I hate when people assume I am stupid...

There are MANY, MANY things in the world that I don't know. Not really because I am not smart enough to know- I mean there are some things I am not smart enough to know, but I mean things I have not taken time to learn it. I haven't been introduced to the topic, I have not studied it or I have NO desire to learn it.

But this does NOT mean I am stupid.

I am so tired of the idea that I am stupid. .

Yes, I use grammar incorrectly sometimes!

On a bad day  I cannot remember the alignment of the planets without say a little diddy (M,V,E,M,J,S,U,P)-- or leave out the P if you must (with all that dwarf planet mumbo jumbo)

I cannot quote from memory how many inches are in a mile. 63,000--- I can't remember the exact number even though I learned it yesterday!

I cannot tell you square root of--- well anything past 9-- which is 3... okay maybe I can go higher than 9 but not by much!

I cannot tell you which nation conquered which nation on the date of 1612, or why!

I cannot quote from Shakespeare besides... Romeo, Oh Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo.

I have never read .

BUT these things do not make me stupid.  Possibly somewhat unlearned?  But not stupid.  What I DO know is HOW to learn!  I know how to look up information and find things out. 

Why is this not good enough for people?  Why do they want you to know the Greek alphabet- alpha, beta, gamma, delta (thank you MUS)

Why am I, a product of the public school system NOT educated enough to teach my kids?  I mean if they are doing such a BANG UP JOB--- what on Earth would the problem be?

I am doing a measurement unit.   Measurement Man.  It is a bulletin board package.  It comes with instructions.  REALLY.  I don't mean ideas to use it with... I mean instructions.

The actual MAN himself comes in five parts: head and body, two arms and two legs. 

BUT yet the paper says- PLEASE REFER TO THE DIAGRAM BELOW FOR A PICTURE OF THE ASSEMBLED MEASUREMENT MAN BULLETIN BOARD

REALLY???

Now the funny thing is that THIS link is a PDF of the same instructions I got in my bulletin pack. EXCEPT  this link does not contain the instructions... Please refer to the diagram below...

So my question is ARE TEACHERS SO STUPID THAT THESE INSTRUCTIONS HAD TO BE ADDED????

REALLY!

Frustration abounds...

So Kaitlin's IEW today was fun. She needed to take a vocabulary quiz.

Here are her words:

reverently
askew
persevere
perilous
endeavor
contemplate
appalled
presume
subside
pillar
frivolous
secluded
resolve
gravity
transfixed


She missed quite a few, but when I asked her questions about each word she knew what I mean.  It is almost like the description they gave were meant to mix them up?  Do you suppose that is true?  I mean is that they want they do on SAT's or other achievement tests?

For instance, the definition of transfixed was motionless with amazement or horror-- she answered appalled.

I told her amazement or horror could be appalled but the MOTIONLESS was her clue word.

Also for pillar-- on her vocab card it showed a picture of an actual pillar-- and it said straight.

But the definition it gave on the test was.. one who strongly supports a cause.
We simply talked about a "pillar" of the community etc.

BUT I don't really understand it.

We will apparently be spending MORE time on vocabulary! 

Should I have her look up each word and write down all the definition?  I don't know how else she could have been prepared for PILLAR?

Hmmmm.

I have thought about adding Wordly Wise with her work next year- actually both Kate and Matt's work.  I figured it was just a simply way to work on their vocabulary!

What do you do???

Kitchen redo...

So we-( my mom helped) painted the kitchen today. We got like 75% done and will hopefully finish up tomorrow!

All my before kitchen shots are actually on my other laptop and I can't get to them, so I did take one shot when we first started painting!

At first it looked AWFUL, but after a second coat I am much happier!

I won't get everything done that I want to this week but I am working on it!  At least the "BIG" painting is out of the way-- I might still paint the window wall the blue color but I am really liking how it is right now! 

Yes, this is my boob!  But please NOTE I am up painting on a ladder.  A high ladder because we have 12 foot ceilings, and I was reaching over and you will see how far I GOT on the next picture!

I got Rocky Road ice cream for a PRIZE for doing such an awesome job and MOSTLY without my husband who was too busy off shooting THIS.

You know because we are all about home defense.......

 

So future plans...

I am going to use a damask print valance over the window. 

I need to repaint all the trim and the cabinets, but it isn't happening right now!  I am happy enough to just get rid of the yellow!

and we are taking off the cabinet doors and I have some baskets for the bottom shelf!

Realization...

Today I had the kids take the trash cans outside and clean them, we use liners but you know it gets dirty down there! So I said go outside and put water in the trash cans, add soap and more water, let is sit a minute and then start scrubbing.

They were aghast.

Me think they need to learn how to work.

I have them do a lot of chores but they don't do the nitty gritty cleaning.

When I was little I remember Saturday being chore day. My mom would make a list for each of us and there were big boxes and when we accomplished the chores we could check them off.

We loved checking them off.

Anyhoo... I know I cleaned out the garbage can a time or two. I know I did plenty of dishes, I know I weeded and I know I wiped down the counters, cabinets and appliances with something-- maybe Soft Scrub?

I know we cleaned out own rooms, I know we did laundry and I know we dusted.

But I cant always remember what we did when.. I mean how old is old enough to do a certain chore?

I used to think when they could do it right-- guess how that's working for me?

I guess it is if they CAN... are they tall enough, are they strong enough, can they reach, can the remember all the steps?

So I was wiping down the wall today because we are painting tomorrow and I had been working hard for about an hour- I was sweating and scrubbing and scrubbing and sweating! Matt walked in the kitchen and said MOM do you want me to work on that? SWEETNESS. I said absolutely, gave him a quick run down on the job and got up to go. I left the room and 5 min later he comes strolling out of the kitchen and I am like ARE YOU DONE? He said yes. I let it go-- I mean truly his heart did mean to be sweet, right?

I went back later and finished up.

Should I have made him to the job right? NO, I don't think so, it wasn't a learning situation, he sweetly asked to help. If I got upset that he didn't do it properly or didn't finish... wont I hurt his heart to help?

On the other hand, shouldn't he learn to do a job right?

SO.HARD.BEING.A.PARENT.

 If all seems so "almost" life and death.

When are we teaching them or not teaching them something that will affect their life long term?

What if that was my moment to teach and I wasted it?

What if I wasted a moment of him learning compassion by teaching?

Tough stuff.

It all boils down to, listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to know when to hold em', know when to fold em' and know when to walk away. (but not the gambling kind- just the theory behind it!)

How do you decide when a child is ready for "x" chore?  Or "x" responsibility?

Weekly Wrap Up--- Week 34

Monday-

I think Kate is over her math hump, I printed out a bunch of worksheets over the weekend for extra practice before we allow her to move on.  I think if she continues doing well with them we will start the next lesson--- I always feel a little stress moving on, because if she DOESN'T have it, there is always a problem down the road. 

We are working on measurement-- we started working on it last week but then got busy so we are putting stuff in practice this week!  I will do a whole post on our measurement unit study....

We started our last science chapter!  WHOO HOO.  --- Growth and Development.
All we have done so far was read the chapter and some copy work.


Emily started cursive-- she has attempting it for a while and just copying Kaitlin so I thought, why not! I printed out these worksheets from Copy Scribe- Colonial Times and Westward Ho. and away she went! I need to also print out a few pages of HOW TO for some letters, right now I am simply helping her form them and teaching as I watch her write. The hardest thing for her seems writing at a slant verses up and down.  I had her turn the paper more, we talked about it and I showed her again and again.  Any thoughts?

We are about done with the memorization in our CURRENT file, I need to add some new ones soon!  I would like to video them saying their stuff, but have a hard time loading any video to blogger!


In Bible we have finished up Solomon, and are moving on to Elijah...

We are continuing our Mozart study--- here is Kate's portrait of Mozart! 

Here is our lap book we have been working on...

In art we used DRAW WRITE NOW to work on a picture of George Washington learning down praying by his horse... Matt was pretty frustrated, but soon changed his tune and just worked at it for a while.  Kate of course is in her element and Emily lost interest after drawing the horse!  :0)

Matt in the car playing my IPhone, waiting for art to be over...

Tuesday---

We did:

math

Science- crossword puzzle

Bible- Elijah being fed by ravens...

afterwards I lost any and all motivation we had!

Wednesday---

Math- Kate went on to her next lesson.. YEAH!  Sigh of relief!

Emily started a new cursive page... slant issue is maybe getting better as she is aware of it!

We finished up Elijah for Bible and watched a movie on King Solomon's Temple being built.

We made home made biscuits that were NOT good, any suggestions or recipe's....?

We worked on Science for a little while, but had to stop to leave for history

History-- we did a review of the articles of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. 

Again little motivation today! 

Thursday---

We NEEDED to start out our day watching Tangled.  It was imperative to my children's well being.  Which was just as well... since I caught up on laundry and some cleaning.  But after lunch we buckled down. We accomplished a lot, which was good as the rest of this week has been mostly a bust!

math

Bible-We went back over our stories for the week and copied a verse. 

Language-- we caught up on FLL but not FLL 3, we also did Writing with Ease. 

Art: learning about Thomas Jefferson and his love of architecture.  He was a huge fan of Roman/ Greek architecture and loved arches.  We attempted to make arches to NO avail, hopefully daddy can help us tonight!

Science- we finished filling out what we had learned in the chapter.  The kids have a movie to watch tomorrow and a science class next week and we are DONE!  Whoop, whoop!  In the course of our talk today Emily inevitably asked some questions that led to sperm, pe*nus and egg talk.  YES, I know.  After I was done, she said, "That is just plain wrong!"

I barely contained my laughter.  I reminded her that it is how God made us and there is nothing wrong about it... but I guess in the eyes of an 8 year it is JUST PLAIN WRONG.

I have these books which each child will read (with me)according to their age level.  Kaitlin has already read her level, but even thought we have had the talk with Matt (a while ago)  and NOW Emily... they will read their own. God's Design for Sex.  Books 1-4

History- the kids are simply reading their books this week.  I am also going through their Light and the Glory activity book and making sure everything is completed- minus the color sheets, we wont make them do that.

We also worked on the Preamble and reviewed the Bill of Rights.

I have a BUNCH of books coming to me from the library!  I have like 19 on hold-  I really don't know what they think about me there!  We are buckling down on our state study.. I am using these two books plus one I haven't finished going through--- for books on each state.

Read and Write Across America studying the 50 states through Literature...

Exploring The United States Through Literature...


We are doing Midwest states first!  I thought about doing a passport through the states, a lap book for each state, note booking.... CANT decide.  Any ingenious ideas?  I just want them to get a feel for what is in each state.  They should KNOW that corn is grown in IOWA, that Mount Rushmore is in South Dakota, that Abe Lincoln came from Illinois- although he was born in Kentucky!  So we are going the living book way and LOTS of movies I think!

Any and all book or movie suggestions are appreciated.  I will just keep a running list going!  I also like the idea of doing a "dish" from that state-- it gets the kids trying new things!  I want to be done with our entire state study by NEXT May, so I have less than 13 months.  I need to have it all planned out though! 

Friday---


We accomplished so much today---

HA!

The kids did two math lessons.

Then I forced them all three outside in the backyard- which weirdly enough I NEVER do.  And that was basically our day!

Oh we cleaned, but I ran out of laundry detergent and PLEDGE so I guess we gotta go to the store!

Hope you all have a more productive week!!!

Helping each other across the miles...

I have plenty of people in my life who do not understand blogging. They just do not get that I would be "friends" with people or share my innermost thoughts on the world wide web. Thankfully my husband understands and even encourages me!

Over the past two days, a fellow blogger- Tristan from Our Busy Homeschool did a post based on some questions I asked in comments. They have really helped put some things in perspective and I feel like things I have been struggling with are being righted! Maybe I am coming out of the fog!

Teaching Them All Together When They Are All Different

Learning As a Family continued

I LOVE the blogging community.  I love that we can help and encourage each other and lift one another up.  I think you are all amazing and I count you as blessings in my life!

Thinkin, Hopin, Wishin and Prayin....

I am THINKIN...

that I have to get back on the band wagon of DOING. I have slacked off A LOT yesterday and today. I mean we got SOME stuff done, but no where near enough! I am thinkin that I need a to do list to inspire me!

I am HOPIN...

that I do better on my budget this next two weeks than I did the last two weeks. I am still reeling from the car situation and just need a little break to get caught back up. But unfortunately there is so much going ON this time of year there is NO break.

I am WISHIN...

that republican RINO's will stop messing around and get down to the business of pushing this country onto the right path that they ASSURED us was going to happen last NOVEMBER when we let them keep their seats. And I am wishin that more people would get that the "DEAL" brokered is NOT a good thing.

I am PRAYIN...

that some things that we discussed tonight will prod us to discover TRUTH for our self and to not rely on what we have been taught most of our life. But that we would read scripture and KNOW TRUTH and have the ability to discern what God meant by what HE said.

I am PLANNIN...

to stay on task with the lesson plans I made so that we can finish up stuff in a timely manner and I wont feel like such a loser.  :)  I am also plannin to paint the kitchen this weekend so I gotta finish TAPIN!

Tired.

I am tired.  I have nothing of any value or importance to say today.  I do not want to get up and get my camera to get pictures off it.  I have no ready to go blog posts that I can just hit publish on.  I am giving you a day of nothing.

But I will quote Scarlett,

".....tomorrow is another day."

American History-- Week 17

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

I am so excited to enter this part of history!

We are still using this book like a spine: A Child's Story of America

Also Veritas Press Flash Cards:

In addition we are reading these books-- they will be read over the next two lessons.

George Did It

A More Perfect Union

SHHHH! We're writing the Constitution

If You Were There When They Signed the Constitution

We also are reading these books on George Washington:

continuing with George Washington's World

Famous Lives: The Story of George Washington

Mount Vernon

George Washington's Mother

George and Martha Washington at Home in New York

George Washington Wasn't Always Old

George Washington A Picture Book Biography

We are memorizing the Preamble.


We learned the rules for the convention for the 16 weeks they were working on the Constitution.

1. Each state (13) got ONE vote.
2. For something to get in the constitution, when it was voted on it had to have the majority, meaning a min of 7 votes or it was a no go.
3. Everything over the 16 weeks was done in complete secrecy--- they could not talk about it.


We learned what each article of the constitution mean.


We learned the first 10 amendments, which makes up the BILL OF RIGHTS.


We also watched a David Barton video called Foundations of American Government

BTW you might want to check out this interview Mike Huckabee did with Jon Stewart.. yes, I know!

  It was really good and he speaks a lot on David Barton, well Mike Huckabee does anyway! 

 It was a good interview!

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

there are three parts to the interview

The kids did a work sheet on the Great Seal and a few other pages from TEACHER FILE BOX

All in all it was a good lesson!  We will continue going over each of these things with our review cards each week!  We would like the kids to know each article of the constitution and the first 10 amendments.

Emily's last meet of the season--- Mini Olympics

This was Emily's last meet of her season. She has 6 more weeks of gymnastics and we are taking a break for the summer-- for both our time constraints and our pocketbook. :)

But she was excited to participate in one last meet! It was held at her gym and it was called a Mini Olympics- although it had a luau theme.. I don't get it but whatever! :)

She was very excited because the shirt lists her name on the back! 

I know the last one is fuzzy.. but I like the motion! 

This was her dismount-- a round off, off the side of the beam, sounds big but it is one of the first dismounts you learn.  She does a round off much better off the beam than she can do on the ground?  I don't know why.

Receiving her award---- always fun!  That is her Coach Keri right behind her, I cannot begin to express how amazing she is with Emily!  I am praying that when we come back in the fall (assuming we do I guess) that she will still be Emily's coach!

and one last stick it for Mommy's sake!  :0)

We will miss gymnastics, but we have been going for a full year now and we just need a little break.  I am thinking when we go back in the fall unless her vision problems make grand advances- among other things... that we will keep her back a level which is a little cheaper and just allow her to have fun and not focus so much on learning her skills but just doing what she loves.  There are some skills that she just isn't showing much progression in and the more levels you go up the more expensive it is... so we can still keep learning and practicing at a less expensive rate.  Which is just fine with us... but I guess we will decide for sure in the fall.
The kids are all three starting swim team next week--- so that is new for us!  It will be an adventure!  So we will be dual (swim, gymnastics and tap) sporting it for a few weeks, but then it will be all three kids in the same thing, at the same time... so that will be nice!

PUT SOME MORE CLOTHES ON!

I am so very frustrated!  I just don't understand.  Dave got onto the NGEN radio last night to listen... for those who don't live here in Houston or don't listen to Christian music it is a conservative radio station for youth--- it just is for a younger generation.  Dave prefers most of the music on this station.

 I am a huge proponent of contemporary Christian music.  I love it, but I was saddened and dismayed to see THIS when I clicked onto the station.  WHY!

THIS IS NOT WHO I WANT MY DAUGHTER EMULATING!!!!  REALLY! 

We have to work SOO hard to fight the worldly influences and we have to fight THIS too.

So frustrating!

Weekly Wrap Up---Week

Monday---

We started off the school day by watching an episode of Daniel Boone.

 

We did :
math,
handwriting,
handed out new reading assignments for the week:

Kate- The Borrowers

Matt-Just So Stories

Emily- The Bears on Hemlock Mountain

Writing with Ease,
FLL2
and FLL3.

We started our next bible lesson: David disobeys God.  I always have a hard time understanding this story!  I know that David was as sinful as I am... but it is just a hard story for me.  I always have the attitude of disgust towards David for "messing"  up the way he did, vs the GRACE God had for David and myself!

We watched this animated video of King David.

We started our next science chapter--- two more to go.  This week we are learning about GERMS!

The books we read for this chapter are:

What Are Germs

I Know How We Fight Germs

Germs by Ross Collins--- very, very cute read!



We went over our history review cards and worked on our states.  We also worked on the presidents!

We also went over the Mozart biography

... I had Kate and Matt read it and we started a timeline of his life.  We also started a lap book

Mozart lap book
Mozart color page
Classics for Kids website

Tuesday---

We did:

FLL2
FLL3
Writing With Ease
Memory Work

Math

Science- we finished up the second crossword puzzle. 

Bible- we finished up the story of David and Bathsheba- I went a little more in depth and had a good lesson on why women should be modest and girls responsibility and boys responsibility to shield their eyes. It was a good talk!

We worked on our Mozart lap book and listened to a few different sonatas  .  The kids seem to enjoy listening!



Wednesday---
We started Solomon in Bible-

We did:

Math

Science class as the museum:
Food Pyramid, Food chain and Dissecting craw fish!  FUN

We started the Magic Flute, but it was in German and we just couldn't do it.  I am trying to order it in English or at least with subtitles.  Dave walked in as we started it and on his way out his attitude was basically.."sorry you are having to go through this Carrie- thanks for educating our children!"

This isn't the one we tried to watch, I cannot find a pic of it.

We also are watching King Solomon's Mines (for fun) but I opted for the one made in 1950.  I MIGHT let them watch the other one but haven't decided.  :0)

Thursday...

We got a late start today... I don't know why, but we did.  It's all good though!  Once we got started we really hit it hard, minus a break for lunch (my mom came to take us out to Hickory Hollow- a favorite bar b q place in the Heights)

We did:

math
FLL2
FLL3
Writing with Ease

Kates vocabulary test for IEW-

Matt started a new book- The Lost World  by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (abridged version)  I think I am going to give him the unabridged one and see how he does...

Matt also did a writing assignment- he didn't finish it so we will show it next week

All three kids spent time on Typer Island:

We also are starting a baking unit, a way to work on measurement with all three kids!  We wont finish it this week though.

In looking for my baking stuff I found this website, it is cooking across America a recipe for every state--- very neat!


We finished up our Science questions ---only ONE chapter to go!!!

We did memorization
Bible- Solomon and his wisdom...

We also worked on our Mozart lap book, we are adding a quick study on terminology for writing music.

Emily is going through her easy readers ONE last time before she gives them away (mommy takes them out of her box!)  She is very excited!

And that was our Thursday!

Friday...

We got up and going.
We left to meet Brenda so she could do a reading test on Emily-- just to see our progression from the last time she tested, which was a little over a year ago.

She has mad GREAT strides and this momma is HOLDER HER BACK!  I need to step up the game for the girls and quit assuming she cant read "x"! 

 While Brenda tested Emily, I got to help Sweetheart (Kaitlin and Sweetheart really did it on their own) dissect an owl pellet and see what the owl had eaten!  YUM YUM!

After our own lunch- of NOT MICE--- we headed to my sisters to do history!

We read the Constitution... yes I know my three children under age 13 having read the Constitution.. SHOCKING!  That might be more than some congressman have done!  :0)  Everything else in history will be followed by a history post--- I've got lots of books to list! 


We finished up our art study of John Singleton Copley.. we are using this book to study American Artist!

We started science at Amy's but really just everyone was done so we will finish the experiment here over the weekend. But we watched THE GERMINATORS

and we are growing back bacteria with this kit from Steve Spangler Science...

We will be able to show our bacteria growth on next weeks wrap up!  AND we will be done with science minus another class at the museum!  YEAH!

SO that was our week-- busy as usual! 

GO check out everyone else's week at Unsocialized Home Schooler!