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 #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!

Week in Review #14



A drawing from this week-
our family watching the
sunset :)

Monday - We started our bear unit which was fun! She wanted to start with the brown bear so we went over some basic facts and she glue together the first page of her bear book.  We also watched some videos on YouTube of brown bears catching salmon. That afternoon we played in the snow, mostly throwing snow at each other.  Ryan tried to rig a sled using cardboard and lids to plastic totes, but to no avail.

Tuesday - Autumn started unofficially homeschooling, I guess you could say.  I printed out some alphabet coloring pages and she scribbles on them and I go over the letters.  Hannah started on her second level of readers! One was about a seal who speeds in a green jeep--obvious the 'ee' and 'ea' sounds.

"holding the book like a teacher"

Wednesday - This became "pandie" day! :) Hannah put together the panda page for her book and we watched some panda videos online. So many people love posting their home movies of pandas at the zoo, but I preferred a more documentary type. I need to figure out some bear crafts to help flesh out this unit, but otherwise it's really fun!

Watching brown bears
fish for salmon

Thursday - Today we are officially halfway done with math!! Very exciting.  Hannah was quite proud of herself. Her math has two workbooks, 80 lessons each and we finished book 1 today!

Off on an adventure!

Friday - Today was quite mellow.  Hannah did handwriting, math, and readiing while Ryan and I straightened up the house to prepare for a visit from my mom, my grandma, sister, and our nice, Emma. (I will be posting about that later! ;D)

Just another reminder also to click the button at the top to help with my ranking! Hope everyone is having a great holiday weekend!