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Ok Girls,

What was YOUR week Like?

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This was a rough week for us, it seemed forever getting anything done.
My Kasey did enjoy the history again this week. My dd is not a strong writer, but I've noticed that she's writing very good sentences for the boxes. I love how the questions guide her into building a strong paragraph with all the information she needs to remember for that unit.
We are having to try the clay mixture again (History Project days 2 & 3 CTC), for some reason it wouldn't dry out. We left it out and it just got sticky and gooey. Did anyone else have this problem?
We have, as family, moved the Bible study portion from CTC into a family bible study time. I just love the fact we can sit together two nights a week and do something together.
We did have a good science week with today ending on a fun project making paper airplanes in connection with Wilbur and Orville Wright and the physics of what are the requirements to enable a plane to fly (we are using a different science program). The living room was a traffic controler's nightmare-planes flying in no landing zones (behind the tv and the curtians) and mid -air crashes-
Though Kasey still has to finish her poetry project, the bulk of everything else was done today. Hopefully I'll be able to post her finished picture by Sunday. LOL her motivation--having a Me-maw night tomorrow.
Our Typhoon Tiffy found it hard to be a toddler this week, and I found it hard to fit her in amongst the work with Kasey.
Typhoon Tiffy wanted so much to "do work" like sissy, but just couldn't sit still long enough to color more than a couple scribbles before announcing "All Done!" Then off and running she would go for about 5 min then back she come wanting to sit on Kasey's desk. Yes, on her desk. LOL.

Well, all in all, we made it through the week. God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

I have finished our second week of offically schooling my oldest two. It's been a little rough and honestly I don't see a seperation of normal times and school times. I am trying to have a determined begining (9ish) and ending (3ish). Trying to complete a full day of LHFHG and PHFHG within that time frame isn't easy. We also have a hour for lunch 11-12 and cleaning until 1. I have started school closer to 8 am and still don't get done until closer to 330. My daughter takes awhile to get theru the independent history and science and history art projects. I am going to have to get a timer so she don't take forever. English and math take us at least a forty-five minutes. I do have her reading an extra science text for science since she enjoys science stuff.
My son has and still is being a pistol to schoolwork. I am not forcing his sister to do lessons like him. I wasn't going to do both sides but have decided to do the both sides with him. I have been working longer with him in phonics and I am still working on him listening to books without pictures - Reddy Fox. Give him a picture book and he's good to go and will tell you about the story. Comes to Reddy Fox and he don't know anything so he says. I did make a small break thru with my son on combindning sounds. He still seperates all the sounds but been working harder with him the combinding the sounds. like going from at to mat to sat. e to me to see.
This past week we have learned that we will be moving overseas and hubby has brought up us putting the children into the DOD school because he will be gone more than home. At least stateside I had my parents. We have 17 more weeks before I pack up the books.

http://denofmamabear.blogspot.com/searc ... f%20Dakota

So our first week of Beyond is officially behind us and let me tell you it has been a GREAT week!! We all enjoyed every part of the program!! We are very excited about the history and can't wait to delve deeper into the books! Because I ordered the Helen Keller book late we just began it today and let me tell you it was HARD to put that book down! The girls LOVED it!! The way the questions are set up in the manual makes it so easy to get the kids thinking deeper than I would have on my own! They loved the activity we did about what biographies are!! The story time is going to be a favorite I can already tell!!

One of the great things about HOD is that it still leaves time to do Little Hands with ds!! What peace I have after this week!

http://rubyslippersschool.blogspot.com/ ... begun.html

We have finished up week 3 in LHFHG and are loving it! The girls have really liked the Rhymes in Motion. My oldest has been asking all week, "Are we doing Art today?" So they were thrilled with punching a nail in the black paper today, not only did they do their names but added hearts and swirls all around. We taped them on the kitchen window for the light to shine through.

I have been having them listen to the "Your Story Hour" CD that goes along with the History lesson, hopefully that will help it sink in a little better. I also ordered Abeka 1st grade cursive handwriting for my DD. She was frustrated with the Cheerful Cursive because she already has good cursive handwriting so it was like she was starting over again and then they also were having her write words she didn't know. I have had her do her spelling words in cursive and a little copywork. So, hopefully continuing with the Abeka will be good for her,

I guess the most trying part of the week is the 2 days that I had to work. DH was frustrated because he couldn't figure out what books to use (I'm thinking it is pretty much all laid out!) and then I was frustrated when I came in at 2;30 and they had done reading because he didn't know which books....I said "Did you ASK them?" so we did reading and then I found out at bedtime they didn't do Math....ugh!! I guess the plus side is DH said he is going to have to work really hard to get me to be able to stay home! LOL

I guess I will have to really write everything out for him when I am gone....

The local Christian school started back to school this week. I am thankfully I am not shoving my girls out the door at 7:45 and picking them up at 2:30 and doing an hour or more of homework every night. We usually start school at 9 so that gives us time to get laundry in, dishes done, beds made,etc. We are usually done with school by 11:30-12. My oldest especially has really like helping me with making bread, folding laundry, etc and I am realizing how much more they will learn with being home than at school all day. They also have plenty of time to play and that was her one complaint last year when she was in school that she didn't feel like she had playtime at home.

Misty,
You wrote..."My oldest especially has really like helping me with making bread, folding laundry, etc and I am realizing how much more they will learn with being home than at school all day." These are the sort of things that make keeping your kids at home with you so worth it! I know that not everyone can stay home with their children but when the Lord opens up doors and you are allowed to you will find that schooling at home with your children is MUCH more than what books you use! It's more about the times you share doing things together!!!

What a great start to your year!! And don't worry about the bumps...we always learn and grow from them!!

We have now finished our 4th week in Beyond and Bigger. I can hardly believe it has been a month already! Oh my!

Beyond is still going perfectly. Each day that we read aloud, do history and Science, make something, etc. is just precious. We have had such rich discussion this week about storing up treasures for ourselves on earth. Scotty has really starting thinking about how God wants us to share with others. The tie in of his Bible, History, Science, and even the Early Reader Bible has been so wonderful. I have decided to stop overwhelming everyone with pictures (finally), so I am going to pick only one a week to share from each child's work. Scotty's best work this week was his sweet drawing of himself helping his dad in the garden. He had to draw something that showed him being responsible.
As for Bigger - it has been a challenge finding our groove in regards to my older son. There was a lot that I was doing with him that he really could do alone. I was kind of neglecting the youngest to work with him and then neither of them were finishing school until 3:30 which was wearing on all of our nerves! Yesterday, though, we hit our stride with a new schedule. The highlight is that I work with younger, then older, then finish with younger, then finish with older. That way, no one has to wait a long time for my help and school doesn't take 9 hours a day!

Bryce's best work in Bigger this week was his Science notebooking. We are really enjoying these sheets and he takes the work very seriously and has been doing such an excellent job!

Preparing Unit 5

We finished our fifth unit this week. I can't believe how time has flown by! We are going to be off next week. We're looking forward to that. When we get back to school I'm really going to work on getting up and getting going early so we'll be done earlier. This week just felt like we were in a haze trying to muddle through because we weren't getting started till it was so late. I've got to work on obeying that alarm clock!

The highlight of this week was the cartouche. My dd was sad on the 4th day when I said there was no craft. We read from CHOW and Grandpa's box this week. We also started 5,000 yr old puzzle which was my kids favorite. We read the first chapter of Tirzah today and I can see that I will have to adjust a little to allow more time for storytime now that we're getting into a meatier book. My children were completely quiet and absorbed with the story the whole time (rare). It is an exciting book so far.

For our Science project today we were learning how the waxy coating on the outside of a cactus helps it hold water. We placed two damp paper towel "cacti" on a foil lined cookie sheet. One cactus was in a plastic baggy (no wax paper). We put it outside on the rail of the deck. Later when we came to check on it we had to retrieve our cacti from the pasture (what was I thinking ) but sure enough one was dry and the other still wet.

Hope you all had a great week! I will try to take pictures next unit.

Leah

We just finished our first week of homeschooling...and it went well. I really do think we can do this!

My oldest is using Beyond for 2nd grade. She had been in public school the last two years, so I expect there will be some issues as we transition. One issue I did notice this week was a disconnect she has between school and God...she asked me why we would study the Bible in school. Wow, I was a little taken aback, but sure am thankful that school is now centered around the Lord. She also thought a few activities were going to be "boring"...but by the time we finished them she thought they were great. We both enjoyed our week.

My youngest two will be working in LHTH together, and then ds (5) will be adding math, handwriting, R&S workbook and phonics from LHFHG. We won't start that until next week, though. I didn't want to get overwhelmed. They are excited to start!

I KNOW God led us to HOD, so I had a real peace about starting our first year at home. And I am so excited to continue our journey!

This was our first week of LHTH. We started my oldest with her Kindergarten work last week and I'm glad I eased into it. The first day was really rough. I figured out I really can't do "circle time" like I've done the past two years for preschool because the baby just wasn't going to have it. She demanded to be in the middle of everything. lol... So I'm feeling very blessed with HOD because I can just fit all the boxes it without any of it being real formal. We do extra stuff like math drills, memory verse, flashcards, calendar, and our school prayer before breakfast. I can catch each of the older ones long enough for them to do their pieces while we're all getting going in the morning. After breakfast, we do the fingerplay, Bible story, and however many other boxes that work with the baby present usually ending with music before taking baby up to nap and the bigger girls get a play break in their rooms.

I originally thought I'd need to add crafts every day because "art" wasn't scheduled each day, but I didn't realize most of the activities include gluing, etc that is basically artwork. That has been a big relief to realize. They can do those activities while baby is napping and I can add extra if they want to do more. Like today we looked through magazines to cut out a tree for their number one page, then they happily made collages of things they liked while we had the magazines and glue handy. Fabulous.

I was frustrated at the beginning of the week because it wasn't going as well as I expected. But I started changing my expectations and rearranging my order and it's working itself out. I love this curriculum!

I think their favorite part is the fingerplay. I don't usually do stuff like that so it's been fun for me too. Their memory verse was "A soft answer turns away wrath" which they say "Soft answers turns away rafts" Too funny.

I added sign language to the memory verse so they have a chance to practice that as part of the routine. Haven't figured out a spot to include Spanish practice yet. But we have made huge strides this week to finding a balance that works for us. I'm ready to forget about school for the weekend and start enjoying it again on Monday.

Our First Day with CTC and Bigger
http://daisyhomeschoolblog.blogspot.com ... -year.html

Our Rough Day
http://daisyhomeschoolblog.blogspot.com ... y-day.html

Our Week at a Glance
http://daisyhomeschoolblog.blogspot.com ... 82109.html


I'm looking foward to a better routine this coming week. Public school starts on Monday and so my hubby (teacher) will officially be back at work instead of in and out all day long.

We had an extremely busy first week but I did manage to get 3 full days done of CTC with Big A and finished the first unit of LHTH. Next week I hope to have more pics and descriptions to share Our review is up on my blog:

http://ellischristianacademy.blogspot.c ... eview.html

Our second week was even better than our first. I think we're starting to get into our groove now. We seem to be falling into a pattern of doing five boxes in the morning and four in the afternoon. We're having our outside playtime first thing in the morning right now because it is so hot here! After that we come in and cool off with cold drinks and "sofa time"--phonics, storytime, History, music, Bible (if there is a devotional). After lunch and Mama's rest time and while the little one is still asleep, we do math and handwriting. Then after she gets up we include her in Rhymes in Motion and the Bible memory verse activity or any art project. I love the flexibility of it all. Friday was a bit disorganized (cranky toddler!), and we weren't finished when Daddy got home. So after dinner the kids sang their verse for Daddy and did their rhyme for him. Then I handed dh the book and said, "Here! Do this tower of Babel game. I'm done." I retreated to the bedroom, but I could hear them in the living room learning and laughing together. Lovely.

We took 2 weeks to do the first unit of CTC, but really enjoyed it. Here's a picture of dd's Poetry artwork. My LHFHG guys are really enjoying the Rhymes in Motion and other activities that let them get up and move!

We had an absolutely wonderful, fabulous, oh-so-glad-to-be-back week with HOD this past week!!


We started up on Monday with a bang - (in my nicely organized school room, and newly painted kitchen). I wrapped up the kids supplies and a few of the books. And, we've had fun cracking them open this week.

Grant did Unit 1 of Preparing this week. We love it! I made up a pretty detailed schedule, and so far it's working out great. I think that Grant has been able to finish a day's work in Preparing more quickly than he was finishing Bigger last year. He tends to be one who will let a job f--i--l--l the available time, so giving him an ending time for a subject is keeping our momentum going.
We were instantly hooked on Grandpa's Box - just like all the other Preparing Pals out there. Grant was shouting out the answers to Grandpa's questions along with Marc and Amy while I was reading. We even had a thunderstorm just like they had at Grandpa's shop on Thursday.

Grant really likes being able to work independently on some things. This is going to be something that I know I'll really enjoy watching him grow into. Here is his coat of arms that he made for his history project this week.


For DITHOR, Grant started his biography. (That was one of the 2 genres that we didn't get to last year.) Here are 5 things he used to tell about himself. A pocket knife (He likes tools and weapons.), spy gear (He likes spying and being adventurous.), a play gun (He likes hunting.), wooden train whistle (He likes climbing trees - it really has nothing to do with the "train whistle" part, just the wood. ), and a trophy (He likes working on the dairy farm and taking cows to the fair.) Jed Smith is a prefect book for him to start with!


My favorite part of our days has been the Bible Study. I missed these meaningful conversations from last year. And, we both love the Psalms CD!

Allison and Garret didn't quite finish LHTH last year. We had 3 1/2 units left...so we started out this week right where we left off. They missed it and were glad to dive back in! We talked about Jesus being buried and rising again. I love being reminded of God's great love for us, and it was a blessing to see Allison be so thankful for Jesus' sacrifice FOR HER! Here are a few of our projects to go with LHTH.



We really liked the counting activity that went along with Jesus being buried all alone in the tomb. I hid blocks in the cake carrier. Garret got to count them, and then Allison counted backwards to take them away and leave just one.


Allison is also still doing phonics, and started the Fine Motor Skills and Math boxes from LHFHG. Garret joined us for some of the fun math activities, but he's not doing the workbook or any "writing" yet.

Numbers 1-5 with masking tape, and jumping over the correct number of blocks was our favorite from the week.



We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE school with HOD!!
Kathleen

Kathleen,

Your pictures are wonderful!! The smiles on your children's faces SHOW how much fun they had!!! We love HOD as well!! It's been a breath of fresh air for us!!! Praise the Lord!!! Loved your pictures!!! Hope this week...and the many following...are just as fun!!!