Our day

I need to write this down, cuz it seems to change every year. I like to have a general order in my morning. Everything runs smoother if everyone knows what to expect. I'm not a schedule follower really, but my kids are, so I kinda have to be. I'm sure I'll do another post like this next year and laugh at how different it is. Here goes:

Anywhere from 7-8:30 Little man and Sassy wake up. I refuse to get up before 7. So, if they do, they must go back to their rooms and sleep or play, til atleast 7. :) Then I will get up and make them breakfast. Yes, I know they should be making their own, but who needs that stress of trying to get the toast crispy enough, or putting enough butter on it so the cinn/sugar mix will melt. I don't need drama in the morning. They are creatures of habit, so they eat the same thing everyday. Right now it is plain toast with cinnamon and sugar for Little Man, and Sassy eats chocolate oatmeal. A girl after my own heart. Plain oatmeal with a handful of chocolate chips and a spoonful of peanut butter. Yummy!! I must admit, I eat a bowl also.

On a side note, I am the only person who makes breakfast right. Daddy doesn't. When I leave I have to tell him exactly how to do it. You would think oatmeal and toast, how hard can that be? But, have you met my children?

8:30-9 If I am motivated I will take a shower, otherwise it waits til after lunch.

9-9:15 Bible lesson

9:15-9:30 Geography

9:30-10:30 Language/phonics and math

10:30-11 is either reading or craft.

11-12 Lunch

Yes, we are done with school within two hours. The kids don't like to waste time. They want to get it done NOW. I would love to take our time and take breaks, but they won't let me. Also, I've tried to schedule LA and math first, but they won't let me. Pick your battles, right? I don't like to rush. So that's why some days that I know we're going to be busy with shopping or running around, I declare an only math and language day. They won't do geography after, but they will do LA and math alone. Strange kids, I know.

So that is our day for our 2009/10 school year.

By, George, I think she's gettin' it!!

I must say that I am super excited I went to Homeschooling works(see last post). Since I bought 20 Boxcar Children, Sassy has been wanting to read them. So today, Little man and I read five chapters and Sassy kept asking to try. She'd read a paragraph every now and then. She did struggle with many of the words, but she wanted to do it. I cannot explain how happy I am because of that. She NEVER asks to read. Then, after I was done reading, she went and got another reader, and continued to try. I am hoping this is a sign that it's finally starting to click.

Curriculum fairs

On Saturday, I went to Homeschooling Works. It is a yearly thing for me. It is the local curriculum fair of us Michiganders. Since Hubs and I have have been buckling down in the budget, I needed to be smart in my purchases this year. Which meant I couldn't go and buy everything I saw that I think I might use sometime. :) I was going to buy what I needed first, and if there was any extra money, then I could buy stuff I wanted.

Well I go there early so I could go to the used book sale first. Since the only thing that I needed was Math U See Gamma, I was free to look at things I kinda needed, but it wouldn't kill me if I didn't get. Cuz if you order the math and they don't have it there, they'll ship it for free. So I could shop for other things knowing I can still get the math. So I made a B-line to the readers. Sassy wanted easy readers and The Boxcar children. Little Man NEVER wants books. So, there were no requests from him. :) He was gonna suffer with whatever I get him.


Well, I hit the jackpot in the used book sale. I bought 20 Boxcar Children, a book about Amelia Earhart, Ben Franklin and a couple of readers. I didn't get sucked into buying things I would never use. I know our local library has all of them, but I want them to be able to grab them and read them whenever they want. It's good to have a home library.

I also got Handwriting without tears Cursive for both of them. And a bunch of other informational books that they can either read or just look at the pictures. The knights/castle one is for Little Man. I also bought a multiplication wrap up for Little Man to use with his math this year. Gamma is all about multiplication, so I thought this would work perfectly.

At first, like every other time Little Man gets something new, he didn't like anything I bought, and told me I wasted my money. But I remained calm and today he told me that did think some of the things were cool. Now I'm not expecting my kids to get as excited as I do when I buy lots of books, but a simple thanks would be nice. Sassy was thrilled with her dot to dot coloring book and all the other books I got.

I love going to this book fair, not just because I get lots of wonderful books, but because I get to see lots of wonderful friends. Some of these people I see on FB, but not in person, and some of them I only see here. So it's kinda like a mini homeschool reunion. :) And the best part of this one, was that I actually had money left over!! That NEVER happens. (insert sheepish grin)

Our curriculum budget, this year, is $500. Since My Father's World is NEVER at Homeschooling Works, I didn't need the entire amount. So I had $200 to spend here, since MFW is about $300 for both kids. Like I said before, I was focused on what I needed. Since I have about $50 bucks left, I can buy a little LA workbook for Little man and a new science or board game for them both. Or I may have to order the addition and subtraction wrap ups instead of the games. After the reaction I got from the multiplication, I think that's what I need to do. :)YAY, more shopping!!!

I can't wait til next year.

weekly highlights

This week was full of well, school. I actually did school. I am so proud. And I was complaining to my friend Terri that at the rate I'm going, we won't be done til the end of June. That is too much pressure. I want to take July off, then start up in August with Creation to Greeks. But I was a poor planner this year, between the many sicknesses and deciding to take December off at the last minute, I don't wanna be stressed at the end. So, my wonderful friend told me that she combined two weeks into one. WHAT?!?! Why didn't I think of that??? Well, guess what we did this week? Saudi Arabia all in one week.

We even did science too. They were very interested in the endangered species and pollution sections. Since we are really jumping into recycling, they are very curious about the enviroment. I must say that this is the most interesting parts of the whole science program.

The weather was perfect this week, so we spent a lot of time outside. By we, I mean the kids. I'm an indoor girl. :) Although I was plotting out my new garden site. I can't wait!! I know the kids are gonna love doing the garden again. I'm just trying to figure out what kinds of fruits and veggies to plant. Hmmm....

I was even approached my a new neighbor who was wondering if we homeschool. I guess the kids screaming down the sidewalk on scooters in the middle of the day was a dead giveaway. :) The funny thing is, that when the neighbor yelled from across the street, I knew what she was gonna ask. I almost stopped her by saying "Yes we homeschool , and my hubby works for the fire department." But, I think that would've came out strong. So I let her ask the questions. And sure enough, that's what she wanted to know. Gosh, I am so smart.

The only day I didn't do school was Wednesday. Usually I like to atleast do math, but it was busy day, electronically, for me. Which means, I was busy texting, emailing, Facebooking, and talking on the phone all morning. I NEVER do that, but sometimes it happens. I'm usually quick in conversation, but the kids weren't being bad, so I figured I'd keep talking. Next thing I knew, it was lunchtime, then MAFA. Such is life.

I'm attending a local curriculum fair on Saturday. I am so excited!!! They even have a used book sale there also. I have my list all typed out and ready to go. Little man needs Gamma and, if I can find some new to me books, that would be great. I'm shooting for Magic tree house and Boxcar children. Sassy doesn't need anything, but she wants me to find some easy readers for her. I think I may pick up Handwriting without Tears cursive for both kids. Sassy's been asking for cursive all year, but I knew Little man wasn't ready for it. But, since he'll be in 5th next year and she'll be in 3rd, that makes them about even in the maturity level. :) I didn't wanna teach it twice. So next year, should be an interesting one. Who am I kidding, I'll probably start using it now. The only downside of the fair, is that MFW is never there. So I still have to buy it later. But that actually works out better for. Cuz, if I get it now, I wanna use it now. So, it's a blessing in disguise.

The weather man is reporting MUCH colder temps for next week, so hopefully I can keep moving along, even though "we" won't be able to play outside. I want this year to be over!!! It's been fun, but it's time.

My room, Link restored

Blogger was being silly yesterday, when I was posting. Here is my room.

We got a new kitchen over the summer. I am sooo grateful for it. Now I have a school area. I just cleaned it today. So, now I can see the counter. :) I like it cleaned off, so we can do crafts and let them dry there, and not on the kitchen table.

I've been thinking about moving the school room to the basement, but it gets sooo cold in the winter, and I won't go down there for long periods of time. Then we'll end up up here, so I might as well stay up here.


The underneath part is the best part. It is very deep so I can fit two rows of books. The downside is that I can fit two rows of books. :) You see, when you can put that many books in there, you forget what books you have in there. So I took everything out today, and only put things we'll use this year underneath. So one the left is all of our main curriculum, reading, phonics and math. On the right is all the art stuff. That is their side. They can go into the right side anytime and make something, as long as they clean it up. The drawer also has their scissors and tape and other odds and ends. I love my space!! Thank you Hubs.

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. :)

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 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.

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.

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. :)