I posted tonight on the Well-Trained-Mind board that I am looking for a name but I'm having trouble finding the right one. Well, a wonderful mama on the board gave me what I think may be the perfect name for us! Thank you WTMindy! I'm going to tell you why she suggested it, because I agree completely!

She suggested Magnum Opus Academy. Magnum Opus is Latin (which is something I want to teach myself, and then start teaching the kids in the next year or two, as we strive to have a classical education.) It means "great work." I believe that our most important "job" in life is to raise our children well. It also implies the hard work needed to excell.

WTMindy also pointed out a quote from Charlotte's Web by E.B. White which uses this phrase...so I got out our copy of the book and looked it up. In chapter nineteen, Charlotte says, "It is my eggsack, my magnum opus." Then she goes on to say, "It means 'great work.' This egg sack is my great work--the finest thing I have ever made."

Hmmm, I'll have to sleep on it, but I think this may be the name for us.

Slideshow for weekly report September 4-7, 2007

2007-09-08T02:31:00.001-04:00

Weekly report for September 4-7, 2007

2007-09-07T23:34:00.001-04:00

Here's our first weekly report...I think I made it too long, so bear with me!

First of all, we had a big event for L tonight...he lost tooth number 6! Here he is showing off the newest hole in his mouth! He went to bed wondering if the tooth fairy was going to show up...he'll have to see in the morning!

We have had a pretty good week for our second week back at school. Waking early enough and following our time schedule hasn't been good this week, but should get better next week because we will be finally adding in history and science (our requested library books came in last night! Yay!) So hopefully having a full, complete school day will motivate us to get moving on time in the mornings!

G is off to a great start for Kindergarten! She is eager to learn, and definately eager to read! In her phonics lessons this week we worked on the sounds/letters for "p" and "s". She already knows all the sounds/letters, but now we are associating them with words, and she's doing so well! She started some reading also this week. I wrote out a page with "-at" words (cat, hat, bat, etc.) and she read those to me several different times this week. She also read the first Bob Book (a beginning phonics reader) that includes the words "Mat," "Sam," "sat," and "on." Tonight she read this again to daddy (and this is shown in the slideshow below!)

She enjoyed playing the File Folder game I made a couple years ago for L. It has all the capital letters on the folder with the lower case letters on cards, and she needs to match them up. Most of them she did pretty easily...but of course she said it was "a little hard" because there are some that she had to think more about!

For math this week she worked on writing and counting the numbers 1 through 8. The counting is very easy for her, but some of the writing she needs to practice. She wrote 1, 4, 6, and 8 pretty well, and the others she tended to write backwards. I'm not too worried about that at this point, as L did that too when he was first learning to write numbers.

For one of her writing assignments this week, she had to write the letters A-E (both lower case and upper case). She did ok with this. The other assignment was to write out all of our family names (using mom and dad instead of our names). This wasn't the first time she's done this, so it was pretty good. For some reason the letter "Dd" intimidates her though...not sure what that is all about!

She's had a good start, and I'm glad to see that she is excited about "doing school." I hope that excitement continues to grow! My concern right now is that she gets bored while I'm working with L...so I must find some more for her to do to keep herself busy without distracting him.

L is adjusting to having more written work this year. We've added consistant grammar and spelling, so he is writing more. I was worried about how he would handle this, but it's going ok. I'm finding that he needs to take breaks though or he gets frustrated with it.

In Growing with Grammar this week we discussed Statements. I have to say that this Grammar book is working out so well for us. It has just the right amount of instruction and exercises for L. I don't always make him write out the sentences for every exercise, but he really seems to be grasping the lessons we've done so far.

His phonics work continues to be fun with Explode the Code...he keeps asking if we can go ahead and start book 4..."not until we get through the end of book 3!" This week the lesson was on words that have "ee" and "ea." ETC has really helped his reading confidence to grow, and we've started back with the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. The lessons in there tend to get too long for his attention span, but now that he is reading words he already knows how to sound out, he's doing better with it. For right now we are going to only do OPGTR a couple times a week, and read from other readers on the other two days. That is going well, and I'm hoping that his reading fluency will be able to grow now.

The spelling lesson this week was a review lesson. So he did the workbook pages, and we reviewed 42 flashcards each day. His spelling is coming along well, his only problem being when he hears the vowels differently (he'll hear "i" instead of "e," etc.) Then today he had the spelling test on 28 of the 42 words. He got 25 of them correct! I'm very proud of how well he is doing with that! The 3 he had trouble with, we'll add on to the words for next week. I think I will also start reviewing the sets of flashcards I've made each week as well, so he can retain the correct spellings that he's already learned as we move on to new words. I think if we review more often, it won't be such a shock when we get to the big review lessons like it was this week!

For the next several months at least, I plan to have him write and mail one letter each week. This week he wrote his first letter ever! He chose to write to a good friend from the city we used to live in. I think choosing someone to write to each week will give him incentive to work on writing clearly and using complete sentences. We will mail out this first letter tomorrow morning!

Math for L this week started out with learning how to read graphs. He spent two days on the graphs, and seemed to grasp that concept with no trouble. Yesterday and today we started the next chapter...numbers up to 40. He had fun making groups of 10 to count up to 40 in his workbook! We also did number bonds (shown in his math page in the slideshow.) I really like using Singapore math, but I do feel that he needs some more practice in drilling the facts. So in the next few weeks we'll be adding another math program also (Horizons math). I'll write more about that as we get closer to it.

L is doing well...for him I really need to work on keeping him focused (he's easily distracted). I'm hoping that adding in Story of the World and Astronomy next week will give him something fun to look forward to in the afternoon, so he'll be more motivated to get everything else finished before lunch! Both the history and science will be full of different books to read and activities. We are all excited to get started on them! (I need to finish getting that all planned this weekend!)

Our morning "walks to school" are a great additon to our day! It gets us all up and going! The one day we didn't walk, they complained the entire day about missing it. So we will definately be keeping this and making it a daily ritual! (At least until the winter hits!)

I can't figure out how to get the slideshow to show up here, so it's in it's own posting. I'm too tired right now to try to get it to work...if anyone can help me with this please leave me a comment about it! Thanks.

A nice relaxing holiday weekend makes for a tired Tuesday!

2007-09-04T19:22:00.000-04:00

We spent some time relaxing at home over the 3 day weekend and it was much needed since we've spent 3 of the last 5 weekends traveling! We did go over and enjoy our condo's community pool on Labor Day. It will close after this week, so we wanted to make sure we spent some time there before they close it. The pool is one thing that makes missing having our own house more bearable. We all really enjoyed using it this summer!

Hubby also grilled out for dinner last night...another thing I love about summertime. I'm hoping the weather holds out through the Autumn so we can continue grilling once a week or so!

Getting back to school today was a bit rough...we got a late start because the kids and I all slept in! But we still got everything done. I am forced to push back starting history and science until next week though because the library books I requested 2 weeks ago still aren't in. That is frustrating because it's affecting our planning. If they get here by thursday, I may go ahead and start Astronomy on thursday and friday.

I have been working on several things to try for our schooling. I got these ideas from wonderful people on the Well-Trained Mind bulletin boards!

1. I'm making a memory file box. I'm going to put all the things I want the kids to work on memorizing this year on index cards and making a file system in an index card box. Once I get the list finished, I'll post it here.

2. I bought binders to put the kids' work in as we go. They each have a binder for the current week (seperated by each day, the pages to be completed are put in on Sunday for that week). This way they can see what needs to be done each day. It seemed to work well for them today. Then I also have a binder for each of them where we will put the completed work, with tabs for each subject. So at the end of the year, everything will be filed by subject, and it will be easier to take out what I want to put in our portfolios for the teacher assessments.

3. I'm going to order another math program that has great reviews for going along with our current math (Singapore math). The other curriculum is Horizons math. I'm hoping that the two really will complement each other nicely and give the kids a complete math curriculum. Singapore is really great at mental math, word problems, and giving a great understanding of math, but lacks in drill/math facts. Horizons looks like it will fill in those things nicely. I'll let you know once we try it!

4. I'm going to try to post weekly reviews of our homeschooling adventures every friday. This will start this coming friday, so be sure to check here every week to see what we are learning!

Hoping to get some good sleep tonight so we can get started on schedule tomorrow!

Where do they come up with these things?

2007-08-29T23:04:00.000-04:00

Tonight at dinner, 4 1/2 year old G informed us that when she grows up she is going to marry the first boy she finds who isn't married or dead. Hubby said, "you need to aim higher than that, honey!" I was too busy laughing to respond! I hope she has a higher standard than that when the time comes.

Schooling outside

2007-08-29T11:56:00.000-04:00

At snack this morning, L decided to make a robot out of his graham crackers...creativity at work!

After snack we did some exercises outside. Here are some action shots...the first one is them doing Jumping Jacks! The second picture shows them practicing standing on one leg!

We did most of our school work this morning out on the back patio. It gets morning shade and was really nice this morning! Of course we had the problem of some bugs trying to join us, but the kids didn't mind too much (as long as they didn't get too close!) Here are some pics of them doing their math workbooks.

And here G is trying to tell L how to do his work! She thinks she is so smart now that she is doing Kindergarten work!

We had a nice morning outside doing our work...now time for lunch and chores. I'm exhausted! It will take me a week or two to get into the groove of school in the mornings!

Swimming in the sun

2007-08-28T16:14:00.000-04:00

After Lunch we did some chores. Here G is helping fold the dish towels.

And L is helping pick up baby D's toys! (No, L is not playing with baby blocks! He's really putting them away for me!)

Then we were going to spend our afternoon at the playground....but when we walked outside, we realized it was hot out. So we changed our minds and went to the pool instead! We spent an hour swimming and cooling off! What a way to spend our first day of school. It counts as physical education actually! Here's baby D, G and L in the pool this afternoon!

We had a great first day of school! Here's hoping that tomorrow goes just as well or better!

First day back to school

2007-08-28T12:28:00.000-04:00

We had a great first morning of school! The kids gave me a little trouble getting up, but once they got dressed and ate breakfast, they were ready to go! We started the day with our Circle Time. We did our calendar, checked the weather, and reviewed the basic memorizations we did last year (names, birthdays, street address, city, and state). We also reviewed how and why to call 911 and acted out a scenario of why they might need to do that. Then L held the flag while they said the Pledge of Allegience. (I had to promise G she would get to hold the flag tomorrow).

After saying the Pledge, we made our way outside to Walk to school. L decided to ride his scooter and G decided to ride her bike. (Baby D liked getting outside for the ride also!) We all enjoyed the morning walk, and L asked if we could walk home from school this afternoon too!

Back inside we got to work. L did a few pages of a review lesson for Explode the code (phonics) and had a spelling pretest (in which he forgot the sound an x makes and kept spelling words with cs in place of x...but once we went over it and he did the workbook page, he says he knows it now; we'll see how the test on friday goes!) Then he learned about word order of sentences for grammar, and put some silly out of order sentences back in the right order (i.e. "is black the train" should be "The train is black.") In math he did some exercises on adding one more or making one less (i.e. one less than 9 is "8"). For reading he read sentences using words with 2 consonent blends at the beginning (pl-, gl-, sl-, bl-, fl- and cl-). We had fun trying to say a couple tongue twisters really fast! Here's a pic of L working on his phonics book!

G started the first lesson in Get set for the code. She picked out the pictures that didn't belong in each row on the first page. And then we looked at how a p is written....she traced the p with her finger a few times, then wrote it a few times. We also talked about the sound a p makes. For her writing assignment she worked on writing her name (using lower case letters except for the G) and she wrote the letter p 5 times. She chose to draw a picture of a rainbow, grass and a sun also. For her math lesson we discussed some 3 dimensional shapes...the cube, the sphere and the cone. Then she matched pictures with each shape and colored them to match. When she was finished, we tried to find the different shapes throughout the room. For her reading lesson, she did the first lesson in the Ordinary parents guide to teaching reading (not sure if we'll continue this though because she already knows the letter sounds, we may just start sounding out 3 letter cvc words on the chalkboard)...the first lesson was on the short vowel sound of "a." Here is a picture of her practicing her writing!

We took a break from everything halfway through and had popcorn and did some exercises. We did jumping jacks, hopping on one foot, and running in place. This really helped them get out the wiggles, and will definately be a part of our snack time every day! (It helped me get re-energized again also!) Here are pics of them eating popcorn!

Now we are done with lunch, and about to do some chores. This afternoon we may walk over to the playground for a recess break! I'm trying to keep things a bit light this first week back, and it's off to a good start! We are all looking forward to adding in the "fun" stuff next week (astronomy, history and music!)

It has been a good first day!

Our daily schedule

2007-08-27T23:19:00.001-04:00

It might not end up being set in stone, but this is our starting point! We'll give it a go for a couple weeks, and then I'll re-evaluate to see how it is working and tweak it if necessary. The school listings from 9-11 AM are in the form of L / G, showing what each is doing during that block of time. Everything after lunch they will do together. So here it is:

6:50 AM: Mama spends a little time with Daddy before he leaves for work
7:30 AM: Mama showers, gets ready for the day
8:00 AM: Kids wake up, breakfast, get dressed, brush hair / teeth
8:30 AM: Circle Time (Calendar, daily weather, Pledge of Allegiance, memorization work, etc)
8:45 AM: “Walk to school” (weather permitting; if rainy or snowy, then exercise inside)
9:00 AM: ETC / Get set for the code
9:30 AM: Spelling (MWF), Writing (TH) / Writing, Coloring
9:50 AM: Snack
10:00 AM: Grammar, Computer time / Play with baby D, EB Math
10:30 AM: Math / Puzzles, Games, Blocks, etc.
11:00 AM: Reading / Computer games, reading 3 letter words
11:30 AM: Free time
12:00 PM: Lunch
12:30 PM: Read aloud time (can color/draw during)
1:00 PM: Chores
1:30 PM: Themes to Remember (Music)
1:45 PM: History (Monday/Thursday), Science (Wednesday/Friday)
3:00 PM: Free time

For this first week school will end at lunch time...the afternoon subjects will be added next week.

And of course Baby D will be added into all this on his own schedule! He's pretty easy-going though, so I don't expect him to cause much trouble to the schedule! I opened everything up to half hour increments to allow for disruptions...so the times aren't set in stone, but mostly a guideline to "what comes next." I'm hoping a better routine will help us all be more disciplined about our time during the day, so we can be more free later in the day!

We'll give this a try tomorrow and I'll let you know how it went!

Let the blogging commence!

2007-08-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

I am starting this blog with the hopes to use it to share our life with more of our family and friends. I plan to write a lot about our homeschooling adventures, my own interests, and our day to day life.

Right now it is Monday, and our last official day of summer vacation. We will begin our new homeschool year tomorrow. Today I have to check our plans for the week to make sure everything is ready to begin. We will be starting this week with just the core basics (reading, writing, math, grammar and spelling), then next week we'll add in everything else (music, science, history and geography). And I'm still trying to find a character building book/curriculum to add into our morning circle time.

For anyone who is interested in what we are starting out with this year, there are links to our curriculum choices on the side under 2007-2008 Homeschool Curriculum.

I use the The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/moreaboutbook.php) as a guide to help choose curriculum, along with their website http://welltrainedmind.com/ (which has a great discussion board!)

It looks like a lot to cover, but I'm planning on it taking us about 4-5 hours a day to do it all. We will do this 4 days a week (generally Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday). We are starting tomorrow because that is the day the local public school starts back up, so that is when the kids' friends go back to school.

Every Tuesday beginning September 18th, the kids will participate in our local homeschool group's Enrichment Day. There they will take several classes with other homeschool kids. This year the classes they will be taking include Art, Music, Ohio history, Community Helpers, and beginning Speech (standing in front of others and talking). Most of these they will be in together, but the speech class and the music class will be seperated by age (G in the 4-6yr olds class and L in the 7-9yr olds class). They are very excited about Enrichment day this year because we will be participating in it from the beginning!

I will post our daily schedule later today.