Sunday Sum Up: Week 4 2012-2013

{day 45-49}

 

 

We had another really good week... I am currently a little behind (Mary Bear was sick on Monday and that through us off a bit) BUT not much and I can easily make it up I think! 

 

Emily has rocked multiplication this past week!  I am really proud of her! 

 

 

 

 

The girls have learned about Sumerians and The Tower of Babel.

 

We read some books for history...

 

 

One of them was I Am the Mummy HebNefert by David Christiana

 

It was really good, and descriptive of life in Egypt, burial and a little about their beliefs. 

 It opened the door of discussion AS ALL GOOD BOOKS SHOULD!

 

 

We re read Katie Meets the Impressionist:

 

 

One of my FAVORITE art series books!  In the next few weeks we plan to make a trip to the art museum and the girls will be able to SEE a few of the paintings themselves!

 

 

For science we learned about Primates:

 

the girls wrote information about the three groups that make up primates on a notebooking page WHICH I am loving this year!  We have used them off and on over the years but I am using them every chance I get this year and really, really like it. Great for review, for keeping an ongoing diary of what you are learning and to help cement the facts!

 

 

 

 

The girls memory verse from last week was 2 Cor. 5:17 

Here is their test (I don't count spelling although I am NOW having them use it for part of their copy work so I am hoping spelling will get better simply by that action!)

 

 Doesn't "creacun" make you laugh! 

 

 

OH here is another spelling mistake that made me laugh...

(don't think that my laughing doesn't some days cover my tears and frustration... because I have Tons of those moments, but this week I decided to take it all in  stride and just keep pressing on!)

 

 

 "facks"   They each picked a mammal to research and write some FACTS about. 

 

 

We made ice cream in a bag this week.. the kids wanted ice cream and I said I had no money to go buy any but that they could make their own and they did JUST THAT!  On their own.  I gave them the recipe and they came back with ice cream!

 

the top picture was Emily jumping to shake up the ice cream MINUTES before the bag broke open and ice cream went.. YOU guessed it, everywhere!

NOT. THE. PLAN.

 

 

Kate and Matt finished Module 1 last week and this week we did all the questions and review...

 they were hard at word!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is Emily reciting her first three verses for this school year. 


Kate and Matt have been hard at work too.  We had a "communication" problem with Matt on what he DOES and DOES not need to do school work wise but I think we have CLEARLY communicated that to him now. :0)

Their second IEW lesson went great... I just wanted to say that without prompting of "dress ups" (adjectives or adverbs) or use of synonyms.. by son wrote a sentence that included the phrase "scourge of the ocean".  I don't think he will have a problem with writing!  :0)

Kate has completely two vet lessons so far.. one on communicable deceases and one on feeding.  YEAH!

Happy National Coffee Day 2012

What a great day to celebrate!!!!  I love coffee!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girls Day Out!!!

We got to go out on the town for a SPECIAL lady's birthday on Friday!  We went shopping downtown at High Fashion ( a fabric and decor store), then had lunch at La Madeleine's and dessert at the Chocolate Bar.  We also had a chance to swing by the NEW Trader Joe's!!!  Such a great day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Less Like Scars...

When I am moving through something, whether it is spiritual or emotional... I love this song...

It's been a hard year
But I'm climbing out of the rubble
These lessons are hard
Healing changes are subtle
But every day it's

Less like tearing, more like building
Less like captive, more like willing
Less like breakdown, more like surrender
Less like haunting, more like remember

And I feel you here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars and more like
Character

Less like a prison, more like my room
It's less like a casket, more like a womb
Less like dying, more like transcending
Less like fear, less like an ending

And I feel you here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad situation
But you are able
And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars

Just a little while ago
I couldn't feel the power or the hope
I couldn't cope, I couldn't feel a thing
Just a little while back
I was desperate, broken, laid out, hoping
You would come

And I need you
And I want you here
And I feel you

And I know you're here
And you're picking up the pieces
Forever faithful
It seemed out of my hands, a bad, bad situation
But you are able

And in your hands the pain and hurt
Look less like scars (x3)

And more like
Character

 

 

by Sara Groves

Through the Years Thursday... baby blue eyes...

 

 

 

For the eyes are signs of the soul within,
Of the heart that is leal and true,
And mine own sweetheart, I shall love you still,
Just as long as your eyes are blue.

 

---A. B. Patterson

 

 

 

Kaitlin 2000

 

 

 

Matthew 2004

Emily 2004

Wordless Wednesday: Grease Monkeys

4H Livestock Judging Event: Washington County Fair.... September 22, 2012

We got up at 4:00 a.m. to get ready and left out of the house at 5:00... on our way to Brenham and the Washington County Fair.  The girls had another livestock judging event...

This fair was HUGE and there were about 500 kids participating in the judging vs. last times 200!  It was so big and there were kids everywhere....

I know WOWZERS a picture of me!  Doesn't happen that often!  It was pretty cool at 7:00 in the morning... almost wished I had a light jacket too!  This time there were 8 classes (2 had questions which was new to the girls) .


On our way home we HAD to stop at the Blue Bell Creamery... WHO could pass it up!  Anthony had joined us for the day to see if he wanted to join the livestock judging team for 4H...

HERE ARE EMILY'S SCORES..
we are able to get these at Judgingcard.com

Washington Co Fair Livestock Contest
Sep 22, 2012
Junior Livestock

Beef

Overall

Pork

Sheep & Goat

Team Number:	4001
Code Number:
Team Name:	Harris County 4-H
First Name:	Emily
Last Name:	Thompson
Rank:	80
Total Score:	214

Definition	Responses	Score
Class 1 Market Hogs	Part Contestant Judge 1 1432 4231 Placing 1 - Cut A 3 Placing 1 - Cut B 5 Placing 1 - Cut C 2	26
Class 2 Market Hogs	Part Contestant Judge 1 1432 4213 Placing 2 - Cut A 2 Placing 2 - Cut B 5 Placing 2 - Cut C 4	29
Class 3 Market Goats	Part Contestant Judge 1 2314 1243 Placing 3 - Cut A 3 Placing 3 - Cut B 4 Placing 3 - Cut C 5	30
Class 4 Market Lambs	Part Contestant Judge 1 3142 4231 Placing 4 - Cut A 2 Placing 4 - Cut B 4 Placing 4 - Cut C 4	22
Class 5 Breeding Heifers	Part Contestant Judge 1 3214 4231 Placing 5 - Cut A 2 Placing 5 - Cut B 3 Placing 5 - Cut C 5	30
Class 6 Market Steers	Part Contestant Judge 1 3142 1324 Placing 6 - Cut A 5 Placing 6 - Cut B 2 Placing 6 - Cut C 3	42
Class 7 Breeding Heifers	Part Contestant Judge 1 4132 2134 Placing 7 - Cut A 3 Placing 7 - Cut B 4 Placing 7 - Cut C 4	17
Class 8 Market Steers	Part Contestant Judge 1 1432 3214 Placing 8 - Cut A 3 Placing 8 - Cut B 4 Placing 8 - Cut C 5	18
Beef Total		107
Pork Total		55
Sheep & Goat Total		52
Horse Total
Placing Sum		214
Questions 1-5	Part Contestant Judge 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 4 5 3 Exam 1 - Points per Question (1-25) 5
Questions 6-10	Part Contestant Judge 6 4 7 1 8 3 9 1 10 2 Exam 1 - Points per Question (1-25) 5
Exam 1
Exam Sum

HERE ARE KATE'S SCORES....

Washington Co Fair Livestock Contest
Sep 22, 2012
Intermediate Livestock

Beef

Overall

Pork

Sheep & Goat

Team Number:	5005
Code Number:	4
Team Name:	Harris Co.
First Name:	KAITLIN
Last Name:	THOMPSON
Rank:	95
Total Score:	331

Definition	Responses	Score
Class 1 Market Hogs	Part Contestant Judge 1 4321 4231 Placing 1 - Cut A 3 Placing 1 - Cut B 5 Placing 1 - Cut C 2	45
Class 2 Market Hogs	Part Contestant Judge 1 3421 4213 Placing 2 - Cut A 2 Placing 2 - Cut B 5 Placing 2 - Cut C 4	26
Class 3 Market Goats	Part Contestant Judge 1 1243 1243 Placing 3 - Cut A 3 Placing 3 - Cut B 4 Placing 3 - Cut C 5	50
Class 4 Market Lambs	Part Contestant Judge 1 4231 4231 Placing 4 - Cut A 2 Placing 4 - Cut B 4 Placing 4 - Cut C 4	50
Class 5 Breeding Heifers	Part Contestant Judge 1 3421 4231 Placing 5 - Cut A 2 Placing 5 - Cut B 3 Placing 5 - Cut C 5	42
Class 6 Market Steers	Part Contestant Judge 1 4312 1324 Placing 6 - Cut A 5 Placing 6 - Cut B 2 Placing 6 - Cut C 3	27
Class 7 Breeding Heifers	Part Contestant Judge 1 1342 2134 Placing 7 - Cut A 3 Placing 7 - Cut B 4 Placing 7 - Cut C 4	29
Class 8 Market Steers	Part Contestant Judge 1 3142 3214 Placing 8 - Cut A 3 Placing 8 - Cut B 4 Placing 8 - Cut C 5	37
Beef Total		135
Pork Total		71
Sheep & Goat Total		100
Horse Total
Placing Sum		306
Questions 1-5	Part Contestant Judge 1 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 2 3 Exam 1 - Points per Question (1-25) 5	10
Questions 6-10	Part Contestant Judge 6 2 4 7 1 1 8 3 3 9 1 1 10 1 2 Exam 1 - Points per Question (1-25) 5	15
Exam 1		25
Exam Sum		25

I love the fall...

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the

autumn tree."

---Emily Bronte

 

 

You can just feel in the air that it is fall.  I wait all year for THIS time of year!  It just gets better from here too.  Now is when I want to be outside!  I know a lot of people ( I guess in colder climates) feel a despression after the winter months.... I feel the opposite almost!  I think I do better in the fall and winter emotionally.  Summer is hard- its so hot, everything is so crowded, routine is a mess.  But in the fall... you want to be outside.  We have started re-setablishing our routine and the school year is started.....I always feel better.  It's so lovely.

 

I love the fall.

really.

 

 

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all."

--- Stanley Horowitz

 

 

I had my back doors open for a couple of hours yesterday, air conditioner off, fans on high..it was lovely.  I made chili in the crockpot (happy husband). I fixed myself a cup of coffee (which I didn't even drink, but the simple act of fixing it to me screamed perfect day!)  

The kids scootered on their bikes outside... 

 

 

I love fall, alot.

really.

 

 

 

 

Sunday Sum Up: Week 3 2012-2013

{day 40-44}

 

 

 

 

This was a fabulous week... it was busy, productive and FULL!  But fabulous.

 

We got a PUPPY! As if y'all didn't already know that!  This is just an excuse to post more pics of her!

 

 

those are her sad eyes... she is a tired girl here.

 

 

 

 

Okay, but we did school too!

Really!

 

The girls started Monday with THREE tests... spelling, memory verse and helping verb list.

They aced them all!  And from there we went to the American Girl Store!

 

 

 

 

Wednesday we knocked out some science, Bible, math, timed test, spelling, logic, english and latin review.

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday we did history...

we also did math, timed test, spelling, english, Bible and started our artist study!

 

Tuesdays and Fridays we do school without Mary Faith and our day is ordered a little differently...but they still work hard on Tuesdays!  Fridays are a lighter day.

 

This Friday of course we had Keepers of the Home.

 

 

 

 

Matt, Kate and Anthony started their IEW this week...

 

 

Matt loved it.. he was cackling with glee.. NO joke!  I will take it!

 

 

 

NO Soup for you.. well maybe.

Today was our second Keepers of the Faith meeting.  We met for the first time two weeks ago... I am very excited this year to join Brenda from the Family Revised in this group! 

 

The girls will learn skills like:

making soup,

baking bread,

sewing,

scrap booking,

service,

hospitality,

 Bible memory,

first aid..

we will visit nursing homes,

make blankets for a shelter,

bring food to friends who need a meal

and lots more!

 

At the last meeting (Brenda blogged it too)  the girls started their scrapbook we will be making this year

(meeting a badge requirement and great creative way to make memories!)

 

 

 

This week we made soup:  the badge requires alot so we just started it.

 

Requirements: make all of these

stock

vegetable soup

meat based soup

cream based soup

chili

 

Today we learned how to make vegetable stock AND a vegetable beef soup--

so we are calling three done!

 

 

 

I am really excited about this club!  The girls had fun and learned a number of things today and these skills we can continue to build on all year long.

 

 

RILEY GIRL...

 

 

Because WHO doesn't wanna look at that sweet puppy!

 

Mystery of History- Vol 1.... Week 1

"If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development.

---Aristotle

 

 

 

 

Mystery of History- Volume 1 Creation to Resurrection

We started with our PRE-TEST.

Lesson 1- Creation

I used the worksheet from MOH for Lesson 1

and we used this mini creation booklet

also will be using ideas and NOTE BOOKING pages from

The Crafty Classroom

Lesson 2- Adam and Eve

Used the MOH worksheet

this word search

and note booking page

Lesson 3- Jubal and Tubal Cain

used the MOH worksheet

this note booking page

and watched a few  YouTube videos on Iron pours... 

(turn off volume as there is some cursing that is hard to hear but still.)

We reviewed and made our memory cards-- which are 3x5 index cards that includes a summary of what was learned in each lesson.

We also started our Timeline... Each girl has one and I printed it from Guesthollow...

I found this set of timeline figures for Creation to Resurrection for 5.00 from a lady on the

MOH Yahoo group!

We did our Week 1: Exercise

worked on the days of creation.

We also started our Geography folder for MOH...

our first lesson was the 7 continents (need to work on this)

 

So huge home school mom fail this week:
We were talking about Egypt and I asked the girls if they could name a river in Egypt.  NOPE.  I was kind of surprised Emily couldn't but anyway, NOPE.  So we went over the NILE river and then I asked about the Euphrates and the " blank", now these we HAD already mentioned AND spoken about them in Bible.  I was not that worried that they didn't remember them but what happened next...

Me: So can anyone remember two other rivers we already spoke about that are part of the fertile crescent?  The Euphrates and the "???"
Mary Faith: The Titanic?
Emily: NO! The Titanic is not a river.. it's an ocean!"
ME: AGHAST!  FAIL!
 

Um no it is NOT an ocean, it's a ship!  The TIGRIS is the river!


(((sigh)))

We ended with re-doing the PRE-TEST to make sure they remember.  I have also made note cards for each PRE-TEST so will use these for retention and go through them each week along with our

MEMORY CARDS.

My Fall Bucket List: 2012

I didn't manage a summer bucket list and would never have accomplished it all had I made one anyways!  We had such a strange, strange summer-- it still feels sort of unreal to me. So I decided to make one for fall.. I really like the fall better anyway!  I mean who doesn't like cooler temps, sweaters, pumpkins on your porch, coffee, the holiday season, shorter days, longer nights (pretend with me m'kay), boots, less grass to mow, did I mention sweaters?

Okay so my list.... (date NOW through November 30)

The American Girl Store Houston, Texas

 We were so excited to have the opportunity to visit OUR new store Monday.  The grand opening was Saturday-- but I wasn't getting in that mess!  I will say it was very crowded for a Monday morning too though!  We had trouble getting a reservation for 4 a few weeks before they even opened!  But luckily Becky managed to snag one....

Our store is located in Memorial City Mall-- my favorite Houston mall, BTW.  It is on the West side of town.  There is an entrance directly to the outdoors--- which is nice if you don't NEED to actually go to the mall!  The valet parking is RIGHT next to it, which is also nice during busy times and it only cost $5.00.. which in light of how much you SPEND when you walk into an American Girl Store... seems like a small penance for curbside service!

From the Bistro you have a wall of windows that looks out into the HUGE area with stone fireplaces and is across from the skating rink.. so that is kind of neat!

The store is small compared to the Dallas (1st trip),  Dallas (2nd trip)  and Chicago stores I have been to, but still really big and of course wonderful to be so close!  American Girls stores have TONS of activities that are FREE throughout the week and weekend.. crafts, scavenger hunts... educational events.  Make sure to check out the store calender!

We shopped and then headed to the Bistro for our reservation.  Each girl gets a "doll" chair for her doll and when you are at the table the dolls get a cup and plate.  Emily was so funny because she reached into her pocket and pulled out 6 plastic cupcakes and gave each doll 3-- she sad SHE BROUGHT food for the dolls!  It was funny that she came prepared, such forethought! 

ON the table are a box of cards with little questions that you can pass and around to ask each other... One of my questions was:

If you could have a 100 lbs of anything (besides gold, silver or jewels) what would it be.

Becky and I decided that grass fed ground beef would be a GREAT thing to ask for!

Our waitress was amazing.. so sweet and kind!  I truly enjoyed just being around her for our lunch!

We shared two appetizers.. one was an artichoke dip (which is AMAZING) and the other is pretzel balls (which are REALLY, REALLY good but expensive for the quantity- and in Dallas they come with a cheese sauce, but only a mustard sauce here.)

Emily and Mary Faith ordered chicken tenders and hot dog plate respectively.. both came with seasoned curly fries and a fruit cup. 

I ordered a spinach/ chicken salad with bacon dressing (BOTTLE IT UP, YUMMY) - -because Mary Faith wanted to have some of it.. so we shared.  Becky ordered a Turkey and Cheese Panini...

Everything was delicious and the service was great.. kind of pricey of course but part of what you are paying for is the experience.  It is fun.. just go prepared!  They do offer an afternoon tea from 2-4.  I plan on trying that with the girls next time.

All in all it was great experience.. one I am sure we will repeat. (just not too often!)