Homeschool Wrap Up Week 15

 The big news is that we had snow this week for the first time in two years!  They started calling for a possible slight chance of slow or sleet late Tuesday.  The children asked if it actually started snowing would they be able to go out an play and I said yes of course!  Around 7:30 that night we started seeing some snowflakes and then it started coming down pretty good.  It was cold!!!! Anthony went out and made some snowballs and Lily, Christian, and Emmie played out for quite awhile.  They even took the sled down the hill on the little sprinkling we got and Christian built a little snowman.  By 9:30 it had stopped snowing and by 9:00 the next morning everything had completely melted.  But it was exciting for a little while!

We finished up everything we needed to get done by Thursday and are now on our Christmas break!

Week 15 in our Homeschool

 

Bible: We finished reading through the book of Hebrews.

Read Aloud: We started and finished The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  I hope they dont ever get tired of the tradition of reading this book.  It makes us all laugh and touches something inside our hearts every time we read it.  I think sometimes it can be so hard for children who have grown up in the church to understand that there are children who do not know anything about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas and I think this story does a good job helping to remind us of that.  It also helps us think deeper about the true meaning of Christmas and the things that Mary and Joseph experienced. The Christmas story is amazing and miraculous and this book helps us to remember not to think of it as something we already know everything about.  "Hey! Unto YOU a child is born!"

Geography: We learned about West Virginia this week.

History: We completed 3 lessons in The MOH on Viking Life, Methodius and Cyril, and Alfred the Great.

Language Arts: The girls finished their books last week and so did not have any assignments.  The boys finally finished Treasure Island.  Feels like we have been working on it forever!

Spelling/Reading: The boys finished Step 26 in AAS Level 7.  And Emmie completed the last story in volume 1 of AAR Level 4.

The girls and I  worked a lot on making Christmas presents.  They got all of theirs finished on Wednesday and we went to the post office to get them sent off.  Lily also made this snowman decoration for the dining room.

We had to do some hoof trimming on the goats.

And playing with the bunnies.  I thought we were going to sell the babies but they are here to stay.  We had one cage left we could put them in.  We will start separating them from their mother today.

This week we are cleaning, baking, and getting ready for Christmas!

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 14

 We are winding down to be in a good stopping place on our work before Christmas break.  Alex finished up his first semester at Cossatot in his welding class.  The girls finished up dance and gymnastics until the New Year.  The girls were able to have a Christmas Music Recital on Friday. 

6 week old baby rabbit cuteness.

Did you notice Lily was wearing shorts?  We had a record high temperature of 75 degrees on Wednesday.  Not warm enough for me to wear shorts, but warm enough for her :)

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 14

Bible: We continued our reading through the New Testament with the book of Hebrews.

History: We completed 3 lessons in The MOH on Charles Martel, Charlemagne, and The Thousand and One Nights, Tales from Arabia.

Read Aloud: We finished A Christmas Carol and then watched a couple of different versions of it throughout the week and week-end.  The children like The Muppets the best but out of the ones we watched the one starring Alastair Sim was the most accurate though still different from the book.

Geography: We learned about Washington DC and Virginia.

Language Arts: The boys worked on editing and final drafts of their personal narratives.  They are trying to finish Treasure Island before the break.  Only 6 chapters to go!  Emmie finished Mr. Poppers Penguins which was the last book in her language arts curriculum.  I will order the next level for her to start in January.  Lily finished The Borrowers which was her last book before the break.

Spelling/Reading: The boys finished Step 25 in AAS Level 7.  Emmie completed step 12 in AAS Level 2 and lesson 31 in AAR Level 4.

Latin: We did a review of what we have learned in the first 10 lessons.

Lily made this pretty arrangement for our table.

For the music recital, Lily played Angels We Have Heard on High for the prelude.  Then later she played Carol of the Bells for her recital song.  Emmie, Lily, and Kat played Little Drummer Boy on Bells and Chimes with Ms. Becky accompanying on piano.  They had only practiced it with the piano twice before but they still did a good job. The recital was at our church so the rows were already marked off to keep everyone "socially distant." Masks and temperature checks were required and the children walked up and down to the stage in ways that they wouldn't have to walk near each other.  It was a beautiful recital and everyone did a great job! 

 

 

 

 

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 13

 We finished our biography of George Washington Carver right before Thanksgiving break.  Instead of starting a new one right away, we decided to read some Christmas books instead during the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We started with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  We have never read this before.  And of course we will have to read The Very Best Christmas Pageant Ever, It's a yearly tradition.  I am hoping to get in at least one more chapter book and some favorite picture books as well before Christmas.  For our evening read alouds we finished Little House on the Prairie and started on Farmer Boy, we also finished another Hardy Boys book and began a new one.  

The children have been working on some homemade gifts this week and we started decorating the inside of the house.  We were able to go get a tree on Saturday (all of us!) and visited Garvan Woodland Gardens while we were in the Hot Springs Area.  We were very disappointed that they decided not to do their beautiful Christmas lights display this year (because of Covid.)  It is still a beautiful and fun place to go but the lights make it much more special.  They had very few Christmas decorations up at all but the ones they had were very pretty.  We had a great time exploring the gardens, climbing rocks and bridges and seeing waterfalls.  The children loved the tree house. 

Week 13 in our Homeschool

Bible: We are still working our way through the New Testament and began the book of Hebrews.

History: In MOH Vol 2 our lessons were on Al-Andalus, St. Boniface, and The Iconclast Controversy.

Geography: We finished The cabin Faced West and learned about Delaware and Maryland.  We also wrote 4 postcards to send out for our 50 states postcard swap. 

Latin: We completed Lesson 10 in Visual Latin.  Some of the children are interested in learning Spanish we have dabbled in it here and there but I guess I need to find a curriculum for them to use that will be easy on me.

Language Arts: Emmie is still making her way through Mr. Poppers Penguins, and Lily The Borrowers.  The boys read 5 chapters of Treasure Island.  They had to write papers on a memorable experience they had in their lives in EIW.  Writing is not easy for my boys but I was so, very impressed by their papers!  Anthony wrote about winning SeaPerch and going to DC and Christian wrote about seeing baby goats being born.  They both did so well!

Spelling/Reading: The boys finished Step 24 in AAS 7.  Emmie completed lessons 8,9,and 10 in AAS 2 and read Summer Storm in AAR 4.

Math: 4 more lessons completed.  The upgrade to Teaching Textbooks is working fine for Emmie. I will have to upgrade Anthony before the end of the month.

Other Activities this Week:

The girls had gymnastics on Monday and dance on Tuesday.

We had music lessons on Friday.

Saturday was a great day!  The weather was so beautiful, sunny and almost 60 degrees. We started out at the Christmas Tree Farm to pick out and cut down our tree.  The tree we picked was the smallest we've ever had but it was very easy to get in the house and decorate!

Then we headed to Garvan Gardens.  

We picked up lunch from Chick-fil-A and ate in on the drive back home.

And we decorated the tree.

I was so thankful that all of my children and grad-babies could be there.  It was a wonderful day!

Sunday we got our goat back.  Hoping for some babies in a few months!

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Our Week in Review (Thanksgiving Break)

 We took the off from school this week.  Art was home from work, Alex didn't have to go to the college for his class, and Nick is home until the second week of January.  It was a good week and a nice break.  But, sometimes when we are out of our regular routine we struggle with being productive.  A reminder to the children that we could log and do some math did help correct that problem : ) 

Monday we went out to eat.  We had not been out to eat since Emmie's birthday back in March.  It was a birthday celebration for Alex since he had to work on his birthday (though he did get cake and a gift on his actual birthday.)  Chelsea was able to come and bring the babies.  Willow was not sure what to make of Uncle Nick being back home!

Tuesday Christian, Lily, and Emmie went to the 4 H Holiday Craft Workshop.  It was very different then previous years (of course.) But, I was glad they were able to go.  They made some cute crafts.

Wednesday we made lots of pie and decorated cookies.  It was a pretty day and they spent a lot of time outside while things were baking. 

Emmie made this apple pie.

The boys turned my dining room table into a ping pong table.

Thanksgiving we ate too much! But it was a good day.

Chelsea and the babies came over for pizza and a movie on Friday.

 

We started putting outside decorations up over the week-end.

We watched several Christmas movies this week in the evening including Santa Claus 1,2,3, The Cartoon Grinch, and Home Alone.

I hope you had a great week!