Week in Review #30 & #31: In a Funk

In the very early hours of May 15, 2011 my nana went to be with the Lord.  Her health had not been very good for a long time, so it was inevitable.  It didn't really hit me until the 18th, but fortunately the girls were distracted by Nick Jr. long enough for me to have a good cry.  When I was 18 I wrote Nana a letter asking her if she was saved and she responded that indeed she was and had accepted the Lord at young age. I am very rest assured she is with Jesus, pointing out her gorgeous great-grandchildren. :)

Absolutely nothing exciting happening on the school front. So ready to be done so I can hit the ground running planning for 1st grade and preschool!! :-D We have one more week. 

For about a minute we thought we would possibly be moving to Virginia where Ryan would have transferred to a new position with his company.  That didn't pan out, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't relieved. I loathe moving.  I get settled somewhere in a routine and then have to start all over again. Ugh.

Autumn is hitting the terrible two's pretty hard lately.  She's always been a bit clingy, especially when we're visiting family, but now she's the same way at home and we're the only ones around. Very strange. She is also throwing very notorious fits over little things.  Going to bed has now become an issue.  We go through her bedtime routine--brushing teeth, reading a story, pray.  Then I leave the bedroom and turn out the light and she starts wailing as if she is so surprised that it's time to go to sleep. Very frustrating, but we just have to push through (or push Autumn through a window, which ever happens first).

Week in Review #29: Short but productive

This week was short and weird. We came back from Clarksville Monday, and then turned around and went back Thursday for my brother's college graduation and commissioning ceremony.  Ryan couldn't come with us for the graduation because he didn't have enough notice to rearrange his schedule at work.  All good, though.  I'm so thankful it is only a 4-hour drive! We basically only did school work on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday.  Got a good bit done, but still just feel off balance.  I'm ready for a new (and normal!) week.

I have drafts about our visits to Clarksville saved. I would love to get those posted some day if I ever get the chance. :-p

4 Subjects, 1 Activity

Hannah started on thank you cards from her birthday party last weekend, and I realized in just doing that we covered quite a few subjects--reading, handwriting, spelling, and etiquette.  Hannah was so thrilled to write them.  "Oh, Mama! That is so polite!"  I was so amused since I remember hating to write thank you cards after my birthdays, but of course I now know the importance of them.

I know etiquette is not specifically a school subject, per say, but there is actually an etiquette curriculum out there for preschool all the way up through high school called The Etiquette Factory.  It goes from table manners all the way up to etiquette for a job interview. I read about it on another blog and I was definitley intrigued. Through day to day activites I tell Hannah what is considered polite and what is not.  

Week in Review #28: A Rainy One

Exactly 25 days to go! :-D We  are in the last month! Now I'm starting to remember what senioritis feels like! Is that weird? You're just ready for the current school year to end so you can start fresh again the following year.  Guess that's true whether you're a student, public school teacher, or a homeschool teacher! A few people  I went to high school with now work for the school system and it seems they are more excited for summer than the students could ever be!

Moving on...

Last week was great for school! I was hoping to get a little bit ahead since we went to Clarksville for a long weekend.  On Tuesday Hannah took it upon herself to do three math lessons and six pages of reading! Three times what we normally do in a single day! I love super motivated days like that. We also started lesson 15 in her phonics book which is the 'v' and 'y' sounds (as in 'happy'). That's a cinch. ;)  Autumn did a lot of stickers, coloring, playdoh, and building with giant legos.  She's definitely becoming more verbal and clear in speaking which is always a good thing.

The weather around here has been so crazy with all the rain and storms.  Tuesday night especially made me a little nervous, but thankfully we did not even lose power.  Our hearts and prayers are definitely with those in Alabama who have suffered tremendous losses. I sure hope this spring weather wraps up soon!

Week in Review #27: The Countdown Begins!

 Is it too late to start a countdown until the last day of school?  ;)  Well, we have a mere 33 days! That's counting weekends since there are some Saturdays when the school mood strikes.

Monday was perfect zoo weather!  Peyton the Polar Bear got to be reunited Hannah while swimming. :) We can never get enough of those bears!  While Ryan was off Tuesday we did some unexpected spring cleaning, mostly in the the kids' room and the school room.  We purged a lot of toys and packed up clothes the girls have outgrown.  The trunk of Ryan's car filled quickly with stuff for the Goodwill!  There were no church activites on Wednesday because of Holy Week (a bit ironic, isn't it?). 

The girls watching Peyton
go for a dip

The books read this week were "Green Eggs and Ham" and "Are You My Mother?" Flipping through Hannah's phonics book I saw that the last few lessons include the ow/ou sounds and the sight words 'should', 'would', and 'could'.  Hannah's already learned those from reading actual books! Sheer awesomeness!

I started writing out the field trips we've done this year.  I'll put down the name of the place and underneath that I'll put the dates.  I'm up to 15 and I'm not even done yet! It's going to be a bit of a pain since I just recently got the idea to do this so I'm going to have go to go through the blog and see when we went to the library and the zoo. :-/

Until I was going through all my pics I did not realize I had
taken this! Love it!

Week in Review #26: "Real" Books

Ryan took the girls to the zoo on Tuesday while I was stuck
at the dentist have a cavity filled...hooray for me. :P

Since Hannah is so far through her phonics book I figured she could handle some "real" books (such as Dr. Seuss).  Well, she actually took it upon herself one day during quiet time.  I give her all the credit! :)  At the beginning of this week she had already read "Go Dog Go!" and "Green Eggs and Ham".  Throughout the week she read "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" (definitely not my favorite Dr. Seuss, hopefully a lot of you can agree). I'm planning on incorporating more actual books for next year along with this thick phonics workbook called Reader Rabbit that's a lot of review and reinforcement of the phonics rules.

Autumn loves doing her puzzles during school time--or "puzz" as she calls them. :) As soon as she got up the other morning she asked, "do my puzz?" For next year I definitely need to get on the ball on more fun things for her during school time.

Speaking of next year, I have decided that no matter what our school year will end May 28th!! I'm sure we won't be done with the phonics book by then, but we should only have a few lessons left. I'm sure I can just roll that right over to first grade. :) Everything else should be no problem.  We will take June off and start first grade in July!!! I'm so excited!!!

I'd really like to do something special for Hannah for doing so well through the year and being that this was our first year homeschooling. Any ideas?

Week in Review #25: Mundane is never a bad thing!

Aside from our adventure on Monday, the rest of the week was unexciting yet productive.  We did the normal things--church, library, school.  We officially started subtraction and it has gone wonderfully! Counting money is still bit of a sore spot, so we're just going slow with that.  Autumn loves working her ABC and number puzzles during school.  I try to make them specifically for school time, and I feel bad when she asks to play them ony other time. We need to get a few more of those things.  I wish Melissa and Doug stuff was a bit cheaper. We were just lucky to find these on clearance!

Early in the week we officially finished our bear unit and made a book of all the species of bears Hannah learned about. She was soooooo proud of it! :) The last section in her geography book is about animals of different continents, so I thought we could make similar books for each continent.

I love routine!

The older I get the more I'm realizing that almost nothing can be planned no matter how hard we try.  Even something as small as a daily routine is better off to just fall together by itself. Here is a look at a normal day of our lives.  This schedule is just what would most likely happen if we didn't have anywhere to go that day (which might happen 2 days out of 7!).

7AM - Kids get up (and in turn wake us) and have breakfast (the kids have been known to pick cereal over pancakes).  Coffee is started immediately!

8:30 - By this time the Today show gets boring so the kids watch Nick Jr. for an hour.

9 - snack

9:30 - play doh or craft

11 - lunch

12PM - quiet time...sometimes I get a sweet surprise and one (usually Autumn) takes a nap. :)

1:30 - Ryan leaves for work

2-3 - School! We usually do at least three subjects--reading, math, and whatever Hannah choose unless there is something in particular we have not done for a while.  Autumn now has her special school time puzzles and what not, so that works out very well.

3-4 - play outside depending on the weather

4-5 - a little more Nick Jr. while I figure out what to serve for dinner

5 - dinner

5:30 - baths after which the girls will play in their room while I watch some news.

7:30-8 - We have a Bible devotional, stories, and bed. The girls go to bed within a half-hour  of each other usually.

8-11 -  I enjoy time by my lonesome, whether it's surfing the net, some housework, watching TV, or preparing something for school.

11 - Ryan gets home from work and we chat about the happenings of our evening while getting ready to go to sleep.

12-12:30 - we go to sleep only to get up the next morning to do it all over again! :-D 

Week in Review #24: Getting Back on Track

We came back from our trip on Tuesday evening, so it was a short week.  Even though it was a short week, we still had our share of frustrations.  Hannah is frustrated with math and simply stopped trying.  I think we are at a point when we need to just stay where we are and work on the subject matter until we are able to move on. It's been a while since we hit a wall in math.  I think we all just felt a bit off since our school week started on Wednesday. Throughout the week we did reading, handwriting, geography, and Hannah officially finished the booklet for her bear unit! While we were in Gatlinburg, we got Autumn some alphabet and number puzzles so she's been working on those throughout the week.  She's also been all about play-doh! I'm looking to having a fresh start on Monday! Guess I should at least enjoy the weekend first. ;)

Week in Review #23: Wow, we take a lot of breaks :-p

The end of this week we are heading to Clarksville basically to drop the kids off with grandparents and then Ryan and I are running away to Gatlinburg (until Tuesday and then we are forced by law to reclaim the children). Should be a great time! Now to just get through the week!

Monday - Zoo day! Ryan is off Sunday-Tuesday so we try to make one of those days a zoo day. The first day of spring was yesterday, so today was pretty crowded. I'm sure it will only get worse as summer comes along.  Is it just me or are strollers getting bigger as time goes on?  We had a bit of frustration (actually a lot) with school work even though we got a lot done. Ugh.

Tuesday - School done by 9:30! Love it! At this point in the year, I am mostly focused on making sure math and reading get done and then Hannah has the floor as to what she wants to do.  Everything but math and reading is almost done for the year (woot!).  We've dived back into her science kit--learning how sun dials and paper airplanes work.  Also, as I was just typing this I hear Autumn scribbling vigorously in the living room and I leap out of my chair expecting the worse. It was just her magnadoodle. A near heart attack wasted. LOL

Wednesday - We had school at the kitchen table since Autumn was already there, contently gluing pom poms to paper.  How refreshing it was to have a change of venue. :) Autumn has just recently taken to coloring books.  She's kind of a violent colorer, as if she's trying to rub out the Care Bear's face.  Pretty funny to watch actually.  During quiet time, I peeked in at Hannah and she had taken it upon herself to get out her phonics readers.  She was reading one about an ape who bakes a cake and places it on a tray. :) Add in church and this day was definitely a winner! 

Thursday - A very uneventful, yet lovely day.  School, crafts, playing outside without getting attacked by wasps, visiting Ryan at work, kids falling asleep quickly after going to bed. I'll take it! Actually I take that back, after going to bed Hannah came into my room and asked me repeat what exactly it means to obey and tell the truth as opposed to lying. Another conversation we have had more than once.  My initial response is to say, "Hannah, you know what it means to obey" but I suppose if it's pounded into her head enough she will follow through when I tell her to do something (which she does most of the time). :)

Friday - We are leaving for Clarksville this afternoon! Ryan traded around shifts like crazy for this trip, so he's currently working the morning shift.  I'm home trying to get last minute packing done. The ideal thing to do would be to have the house all straightened up so we don't come home to horrible mess, but we'll see what happens.  In just this last week we started and finished lesson 12 in reading! I was so thrilled. A nice breaking off point. 

I am currently trying to figure out what exactly we need to accomplish each day if I want the school year to be done by the end of May.  Doing a reading lesson a week would just about cover it, but that's pushing it a little.  If reading crossed over into June it wouldn't be the end of the world.  Geography, handwriting, and early learner are just about finished so I'm not worried about that.  Math has 56 lessons left (out of 160).  So that would average out to be 6 lessons a week which would do just fine. There are 9 or 10 science experiments left to do (out of 25).  Lately Hannah has been asking to do science while I'm still staggering down the hallway after getting out of bed.  I'm sure we'll do just fine. :)

Week in Review #22: Autumn is shaping up!

The pandas have come
to expect us.

 Monday -  School went just fine...just did some math and learned about the Asiatic black bear.  Autumn is definitely coming into her own on the learning curve. I hear her counting to herself, "1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 14! I did it!" LOL She's getting better with colors and shapes as well.  She also still loves packing up a ton of books and dragging them all over the house.



The grizzly feeding was both
adorable and hilarious!

Tuesday - We did reading (finished lesson 11!) and math first thing this morning.  After lunch we made a trip to the zoo and were there a good three hours. We made it in time for the panda and grizzly feedings.  It was cool seeing pandas sitting up, gnawing on bamboo. After we got home we all took a nap, which was simply glorious.  Today was one of those days I wish could happen at least once a week--nowhere important to be, a great time spent as a family.  Very lovely indeed.



Relieved to finally
find some more books
on snakes and sharks!

Wednesday - We went to the library this morning.  Sometimes instead of story time they will have a speaker talk to all the kids about different things.  One week they had a speaker on seat belt safety  and how tall kids should be before no longer needing a booster seat, etc.  This week the speaker talked about the food pyramid and how we all need different colors of fruits and vegetables in our diet. I guess Hannah just heard about the colors because she was excited to tell me that mustard and ketchup were yellow and red.  Not much nutrition there. :-p


She was excited to come
across some board books
she had never seen before

Thursday - Ryan was awesome before I even woke up this morning! I had a hard time sleeping last night, so he took the kids on some errands while I slept in. I woke up at 8:30! That's like sleeping until noon to me! On top of that, the girls stayed with Ryan at work this evening while I went to the gym. Husband of the year! :-D For school we pretty much just did the basics--reading, math, and handwriting.



Showing off her counting skills
for her daddy



Friday - The kids got out in the beautiful weather, Hannah got a new booster seat, Autumn knows what a hexagon is, and we did more school work than I expected.  Hannah read "Go Dog Go" to me and Autumn, although I'm sure she has some of it memorized since I've read it to her so many times. ;) She might have learned some sight words in the process.  This evening the girls also had a "pretend birthday party" for me in their room (my real birthday is in 4 months).  We all had "party hats" which were just random hats (winter caps, Hannah's Mickey ears). They gave me "presents" which were "wrapped" in plastic shopping bags. Very sweet of her to do all this planning. :) We also danced around the room singing silly songs. I wore them out pretty good since they both were asleep within a half hour of going to bed. Woot!

Yay for productive weeks!

Week in Review #21: Cranky McCrank

Monday - We finished school by 8:14 this morning.  I only know that because I happened to look at the clock when I went into the kitchen to get more coffee. We did reading, math review (which Hannah wanted to do a page more than I had planned...always a good thing!), and for geography we did the Africa GeoPuzzle.  We did the Africa workbook pages yesterday when she stayed home from church due to a fever.  Crazy girl.

Tuesday - Another successful school day! We went over  the Europe section in geography and the first thing it said was that Italy was the country shaped like a boot.  That's something no kid seems to forget!

Wednesday -  I started  having horrible tooth pain in a tooth that I know has been needing to get fixed.  Last week I started going to the UT School of Dentistry since we are currently lacking dental insurance.  So far I am quite impressed with the  service and the cost is a third of what it would be at a private practice.  The dental school offers emergency services so I went in this morning.  I got there at 8:30 and left around 11:30.  I initially expected to have a root canal, but the tooth was too far gone that I opted to have it extracted.

Don't let this sweet, happy
face fool you! I think this
was right before the odd
numbers fiasco.

Thursday - A very mellow day which I always welcome with open arms!  Well, Hannah is particularly cranky today.  I asked her to write out odd numbers as far as she could just to see how much she remembers, and you would think the sky is falling.    It's kind of hard to plan school for Autumn's age so a lot of learning is just through play (sometimes that's the best thing!) During Play-doh we unexpectedly went over shapes and she caught on pretty quick!

Autumn loves to make taking
her picture difficult!

Friday - Autumn loves playing the animals match game my mom got the girls.  Except she cheats and turns all the cards over and then matches them. :-p Hannah was a bit of a crank again, so I decided to make next week spring break. I think it's pretty good timing. We'll hang out at home, do crafts, and we might just wear out our zoo membership. :-D That is seriously the best $99 I could have ever spent!  Tonight I made it to thhe gym for the first time in over a week.  My mouth is healing great from my tooth being pulled, and I was in desperate need of pumping up some endorphins.  The girls hung out with Ryan at work and watched Veggie Tales on Netflix.  Happiness was all around!

Mid-South Homeschool Convention

This weekend I went to the Midsouth Homeschool Convention.  They offered many workshops on all sorts of aspects of homeschooling, but I was more excited though about the many many curriculum booths.  I was warned by another homeschool mom to leave  my checkbook at home, but I figured I would take the risk anyway. ;)  Today I browsed through the dozens of booths and looked at a lot of different material.  I will never cease to be in awe over how much is out there!  In the consignment booth, I found a few drawing books, long and short vowel workbooks, 1st grade spelling, and a storybook about a bear who loves to draw (how perfect, right? I read it to Hannah tonight and it's the sweetest story).  I also bought the math curriculum for next year.  We are using Horizons which I enjoy immensely.  Hannah does really well with it, too, and I'm guessing that's important also.  I'm thinking about getting their phonics set as well.  I could go on and on about all the many ideas I have, but I am sure there will be plenty of time for those posts in the future. ;)
I also joined the Memphis-Area Home Education Association which I have been meaning to do for a while.  They have different events throughout the year and even a kindergarten graduation! :-D

I love homeschooling!!

Have I said that already?

Week in Review #20: A Mini Spring Break



Autumn covered with
mud, thus began a messy
adventure

This week actually began on Thursday. Ryan and the kids were in Clarksville again, this time Sunday through Wednesday.  Ryan was wanting to trade in his truck and get a car from the same dealership since he's kept in touch with the salesman, blah blah blah (I won't bore you with that :-p). The car was taking a while to get ready, and we thought they would  be there one or two nights tops.  It was totally fine though, since the kids had a ball with their cousin and their grandparents.  I for one was all by my lonesome, which was alright.  I'm not going to say I totally lived it up but it was definitely bizarre.  Although I forgot how nice it was actually wake up on my own and have some coffee without telling the girls to stop acting psycho! 

The girls loved seein their
cousin!

By Wednesday I was missing Ryan and the girls pretty good.  I was so glad to see them, even though the girls were sobbing something fierce from being so tired.  I can understand that feeling for sure. Autumn had to take a nap the next morning to finish catching up on sleep.  Hannah and I jumped right back into her school work the next morning (Thursday) which was wonderful and productive.  Ryan said Hannah was reading various signs on the drive home like "Wal-Mart" and "Starbucks"...just sounding them out using those handy phonics rules she has learned. ;-D


 Autumn is all about books these days! Makes me want to jump for joy! She will cram as many books as she can in this one basket (which I used to use to keep diapers in) or a tote bag, drag it to either her room or the couch, and sit there looking at all of them.  once in a while she will ask me or Ryan to read one  to her. I have pretty much given up trying to fight her to take a nap so I let her sit in her bed and  look at books, which has gone beautifully!!! So now both girls have quiet time.  Hannah has hers on the couch in the school room since that limits the misbehavior that would undoubtedly occur.  Autumn is now becoming distressed that she can't look at books at bedtime.  I suppose eventually we can work something out to where both kids can look at books quietly for a half hour or so before lights off.

Week in Review #19: Potty Animal

Monday - Ryan and the girls came back from Clarksville this afternoon.  They only went for a night, and I got a little break. So refreshing! They were all beat after getting back, so of course no school.  As for myself, I picked up a few groceries and relaxed at home.  Ryan thought I would go out and get a pedicure and whatever else, but I liked just enjoying being at home in the quiet!

At a rest stop on the way
back from Clarksville

Tuesday - Back to the grindstone. :) Well, a little bit.  The weather was so lovely that all four of us spent a majority of the morning outside.  We didn't start schoolwork until after 3, but we completed reading, math, and spelling.  I even managed to make it to the gym while Ryan took the girls for more outside play!

My mom made this hat! Give
her a holler if you want one!
lafmuch@gmail.com

Wednesday - Angry Birds continues to be the best incentive ever!! Before 8:30 we did reading, math, and geography.  We finished lesson 10 in reading, introduced subtraction (with great success thanks to Inchimals!), and talked about the different parts of North America. We're also trying to bite the bullet and have Autumn only wear underwear around the house to see if this potty mess will start to click. One day last week Ryan asked her if she had to use the potty and she said something along the lines of "It's okay. I have a diaper." This may take a while.  Today was also library storytime and church. I'm finally feeling like we're getting in a routine around here since moving. Feels wonderful!

Thursday - We were a bit more lax on the potty thing. :-/ I've never seen a child look like she's being tortured over this. Of course I've only had two children.  If anyone has any potty horror stories I would love to hear them so I could feel better. :-p Ryan commented today how Autumn's language skills are really coming along. It's like out of nowhere Autumn is speaking in longer sentences, and even my sister said something about that when the three of them were in Clarksville this past weekend. Hannah started lesson 11 in her reading book, which is 'y' ('yuh' and 'eye' sounds) and 'oo' (as in 'moon') plus the sight words 'do' and 'to'. 

Found this game for $3.50 at Walmart!
Supposed to help with spelling, but the
polar bear was the selling point! ;)

Despite the look of fear on her face,
Hannah has been a great
encouragement to Autumn

Friday - Autumn wore pajamas with multi-colored hearts last night, and this morning she started pointing out some of the colors. "Boo art, Mama!" (blue heart, for those without kids :-p) She sat on her potty again, but it seems like overall she's not completely ready.  I guess the best I can do is keep encouraging her and not get frustrated.  Hannah was 3 and a half before she was officially potty trained.  All will be well. Hannah did only reading and math today, which is fine since I like that to be the minimum we do. The only thing we had trouble with was her remembering the months of the year.  We went over the first 6 until she had them down pat, and then started on the second 6.  If anyone knows any tricks or songs give me a holler!

Week in Review #18: Angry Bird Incentive

Monday - Snow just came out of nowhere! We got 3-4 inches! I am so indifferent toward it now. I just praise the Lord I don't have to worry about what the school system is doing! ;)  I gave Autumn a few little sticker sheets to put on paper and she counted them out of nowhere! "1...2...3...three stickers!" I know there are 2-year olds  who can count to 10 or whatever, but I had never heard her do that! I was giddy.
Tuesday - A new rule: no playing Angry Birds until school work is finished! Hannah has gotten to the point where she asks to play it on my phone immediately after breakfast.  Her attitude has also been a bit sour when I tell her it's time to get some work done. I figured this would be a good incentive. It seemed to work pretty well since counting by 2's finally clicked a little and she read 4 pages from her phonics (as opposed to the usual 2).

Wednesday - Everything we needed to get done was done before 9 AM. That's always marvelous.  Reading, math, Early Learner, and making valentines for family. Woot! We got more snow, too, and church was cancelled. Kinda bummed, but it was still nice to just stay home and vegetate. :)  Although I don't think it was anything compared to the snow Clarksville was getting! Thankfully everyone I know and love is fine.

Thursday - Ryan wore the kids out playing in the snow, so I didn't push school work today.  I assumed both girls would have an awesome nap, but they didn't.  I heard them giggling and talking.  I figured as long as they weren't destoying stuff I wasn't going to stress over it. At night Hannah stays up 30 minutes to a hour later than Autumn, and when Hannah went to bed she was actually disappointed Autumn was already asleep.  I guess she was looking forward to one of their chat sessions. :) I assured her that she would have plenty of time to talk to Autumn tomorrow. Too sweet. I'm definitely glad they're sharing a room now.

Friday - I can't believe it's Friday! My days are so mixed up now.  Since starting homeschooling I was already losing track of days, and now with Ryan's work schedule it's become worse.  Ryan is off Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, so those days feel more like the weekend than the actual weekend.  Today was very productive school-wise.  I also told Hannah that she could not play any computer games until school work was finished, along with playing Angry Birds. The games she plays are educational, but that is just considered extra.  We get the main stuff done first and then do the supplements, if you will.  She is all about getting her stuff done so she could play her games, and I am all about making her redo her work if she gets in a hurry and it's illegible. :-p

Week in Review #17

Monday - Today was full of crafts with painting and decorating popsicle frames.  Autumn opted to decorate her frames with stickers which was thrilling for me since that's the cleanest route. :) We also finished lesson 9 in The Reading Lesson! Lesson 10 with be 'er', 'ir', and 'ur' sounds (which are obviously the same :-p).

Tuesday - We went to the Children's Museum of Memphis, which was awesome! See my previous post about that! ;) For school work we started learning about counting by 2's. Looks like I'll be singing that around the house, like I did when we were doing 5's. LOL

Wednesday - We started lesson 10 in The Reading Lesson. Just as I figured Hannah caught on real quick. :) The girls and I also made it to church.  Autumn didn't make a fuss when I dropped her off which I am always thankful for!

Thursday - For geography we started the new section on the oceans and continents.  I really need to get Hannah a globe.  You would think that would have been one of first thing I bought before the school year started. We are just learning where to find the different oceans and continents on a map.  I reminded  Hannah that pandas are from Asia and polar bears live in Antarctica.  She is always excited to hear about that, so  that should be a good trigger to help her remember. :) Hannah went on some errands with Ryan, so Autumn and I went over the alphabet using her magnadoodle (money well spent I should say!).  She also kept asking me to write her name, so maybe before she even knows how to write it she'll know how to spell it. :-D

Friday - We had 60 degree weather a good bit last week and now it's in the 20s again. Very uncool indeed.  With the wind chill the news said it feels like 7 degrees outside. Today was an indoor day for sure!  We went over the four oceans in geography and counting by 2's in math.  Hannah noticed the pattern so hopefully it should catch on quick.  We also made valentines.  I cut out different sized hearts from construction paper and the girls put on stickers and glued on little pom poms. Easiest thing ever! Love it!

This week seemed to really fly by for me.  If I didn't write down everything we do on a daily basis I would think we didn't get anything done. Looking through Hannah's notebook I am pleasantly surprised to see we accomplished quite a bit. I use a composition notebook for each of the girls, and I write in what we did for the day even if it's just a craft or an outing.  In Autumn's I will put down we either went over letters or a particular developmental milestone she has reached. It'll be nice to look back on.

Week in Review #16

 The photo uploader is being so frustrating! I have about three other posts I'm working on right now. Sheesh. :-p

Monday - A very mellow day at home. Hannah practiced her name and we caught up on The Reading Lesson.

Tuesday - We ran some errands and were most excited to find a Cici's Pizza in Memphis. :) It was definitely a favorite for us back in Clarksville. No school work was accomplished today, but I don't think any of us were feeling it.

Wednesday - We touched more on polar bears this morning and I am very glad Hannah was not traumatized in learning that they hunt, kill, and eat seals. I admit I was a bit stunned, but we all gotta eat right? The girls and I made it to church tonight which was wonderful of course. I love the Bringing up Girls class! 

Thursday - I decided Ryan needed to take the girls out for a little date (hopefully too make this a weekly thing to include one on one time) by going to breakfast at McDonald's.  I have a very relaxing morning, watching the Today show and drinking coffee.  Moments like that are priceless.  As far as schooling, we did a couple of math lessons.  I also got to thinking after the kids were in bed that doing school on a whim day to day just doesn't seem to work. I'm going to try having more of a set schedule again--at least a starting time in the morning.  

Friday - I found a bear craft on Teach Preschool, a Facebook page I follow, that gives a visual of a bear's den during hibernation.  Only three materials -- brown paper bag, shaving cream, and Elmer's glue. Such a cinch! If left up to Hannah we would have a whole hibernation village! The kids really enjoyed it, and Hannah made sure the paper bear she drew and cut out was place just right. :) This morning we also caught up on math and reading and went to story time at the library. The craft was painting chopsticks and I was thrilled that the girls didn't make messes of themselves! :)

Week in Review #15



The girls watching polar bear videos

 Our first week in the "new" school room! Very exciting!


 Monday - Hannah learned how to read a calender and caught on very quickly! I had a big blank calender from the Dollar Tree and "laminated" it using packaging tape so we could easily use dry erase markers on it.  Hannah filled in the numbers for January, and now every day we can go over what the date is.



Going over a geography
worksheet about the
different parts of a river



Tuesday - While I was at the gym, Ryan took the girls on a nature adventure around the pond in the backyard.  He said they looked at deer tracks, empty birds' nests, and a couple of turtles wandering around. Ah, the glorious things a homeschooled life is made of! We also finished the third Early Learner book which Hannah scored a 93% on, her best yet!



Deep concentration

 Wednesday - I intended today to be very busy and full of activity but I took a "bad mom" day and let the kids watch a bit too much Nick Jr. :-/ I had taken some Theraflu for my scratchy throat.  It made me sleepy so I opted for a nap instead of the library.  Lucky for me, the kids napped as well!  We did make it to church tonight, which I am pleased to say. Autumn was losing her mind being so cranky, but Ryan was able to get away from work and stay with her for a couple hours. I'm participating in a Bringing Up Girls bible study. I just read the book so I am most excited about this!



Lovin' some school in pjs!

 Thursday - Hannah had the sniffles for the past couple days and now she is starting to get a little feverish. I went grocery shopping so Ryan took over with a bit of school by watching more bear videos on YouTube and building with the megablocks (fattie Legos, I like to call them). I was surprised later when we actually accomplished handwriting, reading, and geography! We also got a good couple inches of snow this evening.  Not too much you're trapped inside, but enough that makes you not want to go anywhere. :)

Friday- A snow day indoors, but Caulfield Academy is still open despite the inclement weather. ;) The snow is quickly melting away, but both girls are still a little sniffly.  In honor of the snowy weather we learned about polar bears.  We even found a  video on YouTube that showed a baby polar bear being born in a snow den! Too sweet!

Yesterday we finally got outside to run around in the snow and to breath fresh air for the first time in a few days. Major cabin fever!

Our New School Room!



View from the couch

 Ryan and I talked about giving it another try having the girls share a room by getting bunk beds in a couple months.  We would then turn the other bedroom into a school room/office.  Ryan got a bit too excited while I was at the gym on Sunday. :-p I am pleased to say that the first and second night with the girls sharing the room was a great success! Of course Autumn going to bed before Hannah obviously helps.  It's only been two days since having an actual room for school, but it is so wonderful! Hannah sits at the desk doing her thing and I sit on the couch in the corner working on the next day's lesson or what ever else. Autumn also has the little table to sit at to play with stickers or color, so it's easier for her to be involved in all the excitement now.

The nerd in me is just imploding! :-D

On another note, I downloaded the coolest (free!) app on my iphone.  It turns pictures to black and white and then you color different parts of your choosing. It's called Color Blast.  So here are some examples of what I did.

Ryan loves me for this :p