Homeschool Wrap Up Week 23

We have had another "off" week.  We had power outages two days last week which affected our school work a little bit.  We could not use Mango Homeschool on those days, do the girls piano lesson, and Chelsea couldn't complete her Economics lessons.  Then, Thursday morning, Anthony woke up with a rash that covered his body from head to toe!  He had taken his last dose of antibiotics the night before.  The doctor thinks he was having a reaction to the antibiotics and he is on two types of antihistamines trying to get the rash cleared up poor guy.  Because I had to take him to the doctor, we got very little morning school done that day, and that afternoon was one of our power outage days.  Anthony was excused from all school work that day.

We did get some things accomplished though!  One of our lessons this week in America the Beautiful was a biography on Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I could spend a whole year (and have in the past with Chelsea using the Prairie Primer) on her.  She is one of my favorite authors of all time and a fascinating person to study and learn about.  Our current read aloud is Little Town on the Prairie.

We only "did science" one day this week.  We began working on Lesson 8 Ungulates.  We will have to do some extra reading next week to make up for what we missed this week.

Nick and Alex finished up writing another report in IEW.  This time they wrote about Ants.  I continue to be impressed with how well their writing is improving as we go through the SWI A course.

Everyone finished another lesson of Math U See.  They are moving along well through each of their levels.  I can never stress enough how much I love Math U See!

The girls and I will continue with Caps For Sale next week.  We did not get to it this week with the sickness, power outages, and Emmie took a nap two days last week.  The one day I thought sure we would have time, they were playing together so nicely, I just let them be.

Last week, I finished our income taxes (fun stuff!), so yesterday I was filling out the FAFSA for Chelsea. She is planning on going to a local community college, but she has applied to a few others that she is interested in the area to see what kind of offers she can get.  Her last year of high school is already more than half over!

We finished the Nature Quilts this week.  I was trying to get Lily's finished last week, but with Emmie being sick it just didn't happen. They both picked out their material to put around the square and the back. I was so glad to get them finished!

Christian's front

Christian's back

Lily's front

Lily's back

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!

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ABC Snacks: Letter D

The little girls and I have been making a snack a week following along All About Learning Press's ABC Snacks.  You can read my A post here and my B post here.  This week's snack for the letter D was Delicious Dirt Cups


I had purchased everything we needed to make this snack last week, and was planning on making the snack on Friday, but when our power was out for several hours on Wednesday, and boredom was setting in, I decided it would be a good idea to go ahead and make this snack!

We used:

2 boxes instant chocolate pudding
4 cups of milk
10 sandwich cookies (generic oreos)
a package of gummy worms

The girls could make every part of this snack themselves.

The other children could not resist this snack!

We are having so much fun with our ABC snacks!

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Review: January Bride by Deborah Raney

Last month I had an opportunity to review a December Bride by Denise Hunter, the first novella in a new series, A Year of Weddings.  Each a month a new novella will be released by a different author. Each novella is stand alone and not related to the other books in the series. I was happy to have an opportunity to review the next book in the series, A January Bride.

In A January Bride, Madeline begins using an empty Inn so she can complete a novel she is writing before the fast approaching deadline while the home she is staying in is under construction.  She is new in town and was very excited when her neighbor suggested she complete her writing at Annabelle's inn.  She and Arthur, the Inn's owner have never met, but correspond through little notes written back and forth.  She assumes him to be a much, much older gentlemen, and he assumes her to be a much older woman.  They seem to have a lot in common besides the assumed age difference and get along very well through their correspondence. When they do finally meet, they are both surprised that the other is in the same age range as they are.  But, Madeline does not have a good track record with relationships, and Arthur was heartbroken when his wife died 3 years ago and is afraid to begin a new relationship again.  Can they risk a chance at happiness with each other?

This is not a full length novel, so there is not as much time for character and story development, but in this little more than 100 page novella is a really good story.  I enjoyed the story, setting, and characters.  I enjoyed how the author chose to reveal to Maddy and Art that they were wrong about the other person.  A January Bride made for a great, easy, light hearted read on a Saturday afternoon.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of A January Bride from Thomas Nelson for the purpose of writing a fair and honest review.  I received no other compensation and all opinions are my own.  I am disclosing this in accordance to FTC regulations.

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Snow Day!!

As cold as it has been this winter, we have not had a single drop of snow.  We have had ice a few times, but no snow.  The children have been hoping and hoping they would have a chance to play in the snow.  Thursday, we had some snow flurries, but they melted as soon as they hit the ground.  Yesterday, just as we were starting up the movie for pizza and a movie night, it started to snow.  It was snowing big fluffy flakes and it sure was cold enough for them not to melt as soon as they hit the ground.  By the time the movie was over there was snow covering the ground, so even though it was already dark, the children had to go out to play for a little while.

As soon as I got up this morning I dug out hats and gloves and the couple pairs of snow pants that we have so the children could get out to play before the snow melted.

Lily and Emmie only lasted about 30 minutes before they came in crying that they were cold.  Christian stayed out the longest, close to two hours.  The other boys were out for an hour or so and then after warming up they all went out again.

Of course it is not a snow day without some hot cocoa.

I am so ready for Spring, but I am glad the children had an opportunity to play in the snow!

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ABC Snacks: Letter C

The little girls and I have been making a snack a week following along All About Learning Press's ABC Snacks.  You can read my A post here and my B post here.  This week's snack for the letter C was Creeping Caterpillar Sandwich.

The suggestion for this snack was to spread peanut butter and jelly on a tortilla, but we decided to melt shredded cheese instead.  Also, instead of bell peppers for the legs and antennae, we used carrot sticks.  And, the grocery store was all out of cherry tomatoes so we used a cherry for the head.


The girls put the cheese on and I melted them in the toaster oven.  Then I cut them into segments and they put on the carrots and the cherry.

The girls really enjoyed this tasty caterpillar!

*link to All About Learning Press is my affiliate link.  I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend.

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Homeschool Wrap Up Week 22

Well the sickness carried on this week.  Anthony went to the doctor on Monday for a bacterial infection that was casing a rash on his face and neck, and Emelia started complaining of ear pain on Thursday and went to the doctor on Friday, so we did not get as much done as I had planned.  But, we still got a lot accomplished in our homeschool this week!

We finished lesson 75 of America the Beautiful which is the end of book one.  We have gone through American history through the Civil War and Reconstruction.  We have almost finished Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt and I read aloud Civil War on Sunday (Magic Treehouse) in the evenings.  Our next daytime read aloud is Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

In Science we finished Lesson 7 Rodents and the Rest of Apologia Land Animals.  Remember last week when I said we didn't get to our Lapbook for this chapter yet and we would hopefully catch it up this week? That didn't happen.  We are just going to skip the folder for this lesson and move on to the next.

We finished lesson 52 of Bible Study Guide For All Ages and are moving on to the next set of lessons next week.

Chelsea's semester ended and she officially started using Math U See Stewardship which she really likes. She also has started Economics for Everybody and is enjoying that as well.

We are reviewing Mango Languages Homeschool Edition and Chelsea is learning Russian while the younger children and I are learning Pirate.  With Mango Homeschool there are over 60 languages to choose from and each child can work on more than one at a time.  We have looked at the Latin and are planning on doing a little Chinese and German as well.

The girls and I started reading Caps For Sale and working on a corresponding lapbook.  We did not get much of it completed this week and will still be working on it again next week.  They also have a new app we are reviewing called Talking Shapes that they are enjoying.  I also found out that I will have an opportunity to review Spelling You See Level A a brand new Spelling program from Demme Learning the company that developed and sells Math U See.  I am very excited about that!

Alex finished the last lesson of All About Spelling Level 3 and will be moving on to Level 4 next week. Christian and Anthony just finished Lesson 20 of Level One.

I have started reviewing a new app called Motivated Moms.  It is a list of daily chores to do.  Somethings get done every day and some things only periodically.  When you finish a chore you check it off your list.  It syncs between my iPad and iPhone so if I am upstairs and check it off my list then go downstairs and open the list it shows it as checked off.  It really kept me motivated all week long until of course Emmie got sick and I spent most of my day snuggling with her.

We had a good time at our 4 H meeting and the Homeschool Valentines Day Party.

I hope you had a great week in your homeschool!!

*links to Compass Classroom and All About Learning Press are my affiliate links. I only form affiliate relationships with companies whose products I actually use and can recommend!

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Homeschool Valentines Day Party

Our homeschool group had a Valentines Day Party planned for January 31st.  A bit early, but it seemed to be a date that worked out the best.  I had not told the children anything about it, because I usually do not for those kinds of things until the last minute in case something happens and we have to cancel.  But, on Monday, I did tell the group leader that we were planning on coming and grabbed some valentines while I was in the store.  The girls had stopped running fever on Sunday and although they and Christian still had runny noses, I thought they would certainly be better by Friday.  Anthony had gone to the doctor on Monday and was on antibiotics for a bacterial infection and I knew he would be better by Friday, so I figured we would be good to go.

I told the older children about it earlier in the week because I wanted to check with the boys and see if they wanted to do Valentines or not (they didn't.)  The rest of the children I told early Thursday morning.  They were very excited and couldn't wait to get started on their boxes.  I told them they had to use whatever supplies we had in the house and Anthony and Christian decided they wanted to make Pirate Ships.  Lily wanted to make a dalmatian puppy, and for Emmie I thought we would just decorate a box with some hearts and glitter.  I got them started on their boxes and started reading our morning read aloud when Emelia came in complaining that her ear hurt.  She was not running fever but she said it hurt a lot.  I gave her some Tylenol and put her on the couch with her favorite show on.  By the afternoon she was worse and it was hurting more.  She was even crying in her sleep.  I tried to get her in to the doctor, but they were out of the office.  They called me that evening though and I got her appointment set for Friday morning.  She had never been to the doctor before.  She will be three years old next month and has not seen a doctor since we were discharged from the hospital when she was born.

So, Friday morning I loaded all of the children up in the van and drove into town.  I took the baby into the doctor's office and left the others in the van with Chelsea.  My baby was pretty miserable and had not slept at all well the night before.  She had an ear infection.  We left the doctor's and ran two quick errands on the way to the party.  I dropped the children off at the party with Chelsea to watch them (sometimes it is so nice to have an older child that can do these things!), and took Emelia and ran to the store and the pharmacy to get her medicine.  Then I took her to Sonic because I promised her a coke when she had to take her medicine.  We went back to the party and let the children finish the game of Bingo that was started.

The children had a great time at the party.  We all pitched in for pizza and drinks so first they had lunch. They also played a cake walk game, bingo, and of course exchanged valentines.The big boys went outside to play football.  There were 31 children signed up for the valentine exchange and several older children that chose not to participate in that, and I think that everyone except for Emmie that signed up came so it was a pretty good crowd.  I asked Chelsea to take some pictures for me, and she did get a few.

Lily, Christian, and Anthony's boxes.  I never did get one made for Emmie

I was sorry that Emelia and I missed it, but I am so glad the children got to go.  And thankfully, Emelia is much, much better today!

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