Weekly Wrap Up – End of Term 1 2010-2011

Weeeeeel last week was a tough week. I think we were all suffering from a bit of burnout and anxious to start our end-of-term break. We didn’t get as much done as I had planned to last week, but we accomplished those things that were really important, so that’s good enough for me!

I spent this past weekend getting started on my long-neglected to-do list. I made some major progress around the house, getting to all those detailed jobs that I just haven’t had time for since we started school. One more very good reason why I decided to shoot for a 6 on 1 off schedule this year. So far I have rented a Rug Dr. and cleaned the downstairs carpet, cleaned and reorganized all my kitchen cabinets, rearranged a few things in the living/dining/school areas, organized and purged Joey’s toys (downstairs and up), reorganized and cleaned the boys’ room, vacuumed the upstairs hall and the stairs, and thrown a  LOT of junk away.

I have one or two more days of intense housework left to do and then I’ll be done (until it gets messy again, which will be about a week). Left on my to-do list is cleaning and organizing my bedroom, putting all laundry away that had managed to pile up over the past few weeks, and cleaning the 2 bathrooms upstairs. Oh yeah, and laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. But I will work on that throughout the week. My goal is to make the biggest dent in it possible and then have everyone pitch in and get it all folded and put away in one night (we will see how that goes).

Sorry, I know I’m boring, but such is my life! Hopefully this video that I have to share will make up for it. A new Joey vid is wayyyy overdue, enjoy!

Blessings,

Weekly Wrap up – Week 5

Let me start this weekly wrap-up by saying this was a tough week. I can’t pinpoint any one reason, I think we are all just itching for our upcoming end-of-term break! It didn’t help that I got sick Friday (stomach bug) and haven’t quite gotten back to normal yet…

This week did, however, have some fun highlights that I am happy to share:

Being that both of the boys are studying plants right now, they were able to collaborate on a science lab this week.

Our lab involved germinating bean sprouts and planting them. The above photos were taken after the beans had been wrapped in wet paper towels and stored in a baggie for 24 hours. It’s hard to see, but on some of them, there was evidence of the shells breaking open in order to let the growing sprouts out.

These photos were taken yesterday before we planted our sprouts in dirt and labeled them to observe over the next week or so. You can see that each bean has a fully formed sprout growing out of it. We did a lima bean, a lentil, and a great northern so we could compare the differences. Now they are in their clear containers. We set them out in front of the patio door for a few hours each day so that they can get the sunlight they need to make food and grow!

Right now, Drew is doing Science the Well-Trained Mind way, utilizing a book called “How Nature Works” and our Usborne Internet-linked Science Encyclopedia. I will be getting a few Apologia books this coming week to try out, and one of them is the Elementary Botany book. So we are excited to try it out! Isaiah is using the “Great Science Adventures” books to do Biology this year. I had never heard of these, but they were recommended via TWTM, and once I saw that they incorporated Dinah Zike’s foldables, I was sold! This past week was his first week, and he really seems to be enjoying it so far. Next week I will show you some pictures of the minibooks he has been working on.

Jazz had a bit of a slow paced week, as I had found some things that she needed some extra help with as I was grading her work last weekend. So we took some time to do some extra practice with divisibility in Math and did some extra sentence diagramming worksheets. I tried to find some fun, different ways to review these things, but sometimes you just need to practice, practice, practice!

Joey has been really good this past week and I think he is starting to adjust better to entertaining himself while we are getting schoolwork done. Daddy was home on Wednesday and Thursday, as usual, and brought some laughter to our evenings…

Friday, we didn’t do school because I was miserably sick. I am still fighting off a mean stomach bug and I’m hoping by tomorrow I will be back to normal. Luckily, no one else has shown any signs of getting sick, so here’s hoping!

See you next week!

Weekly Wrap-up (our first 3 weeks)

It’s Thursday evening here, and man I am SO glad tomorrow is Friday! I haven’t posted any updates yet to share how the new school year is going because I have been so busy and just plain worn out!

I am amazed at the difference one more student in our homeschool makes. The fact that she is almost a high-schooler and has never been homeschooled makes things that much more interesting (and challenging). But I’ll share more about that later.

In the hustle and bustle of getting adjusted to new curriculums and new ways of doing things, we haven’t been able to enjoy a whole lot of the “fun stuff” I always try to incorporate into our days. The few projects we have attempted failed miserably. For example, our ming bowls…

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Although the kids did a very good job molding them and thoroughly enjoyed the process, the clay we used shrank up while drying. This resulted in a few cracks. Ok, I thought, no big deal. We can use fresh clay to patch them up! Then this curious little monkey came along…

Since we had our projects drying on the table, right at his eye level, he just couldn’t resist touching. Long story short, the cracks became complete breaks that were beyond repair :( We had planned on redoing them, but we just didn’t have the time. Which brought a thought to mind: We definitely need a high up, out of reach shelf hanging on the wall to keep things like this safe from exploring hands. The kids were pretty bummed we didn’t even get a chance to paint and glaze our creations.

One fun activity we did get to complete was trying to reproduce different forms of Chinese pictograms. The kids each chose 3 characters and painted both the early and modern forms on page.

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Now I think it would be nice to share a little bit about each of the kids’ studies and how they are doing so far.

Isaiah – 8

Isaiah has gotten to the point with his reading where he is hitting a wall, actually it’s more like a plateau. So we have been doing things other than our BJU Phonics and Reading 1 program. the first new thing we are trying is ETC Online. This is working out pretty well, and I am seeing improvement with his basic phonics skills. The second part of our new approach is using Rocket Phonics. At the HOTM conference last week, Dr. Guffanti (the creator of Rocket Phonics) shared a lot of great info about Kinethetic learners, and I got to ask him some questions about reading. So after listening to him talk about incorporating games and motion into your curriculum, especially when a subject is tough for the child in question, I decided to give it a try. So we started working through the lessons and games in Rocket Phonics this past Monday. So far, we are mostly reviewing the skills he has already learned. But he is really enjoying it and is able to actually sit and “do” reading for about 30-40 minute sessions daily without losing focus or getting frustrated. I think we have a winner! Isaiah is doing a lot more things on the computer now as part of my attempt to make his learning more engaging and exciting.

Drew – 10

Speaking of reading, I’m just dying to share a little Mommy brag. Drew has always been a pretty strong reader, but has never really enjoyed the process of reading. I have purchased any number of highly recommended books for boys his age, but none of them have really produced the enthusiasm I have been working for. The other day we went to the bookstore and I allowed the boys to choose a book. Drew recently read a few superman comics, graphic novels actually, and kept bringing me these $20 books. Of course, I was not planning on buying him a $20 book, so we went over to the young reader’s section. I happened to see the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, which I have heard lots of good things about. I talked him into it and we left to go get dinner.

This child read the book through dinner, on the way home, and for an hour after we got home! He kept giggling and rereading parts to me and his brother. He went to bed soon after, and I looked where he had placed his bookmark – he had read 65pp in just a few hours!! he read more today and is now over halfway through the book. It was a beautiful sight to come downstairs after waking up this morning to see both my boys, not vegging on the couch watching cartoons, but READING!! I am LOVING it!

Besides the reading progress, we have also changed latin programs for Drew. I realized, halfway through level 2 of Latin’s Not So Tough, that it was teaching him whole-to-parts latin instead of the parts-to-whole that the WTM recommends. So, we are now doing the Big Book of Lively Latin, and though it has been a bit more challenging for him, we are both learning way more from one week of this program than we did in 2 months of doing the previous program.

Drew is also really enjoying doing Logic stage Biology ala TWTM. He has not complained once about a single Science assignment, even when he is required to read and outline (he dictates, I type or write) from the Usborne IL Science Encyclopedia. I was worried about that being too challenging of a read for him, but he is grasping the material beautifully this far!

Jasmine – 13

Overall, Jasmine is doing well. We are having some issues with breaking some of her public-school, one in a classroom of 30 students mentality. She has shown at times that if something is too hard or takes too long, she won’t finish it. She has had a few days where she has had double assignments in a subject because she neglected to finish the work on the day it was originally assigned.

She does, however, take great notes for her notebooking pages in History, although I think we are going to be working on learning some outlining skills as I think she is being a bit too thorough and missing some of the key information. My goal is for her notes/outlines to be all she needs in order to study for an evaluation at the end of a week or a chapter. So far, she hasn’t done well on tests.

She has really been enjoying doing the transparencies for her TOG atlas assignments, though I am disappointed that she isn’t enjoying doing her timeline activities more. I am hoping this will change as she continues to adjust to homeschooling. Her writing thus far has been really good, and though she needs to hone her grammatical skills, her creativity is inspiring. She does a great job of getting her thoughts down onto the paper.

We also started our formal Latin and Logic studies this week, using materials from Classical Academic Press: Latin Alive level 1 and The Art of Argument. She seems to be enjoying these and while the Latin is pretty intense, between it and Lively Latin, Mom is getting a crash course! We are still wading through the introductory material from AofA, but she seems very pumped about learning how to argue logically and identify fallacies. I am really glad we are going through this program together, cause I have a feeling she is going to be pointing out the shaky arguments of everyone in the house. I will be prepared!! LOL

So I hope that gives you a decent idea of what’s been going on the past few weeks around here. As for me, this post has taken much longer to write than I had anticipated, and it’s now very much past my bedtime! I hope you had a great week and an even better weekend…

Blessings,

Weekly Wrap Up – Pregnancy Update Week 7- Hello Blog Walkers!

What a title huh? I haven’t been blogging very regularly, and I have a few things to cover, but fortst of all I would like to say HELLO! to all who are visiting my blog through the TOS Blog Walk! This is the 4th week of the walk and I am thrilled to be a part of it. I have been visiting my fellow crew member’s blog every week and have been adding you all to my subscriptions as I go. You can check out the other TOS crew members’ blogs here:

1. King Alfred Academy
2. Confessions of An Organized Homeschool Mom
3. Curriculum Reviews from Oak Creek Farmhouse
4. I Can't Decide
5. My Life on A Taffy Pull
6. Losing My Tale
7. Made in His Image
8. Serenades and Solace
9. Our Village is a Little Different
10. SisterTipster's Tell'n It!

Well this week was pretty slow as far as school goes (it is the summer after all), but we have still had a very busy week. Last Saturday we went to our local fireworks display and I got to try out the fireworks setting on my new Canon Powershot…

As you can see, it’s a tricky thing to take good fireworks shots. I had to hold the camera very still, and being that I neglected to bring my tripod along, the photos came out a bit blurry. Oh well! I am sure I’ll get better shots next time.

Also this week, my hubby made a trip to MEPS to sign his Army contract and take his oath. So the kids and I, my mother-in-law, and my sister-in-law and her kids were all there to watch the swearing in ceremony and take pictures.

We are all very proud of him! It has been a long process for him to get to this point (because of needing a dependent waiver for such a big family) but now he is officially a member of the US Army! Actually, his official status is US Army Reserves, until he reports to basic training in November. It’s a relief to have this part of the process finished and know when and where his training is going to be. Unfortunately because of his delayed entry status, he is going to be in training over Thanksgiving, but will get a few days leave for Christmas. When the baby comes, he will be in AIT, so he won’t be able to be here for the birth. But that’s ok, I have a lot of family and friends who will be there, and though his presence will be missed, that’s the sacrifice you make sometimes to be a military family.

Speaking of pregnancy, my spotting has really decreased this past week, and I even have has a few days where I have had no spotting at all. No more bright red bleeding, so that’s been a huge relief. As far as we know, baby #5 is still doing fine and hanging in there. My next OB appointment is at the end of July, so we will know more than and I am hoping to have another u/s scheduled then so we can see what’s going on with the hemorrhage and that second sac they spotted. Until then, I am taking it easy and taking good care of myself.

The last major event of this past week was not a pleasant one. Drew, once again, got poison oak from climbing trees. Uuugh! Will this child ever learn?! The worst part of it is, we didn’t realize it until one whole side of his face was covered with a red, swollen rash. It was pretty bad for a few days, but then we started him on Zyrtec, and it seems to be helping him a lot. We are also cleansing the rashy areas with Tecnu soap daily and applying Caladryl as needed to help with the itch. He’s looking pretty good today and hasn’t complained a bit, so I think it’s in the process of drying up and healing, THANK GOD! I really hate dealing with poison oak/ivy. I have already told him now multiple times NO MORE CLIMBING TREES!! LOL Luckily it didn’t spread to much and it hasn’t been contracted by anyone else in the house, so I am counting my blessings.

Next week is the last week of our summer term, then we are taking 2 weeks off before the “official” start of our school year. Drew will be spending those 2 weeks with his grandmother (on his Father’s side) on the east coast, having fun in the sun and swimming in the ocean. The rest of us will be here. Boo hoo! Just kidding, he really looks forward to these summer visits and has been counting down the days. This will be his first time flying as an unaccompanied minor, so I’m a little nervous. But I know he will be well taken care of and he has flown several times before, so it’s not a new thing for him. Please be praying for his safe arrival next Saturday afternoon!

SO that’s about it for our week! I hope you had a great one and are spending this holiday weekend with people you love! Have a blessed week!

BIG Announcements!

Almost a month has passed by since I last blogged and there has been a lot to talk about – but I sadly have just not had the time! My days have been filled with

• three extra children in my home M-F for 8 hours a day
• appointments, paperwork, and phone calls
• spending time with my hubby and children
• schoolwork
• housecleaning (or maybe the way it’s been going we should call it damage control)
• laundry
• watching the past seasons of Army Wives online (I recently found out about this show and LOVE it)
• enjoying the warm, sunny weather

At first read, this may not seem like so much that I am too busy to blog, but let me share a bit more with you…

I have two big announcements to share with you. Both are extremely life changing and exciting (and maybe a little scary).

Announcement #1 – My husband is joining the Army!

Are you surprised? This is something that has been in the works for a few months now. We decided that he should go ahead and pursue this dream about 3 or 4 months ago. For a long time I was completely opposed to the idea. I didn’t sign up to be a military wife. There is no way I could ever be strong enough to handle the separation, the worrying, the stress. But after talking about it a LOT for several weeks, and praying, we decided that the military life would be an awesome opportunity for all of us. My husband has always wanted to enlist. He took the asvab when he was 18, but missed the cutoff by a few measly points. Then he had his first child and life took over. But it is something that has always been in the back of his mind. Now is the perfect time (well, almost, but we will get to that in a minute) to make this change. We are struggling financially. We have no retirement or savings. We have no idea how we will pay for the kids to go to college someday. We haven’t had insurance for well over a year now. Life as it now stands has gotten to be pretty frustrating. We need a change. We need the means to provide a better life for our children. We need a little excitement and a change of surroundings.

So we are jumping right in! My husband passed his asvab, passed his physical, and next week signs his initial enlistment contract. Then we will be official. Then it’s time to countdown. He will have 9-10 weeks of basic training to complete, and after graduation, he will then have 6-8 weeks of AIT training for his “job”. It’s actually really great, because through a program called the Army Civilian Acquired Skills Program, he will get to use his experience as a truck driver in the Army. He also gets to start out, not at the bottom rank as most recruits do, but as an E4 (specialist). This means a higher pay grade, and a little more rank to help us through relocating, etc.

Yeah, I said relocating. After hubby finishes his 4 months of training, he will receive orders and be assigned a post to report to. This means that we will all pick up and move somewhere new and exciting! We could end up anywhere in the US that houses an Army post, or even overseas! The best part is, the Army will pay all of our moving costs AND pay each member of our family mileage to move. We could never do something like this on our own and we can’t wait to see where we end up!

Announcement #2 – We are expecting baby #5!!!

I don’t even know what to tell you about this, lol. We are firm believers in allowing God to decide how many children we will have and when we have them. We knew we definitely wanted to have another one, we just weren’t expecting it to happen right NOW. Apparently, God has other plans! I am about 4 weeks pregnant, and although that seems really early to be announcing it to the world, I just can’t help it. I am really excited, and a little scared. I am going to be alone during a big part of this pregnancy, not to mention I will likely be moving my family to another state and starting a new life. But I know the God will never give me more than I can handle, and He must have a lot of faith in me! I go to the Dr. this coming Tuesday, so I can get started on the meds I need to sustain this pregnancy. For those that don’t know my history, I had 6 miscarriages between my 2 pregnancies, and with my now 2yo son, I was on several medications to prevent the same from happening again. I have a Luteal Phase Defect which cause me to miscarry the embryo instead of it implanting properly. To treat this, my previous Dr. prescribed a progesterone supplement and I had no problems sustaining the pregnancy.

The bad part of this is that I have NO choice but to go to the Dr., and we have NO insurance coverage. For this reason, we are in a bit of a hurry to get hubby off to basic and start our benefits as soon as possible. For now, family is paying for my initial visit to the Dr. and thank GOD I have them there to do so! I would be a mess otherwise worrying about this pregnancy.

In light of all this, would you please keep our family in your prayers? There is so much going on right now, some days can be pretty overwhelming! I will do my best to keep you updated on both the pregnancy and the Army process. I hope you are having an awesome summer!

Blessings,

Weekly Wrap Up 3.14.2010

I know, I’m a little late but hey – you know me well enough by now to know that I am rarely ever on schedule for anything, LOL!

We had a fun, full week this week. Let me begin by sharing how our first week with our redesigned workboxes turned out. If you haven’t already read about my recent tweaks, you can find that post here. For a brief recap, I ditched the boxes and and am now trying out a much more compact version with file folders. Everything went pretty well last week. We actually used our schedule books (we had long abandoned out schedule strips as the boys kept forgetting to use them) and they helped us stay on task throughout the day.. I also noticed there was a lot less up and down movement from the table, since most of what the boys needed was right there on the table in front of them. We are utilizing a “holding station” for those items that don’t fit neatly into a file folder, but so far we have only had to use it for a couple of things every day. Both of the boys seemed to enjoy using these folders and we got everything done this week we had planned (even though we took Wednesday off because it was Drew’s birthday). There are still a few things I would like to eventually change, but they will have to wait til I can purchase a few things.

One of our TOG related projects this week was to make our own 10 commandments stone tablets. This project originally suggested cardboard, but I didn’t have any boxes large enough so we used poster board. I had the “stones” cut out ahead of time. The first day I mixed up some gray craft paint, and the boys painted their stones front and back. Originally, I was going to have them write the commandments out with a sharpie, but our gray ended up too dark for that. So instead we used chalk! It worked perfectly, although the boys had a hard time writing neatly because all the chalk was in little pieces.

We also watched 4 movies this week about the patriarchs. We watched Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. It was nice to have a fun way to reinforce all that we had been studying. Joseph was the unanimous favorite.

We were also blessed to have a couple of 50 and 60 degree days last week. It was so nice to have the sun pouring through the windows. Of course, we could not sit inside and let all the beautiful sunshine go to waste, so we spent quite a bit of time outdoors on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the older boys ran around like crazy kids the whole time and I didn’t manage to get any good pictures of them, but I did get a few of Joey.

The boys have made friends with a couple of girls that live in the complex. Wednesday night, the gorls invited them to a neighborhood outreach at a church within walking distance. So Bobby walked them over and got information from the adults running it. Apparently, they host this outreach several nights a week for area kids. Apparently, not may parents get involved because Bobby said they looked shocked to see a parent there. They provide a healthy dinner for the kids (complete with dessert) and set up games for them and open the gym. I promised the boys we would allow them to go as often as we could. They said that since they didn’t know Drew was coming and it was his birthday, they would have a cake for him this coming week!

Drew’s grandmother came from Myrtle Beach to visit him for his birthday. She arrived Saturday and will be flying back Monday afternoon. Drew loves hanging out with her and she always spoils him with eating out and movies and such. Tonight he is spending the night with her at her hotel, as he usually does when she comes for a visit.

So that pretty much wraps up this past week. I am sure I am forgetting a few things, but I am getting sleepy and having trouble keeping my eyes open! The spring forward thing messes with me every time. Hopefully I’ll be back on track in a few days. Hope you had a great week!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Weekly Wrap-Up 3.6.10

My blog has been pretty dead the past few weeks. I have no excuse for you other than to say I haven’t felt much like writing anything lately. I have had lots of ideas for posts, they just have not made it to a finished product.

Wondering what’s been going on the past few weeks? There has been no shortage of events in our home, from toddler colds to crafts. Here are some highlights…

We have been doing weaving projects for Fine Arts, here are some pictures of the kids working on theirs

:

They are not finished yet, they had to be put up out of reach one day, and I have neglected to remember to get them back out.

I have also redesigned our Workbox System. I just wasn’t getting the boxes filled every day and it has been a pain trucking things up and down the stairs to get them ready. We have been using daily workfolders while I spent time trying to figure out how to make our workboxes work better for us. Here’s what I came up with:

 

I used materials I already had on hand. These are bankers box file holders that I painted. I could not get the kind of coverage I wanted with he craft paint I had, but they do look better then with no paint at all. This system uses file folders instead of boxes and is more compact and will sit on the table next to where the boys are working.

 

 

This part of the system I cannot take credit for in any way shape or form. I got the idea from Sheri at What’s in the Box? She made weekly schedule books and you can read all about it on her blog here.

 

 

 

I was originally going to make my schedule books just like hers, but then I realized how many velcro coins I would have to use. SO instead I used her printables to make a reusable daily grid. The left page will have the day of the week and the date written in with wet erase marker. I am thinking I will use the 6 boxes on the left hand page for chore cards.

 

 

Here is a view of the folders inside the box. I taped the numbers onto each tab and placed a coin on each folder to hold a Work With Mom card when needed. Things that are too wide to fit into these folders will but put in a “Holding Station” box with post it numbers on them. There will be a “Holding Station” card in the folder that tells them they need that item from the box to complete the work. You can also get those printables from the link I shared above.

 

This page (on cardstock) is a temporary addition. I plan on printing and laminating a more permanent one with reminders to make sure all their materials are put away for the day (yes, this is an issue in our home). As they finish each folder, it will go behind this divider, and this “happy” is what they will see when they are done for the day.

 

I know, not very pretty to look at, don’t ask me why I didn’t paint the backs also, I just didn’t. Anyhow, attached to the back of their box is a baggie to hold their schedule numbers and Work With Mom cards as they complete each folder. I have not yet decided if we are going to have an “inbox” as we did before, or if I will just have them place completed pages back into their folders when done. I will probably do the inbox, it worked well for us.

 

I have also figured out a way to utilize my wonderful Homeschool Tracker Plus program with TOG, and I am devising a way to use it in streamlining my workboxes also. I will keep you updated on that. To wrap up the school stuff, here are our plans for the coming week:

Lesson plans - 3-8-10 -

I will be back to share more pictures and news about what we have been up to soon!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Weekly Wrap Up 2.13.10

I know, I know, I haven’t been posting these every week, but what can I say, I am a bit random…

This week was our second full week using our binder method for school. This system is what we used BEFORE we started the workbox system. Now I feel the need to explain WHY we are trying something different…

It’s totally and completely MY fault. The Workbox System works best if you are consistent, organized, plan ahead, and disciplined. Meaning you can’t be a last minute planner and procrastinate filling the boxes until a couple of hours before you expect the boxes to be worked on by your children. If you have learned anything about me by now, it probably isn’t much of a shock to you to learn that:

1. I’m great at organizing, but not at staying organized,

2. I procrastinate – a LOT

3. I have consistency issues.

So, the binders are working for us right now, and we did change some things from the way we used them the first time, incorporating some of the things we really liked about workboxes. I will hopefully get a chance soon to share with you exactly how we use our binders, but I am still tweaking…

The main thing is, I get everything ready for the entire week, place everything in each boy’s binder in the proper days divider, and then we just get up and go through each days work. It takes less time overall this way, and we are not having our usual issues of not getting things done as planned.

So back the fun stuff, what have we been up to this week? Let’s change it up, keep things interesting and just do a random list!

• Monday we started our next basic physics study – Forces & Motion (see my list of great links and resources here)
• We had quite a bit of snow over the last week, so the boys got to go out and play in it. And of course that meant they got Hot Chocolate when they were done playing.
• Joey can reach the first few inches of the counters in the kitchen, and my kids tend to leave drinks in his reach. This means I have had to do several impromptu baths and moppings of my kitchen floor lately.
• Joey has also figured out he can climb onto the tabletop, which makes me a nervous wreck. The kid’s a daredevil and scares me daily.
• Isaiah started learning to do addition with renaming today.
• Drew also started a new chapter in math – fractions (which he loves) and decimals (which is brand new).
• Last week we wrote a short skit based on the Biblical account of the Tower of Babel. We were going to tape it over the weekend, but we just have not had time! Maybe we will get it done this weekend?
• This week in TOG, we are learning about the Patriarchs. Drew really enjoyed doing a notebooking page about Jacob and Esau because he drew Esau to look like bigfoot (hey, the Bible describes him as a pretty hairy guy after all)!
• Thursday was Daddy’s 34th Birthday!! We had friends and family over, and I made him a red velvet cake w/ cream cheese icing. It is already gone!

So how was your week? I hope you had an awesome week full of love, laughter, and learning!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie

Weekly Wrap-up – January 9, 2010

 

I used to do these homeschool “Weekly Wrap-ups” on a regular basis and have gotten away form doing them. Since I have a renewed blog and a renewed drive to write more, i thought I should get back into participating!

This post will be short and sweet, as I was sick for the first half of the week and we had a light week of school…

This week we finished up Y1U1 week 4: Creation Through Noah in our TOG curriculum. Our next 2 weeks we will be covering week 5: Babel to Ur: Early History of Ancient Mesopotamia. I already have our activities all planned out and scheduled. All that’s left to do is print our pages and fill the workboxes!

The planning for week 5 went very smooth today. Up until now, it has taken me the better part of a day to get everything figured out and scheduled. I think I am now getting into my own “niche” and have a pretty routine way of going through the curriculum and transferring it into a weekly lesson plan. I am glad I decided to go back to TOG, it has been such a fun journey! I will definitely be staying with TOG this time for the loooong haul (meaning someday I will be doing it all over again with Joey)! I can’t wait til we go through the cycle again when the boys are HS aged and see how much deeper we can go.

We also had a good snow this week so the boys got to bundle up and play outside one afternoon. You can see pictures from their fun here.

We got to read some really great books this past 2 weeks and I want to recommend some to you:

I am not sure if you find this one to purchase (unless to happen to find a used copy) but you may look for it at your library. Here is a review posted on Amazon:

“In Yellow & Pink . . . Steig has created a pair of characters who seem the embodiments of his bright esthetic. Named for the colors of their freshly painted costumes, Pink and Yellow are wooden dolls left out to dry in the sun. They are odd fellows, bumpkins, incorrigibles, clowns, countrymen of Beckett’s Vladimir and Estragon, Laurel and Hardy. Philosophers both, they no sooner ‘awaken,’ come to life, than they begin to ponder by what means they might have arrived in this world. ‘How,’ Yellow demands . . . ‘could anyone make something like me, so intricate, so perfect? Or, for that matter, like you.’ . . . One marvels at the expressiveness, the nearness to animation, of Steig’s vibrant drawings.” – Leonard S. Marcus, The Washington Post Book World
-- Review

We really enjoyed reading this book and I loved the creative way the author addressed the question of where we came from.

We could not find this book at our local library, so I purchased it from Amazon. It is the most thorough, accurate children’s book I have read about Noah’s Ark. It is full of extra information in the back and includes a panoramic, pull-out illustration of the inside of the ark. We spent a lot of time just looking at the pictures and noticing all the little details the illustrator included.

The kids also go to design and paint their own coffee cups yesterday. We had purchased the little kits as Christmas presents and had not yet had a chance to paint them. They really enjoyed them.

As I said, it was a light week and we pretty much treated it as a catch-up week. We have much more planned for the next two weeks. I am totally ready to get back into full swing!

Click here to see more Weekly Wrap-up posts. See you next week!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie