In our regular life this week…
we have been going, going, going without much time for rest. In fact, this was one of those mornings where I was so tempted to shut off the alarm and sleep in, let the kids sleep in, and just call off school for the day. But, we can't do that. So, instead, we called this a "couch day". I loaded up the kids' clipboards with their work and let them do it on the couches while in their jammies. Some days you just need to do that!
My motivation level has been zero this week, even though we haven't sat still for more than a couple of minutes at a time. I have definitely done everything out of a sense of duty this week instead of out of an expression of love. I haven't touched my blog, read even one page of my book, or watched any of my favorite t.v. shows. We had plans to go to my parents' lake house tomorrow, but we would definitely be squeezing it in between more busyness, so we have opted to just stay home to try to get caught up on some things and to rest!
My motivation level has been zero this week, even though we haven't sat still for more than a couple of minutes at a time. I have definitely done everything out of a sense of duty this week instead of out of an expression of love. I haven't touched my blog, read even one page of my book, or watched any of my favorite t.v. shows. We had plans to go to my parents' lake house tomorrow, but we would definitely be squeezing it in between more busyness, so we have opted to just stay home to try to get caught up on some things and to rest!
In our homeschool this week…
It was a four-day week again because of the Labor Day holiday. But those weeks tend to be more exhausting than if we just had a regular week of school. I always feel behind all week when we have Monday off. But, I did realize something today when calculating our hours for the year ... we are already 1/10th of the way done with school! It seems like we just started yesterday. That was a good way to end the week!
Bible - We are on my personal favorite book of the Bible ... Ruth. I love the story of Ruth and Naomi and, especially, of the chivalry of Boaz. Brynne said, "He was a good man." He was. I hope Brynne marries someone just like him. I did.
Grammar - We are continuing our grammar studies using Logic of English. Stay tuned for my review coming up on Wednesday of next week! This week we studied suffixes and articles.
Spelling - These words this week were a little harder, like "eulogy" and "feud". But, as usual, with practice worksheets being done each day, they aced their final tests. I really love Soaring with Spelling, and so do the kids!
Handwriting - The kids finished up learning all of their cursive letters, ending with "z". Now they will be working on capital letters and putting them all together. I had them write their grammar lessons in cursive on Thursday, adding suffixes to words. Then today they had to make up phrases using their Logic of English spelling words and write them in cursive. They did great!
Writing - This week the kids wrote make-believe stories about going into outer space. We started out with a story web that we completed together. Then I had them each come up with three of their own ideas. They were required to choose three ideas from the combined and individual lists and write their story. They each had a completely different story.
Geography - This week we studied Massachusetts and New Hampshire. My Study America Saturday post will contain all the details.
Science - We were planning to conduct some of our electricity experiments this afternoon. But, again, it was a couch day and we just weren't up to a big project. Instead, we watched The Magic School Bus: It's Electric. (The Magic School Bus Seasons 1-4 are on Netflix now!)
Nature - The only nature we got this week was when the kids were looking out their bedroom window last night and saw "something that looked like a porcupine or a rat with a long tail" on our back porch. They were a little freaked. Dawson went out with a flashlight and couldn't find anything. We are thinking it was possum. Yuck!
When you are just exhausted, watch some movies of some books you have read together. This afternoon we finished Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which was a HUGE hit with the kids, and me!) and then watched James and the Giant Peach. These were all on Netflix.
Bible - We are on my personal favorite book of the Bible ... Ruth. I love the story of Ruth and Naomi and, especially, of the chivalry of Boaz. Brynne said, "He was a good man." He was. I hope Brynne marries someone just like him. I did.
Grammar - We are continuing our grammar studies using Logic of English. Stay tuned for my review coming up on Wednesday of next week! This week we studied suffixes and articles.
Spelling - These words this week were a little harder, like "eulogy" and "feud". But, as usual, with practice worksheets being done each day, they aced their final tests. I really love Soaring with Spelling, and so do the kids!
Reading - We finished Ragweed by Avi this week. We will be taking a break from our Dimwood Forest (Poppy) series to read a book called George Washington: True Patriot over the next couple of weeks. This is a review product that comes with a study guide. As we are studying the Revolutionary War in our Road Trip USA studies, this book comes at a perfect time!
Math - We finished Week 3 of our Multiplication Teaching and Learning Made Easy book. We also did one page of MEP over the coarse of two days. It was a long lesson with lots of mental two-digit addition and subtraction. It really stretches the brain! We didn't get outside for math today (because it was a couch day). Instead, we played a fun game I saw somewhere: The kids rolled two dice and them multiplied them together. They had to draw a quadrilateral on a piece of graph paper of the area of the two dice. They could draw the quad anywhere on the graph paper they wanted. When it got to where one of them could not fit their quad on the paper, the game was over. We added up the number of quads they each drew (Brynne drew 8 and Eli drew 7). Then they added up the areas of all of their quads and the one who drew the most area won. Brynne's was 100 and Eli's was 79.
Math - We finished Week 3 of our Multiplication Teaching and Learning Made Easy book. We also did one page of MEP over the coarse of two days. It was a long lesson with lots of mental two-digit addition and subtraction. It really stretches the brain! We didn't get outside for math today (because it was a couch day). Instead, we played a fun game I saw somewhere: The kids rolled two dice and them multiplied them together. They had to draw a quadrilateral on a piece of graph paper of the area of the two dice. They could draw the quad anywhere on the graph paper they wanted. When it got to where one of them could not fit their quad on the paper, the game was over. We added up the number of quads they each drew (Brynne drew 8 and Eli drew 7). Then they added up the areas of all of their quads and the one who drew the most area won. Brynne's was 100 and Eli's was 79.
Handwriting - The kids finished up learning all of their cursive letters, ending with "z". Now they will be working on capital letters and putting them all together. I had them write their grammar lessons in cursive on Thursday, adding suffixes to words. Then today they had to make up phrases using their Logic of English spelling words and write them in cursive. They did great!
Writing - This week the kids wrote make-believe stories about going into outer space. We started out with a story web that we completed together. Then I had them each come up with three of their own ideas. They were required to choose three ideas from the combined and individual lists and write their story. They each had a completely different story.
Science - We were planning to conduct some of our electricity experiments this afternoon. But, again, it was a couch day and we just weren't up to a big project. Instead, we watched The Magic School Bus: It's Electric. (The Magic School Bus Seasons 1-4 are on Netflix now!)
Nature - The only nature we got this week was when the kids were looking out their bedroom window last night and saw "something that looked like a porcupine or a rat with a long tail" on our back porch. They were a little freaked. Dawson went out with a flashlight and couldn't find anything. We are thinking it was possum. Yuck!
Homeschool Tricks and Tips ...
When you are just exhausted, watch some movies of some books you have read together. This afternoon we finished Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (which was a HUGE hit with the kids, and me!) and then watched James and the Giant Peach. These were all on Netflix.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
This week, Y was for "Yay! The carnival is in town!" We went to our own carnival last week, but it doesn't even pale in comparison to the carnival that's in a town 40 minutes away. The little kids, my mom, niece and her boyfriend, and I met Kyndal, Collin, and his family for dinner and carnival fun on Wednesday night. It was a late night but the kids had a blast!! Nothing better than a good carnival.
A favorite thing this week was…
Getting to meet my long-time blogging friend Jodi! She and her son were coming through town and we made plans to meet up and talk for a while. It was so great to finally meet her in person! The crazy thing is that she is actually from West Virginia. She has followed my blog for years. We became great friends online and then we moved to Missouri. We realized that she and her family were moving temporarily to Missouri only two hours away from us!! I cannot even explain how similar she and I are. We are like long, lost twin sisters. Our lives have paralleled in so many ways, and still do. She and I meet by e-mail each morning to share our faith and hold each other accountable in our walks with Christ, in our marriages, in our parenting and homeschooling and many other things. Next week we are meeting them at my parents' lake house for three nights and four days of learning and fun. I can't wait!!
What's in the kitchen this week ...
Chocolate chip cookies for our study of Massachusetts! Otherwise, it was an easy food kind of week. Last night we even mooched a meal off my parents. Tonight though I pulled out all the stops and cooked dinner for Taylar for her 16th birthday. Her request was chicken fettucine and garlic bread. And she loves fruit so I made a fruit and pound cake banana split trifle for her. My parents stopped by for dessert and to wish Taylar "Happy Birthday!".
What we're reading ...
Mom: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, What Happens When Women Say Yes to God by Lysa TerKeurst.
Eli: Captain Underpants and the Preprosterous Plight of the Purple Potty People by Dav Pilkey.
Brynne: New Home for Lily by Mary Ann Kinsinger and Suzanne Woods Fisher.
Read-aloud: Ragweed by Avi.
Read-aloud: Ragweed by Avi.
Things we're working on…
finishing up the girls' room in the basement. We got the walls put up last weekend and are doing the drop ceiling this weekend. We will have their room completed for about $100. It's amazing what shower curtains, yarn, and thumbtacks can accomplish. Yes, you read that right. I'll be posting a full before and after in the next couple of weeks. Until then, I'll leave you with your imagination.
I’m grateful for ...
improvement to my leg injury. It's been almost a month since I fell and tore a ligament in my knee. It's not completely healed yet ... I still have to take lots of ibuprofen and have a slight limp ... but I can get around without a lot of pain now. I am hoping to be back to some light exercise in another month or so.
In the garden…
it's a sad, sad, sad state of affairs. I am pulling out the dead this weekend and planting some fall crops, mostly lettuce, spinach, green beans and carrots.
What's coming up this week ...
more Scouts, more volleyball, more school, our first handbell choir practice of the season, a quiet weekend, and then we are heading to the lake to meet Jodi and her kids!
A photo, video, link, or quote to share (silly, serious or both!)…
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| Dawson has always had a desire to go into the military. He talked to a recruiter at school this week and will be talking with him further. He is interested in the Air Force. Crazy to think that my little guy is big enough to be making his life decisions. I am very proud of him. |
We are happily linking up this week at the following sites:
I might have to look into Soaring with Spelling. I've pretty much tried everything else without luck. :sigh: Spelling is always a huge flop around here because the kids dislike it so much!
ReplyDeleteWow. For not being motivated, you sure did get a lot accomplished this week! I'm so sorry about your knee, glad it's slowly getting better though.
ReplyDeleteThis was our first week back after summer break and it went fairly well. It wasn't a full week what with Labor Day on Monday and co-op on Friday so it was a good "easing back into things".:)
You did tons this week! Totally love your blog! I actually grew up in Boston so I'm curious to see what your next blog has to say about it. I'm thinking Massachusetts and Chocolate Chip cookies -- what's the link?! I would have thought like Tea or something like that. Your son sounds like a great kid....we're a military family and big supporters of the military! We are an Air Force family...if you have any questions about it just ask:) My hubby worked at Recruiting Services awhile back! Jen @ Home Is Where They Send Us
ReplyDeleteWow! What a week.
ReplyDeleteWe loved the James and the Giant Peach movie - we watched it last year after reading the book. It was fun to point out the differences.
Love the "outer space" stories!
It is neat you and Jodi got to hang out! I am in the midst of planning next summer's road trip - after we leave Wisconsin, I will be going through Missouri on the way to Oklamhoma. I will have to see if our route comes your way - maybe we can meet for lunch or at a park. Our "twin birthday" boys can meet and play!