Sunday Sum Up: Day 89-93

Monday:

I allowed Matt and Emily ONE hour of Wii play from 9-10 as I did laundry and cleaned off the school desk, so at 10:10 we started school.  Matt and I had to discuss that his ASSIGNMENT for Sing Down the Moon wasn't done.  It was the first time to give him all week for something and apparently we need to work on it.  I have printed out an assignment sheet for it so he can check off some each day of school--- we shall see.

Both Matt and Emily had a writing assignment today-- Matt's went fine but Emily's were TEARS, defiance and non cooperation- after a consequence and a call to daddy... all was well and the assignment got done.  She had to take a story out of the BIBLE and retell it in her own words.  SHE FREAKED OUT.  But like I said once it was done, she had done a great job.

But that took a junk of the morning!

Emily did her reading curriculum.

They both played multiplication games online.

Matt did a Delta Math U See lesson

Emily finished up the money workbook that I had already started her on a few weeks ago... so now she will fully focus on multiplication!  Let me reiterate that I think this will go fast for her.... I hope that it does.  I don't want multiplication drama ( says me with a pleading voice)

Emily did  skip counting worksheet also.

Matt did our devotion and his Dave Ramsey devotion.

He also worked on his Sing Down the Moon unit.

After Kate got home we worked on our history worksheets, picked an assignment for the next lesson and picked a new book to read.

We also read a chapter in Little Woman.

AND WE SURPRISE_ SURPRISE worked on the school room!  :0)

Tuesday:

We started a little late-- I was really tired this morning ( Brenda I have no pregnant excuse!)
We started with talking about 1 Corinthians 13: 3-6
(the kids later used it in an English assignment for abstract nouns-- I love when things LINE up!)

We did our Dave Ramsey devotionals and listened to The Super Red Racer a book on tape from Financial Peace Jr.

All the kids did English.  Emily acted liked she had never heard of a predicate while we were doing practice out loud but then she diagrammed them all in like seconds!  What is up with that!  She even diagrammed the "(YOU)" command without being prompted! 

We did online math drills and we played math bingo.  This led to us playing two rounds of Lego bingo because I am trying to be a YES mom. 

We went through our Physics journals and wrote all the answers to the pages we had skipped to just get everything up to date, don't know why we hadn't done those 5 pages, but I counted it as our review time so it worked out.  We read our next chapter and found out that by chance that one of the scientist we learned about was a creationist scientist.  Kate asked if James Joules was French and since google is my friend... I googled him and found an amazing article.  So we read all about Mr. Joules and his beliefs... wonderful!

Photo credit given to Wikipedia

On another occasion, Joule wrote that “the phenomena of nature, whether mechanical, chemical, or vital, consist almost entirely in a continual conversion . . . into one another. Thus it is that order is maintained in the universe—nothing is deranged, nothing ever lost, but the entire machinery, complicated as it is, works smoothly and harmoniously . . . the whole being governed by the sovereign will of God.”1,8

All the kids are working on reading their current books.

We read another chapter in Little Woman.

Emily did her Rod and Staff Reading.

Tomorrow our SCHEDULE wall goes back up!  Actually a "replica" of our schedule wall is going back up because I want it smaller!   Yeah! 


Wednesday

We started a little late again because mamma can't get her act together-- I am not sleeping again at night (meds are having ZERO effect) and well put two and two together.. couple that with only drinking water and well I am tired. 

Anyhoo.  We started at 10:00. but left to go get Kate's math book we are borrowing from a friend before the sky opened up and the rains fell from the HEAVENS!  We barely made it back!

The schedule wall is up... WHOOP WHOOP. 

It will take a few days to acclimate to it again plus one of our laptop chargers has still not been found so it messes up two kids doing TWO things at once--- GOTTA find THAT CORD!

We did Bible.

The kids did typing and math drills online. 
Matt and Emily did math and KAITLIN did math because my awesome friend BRENDA let us borrow their math book till I can get Kate's (it is currently back ordered).  We don't have the student book but we shall muddle through!  There are online worksheets for most of the chapters. 

Kate and I played Fraction dominoes.  Just getting her saying all the different 1/5s, 2/8s, 3/6s....

Emily did Rod and Staff.

All three kids did English-- nouns, nouns and more nouns!

They did their 30 min Wii exercises!

We worked on some organization charts and making things run a little better at the house-- so that took up some of our time.  Things ARE getting organized REALLY!

And that was our Wed!

Thursday--

NOT ONE LICK OF SCHOOL.  DIDN'T EVEN GO UPSTAIRS.

oh well. 
I picked up my dry cleaning. 
I deposited checks.
I got my van washed and vacuumed it out. 
I returned my library books so my ONE of my fines (Harris County) is down to 100.00 now.  {{{sigh}}}

I went and had dinner at my moms.
I took the kids to Mardels so Kaitlin could spend a gift card she got for CHRISTMAS a month ago! 
I also picked up a G.A. Henty book for Matt-- gonna see if he is ready.
I socialized with other home school moms and I socialized my kids!

I guess all is well with the world-- we will pick up spellin' and math learnin' tomorrow!

Friday--

Well as I woke up with ONE more child than I normally did... but who knows when she comes to Mrs. Carrie's house she does what we do-- school went on!  Poor Emily thought there would be no school.. Bah- ha-ha-ha....{{{insert maniacal laughter}}} They think a little thing like an extra kid is gonna stop me!

We got up and because I had two small blond children begging for pancakes that they wanted to cut out shapes with cookie cutters (that I stupidly left on the counter and gave them the idea for) we had pancakes!  They cut and sprinkled and ate to their hearts content...

Next we started school... we begin with Bible and going over 1 Cor 13: 4-7 and our Luke reading about Simeon, Jesus in the temple and did some worksheets.

We read a biography on Albert Einstein...

The kids all practiced math drills online and played Typer Island.

Kate and Matt did English-- a lesson that brought Kaitlin to tears.  Poor. Girl.  English makes me feel that way too.

We did some mental math questions.. which my kiddoes rocked and I need to find harder ONES.  We will switch between the mental math questions and logic activities.

Matt and Kaitlin worked on their Sing Down the Moon unit study and they each have a page or two for tomorrow and they are done-- I think it was more work than I thought or I didn't plan enough time for them... gotta think the "assignment" giving out a little better.  I think I will copy all the pages and put them in a folder and then assign each page a day....

We worked upstairs... now we can walk into the closet upstairs-- I didn't manage to take much out but was able to at least rearrange it better to get in and out of it.  After we set up another set of shelves in the attic space we can clean out that closet better, but we gotta move the stuff in the attic.... EVERYTHING HAS TO HAPPEN FOR SOMETHING TO HAPPEN!!! ARRGGGG.

I left the kids (Matt and Kate) alone today for about 15 minutes -- it was the first time here in Pasadena.  I knew that I would I just had to work back up to it!  Hard Momma stuff!

Lets see is that ALL???  I think so.  I would say over all we had a pretty good week!


Saturday...

We shopped for dresses for the girls to wear to the Father/ Daughter Valentines Dance...

Dave mowed the lawn so that we aren't THOSE people.  ;0)

We worked on the house.

I went to Hobby Lobby.

Matt bought the game RISK-- and is totally excited about it!

We went to bed.

That is all.

American History: weeks 27-30

We are well into the Civil War now. Between Thanksgiving, Florida, Christmas and of course moving...we are behind our schedule! But it is all good. The kids are learning a TON and that is what we want to see happen.

Topics, battles and main ideas we have studied over the weeks:

battle fronts
Union/ confederacy way of naming armies and battles
Bull Run/ Manassas
Union capture of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson giving them major water ways
Ironclads
Shiloh defeat
enlistment/ conscription acts
African army enlistment
woman in war
Clara Barton
Battle of New Orleans
Stonewall Jackson
Robert E Lee
6/7 battle- McClellan's failure to capture Richmond
Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas)
Antietam Creek
Battle of Fredricksburg
Emancipation Proclamation

Okay peeps--- OUR book lists

We are not all done with these but will be done with them within the end of the week.

We are in the middle or reading Little Women.

Matt and Kate are finishing Sing Down the Moon (actually they finished the book but are doing a unit study on it)

Rifles for Watie

Across Five Aprils

Abraham Lincoln: In His Own Words

Red Badge of Courage

Billy Yank and Johnny Rebel

We have also perused but not read all of these books:

Unconditional Surrender  U.S. Grant and the Civil War

Lost Cause  The End of the Civil War

We are ALMOST to Gettysburg....we are chugging along!  If only we could find a way to keep all the generals and leaders of each side straight!  I mean the main ones of course--- but the others... we keep going over it.  In the long run I know it is not important but.... one thing they will not forget for a while is this.

After Antietam Creek which was the bloodiest battle of the war- McClellan (Union) allowed his army 3 weeks rest, just to re coop, repair stuff, mend bodies, hearts and spirits.  Most likely a good plan.  But Lincoln, in his haste to move on sent a note asking McClellan...

"If the general did not want to use the army, he would like to borrow it for a while."

Soon after McClellan was ordered to hand the army over to General Burnside-- who caused even bigger problems for the Union and HE was ordered to hand the army over to General Joseph Hooker who was Burnsides BITTER RIVAL.  

So MUCH DRAMA..

IT IS LIKE HOUSEWIVES OF THE CIVIL WAR!



Candid/ Posed shots: family :0)

I took a cute shot of Emily and myself. and yes, I did just say I took a cute shot of Emily and myself...I know you read that a second time didn't you. Anyhoo.

I really liked it and it was totally candid.. we just took a pic. BUT then I was like ohhhh.. I want one with all the kids.. and henceforth, they became posed.

I love my family.

Project 365-- Week 3-- Day 15-21

Sunday day 15--repost just to NOT mess it up further.. closet fix up- after.



Monday day 16--
Kirsten reading about how cowboys dress at history on Monday-- while decked out cowboy style!

Tuesday day 17--
Family Game Night-- Our new FAVORITE game Hedbanz

Wednesday day 18--
their new pastime...comics.

Thursday day 19--
jelly fish @ the Downtown Aquarium.

Friday day 20--
I will miss the days when army men no longer cover my table.

Saturday day 21--

okay it's not a pic but I couln't have done anything but filmed this right!  Kate and Emily are in there!

Okay I am going to HAVE to get better at taking a picture every day!

Sunday Sum Up-- day 84-88

Monday--

Without rain to change the "normal" Monday plans I got a taste of how it will be... it will take some tweaking but I think I like it.

 I was able to start Matt on an all week project of a unit study of Sing Down the Moon. 

We also started his new Math U See Delta--- He is going to FLY through this for a while and I am going to let him!  I am giving him the test right now and as long as he gets 100% we are moving right into the next lesson so basically a week into one day.  SO like I said FLY for awhile. 

Emily started Gamma... she is excited about multiplication-- and will be until she actually has to LEARN IT ALL.  :0)   We started her chart and she is thrilled to already know the 0's and 1's!  She actually knows more than she thinks because she learned a lot with Matt but she doesn't KNOW she knows it.  So I think it will be pretty easy for her as far as the memorization of the facts- and we will go as slow or fast as she needs to go.

I am using these worksheets and these and this for extra practice each day for ALL the kids--- plus flash cards. Here are some games.

and of course the Math U See drill page

Kaitlin needs to start Epsilon but they are back ordered--arrrggg.  So I have her reviewing multiplication facts right now which NEVER hurts her!


Also on Monday I had Emily do Rod and Staff  reading and we did her English-- we started with a review, which was great since we haven't done it for a while!  I had her read aloud- I need to do a lot more of this! 

Then we left for history and Mom had a lesson on cowboys in the old west...


Tuesday-

We read of chapter of Little Woman, math, history worksheets, Bible devotions, English, All About Spelling and PHYSICS----with our wonderful science partners the family revised (neither of us took pictures-- great bloggers that we are)

Whewww FULL Day!

Wednesday-

We read Little Woman, did math, Bible devotions, English and then we worked on the house-- because it is still bothering me A LOT.  The kids read- and got new reading assignments. 
Thursday-

We were gone ALL day for a field trip, but we learned a lot!

We had a class on animal training- where we learned the difference between teaching an animal "tricks" and training animals to do things in order to get certain behaviors (i.e. to stand on hind legs to check stomach and front paws).

Also a class on the rain forest and where different animals live in each level of the rain forest.

 The last class was the physics of flight-- the kids got to learn about what allows a bird to fly- shape of wings, and how the tail feathers help the birds slow down (drag) and a lot of other physics principles.

 LOADS of learning.  We also went through the aquarium

 had a wonderful lunch with friends and road rides!  IT was a great day!


Friday---

We did math, read Little Women, did Bible Devotions, worked on reading assignments, drew and worked on pictures and descriptions of our science experiments from Tuesday...and then worked on the house some more... because YES, IT IS STILL BUGGING ME.  But it is getting there-- truly!

Currently.....

Okay- stealing from one of my FAVORITE BLOGS... Lemonade Makin Mama!

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Currently loving... all the teal/ turquoise/ MY COLOR stuff at Target right now!  It is affordable or at least in my saving range and that makes me love it!
Currently listening to... Cyndi Lauper- Girls Just Wanna Have Fun---- sorry but Pandora is set on an 80's station right now- YES, I am THAT person. 

Currently reading... Made to Crave by Lysa Terkeurst and Little Woman with the kids as read aloud.
{insert--Richard Marx- Right Here Waiting}

Currently waiting ... to know what the BILLs are going to be in the house for us.  I mean we have an idea from mom and dad but more people and different companies... just itching to know!
Currently excited about... the fact that drinking only water isn't bugging me IN THE LEAST.  It is a God thing because.. well you know how much I love Sonic coke,tea and if course COFFEE right!  But it has been FINE.  I am not even having caffeine withdrawal headaches! 
Currently missing... my little house, and just a little bit  my "hood".  I loved living in the Heights.  I miss driving through... not enough to not LOVE all my room, but still just kind of miss it.  Also I REALLY miss Dave being home for lunch and stuff.  :0(
{insert-- The Bangles-Walk Like An Egyptian    REALLY You don't dance when this comes on!}

Currently trying... routines and schedules... slowly building on them.  Glad to be getting back in the swing of things, and it feels good to have routine.
Currently working at... making better food choices.  Not so much in what I always choose but also in quantity.  all in moderation right!
{insert--Crowded House- Don't Dream It's Over}

Currently enjoying... Pandora and Netlix on the TV in the living room... {{{sigh}}} such a luxury. 
Currently snacking on... nothing but I had some baked Cheetos earlier with Emily.  yum.
{insert--REO Speedwagon - Take It on the Run   not my favorite but love Reo Speed Wagon I mean they did give us Can't Fight This Feeling!}

Currently using..."Bar Keepers Friend" cleaner for some deep cleaner and wow-- it works and is cheap!
Currently wearing... jeans, polo-- SHOCKER!
Currently planning...four field trips, a trip to Dallas, 6 weeks of school plans (that SHOULD HAVE BEEN FIRST ON THE LIST), my next crafty creation! 

Currently needing... ohhh let me count the ways.  trash cans-  I used to need 5, now I need 9.  paper towels-- ALWAYS need paper towels! 
{insert--Modern English- I Melt With You   love the accent and I always sing it with the accent too}

Currently learning... to just take a drink of water.
to say yes.
to take a breath before I speak. (ha)
to look for ways to be helpful
and to reach out.

Currently wishing... that I had bought a more neutral couch.  Also that all the shelf heights in the school matched. Oh and world peace-- gee whiz!

{Insert---Okay- Beat It- just came on [smile]}
Currently doing... organization of the school room -post move  all the boxes are unpacked, but I moved a lot of bookcases and stuff around trying to make things more workable-- actually to keep it real I needed a place to hang my ALL About Spelling board on the wall.  :0)

{insert-- Bonnie Tyler- Total Eclipse of the Heart.  I love this song}
Currently praying for...for patience, for a particular child/ parent thing, for a family member, for the right candidates to be picked....and for wisdom.

Currently dreaming of... my house being all in order, my finances to finance themselves and for food to NOT be such a big deal.
{insert--Journey- Open Arms}

{{{my dirty little secret is out.. I am a lover of 80's music}}}

Extreme Couponing or Extreme field trips...

If you have ever watched the show Extreme Couponers you KNOW the moment they get up to the register and the FEAR and PANIC that sets in because...

• will everything scan.
• did they count right.
• are things in the right order.
• are their coupons going to SCAN!
• are they going to hassle them.

You know they didnt' bring any money with them so if the total is over $7.73 they are going to be putting back A LOT of merchandise.....

SOOOO I am feeling that FEAR and Panic set in with the field trip I have set up tomorrow!

I have done the aquarium field trip at least 4 times--maybe even more than that.. so IT doesn't bother me but my numbers DO. Plus I am doing it with a group that I haven't done it with! Double Panic.

When I go to the booth and check us in I will pay 653.00 for classes and admission AND another 385.00 dollars at meal time. On my own wee little debit card-- wish I had MILES! :0)

No really. all the monies are accounted for minus an annoying 12.67 cents right now! BUT for a total of 88 people on a field trip... 84 class participants and 56 kids meals I will EAT the 12.67 cents!

I was telling a friend that for a aquarium field trips I didn't KNOW that I could PLUNK down my Laundry's Reward Card when I paid for the food.

NOW. I. DO.

Plunking that baby down.. and 4-6 weeks later Dave and I can go on a date.

Suckers.

No really. Just a pleasant, nice bonus.

Here we come Salt Grass-- your spinach salad, potato soup and delectable chicken beckon me.....

Project 365--- Weed 2 Day 8-14

Monday- day 8
Yes, yes I do think it is normal to walk out of my room and see this.  Don't you?

Tuesday- day 9
a picture of pictures... my pretties.

Wednesday- day 10
bought all my Made to Crave "stuff".

Thursday- day 11
this is called please trim your beard, you look like a mountain man.

Friday- day 12
a goat at the barn.

Saturday- day 13- TRUTH I took zero pictures on Saturday so I am using one from Sunday.
closet fix up! before...

Sunday- day 14
closet fix up! After

Sunday Sum Up: Day 79-83

MONDAY
We actually started off our week getting up at 7:00, eating breakfast and starting school at 9:00.  I know miracles DO happen.  Mondays are weird school days because Kaitlin is at choir all morning and then we usually have history in the afternoon, so I am going to use Mondays to simply focus on Matt and Emily. 

however this Monday mom picked Kate up and got to Amy's and came right back because of the rain!

So we just ended up doing some regular work-- I am still not prepared completely for school but we accomplished stuff!

We read two chapters of Little Woman- did vocabulary, worked on our character traits and did comprehension questions.

All three kids did math.

We read chapter four in our history text book...All American History book 2

Matt and Emily read history books before Kate got home-

Emily is loving the American Girl Kirsten series!

We made out our chore charts for the month... yes, I know it is the 9th.  Anyhoo!

Now on normal Mondays-at least the first 3 of the month it will be different and the last I will be gone all day

Emily will be doing out loud reading, lap books and starting a project that she can work on mostly independently for the rest of the week.

Matt will be given history reading to do, along with a fiction read and vocabulary.  He will also be working on a bible study with me that we will do partly together on Monday and he will do alone the rest of the week. 

I am going to see how this works for me. 
As long as we get up and going on time... this shouldn't be a problem.  (I know insert. laugh. here.)

We had a break and the kids played.. then the cable guy came-- lucky he could get through THIS mess....

and by that time I was done and it was almost four so I let them go!  DAY OVER-- but not bad for a first day back!

Tuesday

Whoo hoo... day two up at 7:00.
We. are. on. a. roll.

We got chores done.

Math done.

History reading done.

We worked on science-- got caught up on reading and did our review cards for the past chapters.  The kids are remembering pretty well so I am happy-- especially for such a long break!

We read Little Women.

we worked on the house.

Wednesday

We got up late and actually left for the day to do stuff so no school except for a chapter of Little Women...I hadn't been in a store since two days before Christmas!  wow!  So I had some returns and just errands.  Kaitlin had a choir lesson which is all the way the other side of the Woodlands-- really the New Cainey exit! We were there for over an hour.

We did some more errands and got to church right in time to eat and fellowship.

Emily and Matt are starting a new kids musical called The Bible Tells Me SHOW.  IT is like a game show of Bible trivia-- it is very cute!

Thursday--

We had a busy Thursday.  We started in the school room with such GOOD intentions but the "MESS" got the best of me and I started moving stuff.  I hauled boxes and moved furniture and got the school ALMOST 100% back to normal-- we need to work on the Lego/ Wii area but plan to this weekend.  Also I am getting two more bookshelves for the rest of the book boxes-- I think I still need at least two MORE!  :0)

We rushed to get ready and left to get Kaitlin and Matt to our home school group who are doing the Dave Ramsey class Generation Change together.  They had a really good time in the class and also just fellowshipping! 

We left to go to Becky's but she had a problem with a friend so we ended up going back home and taking Mary Faith back with us- so the girls had fun playing!

We ate dinner and went to Christian skate night... the kids were SO excited to go again! Dave and I got to visit with friends and everyone had a good time.

Friday--

We got the basics done-- bare basics!  I worked on the house and spent about an hour on up coming field trip stuff.  We left to go visit with friends at 1:00-- my friend Margaret and I are planning a Father/ Daughter Valentines Dance as a fundraiser for Valentines Day. 

After our meeting we went out to her friends barn to see all the animals-- my kids were in heaven.

Saturday--

Kaitlin and I left at 6:30 for the long awaited Regions auditions.  YES. you read that right 6:30, we had to drive all the way to Tomball.  We got there and wow if there isn't another thing in the WORLD that could cure a home school mom from wanting to send her kids on the big yellow bus-- it would be entering a gym with 889 junior high students (and their chaperone's).  I say 889 because OUR home schooled students only took the number to 900.  JUMP BACK-- I KNOW!

However after the extremely long, long, long day after HOURS and hours and hours of being in the gym with said junior high students we finally got results at 4:00!  6 of our 11 students made regions.  Now proportionally I want you to realize that maybe 10 schools were represented and out of the 900 kids they took 270.  I think our kids did really good!  Kaitlin did not make the cut-- however we didn't think she would we wanted the experience and fun, her director thought it would be a really great thing for her... so we went.  Out of the 60 girls that Kaitlin auditioned against she was number 32 and they took numbers 1-20.. Her director was VERY pleased with that and said Kaitlin had DONE great!  So she was pleased and proud of herself and is ready to go back next year!  I didn't get to take pictures because there were ZERO electronics allowed. 

What is that you say.... kids survived for 8 1/2 hours WITHOUT electronics in this day and age.  WHY yes, they did.  They-- all 900-- played GAMES.  Imagine that-- it was quite a sight to behold.