Friday, February 26, 2010

weekly highlights--Well, we tried.

Another week down the drain. Kinda. We did another week of the basics. I realized that if I don't prepare on Sunday, I bomb the rest of the week. Well, guess what didn't happen on Sunday? So I tried my best to do it on Monday, but that's too late. And another reason I didn't do much was that Hubs was off M-TH. And I don't know about you, but it's very hard to focus when Hubs is home. Not his fault, but we like to see him, so school is hard to focus on.

I did have Sassy read "The Cat in the Hat" a few times. She is almost there. Little man and I have been reading "The Boxcar Children" back and forth all week. He doesn't like reading out loud for a long time, so we went back and forth to make it easier and more enjoyable.

We had our first all boy playdate at one of my friends house this week. There was about 12 moms and 20+boys. It was a blast. Sassy stayed home with daddy cuz she had the sniffles. The Little man got a sore throat, which he gladly shared with me. What a sweet kid. So now I sit here in pain. So no school yesterday or today.

But after reading a few other blogs, I realize that We're not the only ones dealing with this. Remember, next week will be better. :)


Friday, February 19, 2010

weekly highlights

OK, so I said that I was gonna do school everyday, well....... Does only math on Tuesday still count as school? I did school school every other day, but that day I went grocery shopping and hit a million stores while Hubs helped them with math.

We are loving our Geography game that comes with ECC. Sassy struggles, but Little man and I try to beat each other, while Sassy tries to read the names for us. Even though next week we start Africa, we still haven't mastered Europe. But we are getting a general knowledge of where the countries are, so that's all that matters.

We were moving kinda slow through our Olympic lapbooks, but to day we plowed through a bunch of it. Little man likes it, and again Sassy is being a stinker. I think the task of reading frustrates her. Oh well. She'll get it when she gets it. She did like the word search though. I have to find more for her. Or I can just use this site and make our own. I think I'm actually gonna do this for our spelling words. Little man will do much better if he gets to practice them like this. Sassy got excited when I showed her the one I made this morning with all the countries we're learning in Europe. I made an extra master copy, for later in the year.



This is the first of three lapbooks that we've done. I'll get a picture of the rest when we're done. I was in the process of taking bread out of the bread maker and sticking it in the oven, so we didn't ge as far as I wanted. :) Such is life.

I started Phonics Pathways with Sassy this week. So far, she's more confused than before. But we're gonna keep at it. It's hard for her to learn the first two letters as opposed to word families.
So far she's done Sa-se-si-so-su, Ma-me-mi-mo-mu, Na-ne-ni-no-nu, Ra-re-ri-ro-ru. I review previous letters and teach another letter each day. I decided to give her a penny for every lesson she does without complaint. So if we get two new letters done in a day she gets two pennies. Then when the jar is full, I'll take her to the penny candy store near our house. Candy is the key word around here. :) I am determined to have her confidently reading by next school year.

Little man is trying my patience with reading also. He can read, but doesn't like to. He says it's boring. I get every book he asks for from the library. I think a trip to the library is due for us today. He will find books that interest him. :)

Usually at this time of the year, I feel like giving up, but not this year. I'm having fun staying home and teaching. They actually want to stay home, which helps. In the past we were always going somewhere and always falling behind. But we're figuring it all out this year. I think it helps that they are older now. Sassy just turned 8 last Friday, so I think she wants to learn. And the promise that she can join American Heritage Girls next year helps a bit also. :)

Hope your week went well.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Monday fun

Today, we actually got everything done. We even did two parts of our Olympic lapbook. We learned about the stadium and the prizes. I'll be taking pictures of them for my weekly review.

And today we had a special dinner. Rachlette(pronounced rock-lay). It requires special cheese, of the same name. You place different meats on the top grill, and different veggies, covered with the cheese, underneath the grill in special trays. It's actually a Swiss dinner, but since we were doing Europe, this would work great. We have a friend who's from Switzerland, and he introduced us to this. It's a great meal to have company over. It takes a long time to eat. Your food can digest and you can have lots of conversation. We like it cuz no one has to get up for anything. All the food is in front of you, it's perfect. :) I wish I thought of taking a picture when it was covered with food, but I was too busy eating. :)




I'm hoping the rest of the week is equally fun.

Friday, February 12, 2010

weekly highlights

I wish I could say that we did an awesome job, but I cannot. Chalk up another week of incomplete. But, it wasn't all my fault.

Ass you know, the kids stayed up WAY too late watching the Superbowl. So we didn't do school on Monday. Then we did do school before the dentist, and had every intention of finishing afterwards. But I got to thinking that I didn't want to have my cleaning before MAFA, and be rushed. So they told me that she could clean my teeth after the kids. But I'd have to wait an hour, cuz she already had an appointment. So that means I couldn't go home, but it was lunch time and they were starving. So I took them to Burger King. I really hate eating out, but I had no choice. The roads were starting to get slick, cuz of the snow that decided to grace us with its presence, so we had to go somewhere close. So never finished what we started. We'll do it another day.

Looking back, I'm glad they got me in when they did. We got 7-9 inches of snow overnight, FINALLY!! So all the schools had their first snow day, which meant MAFA was cancelled also. So we did school on Wednesday, then played outside with Daddy on his day off. We made forts and things. :) Gym class, right?

Thursday we did double the work, cuz I should've done school on Monday. Then we went sledding with some homeschool friends. It was perfect, since all the public school kids were back in school, we had the rule of the hill. Gym again!!

Sassy's birthday is today, so we don't do school, so we had to do extra. Movies and eating out all day. Yuck! Go to my family blog for a Sassy update. :)

We never got a chance to work on our Olympic lapbooks at all this week. Little man kept asking, but we were too busy. :( Maybe today we can. They don't consider that school. :)

Next week will be better!! Nothing is on the calendar, except MAFA. So I have every intention of completing the entire week on time.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Problems?!?!

The title says it all, I think. It's a question and a statement. The statement is that I am having a hard time keeping up with two blogs. I don't know how other people do it. I am falling behind and I feel guilty. Who wants to feel guilty about not blogging about school? I am too busy doing school to write about it. I don't wanna pull out the camera to take pictures, but I know in 8-10 years, I'll want to look back and see all the stuff we did. I can't believe my son will be graduating in 8 years, and Sassy in 10!!! Holy moly!! Where did the time go!!! Now I feel like crying.

Sorry, I went off on a tangent. I'm back. The question form is, is anyone else having trouble doing school? I haven't had a complete week since before Christmas. I hate that. I just wanna get done, but something always comes up. I'm really trying my darndest, but it's sooooo not working. Example: Yesterday we stayed at a Superbowl party til the game was done, which was 10pm our time. So the kids slept in and I didn't get a chance to get the school stuff together this weekend, so I knew we were gonna start late anyways. But I needed to hit the store before the snow they say we're supposed to get. I'll believe that when I see it. :) So we didn't get to do school today. Tomorrow they have dentist appointments, Wednesday I have a dentist appointment, then MAFA, then church in the evening. Then Sassy's birthday is on Friday, so no school. AUGHHHH!!!! I need a complete week.

Is anyone else having trouble? Not that I ant you to, but it would make me feel better if atleast one person was. :)


Monday, February 1, 2010

Ah...Monday

I love Mondays. Now I know that makes me a bit nuttie, but I do. I love the fact that on a relaxing Sunday, between washing and drying laundry, I can prepare the week's lessons. On Monday mornings I can wake up and just start school. I don't have to think of anything, or print out papers. It's the best way to start out the week. I am confident in myself, my children are ready to get to work, we are motivated to get things done and move on. It's generally a perfect day.

Although, if you talk to me on Tuesdays, it's all going downhill. :)

Happy Monday!!