Our Family

Our Family

Monday, October 26, 2020

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 8

 We had a great week in our homeschool and a fun camping trip!


My boys do not love to write.  I think they would rather be doing almost anything, but it is a skill they need to learn and I try to make it as painless as possible.  When I look at their paragraphs I always say something generically positive and then point out what I really like before I point out what needs to be corrected.  This week when I started talking to Christian about his I told him that I really liked his paragraph and he said wait is that coming from my mom or my teacher.  I said both :)



Week 8 in our Homeschool

 

 We completed the book of Ephesians, read 3 chapters in George Washington Carver, finished the Week 8 assignments for MOH, watched a video on Leonardo da Vinci, finished one lesson in Visual Latin, and completed 3 math lessons.  The boys wrote two paragraphs and read 4 chapters in Treasure Island.  They also finished Step 19 in AAS Level 7.  Emmie finished My Father's Dragon, several lessons in AAS Level 1, and read The Elephant in the Room in AAR Level 4.  Lily finished Dreamer.

 

 We had Willow and Liam one day and sadly Liam was under the weather and running a fever.  He had an ear infection, but he played happily in the morning before the fever started.

 



Our Camping Trip

We left on Thursday to head to the lake for a 4 day camping trip.  It was sunny and 85 degrees when we left.  Friday was another beautiful day, in the mud 70's.  Friday evening the wind started to blow and with it came a cold front.  Saturday it stayed cold and cloudy and in the 50's and Sunday it wasn't much warmer.  We stayed by the fire all day on Saturday and I wondered if I am just not cut out for camping in colder weather as I was wearing two layers of everything and still could not stay warm enough away from the fire!  But it's not easy going from 85 to 45!

 

Lily found this snake skin as soon as we got there.



We did some fishing on Friday morning and I caught the biggest fish I've ever caught!






The children did a lot of bike riding.





Some crafting.








And we went on a hike.  About halfway through we stopped at a beachy spot and saw lots of animal tracks and leaf prints in the sand.















Later we got to see an otter eating a fish!  I couldn't get a close enough picture though.





Saturday we did some crafts and stayed by the fire!  I made chicken soup in the dutch oven for the first time and it turned out great!









I was so thankful that Nick could come over for a few hours both days and Alex could come for a longer period of time during the days even though he had to work at night.  We do have a trip planned for November and I'm hoping for sunshine!


I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Monday, October 19, 2020

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 7

 I do a lot of laundry.  Every morning right before we start school I put a load in the washer and then when we break for lunch move it to the dryer and start another load that gets put in the dryer when school is over.  Thursday morning I put a load in and started reading.  Then we heard a horrible noise coming from the washer.  We stopped it and Alex and I both were looking at it trying to figure out what was wrong.  I started it again and when the noise started again, I took a short video and sent it to my husband.  I put the clothes on rinse to get the soap off of them but when it started spinning after rinsing the noise was back. That night when Art came home he asked me to start a small load. No noise.  Then I did a heavier load.  No noise.  I did laundry with no problems this week-end.  I have no idea what was wrong, but find it ironic that when someone was around that could fix it, it was like nothing had ever gone wrong!!


Liam loves playdough and was super excited when I opened up a brand new jar for him!



Willow wanted to brush Lucy's (Emmie's doll) hair.  Emmie told her ok but be gentle and no drooling on her!!!




Week 7 in our Homeschool

Bible: We continued reading through the book of Galatians.

Read Aloud: We started reading YWAM biography on George Washington Carver.

History: We finished Week 7 in The Mystery of History II which was the end of the first quarter on St. Patrick, Attila the Hun, and the Fall of the Western Empire.

Geography: We completed lessons on Massachusetts and Rhode Island in Our 50 States.

Math: All of the children completed 4 math lessons. After this week I made the decision to switch Anthony to Teaching Textbooks.  I hope it works out better for him.

Language Arts: The boys are working on Treasure Island from Memoria Press.  Emmie started My Father's Dragon and Lily finished The Dreamer.

Latin: We started back with Visual Latin this week starting where we finished off last year.  This week we completed lesson 5.  Visual Latin is not for everyone because it is not as "formal" as other latin curriculum but my children really like it and Dwayne Thomas's sense of humor keeps it interesting for him.  We watch one part of a lesson per day and complete one worksheet 3 days a week.

Art History: We watched another video on Leonardo da Vinci.

Reading/Spelling: Emmie completed through Step 16 in AAS Level 1 and in AAR Level 4 we read Carmelita Takes the Stage.  The boys completed Step 18 in AAS Level 7 which focuses on Latin roots.

Other Activities this Week

 

We had some beautiful weather this week and spent a lot of time outside.  The changes in temperature have led to some snotty noses so we cancelled music this week and stayed home from church.

The girls have been busy cutting out little animals and sewing them.




Monday the girls had gymnastics.

 

Saturday we delivered my favorite female goat to another house to be bred as the male goat that we have is her son so we cannot breed her here.  We chose the boy in the middle.  We will pick her up in a few weeks and are hoping for a couple of strong healthy babies in 5 months!

 


 The girls recorded song played Sunday for the offertory.  This is a video I took of one of their practices (not the final recording that was played in church.) Their music teacher accompanies them on piano so during the practices I have to help them stay together by counting out the measure. Brighten the Corner Where You Are is the name of the hymn.

 


 

We are planning a camping trip this week and are hoping for some beautiful weather!


I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!

Sunday, October 11, 2020

Homeschool Wrap Up Week 6

A little bit of fall has come to Arkansas.  The morning temperatures have been much cooler, the leaves have started changing color and falling, but we have had several days this week in the mid 80's.  It is 85 degrees right now so I had to turn fans on in the barn.  Fall is my favorite time of year.  We had a productive week in our homeschool this week, and we had an opportunity to visit a pumpkin patch that had fun activities for older and younger children.  

Week 6 in our Homeschool

 

Bible: We started reading through the book of Galatians.

Read Aloud: We finished reading the YWAM biography on John Adams.  We do sort of randomly pick biographies.  I let the children choose what they are interested in. Next week they decided they want to start a biography about George Washington Carver.

History: We finished Week 6 in The Mystery of History on The Maya, St. Augustine of Hippo, and Jerome and the Vulgate Bible.

Geography:We finished lesson 6 in Our 50 States on Vermont.

Language Arts: Emmie finished The Boxcar Children (Lightning Literature) and Christian and Anthony started working on Treasure Island (Memoria Press.) Lily is still working on The Dreamer.

Math: They each finished 3 days of math assignments this week.

Reading/Spelling: Christian and Anthony started AAS Level 7 where they left off last year. We completed Step 17 this week.  I started Emmie on AAS Level 1.  we are quickly going through the lessons until we get to a point where she cannot spell the words on the lists.  We got through Step 10 this week.  In AAR Level 4 she completed lessons 7-9.

Art History: We watched our second HiGASFY video on Leonardo da Vinici.

Science: The boys completed 3 days of their science lessons this week.  The girls did not do a science lesson this week, at least not from a book. We have lots of real life science going on all of the time!


Other Activities this Week

Monday Christian and Alex went to the radio station to do a 4 H interview.  It was also 4H Pet day so the children took pictures with some of our pets.





 

Emmie hurt her knee on the trampoline the night before so she did not go to gymnastics that night but Lily did.

Wednesday we went to the pumpkin patch!  It was a beautiful day.  The farm we went to was beautiful and the people that own and run the place were really nice.  We had been there once before 5 years ago but Chelsea was unable to go then.  She saw something about it on FaceBook and asked if we could plan a day to go.  We all had a good time.  They had a petting zoo, a train ride, a hay ride, a big slide, a carousel, a rock wall, pumpkin patch, and a zipline.  You could also fish in the pond with fishing poles that were provided and hotdogs for bait. Usually they have a story time in a giant tepee and have a play about the first Thanksgiving in an outdoor theater, but they didn't do either of those this year.  We took a ton of pictures but I won't share them all here :)
















 

I bought some small pumpkins for the children to paint at our Halloween party this year and a white pumpkin for my front porch.  The little pumpkins in this picture we accidentally grew in our front yard from seeds where the children carved pumpkins last year.


 

Thursday we had the babies.  We gave Willow her first ponytail.  Liam drew this picture of a man in the water.  And he helped me make cookies for a 4 H community service project.  He was very excited to be my taste tester when they were done.  We were unable to help deliver cookies to the police station and other places in town because Alex had to go to work leaving me with no vehicle.





 

Friday the girls had music lessons.  They recorded Brighten the Corner Where You Are on handbells and chimes and worked on Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee with Lily playing piano and Emmie and Kat singing.


 

Our pigs are both gone. We were sad to see them go, but it was time.  We are still waiting for two goats to sell.

I hope you had a great week!

Happy Homeschooling!