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. ;)

A good day for condiments and men's body wash!

While I should have been more focused on last minute packing and whatnot for our trip to Gatlinburg, I really wanted to make a run to Kroger before the new sale ad came out. I'm really glad I made the trip...with the children I might add!

2-Triscuits Thin Crisps
1-A1 Steak sauce
1-French's spicy brown mustard
1-Frank's Buffalo Hot Sauce
2-AXE men's body wash
1-Dove men's deodorant
1-Gillette men's body wash
1-Reach dental floss
1-Welch's Healthy Start juice
1-Smucker's Snack'n Waffles
1-Philadelphia Cooking Cream (Santa Fe flavor. There are coupons for this everywhere since it's a new item. Let me warn you that the garlic flavor is not so great but maybe I use it wrong?  Who knows.)

Retail cost: $43.17 +tax
Paid: $14.53 +tax

The numbers are pretty close to my last coupon post. Kinda funny. :) Now it's off to work on a list for shopping tomorrow!

Road Trip USA Giveaway!

I am posting this as part of entering in  a giveaway for this awesome geography curriculum! There will only be one winner, but this curriculum looks amazing and it is not very expensive.  It's available for instant download, CD, and for your co-op or classroom, only $18-$30!!! If I don't win I will most likely buy the instand download.  What would be amazing if I could supplement this curriculum with a real live road trip across the country!!! I get excited just thinking about that.  Maybe in a few years. ;)

Just some thoughts bouncing around...

A lot of thoughts have been going through my head in deciding about curriculum for next year.  It absolutely astounds me everything that is out there, even for 1st grade! Well, then again, a lot of companies have toddler curriculum packages! :) This school year isn't even over yet, but I'm going to try and do school year round.  Take a month off during the summer instead of three--that kind of thing.  We've taken so many breaks throughout the year anyway, so it would eventually add up to three months anyway! The plan is to finish Kindergarten by the end of May/beginning of June, take June off, and start 1st grade within the first week or two of July.  That's the plan, but that doesn't mean it will happen that way. LOL

Now as far as curriculum goes, here's what I have so far:

Math
Spelling
Grammar
Handwriting
Exploring Creation Through Astronomy (haven't ordered yet but very much looking forward to it! Hannah asks different questions about the sun and moon so I thought this would be fun)

The only thing I'm still deciding on is what to do for reading.  I was thinking about using My Father's World, since the readers are all Bible stories.  What a great way it would be for Hannah to learn from God's Word and practice reading at the same time!  A big fear of all homeschool parents is coming to light...spending money on a curriculum that just is not going to work.  I guess I will poke around and look for a good deal somewhere.

I am unsure of anything else really.  I will not have a set curriculum for handwriting, per se.  Through looking at different materials at the convention earlier this month, I got a great idea.  I thought it might be fun for Hannah to make up her own stories, I could write what she says, and then she can copy it.  She can also draw a picture to go along.  I found writing pads just for that purpose at the Dollar Tree!  Love that place!

I guess with anything else I'll just go with what ever peaks Hannah's interest. :) Now for Autumn, I might consider getting her some of the toddler stuff from My Father's World.  They are various wooden toys where she learns shapes, sorting my colors, learning patterns, etc.  I'm looking forward to doing more structured activities with her, school wise.  Confessions of a Homeschooler has this awesome PreK curriculum, but I think it would be best to wait for the year after next. :)

Okay, veteran homeschoolers, what do you think? ;)

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. :)

Your Kids are Always Listening

Numerous magazines have said in some form or another kids are much more intuitive than we give them credit for. They may look occupied, but they are still taking in most of what is going on around them.  We found this out several days ago when we were all in the car.  Hannah had one of her many bears with her, and she was pretending to talk to it.  She started saying something along the lines of "You've been very bad.  You're gonna have some hot sauce."  Ryan and I looked at each other, horrified.  Recently there had been a story on the national news about a woman on Dr. Phil who gave her child hot sauce and put him in a cold shower for misbehaving at school.  I could have been easily watching this on TV, while the kids were playing in the same room without even thinking about it.  We asked Hannah where she heard about the hot sauce, and she told us pretty much verbatim what they said on the news. Wow. She really was listening!   I don't like thinking about my kids having such images in their head.  I know I can't shelter them from the fact there are not such nice things in the world (I talked to Hannah the other day about what is going on in Japan), but I by no means want them to think that this behavior is acceptable.

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!