Christmas

I pray all of you had a nice and snuggly Christmas.

New plan

I can not wait til next year. I am so looking forward to doing school with the idea of taking December off. I can't tell you how much we've enjoyed staying home, watching Christmas movies, playing games and just playing with each other. This has been the less stressful Christmas season we've ever had. Although I've not let out of the house, at the risk of them getting sick. Go to my other blog for that whole story, and you'll get a glimpse into my craziness.

I even printed out a lapbook for the kids to do this week, but never did it. Maybe next week. I think they'll be beside themselves, so I'll need some kind of distraction. :)

Less stress

After experiencing many sicknesses in our house over the past two months, I've decided to take off December. I know that sounds crazy, right? But I have been so stressed and I need this break. I've never done this. The kids are just doing math and reading. I've decided that we will do fun things instead. Yesterday we made a gingerbread village. We had fun even though it turned out awful. :) See my other blog for photos. The day before that I baked cookies while they played. They've been making crafts all by themselves. Even my anti-fun boy is doing them!! Yesterday they were punished for complaining by not being allowed to watch TV at all. They were forced to find things to do. They usually play all day anyways, but this time time there was no break. They were forced to get creative. They were up super early, so it made for a very looooong day, but we survived.

I love how not doing formal school is really making this month less stressful. I am feeling great. Now all I have to do is stay away from people, so we don't get sick again, and all will be great. :)

I think we'll take next December off as well. I like the break. As I sit here, I can hear my kids laughing and playing in the clean basement. (No TV makes for a lot of cleaning time) You can even see the floor now!!

Well, that didn't last long. They just asked for "Prep and Landing". We recorded it two days ago. So it begins.

weekly highlights

I am so sick of winter already, and it barely started. This week Sassy decided to get sick again. Bronchitis, infected tonsils and right ear. And it make it even better, she had to sleep on one couch for two nights, while I slept on the other. By sleep, I mean she coughed til about 2, then woke at 6ish. We never got any sleep. So needless to say, we aren't doing any school. Little man is doing math only. I think I'm gonna take the month off. I don't wanna start Europe for two weeks then a two week break. Pointless. So we are gonna do math and reading and crafts and baking. Fun stuff. I hate this.

Whoa, Baby!!

It's been a whirlwind of a week. Well, actually two weeks, to be exact. My hubby had brochitis, then I started feeling a bit "oinkish", and Sassy started feeling icky also. Luckily Bubba was perfect, so we sent him to my parents. My niece was there also, while her brother was "oinkish". We were a bunch of fun people. Then I had the worst sore throat, so I went to the docs to find out that I had enlarged and red tonsils which made way for a loss of my voice. How could I teach while whispering? So, needless to say, there was no teaching last week, and since this week is short, why bother. I have been playing math card games and making them read this week. That's it. Why bother start new lessons with a 3-day week? Pointless. So, I'm hoping to be in the swing of things next week. We are starting Europe next week.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

weekly highlights

What a fun week we had. I have been able to keep up with everything that's written in the lesson plans. Shocking, I know!!

I pulled out the Reading Rods-sight words edition for Sassy. She got a kick out of doing a few of the cards. I totally forgot I even bought them. She didn't even complain when I gave her a little quiz. I find that if I give them workbook pages instead of my own, they don't complain. So, thank God, that in the reading rod workbook it has a page with two columns of 15 blank lines for spelling practice. So I gave her 15 words to write and then I gave her the flashcards with the correct spelling to check her own work. She loved it. That girl of mine sure does keep me on my toes. :)

I have had to work with Little man with his McGuffey readers, just to make sure he really does it. This week we are gonna start with some dictionary skills. Some of these words I don't even understand. But he needs to improve on his ABC order.

They had a fun day at MAFA on Wednesday. I was even able to shop for a winter coat while they were there. Usually I stick around and chat with my girls, but everyone was going in different directions.

I love the fact that they are getting art and drama every week. They get to choose their classes after Christmas and Little man told me that he wants to do drama. They are doing "Wizard of Oz" for the year end production. I hope he gets a part and does it well. He's nervous about performing in front of people. Sassy wants to take cooking and art. She loves art.

We had a short week again. It was my birthday on Friday, and I didn't want to teach. I swear, one of these weeks we'll do school all five days. :) But that's ok, we kinda like having a chill out day.

Thank you!!!

WOW!! I am so amazed at how many responses I received after my last post. This is why I love homeschooling. Their are so many women willing and able to help you and give you advice and encouragement whenever you need it. You guys ROCK!! I just hope I can repay you with some of my wisdom....who's laughing over there?!?! Hope ya'll have a great week.

Howdy!

I am so behind on posting. Little man was sick last week with pink eye and an ear infection. So we sent Sassy away to both her grandparents houses for three nights. So we really didn't do school. Then this week, we're still in Brazil and trying to do the geography game every day, even if we don't do anything else. They really enjoy that game.

Sassy is three weeks away from her new math. I told her that when she finishes Alpha she won't start Beta til after Christmas. So she'll just do online drills and the occasional workbook page. She was very excited for that. Little man is struggling with the multiple digit addition problems still. His answers almost always have alteast one number wrong. I feel so bad for him when that happens. He takes it personally and thinks he's stupid. I keep trying to tell him that Sassy's math is easier, and that's why she is done so fast, so he doesn't need to be speedy and mess up. But he doesn't like that his takes forever. But he needs to learn that he can't have an attitude about it. That's why he lost his bionicles for the day today. Daddy was home and didn't like the tone in his voice or the attitude towards me. The principal is in the house. :)

All in all we are liking ECC. It is very light, so on days we are busy or sick, we can just do math and our readers and then stack it to another day.

I hope everyone else's week is going better than mine. :)

So much for being caught up

I was doing so well this week. Or so I thought. We are going to Splash Village for Hubs birthday on Saturday. Yep, that's right, my hubby is a weenie baby. So he really doesn't get to spend the day celebrating. It's spent getting costumes ready and making sure everyone is well rested for a night of candy eating and game playing. Poor guy. :) And we had a sleepover planned for Little man. He was gonna go over his best buddy's house tonight. So I've been trying to slam 5 days worth of school into three. But last night Little man decides that he was gonna change it up a bit and get sick. Yep, he threw up around 3:30 am. So there goes the sleepover, MAFA and school for today. So now I get to slam 8 days into five next week. Yay me!!

I think the poor boy worked himself into it. This was gonna be his first sleepover at a friends house. We have anxiety issues over here. He gets them from me, and I get them from one of my parents. :) You should see us on vacations. We are a fun family. :)

She can be taught!!

I am having the best time teaching Sassy this week. I know I said this last week, but I am just so excited. :) I have been using Phonics made plain with her since last year. But I really wasn't doing it often. She was also doing the reading/language books that go along with McGuffey readers. But this year I decided, after much agony and confusion, that I was gonna take a step back and get back to the basics with her. I stopped using the reading books and I bought a $10 phonics book. She is still doing a lesson in her McGuffey reader every day and I have her do a page or two in her phonics book. I've been doing the letter flash cards so she learns ALL the sounds, and now we're into a few blends. I'm gonna slowly throw in a few more blends every week, just to keep her trying. She has also, just this week, completed all the pre primer and primer sight words. She recognizes all but 6ish. She is so proud and I am super excited. While I watch Transformers2 tonight with Hubs, I am gonna make flash cards with the next batch of words on them. I can hardly contain my excitement over this. I never thought this would happen.

What's even better, is that she reminds me about her letters and words. I get so caught up in the everyday teaching and preparing, I sometimes forget. But, thank God, she never does.

Also, the website that I use for everything, but My Father's World, is Homeschooling books. It's about an hour away from my house, and we used to drive there every year and look around and let them look at all the homeschooling stuff. But they moved to a warehouse, so now we can't look around, only pick up our orders or have them shipped. They are about the same price, if not cheaper, as some other homeschooling catalogs. We like to support our Michigan businesses as much as possible. That makes us very happy. And, as you know, Michigan is going downhill very fast. So if you need anything, check them out first. I just thought I'd add my two cents in. :)