2011-2012 School plans

I already posted most of my curriculum choices and have already changed a few of them but for the most part it is correct.  Some of my changes for this current year have more to do with time management, skills and the kids abilities.

• For instance we are using All About Spelling... I love this curriculum and we will continue using it to concrete our spelling rules.  However I feel the kids also simply need some rote memorization in this area as they are HORRIFIC spellers- they come by this naturally!  I plan on using lists  like these and website like SPELLING CITY....as a base.  I figure I can use Write Start program to make up lists for the kids.  I will simply test them both orally and on paper.  We will use these list to practice nouns, verbs etc and also things like dictionary practice and alphabetical order.  I don't care so much that they learn 20 words and take a test on Friday this will simply be on ongoing activity.  I also don't care about a scope and sequence.. this list is just something to start with.   I know it will help their vocabulary also.  I don't want to make a huge time consuming thing of it but I also feel this is an area the kids are lacking and this is WITH reading as much as they are reading.. which is A LOT!

• Another change is with Kate's math.  She is struggling... it can take her an hour and a half to do a math lesson easily and we still end up with a lot of silly errors.  I am going to have her work on a math lesson EVERY other day.  On the days she has math, I will lesson her chore load simply to make up the time.  On the off math days she will use about 30 minutes to either correct from the day before or play math games online like Math blaster, timed tests etc.   

• As far as all three kids.. I LOVE Math U SEE, but I HATE that there are 6 days of math.  A few times this year I have simply had them skip pages if they HAD the concept down and only do ONE systematic review.. this year I will do it with every lesson.  If they do not have a concept down we will work until they have mastered it but on the lesson they are good it is simply a waste of time when they DO review the material on each systematic review anyway!  I think this will end up saving us time that I feel is wasted.  We will continue playing Math Blaster, online games, timed tests, playing physical games and flashcards in addition to their math worksheets.

• We will be adding a logic time each day:  Kate will be doing some exercises for her processing issues and I will be using this time to also do Mind Benders, play Rush Hour and other logic puzzles.

• Kate will begin choir in the fall, which will take up time on Mondays so I will be switching out what days I do certain work just to not have the majority of it fall on Mondays anymore.  Because we will have more independent work this year I will NOT struggle when all three kids are not ready, gone, sick or needing extra help... I always felt like I had to stop and I would get behind for all three kids in TOO many subjects.  This way with more independent work I can move on with each kid as they are ready and I am able to work with them at odd times.  

• We will be adding some home skills to the mix this year.. not really adding many more chores on a daily basis but adding to the amount of chores they have been trained to do.

• We are continuing with memorization, finishing up Old Testament, working on our Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day for science, American history and handwriting.

• In addition we are still working on our State study, presidents and adding in some geography with our state study.

• We will hold off on our New Testament curriculum for a while and go through the Survival Kit

          after we finish this we will start the New Testament curriculum.


These are most of the changes and choices for right now.  I am still thinking and planning and figuring out the best for the family--- it is hard and we always want whats best right!

Fathers Day... June 2011

I already posted that spending the day out on the prairie really wasn't Dave's idea of "fathers day" but he did it with a "MOSTLY" happy heart and wasn't a grouch! Therefore... he shall be rewarded! I already cooked him this, his favorite breakfast!

I shall also send him off to the gun range... his favorite past time!

The back of this vehicle contains 12 guns plus the two actually ON the front seat passengers...

Rossi 38 Special
FNP 9mm
Remington 1911
Taurus 1911 (9mm)
Keltec P3AT
XDm 9mm
Derringer 38 special
Taurus TCP
Walther P22
Ruegur 10/22
Henry Leveraction 22
Savage 22 rifle
Mossburg 500 shotgun
Siaga 12 gauge shotgun

because that is how we roll!!!

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

Yearly Wrap Up: 2010-2011 school year

Monday: DAY 179

We all slept in but Emily and I slept the latest!  I personally slept until 10:36!  I cannot remember the last time I have slept that late!  It felt wonderful!

We ended up going to moms house to swim this morning.

We came home and went to our NEW WHOLE FOODS that just opened!  It is a beautiful store-- feels totally switched and twisted around and it will take me a while to learn where everything is!  I am very excited about it though.  It is a whole 4 minutes from my house! 

All three kids did math.

Emily did handwriting and patched for two hours.

Matt and Kate began working on their homework assignments from Mama for history.  They read their books and started doing their research for a poster they need to make for Wed. 

We worked on chores. 


Tuesday: DAY 180

Today was our anniversary... Dave was off work and he got to sleep in!  We got up and did a few things around the house and the kids did math and worked on history.

Dave and I went to lunch together and afterward we all went to the Children's Museum.


LAST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR THIS YEAR!  WHOO HOO!
Like I have stated before we are not really starting much new curriculum, still finishing up stuff but technically our new school year starts on Wed....so I will start our weekly wrap up over at week 1.  I am hoping to be more consistent with our weekly wrap up this coming year!  I love having a pretty decent record of our school week!  We will began doing a few things differently though...

We will take a week break mid June and possibly a two week break in late August, plus a day or two here and there throughout the rest of the summer weeks.

So this year we have accomplished a lot. 

We have "seen" history from the landing of the pilgrims through the developing of a nation with the use of MANY living books.

We studied how we are FEARFULLY and  WONDERFULLY made through our Apologia Anatomy.

We have written, added, multiplied, memorized, copied, played, read, experienced, conjugated, studied, created in all our school work.

We started the study of great composers...

We learned and saw works of art and the artists lives....

We went through the Old Testament and saw the MIGHTY and GREAT works of God through creation, the savings of Israel, the acts of prophets, the sins of men, the foretelling of a Savior...

We participated in tap, gymnastics and volleyball--- learning obedience, some team spirit and the conditioning of our body ( a lifetime NEED)

We began serving as a family-- always more we can do but we purposed to start!

We worked on loving each other.

We devoured many, many books... of all subjects, both fiction and non fiction.

We had a good year and plan to KEEP ON KEEPING ON....

Kirsten Faith June 2011

Prairie Days June 2011

We spent last Sunday after church at Armand Bayou Prairie Days.. in history we have recently began studying the westward expansion and the life and times of settlers and pioneers.  This prairie days fit perfectly into what we are studying and we couldn't pass up attending!

We took a wagon ride around the prairie grass lands at Armand Bayou.  On our tour we had a biologist who is so good at his job he has a prairie in League City named after him!

We also got to see the buffaloes!  We of course had already studied buffaloes in science (not this past year but the year before) and the kids remembered many facts about Buffalo and ruminants (animals with four stomachs)  I was very excited!  Home school moms get GREAT satisfaction when they SEE the product of their work!

Random Catch up!!!

Okay I know I have been blogger missing for a few days but I've been a busy girl!

Life got in the way of blogging about life---

isn't that the way it should be...

anyhoo---

• I PASSED my drivers test.. I am all legal and a real person BTW! Just had to let you know!

• Emily's doctors appointment went really, really well-- she has made HUGE strides in progress so no surgery for right now. A lot of the progress she has made is up to par with what would have been achieved through surgery so her doctor is happy.. as am I! We will patch (down to 2 hours 5 x a week) for the next three months again and re check. If there is any deterioration (possible from less patching) we will re visit the surgery option down the road.

         But for now the doctor is amazed at her progress! SO yeah!

• We are VBS'ing this week-- sooo busy and sooo tired!   But having fun!  Here are a few shots, I have literally taken hundreds and it is only the end of Wed as I type this!

• Fathers Day was wonderful--- not really my hubbies cup of tea by choice but we had a good time anyway!  We shall graciously allow him a trip to the shooting range this weekend to make up for it!  :0)  We went to church on Sunday morning and then headed to Armand Bayou Nature Center for Prairie Day-- we went on a hayride of their "prairie" (they are actually growing and planting grounds at the center to re create prairie land, it is a work in progress).  We also got to see a buffalo!  The kids remembered some facts about these ruminants (4 stomach animals) which made this mama very happy!  It was incredible hot so we were glad to get back to Mama's house for swimming and dinner!

• I am really enjoying my camera-- really, really want to take some classes with hubbie to learn how to use it!  I am hoping that will happen later on this summer!

• We had no a no school week-- planned!  The kids were so excited and to honest I LOVED the guilt free break!  We have two days next week and then we "technically" began our next year!  I am not taking a week off in between as there are no curriculum changes right now and we will take the week off mid July for our San Antonio trip...

• We have watched ANNIE and MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS for our state study.  On Wednesday we will start Northeastern States--

Capitol Pictures June 2011

What did I accomplish????

school-- we need to DEFINITELY do history and science. We also need to work on Bible so I can finish up the book soon. We need to finish up our Midwestern states study, because it has lasted 1 week and 3 days longer than it was supposed to! I have a little bit of lesson plans done but REALLY need to concrete them for the next 6 weeks!


work on VBS stuff

I have a CT scan on Monday morning  my follow up appointment is July 1!  Pray for good results or at least answers!
Tuesday is Flag Day and I hoped to do some activities with that

Thursday I am keeping a friends kiddoes for a few hours in the morning and we will be doing a few activities with them

Saturday we are driving to Austin for the day

I have to catch up on laundry-- the kids "found" a bunch of clothes in their rooms that had not apparently been washed! Plus I need to do sheets and misc blankets

I need to start cleaning out stuff for a possible garage sale--which even if that doesn't happen I still need to clean out!

I need to put my menu and shopping list together for Thursday

I need to order and return library books to both Houston and Harris county

I need to move pictures from both the laptop and my desktop to the external hard rive.. just haven't done it in a while and noticed how many pictures needed to be updated while looking for one earlier

I need to finalize Sea World plans on Thursday

I also need to finalize Matt's bday party plans for the 26th

I need to find a babysitter for the 28th-- (hint hint grandparents reading this)

I also would like to make sure to take the kids swimming at moms house...

I need to mop... I mop the kitchen often but the rest of the house not so much! I am going to give Emily a sponge and put her in her bathing suit-- good plan, huh!

I need to remember to have FUN with my kids and occasionally be the YES mom.

I need to deal with some Lego League stuff also and get the fundraising letters out, soo we can pay for this league!

I would love to find Matt at least two more pairs of shorts at a thrift store but am having trouble and looking takes time! {{{sigh}}}

I would also like to send some of my newest picture shots to Snap fish so I can see print quality!



PLUS I DID THIS TOO!

I also grocery shopped (two stores) and saved a total of    %, dollar wise that is 54.00 in savings!  The only thing I bought NOT on my list were a few extras of some chips and cereal that were on sale and an ice cream snack for the kids.

Cleaned out Emily's bookshelf and found a number of books a friend needed.

Dealt with a leaking ceiling which turned out to be an easy fix-- thankfully!

Had an unexpected night at home along with hubbie-- be are really big spenders!  We got two Little Ceasars Pizza's and tea from McDonald's.  Later we went out and tried to get a dessert but ended up with a pint of ice cream from Walgreen's!  We watched HULU and went to bed!  WOW... look at us party!

in addition to just life in general!  Hope y'all are having productive summers too!

Austin City Limits...

No we did not go to Austin City Limits-- although I have always wanted too!  But we did do a lot inside the city limits of Austin!

We left on our journey at 6:20 and Saturday morning-- had a few delays like coming back home for my phone!

Dave dropped us off at the state capitol, the kids and I had a little photo shoot, while Dave worked for awhile.

After Dave came to pick us up we headed to the Austin Children's Museum--- if while in Austin to not bother to pay the 6.50 to get in (which we didn't as we are reciprocal members) because it is really not worth it.  I love children's museums but this one was very small and just not the best, maybe if you have really small kids?

After the museum we went and ate lunch at Austin Pizza... it was in downtown near the capitol and 6th street in the part of Austin that YELLS-- KEEP AUSTIN WEIRD, and it was weird!  We however did not eat pizza at DeathMetal Pizza!  It was good though... and not too expensive.

We left and headed to the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Museum and library.  It is free!  In fact it is the only presidential library to be free to all....of course it is your CIVIL liberty to be free from want, so I guess you deserve to get in free.  He was a democrat for those who do not know and really almost worse than Obama!  We enjoyed his family album, we enjoyed seeing things about the time and the seat of the president, we enjoyed that he was from Texas but really it stopped about there! He really set a whole lot of "bad" in motion during this presidency!  We also have "GLAZED over civil rights so far with our kids (we have not reached that in history) so it was hard explaining some pictures and things-- we were also trying to be careful HOW we explained it, if you know what I mean! 

We left and headed to a sno-cone spot in Austin (I don't really know how much of a spot it was because we were the only ones there), they were pretty tasty and REALLY refreshing!

After the sno-cones we attempted to head to Barton Springs.  It is a dammed area of the river that is a local SPOT!  Well it is really local because there were HUNDREDS of people there.  People parked EVERY where, it was insane--- just standing in line to GET in there were over a hundred!  So we left!  We didn't feel we could tend the kids in such a massive setting-- Dave and I had no suits and wouldn't have been in the water with them, we might try later in the year when kids are in school!

So to pacify the non swimmers, who had been promised swimming all day we went to see Mr. Poppers Penguins-- with our savings from NOT going to Barton Springs (for three dollars a person).  It was a pretty good see-- a few parts were not needed and I could have done without but really overall a pretty good movie with a great message. 


So as you can see we had a FULL day!  We did so much and really had a good day- VERY little stress.  I got VERY annoyed at Dave for about 15 minutes but he agreed he was BEING very annoying!  :0)  All in all a WONDERFUL day!

Happy Fathers Day...

Happy One Day Late Fathers Day to YOU....

Can you tell he is the father of my children???

Weekly Wrap Up-- Week 42

Monday---


Went for my CT scan-- went much better than last time with the Valium, now just waiting for the doctor to get back to me!

The kids worked on math, handwriting.

We almost finished chap 3 in science and completed the mini book and crossword puzzle in the notebooks.

We read about Chopin in The Spiritual Lives of the Composers and also read about him in this new composer study I found in my STUFF in storage.  Don't you love when you buy these great things to use and forget about them! 

I baked cookies.

I checked off my list of things to accomplish this week!
It was a good day!

Tuesday---

I am sitting here typing this up and I am telling you I cannot remember a single thing about Tuesday!



Wednesday---

we did history at Amy's house.  We studied about Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton and Noah Webster.
My mom talked about Indians found in some of the newly emerging Midwestern states.  The kids tried succotash-- made with the Three Sisters!

We had a flooding roof-- but alas all was well after an ac line flush!

Amy ended up keeping the kids so we had a wonderful surprise of being alone for the evening!  We are really nightlifers! We ended up getting a Little Ceasers Pizza, tea from McDonald's and later on a pint of ice cream from Walgreen's.  We laid around watching Hulu and went to bed early!

Thursday---

I kept a friends kids and we played with play dough, chalk on the porch, the wii, Lego's, had a snack, swung on the swing, played with click its and answered four jillion questions all in the first hour-- WOW, it's been a while since I had little ones!  It was fun and when the kids got home they were able to all play and keep them occupied.  Kate read stories, Matt played Wii and Emily played with the dollhouse!

We went grocery shopping-- two stores.  I saved 54.00 dollars! YEAH.

all the kids did math and we finished up chapter 3 in science--I have to post some of Kate's artwork soon! 

the kids also have reading assignments from history that they are working on.

Friday--

I am posting early so on the to be done agenda is swimming at my moms and the Harris county library.

We will also be starting chapter 4 in science and doing math, spelling and Michigan for our state study!



We have 12 days left of school but only three (counting today) are school days-- today should be my last day but since I skipped doing any work for two days I had to add on and we have vacation Bible school next week so we are going to the 28th!

So only ONE more weekly wrap up for this "year" and I will lawfully have completed my 180 days!  We are of course not stopping and we aren't wrapping up much curriculum but my 180 are up!  So next week I will "move" the kids ahead their grade and start my count down again!

because

I have nothing to say I shall leave you with this rule
.

DO

UNTO OTHERS

AS YOU

WOULD HAVE THEM

DO

UNTO YOU.

Really is the best rule isn't it.



Bucket List...

Last year I made a summer bucket list too, I did about a third of the items on the list.  Even though I did not accomplish doing all the things I wanted.. making the list did make me stop and really think of some things I DID want to do.  I think because I wrote it down and purposed to do them.. I was more inclined to make the experiences happen!  So I decided to make another bucket list for this summer.  Some are repeats from last year, some are things I never got around to last year and the rest are NEW things that I want to do.

2011 SUMMER BUCKET LIST

eat frozen yogurt with friends

thrift store shop for clothes

hit a few garage sales looking specifically for decor items

go on an overnight with Dave

pick fruit at a farm

search half price books, thrift stores and used book stores for reads

finish up Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day as a summer science.

Take the kids to a water park.

Eat dinner outside at Kemah.

Go to the beach.

Visit the turtle hatchery.

Participate in The Houston Nature Challenge

Visit with the grandparents more often.

Swim!

Find new parks in Houston we haven't been to before.

Go see the summer dollar movies.

Watch a movie under the stars.

Go on a boat or wave runner.

Go the farmers market.

play games with the kids.

learn to cook 5 new recipe's

Go to a theater production.

go to creation station at the MFAH

sew curtains for the dining room (this involves me SEWING)

take a camera class from leisure learning or somewhere else.

walk on the beach at night.

eat out at a new fun restaurant.

invite friends over for dinner.

go to VBS

paint the girls bedroom

have an old fashioned picnic

work on making the back porch kind of cozy

read a biography about a great person

10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Me...

1. I have been to Mexico, Honduras and El Salvador on mission trips. 


2. I was in the hospital 7 days with Kaitlin and was induced 5 times!  It was a nightmare.


3. I used to (and still inclined to) curl my sheet or blanket under my feet because I was scared a witches hand would come up from under my bed and grab my feet.


4.  I had multiple ovarian cyst removed in 9th grade.  I have the video- (somewhere) of the actual surgery and it is cool.


5.  I used to hyperventilate bad and my dad would walk around the block with me breathing into a paper bag.  Now I call the panic attacks but don't generally use a paper bag.  (I probably should)


6.  I watched Arachnophobia as a teenager.  I don't know why as I was already terrified of spiders.  My sister and I were on either side of my dad at the theater.  It was really suspenseful and when we left my dad had bleeding claw marks on both arms walking out of the theater. I don't do suspenseful!


7.  I buy books that are wonderful (not self help but just Godly "help" books), I have awesome intentions to read them all but only ever end up reading half of them! 


8.  I cannot stand situation where I have to "go up front".  It just happened on Sunday the children's church leader called the LEADERS up on stage and I went and stood on the farthest side.  Truly inside I wish I had been ANYWHERE else.  I would feign injury, clean poop up, pay someone else or NOT come before I ever want to stand up in FRONT.


9.  I am always afraid that people will not remember me.  I don't mean remember everything about me but that I guess I am so unmemorable that they would truly NOT have a clue who I am.  Therefore when I go to Baybrook Mall (near where I grew and up and went to school for 9 years) I will cross to the other side of the mall or turn and go the other way if I saw someone I knew before I would assume they KNEW me.


10.  I went to Las Vegas before Matt was born, we flew into Nevada and LITERALLY on a whim we drove like 8 hours to Las Vegas and stayed in NEW YORK, NEW YORK.  We walked the strip at like 1:00 in the morning and I remember being amazed at HOW many families there were!  It was not like what I had imagined.  I did (confession time) truly WANT to see a hooker because I never had except on TV.  We saw a few slightly scantily dressed women but most were just passing out flyers for shows.  I remember feeling disappointed.  I know weird right!