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Sunday, February 25, 2018

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 23

Lots of rain this week.  Not just a little bit of rain, but down pouring, road flooding rain.  We spent a lot of time indoors, but the children did get out during some breaks in the rain and of course had to go out to do their animal chores.  Alex had to do a bit of digging in the rain to help the chicken and goat pens drain better when they started to flood.  Tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day, I hope it is bright and sunny!

Monday the public schools were closed for President's Day, but we had school at home.  I woke up not feeling well, but hoped it would pass.  We made it through our school work and lunch.  I went and laid down for awhile.  The boys had a 4 H meeting in the afternoon and one of our outside cats, Marshmallow had to be dropped off to the vet to get fixed, so off we went to town in the afternoon.  We dropped off the boys and the cat and then went to the park to play before the rain started.  I went back to bed when we got home and stayed there pretty much until Wednesday morning,  Art had to come home from work on Tuesday to provide transportation to the children.  The girls had a dentist appointment (Lily needed a tooth pulled and Emmie needed sealants) and then Nick had to be dropped off and picked up from school and the girls had to go to gymnastics. We did not get much school completed that day.  The rest of the week was pretty normal, minus the ability to really get outside and play.

Week 23 in our Homeschool


Bible: We are still working our way through Know Who You Are, Live Like it Matters

Read Aloud: We read 3 chapters of Off the Edge of the Map.

History: We read lesson 25 in America's Story and watched episode 2 in Drive Thru History Ancient History.  We also watched a short video on the history of President's Day.

Geography: This week we learned about Afghanistan.

Music Appreciation: I just received Music Appreciation Book One from Memoria Press to review.  This week we did lesson one on Handel's Water Music and form.  We also worked on a file folder of the Orchestra from Home School in the Woods, another upcoming review.










Math: The children did 3 lessons in MLFLE and Christian completed several pages of Math Mammoth.  I have already started looking for math for next year.  I think Lily and Emmie will continue with MLFLE as it seems a really good fit for them.  Anthony is on the last book in the series and the curriculum they recommend next will not be a good fit for him.  I have no idea what I'm doing for Christian or Alex.

Language Arts: The boys continued on their section of On Your Own Animal Fantasy in Readers in Residence.  Lily's grammar lessons this week were on synonyms.

Spelling/Reading: The boys finished step 5 in AAS Level 5.  Lily completed lesson 24 in AAR Level 4 and Emmie completed lesson 37 in AAR Level 1. 

Science: I have done a really bad job using our science curriculum this year.  It has been so hit and miss all year. It's not that it is a bad curriculum, I just never remember to pick up the supplies we need for the experiments and the children (and me too) are finding just the readings a but boring.  So... we will be starting something new as soon as it arrives.  I am on a review for Apologia's Exploring Creation with Anatomy and Physiology which I did with Nick and Alex a few years ago, but none of the other children have done it.  Since I am getting the book, notebooking journals, and mP3 CD as part of the review, I did something I have never done and bought the experiment kit that gives you everything you need to do all of the experiments.  I am hoping having the kit will help make my life easier and get us back into science!!!  We do do a lot of STEM activities but I really would like to get back into a curriculum all of the younger children can enjoy.  While I was ordering stuff I also ordered the next Volume in America's Story since we have almost finished Vol 1 and a new handwriting book for Emmie.

Other Activities this Week:

Monday the 4 younger children played at the park while Nick and Alex had their 4 H meeting.




Tuesday the girls had gymnastics.

Wednesday we had Kid's Club. Our lesson theme was God Hears our Prayers.  The Scripture lesson was on Hannah.  Some of our activities included making homemade stethoscopes and prayer vaults.


Thursday Lily had piano and then the girls had ballet.

I picked up a little booster seat for Liam since I do not have a high chair.  The children enjoyed being able to feed him. 



The 4 H cookie and bread contest is Monday.  Christian and Alex started making their entries on Saturday.  My Kitchenaid mixer started getting really hot and had a burning smell when making the cinnamon roll dough.  I am hoping it just got too hot and will be fine.


I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Sunday, February 18, 2018

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 22

We had a really short homeschool week this week.  I had a dentist appointment on Wednesday, the fastest lunch ever with my husband and then had to rush home to be there in time to take Nick to school.  Kid's Club was cancelled. Thursday the children had a dentist appointment, which is an all day thing.  The local public schools were on mid-winter break Thursday-Monday, which meant no school for Nick.  I had to cancel piano on Thursday because we wouldn't be back in time and then dance was cancelled because the teacher was ill.  Nick was thankfully better this week and back to school at home.  Alex started coming down with a cold Thursday night but it seems to be just a cold.

Week 22 in our Homeschool

Bible: We continued our study of Know Who You Are, Live Like it Matters.

Read Aloud: We read 2 chapters of Off The Edge of the Map.

History: We read chapter 24 in America's Story and also watched episode 1 of Drive Thru History Ancient History.


Geography: This week's lesson was a review lesson on Europe and Africa.

Math: The children did 3 lessons in MLFLE and Christian worked on memorizing his 3 times tables.

Language Arts: The boys started the next section in Readers in Residence on an On Your Own Animal Fantasy.  We had just finished reading The Green Ember and they wanted to use that book as their book and in hopes of moving through this section a little faster then the last two I said that was ok.  Lily did 2 lessons in Daily Grammar.

Spelling/Reading: The boys finished step 4 in AAS Level 5.  Lily completed lessons 22 and 23 in AAR Level 4 and Emmie completed lesson 36 in AAR Level 1 and several lessons in Reading Eggs.

Other Activities this Week:

Tuesday Emmie got to start back in gymnastics.  He toe is still bruised especially around the toe nail, but is not causing any kind of pain.  I made her wear shoes for extra support and take it a little easy, but she did fine.

Thursday after the dentist I took the children to see Paddington 2.  The girls love Paddington and even though it was not the boys first choice in movies the last 2 we have seen were definitely boy choices so it was the girls turn.  We were the only ones in the theater.  The absolute best part of my day was when something silly happened on the screen and Lily started cracking up laughing.  Those kind of things make me remember even more how thankful I am to be able to spend so much time with my children.  We do have to go back to the dentist next week.  Lily has a small abscess caused by a filling that is loose in a baby tooth so the tooth has to be pulled and she has to take an antibiotic for the next 10 days.  The children were all cavity free though :)


Lily did this drawing.  I know I'm a bit biased but I think she has some artistic talent.



I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Sunday, February 11, 2018

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 21

Nicholas did not get better, from his illness he had last week, actually he got worse.  He went to the doctor on Tuesday and got some antibiotics for an ear infection.  Wednesday he was doing much better, thankfully.  Weeks ago I had signed him up for the ACT on Saturday.  Being sick for two weeks he did not have an opportunity to prepare at all, but I told him we would consider it a practice test and just to do his best. He made it through and we get the results in a few weeks.


Homeschool Wrap Up Week 21

Bible: We continued in our study of Know Who You Are, Live Like it Matters.


Poetry:Continued working on First Snow by Marie Louise Allen.

Read Aloud: We read 4 chapters of Off the Edge of the Map on Merriwether Lewis.


Geography: Our geography lesson this week was on Ghana.


History: We watched episode 1 of Drive Thru History Ancient History and read chapter 23 of America's Story on the Trail of Tears and Slavery.


Science: We read an Usborne book on bats and wrote a paragraph on bats.  Our 4 H meeting also counts as science.


Art:  We did not do an art project this week, but I am on a review for Super Beads from Zirrly.  Lily, Emmie, and Christian spent several hours Saturday afternoon making creations from the beads.





Math: 4 lessons completed in MLFLE and Christian completed several pages in Math Mammoth.


Language Arts: Lily finished the capitalization section in her daily grammar.  Christian and Anthony finished the section on Charlotte's Web in Readers in Residence.


Spelling/Reading:  Christian and Anthony finished Step 3 in AAS Level 5.  Lily completed lesson 20 and 21 in AAR Level 4 and Emmie completed lesson 35 in AAR Level 1.



Other Activities this Week

Monday We had a 4 H meeting with a Winter STEM theme.






Tuesday Lily had gymnastics.  Emmie is going to try and do some things at gymnastics next week.

Wednesday We had Kid's Club.




Thursday Lily had piano and both girls had ballet.



I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Thursday, February 8, 2018

February Nature Seekers 4 H Meeting

The theme of this month's meeting was Winter STEM activities.  I had four activities planned but we only had time to do three of them.


Our first activity was snowstorm in a jar.  This was really easy to do.  We filled a jay 3/4 with baby oil.  In a separate bowl we added a teaspoon of white paint to a cup of water and stirred and then added the paint water to the jar.  Next we were supposed to add a pinch of glitter, but if you know me, you know I do NOT do loose glitter, so we left that out.  We added three drops of blue food coloring, and then a broken alka seltzer tablet. 





Our next activity was to make homemade snow.  The recipe was 3 cups of baking soda and 1/2 cup white hair conditioner.  This was really easy and it worked!  It felt kind of cold, looked like snow, and the children could make some some snowballs and snowman out of it.




Last we made snow structures out of marshmallows and toothpicks.  I thought they would build igloos, but they had some other ideas.  I was impressed with what they came up with!







Sunday, February 4, 2018

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 20

 Monday morning I was thinking out loud and said something like, "What should we start with this week?" Christian said we should take a hike.  Well, that sounds like a great idea, there is a trail not far from here I would like to hike, but....Emmie has a broken toe, the weather was not fabulous, and Nick woke up not feeling well.  He stayed home from his class at school Monday and Tuesday and was much better Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, but was worse again Saturday and Sunday.  I hope he feels better by tomorrow.  Anyway, that hike may have to wait a couple of weeks.....

Bible: We are continuing our study of Know Who You Are, Live Like it Matters.

Poetry: We started working on a new poem called First Snow by Marie Louise Allen.

Read Aloud: We read 4 chapters of Off the Edge of the Map. 

Apparently listening to me read put Liam to sleep.

Geography: This week in geography our country of study was Tanzania.

History: We watched the last two episodes of Drive Thru History, American History and read Chapter 22 of America's Story on The Industrial Revolution.

Science: We built and started driving an R2D2 robot kit I bought called Little Bits Droid Inventor Kit.



Art: We did the Owl from Bali from ArtAchieve.




Math: They did 4 lessons in MLFLE except for Christian who did several pages in his Math Mammoth workbook.

Language Arts: They finally finished reading Charlotte's Web, but still have several lessons to complete on the book.  Lily did 4 lessons in daily grammar.

Spelling/Reading: The boys completed step 2 in AAS Level 5.  Lily completed lesson 19 in AAR Level 4 and Emmie completed lesson 34 in AAR Level 1.

Other Activities this Week:
 
Tuesday Lily went to gymnastics.  Emmie sat and watched and watched  a movie on my phone.

Wednesday we had Kid's Club.


Thursday Lily had piano.  And then it was the day Emmie has been waiting for forever!  The first day of Ballet.  It went well even with a broken toe.  She did fine and did not complain of anything bothering her even though a few times earlier in the week she had some cramps in her toe. She and Lily both had a good time.



Friday after grocery shopping we went and seasoned meat for the 4 H BBQ Bowl fundraiser.







Spring is coming and hopefully all the sickness will leave with winter weather!