Weekly Wrap Up: The One that Almost Didn't Happen

You might be wondering what in the world could keep me from doing my Weekly Wrap Up post?!?!?!?!  Well, let me just tell you - Pinterest.  That is what.  I have a problem.  I will admit it.  I am truly addicted.  There I said it.  However, I was able to pull myself away long enough to prove that we did actually did school this week!  WooHoo!  Go us!

Anyway. . . In History, the older boys finished up Columbus and moved on to John Cabot.  We added his two voyages from England to North America onto our map that we started last week.  Little Man covered Adam and Eve, the fall, the flood, and the tower of Babel.  I mean, he covered quite a bit of time! 

Dalton and Drew are still reading their biography of choice.  Both of them chose a book about Michael Jordan.  They are loving it and so is their dad.  He was a huge Michael Jordan fan when he was younger and so the kids enjoy telling him things that they have learned from their book.  It may not be George Washington or Louis Braille but at least they are reading a biography (that was the assignment) and (gasp) enjoying it!

We had a few moments of peacefulness with everyone working at the table together and not throwing punches  minding their own business.  Here's the proof:

 The bigger boys enjoyed experimenting with different types of bird "beaks."  They quickly discovered that each beak is designed to do specific things.  It really is not that easy to pick up a piece of oatmeal or a frosted flake with regular pliers.  Really it's not.  And, I realized that we could really use some new tweezers, but that is beside the point.

Little man worked on an art project that had us coloring our entire sheet of paper with bright colors.  (Yes, us!  Who said adults can't join in on the art fun?!) Then we colored over it with a black crayon.  We were supposed to be able to scrape the black crayon off to leave a brightly colored design showing through.  "Supposed to" being very key words here.  It didn't exactly work out as planned, but fun nonetheless.  

Don't ask me why, but this kid loves doing his sight words.  He hates phonics.  He would much rather just learn to read with the whole language approach.  I make him do phonics anyway.  Mean, mean mommy.

 I mentioned in this post that I was going to be switching one of the big boys to Teaching Textbooks.  Well, we started this week and we are so, so, so, so much happier.  He is - I am - We all are!  I hope it stays that way!  Dalton is doing his Saxon and Drew has his Teaching Textbooks!

We ended our week with another fun science experiment.  The boys had to guess hypothesize about whether or not salt in the water had an effect on flotation.  One said things float better in fresh water, one said salt water, and little man said it didn't matter.  So, we filled a cup with fresh water.  Filled another cup with fresh water and added 4 tbsp of salt.  (There was salt everywhere!)

 Then we put our egg in the fresh water . . . 

 It sank (sunk?  We aren't there yet in grammar - haha!).  So we put our egg in the salt water. . . 

It floated!  WooHoo!  Conclusion:  Seawater contains salt, which makes it more dense.  This helps animals float better.

Another highlight for this week was getting together with our Boys Only playgroup!  My kids had a great time and mama enjoyed the adult conversation! 

Don't forget to head on over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what everyone else has been doing lately.  Also let me know what y'all have been up to this week!? 

Football is in the Air

Fall is my absolute favorite time of year for many many reasons.  

One of which being FOOTBALL!!!!  I love it and so do my boys!!  My older boys are playing for the Acreage Athletic League and are both on the Washington Redskins.  They had their first game last Saturday and did a great job!  They had so much fun even though it was hot as all get out!  We were winning (6-0), but we had to stop playing because of some lightning.  Drew plays on the offensive line and Dalton plays on both offense and defense.  

I took some pictures of their first game.  Not many though because I somehow ended up being a "water girl." Let me tell you something. . . .that was a hot job.  Running on and off the field, refilling water bottles - Geez, I can only imagine how it felt in all those pads!  By the second half, the older brothers had taken over the water duties - Thank you, Jesus!  They didn't get their uniforms in for the first game so the boys had to wear their practice uniforms.  Hopefully, I will get some pictures of them in their new uniforms soon!

 Cheering on the older Redskins team before our game starts.  

Two really good looking Redskins fans!  :-)

 Getting ready to line up.  They better be scared of those Strickland boys coming after them!

Dalton is looking pretty determined!

Man, I love fall!  Now, just waiting for some Alabama football!!!  Roll Tide Roll!!

 

A Day in the Life

I have decided to link up with the Not Back to School Homeschool Blog.  Today we are posting about a day in the life of our homeschooling family.  What a great idea.  When people find out that I homeschool, one of the first questions is "What is your day like?"  So here is the answer!

6:30 - This is what time I have been getting up to run, have a quiet time, and get ready for the day.  This is kinda new for me, but I really enjoy it.  It is nice to get up and get moving before anyone else in the house!

8:00 - The kids are usually up by now or getting up.  They eat some breakfast and lounge around.

9:00 - School starts.  We start the day with my older boys doing History, Bible, Poem study, and Science with me.  Little man is either just now eating breakfast or playing the Wii.  When the weather cools down, I am sure that he will be outside.

10:00 - The bigger boys do their "clipboard" or independent work.  This includes math facts, handwriting, Daily Oral Langugae, and some reading comprehension exercises.  During this time, I am doing History, Bible, Science and Read Aloud with little man.

11:00- Little man does his "clipboard" work.  His usually has handwriting, math facts, and some math problem solving.  One older boy does his reading assignment for the day.  The other older boy is with me for Grammar lesson, dictation, and Math lesson.  Then we switch!

12:00 - LUNCH!!!!  WooHoo!!!  They usually do this too . . . 

1:00 - This is when I do the older boys read aloud.  Little man sits in while I read.  Then the older boys do their math assignments.  One is using Saxon and one is using Teaching Textbooks.  I am doing phonics, reading, math, and spelling with little man.

2:00 - We are done!!!!

Keep in mind that often times (okay, most of the time), our day doesn't truly work out in perfect hour increments.  There is plenty of time for much needed play breaks.  I mean they are boys for goodness sake!  Also, some days we add in some extras (geography, critical thinking skills, art).  At the end of this month, they are going to be starting a homeschool p.e. class every Wednesday from 1:00-4:00.  So that will mix things up a bit!  But, for the most part, this is how our days go!

Weekly Wrap Up: The First One in Florida

  WooHoo!  Our first week of school is finished!!!!  And, dare I say. . . We had a GREAT week!  I don't want to speak too soon (because, I mean, it has only been a whole week) but, I am absolutely loving our new curriculum, Heart of Dakota.    

  

 This week in science little man learned about creation.  We also talked about how it takes the earth one year to orbit the sun.  We then had our lamp be the sun and little man be the earth.  Every time he went around the sun once, we would scream out Happy Birthday Earth!!  Needless to say, the earth's orbit got faster and faster and faster.  But whatever.  He got the point and had a great time doing it!

 

 The bigger boys are talking all about the ocean for science.  Um, this just happens to work out real nice for us since we just moved about 20 minutes from the ocean.  I see some serious fieldtrips in our future! :-)  They each made a picture showing high tide vs. low tide and the moon's alignment for each.

 I love that the art/hands on activities are already planned out in our new curriculum.  Here, all the boys practiced mixing paint to make different shades of blue and purple and then painted their oceans.

 Here are their finished oceans!  Love them! (And my new refrigerator, but that is for another post)  The other picture is one that little man did.  We talked about collages and then he used black construction paper to cover his other paper.  We talked about how God has always been here even when there was nothing. . . hence the cross in the middle.

 The bigger boys also talked about sinking and floating, Why do some things sink and others float?  So we tested some stuff out.

 They really liked pushing on the ball to feel the water push back against them.

 Here is my Drew man filing his vocabulary cards in his vocabulary box.  His words this week were lamentations, impostors, and stranded.  They had to look up the definitions in our dictionary, copy to a card, and then file said card in vocabulary box.

 Dalton is working on his math lesson on the white board.  Way more fun than stinking ole pencil and paper!

 I have big news in math land.  I love Saxon math.  I have been using Saxon math since we started homeschooling and I plan on continuing to use it with everyone. . . except for Drew.  He doesn't do well with the format and math had become absolute torture.  He hated it and in return I hated it!  I looked and looked and have decided to give Teaching Textbooks a try.  I am so excited.  I already taught all three boys separately for math.  So it is not like adding a different math program will take longer.  In fact, it might cut some instruction time because Teaching Textbooks teaches the lesson.  Not me!!!  Math just comes easier for Dalton than Drew.  Drew makes good grades.  He just has to work much harder for them than Dalton does (in math).  I love that using a different curriculum will take the pressure off of Drew to compete with his brother.  Competition is just built into boys.  At least my boys.  Drew will start Teaching Textbooks on Monday so I will let you all know how that goes!

In history, the bigger boys drew part of the world and mapped out Christopher Columbus's route.

 And last, but not least. . . My little man took his first spelling test.  Well, not really.  It was the first one where he wrote the words out on paper instead of using letter tiles or just doing it orally.  He was so excited and felt so grown!

I love that our new curriculum already has a poem picked out for my bigger boys to study.  This week they worked on Four by the Clock by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  My little man has a "Rhymes in Motion" section everyday.  This is beyond perfect for my super active fellow.  This week's rhyme had him leaping, clip clopping, hopping, waddling, etc. to all the different continents.  So fun!

I hope that everyone had a great week!  Head on over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and see what everybody else has been up to this week!

Day One

Our first day of school for 2011-2012 is done!  It was a great day!!!!  I was beyond ready for some structure and some sort of schedule and I secretly think know that the kids were ready too.

  I am such a list maker, box checker kinda person.  When we finish something, I go over it in my plan book with a highlighter.  This lets me glance and see what we have already done and what is still left.  If we didn't get to it today, then I know what needs to be carried over to tomorrow's plans.  Here is what the two plan books looked like after day 1.  

Just to clarify, I did start a new curriculum this year, Heart of Dakota.  It is an open and go kinda book, but I like to write my plans down in my own plan book!  I know. . . I've got issues.  Here are just a few pics of the boys on their first day.  We did some fun stuff, but I am saving those pictures for another post! :-)

Oh wait. . . A woman that I met in our homeschool group told me about Christian Homeschool Athletic Association of Florida.  (They have one in Texas too)  It is like a p.e. class for homeschoolers.  Ours will meet every Wednesday from 1:00 - 4:00 and the kids will learn/participate in four different sports/activities (archery, track and field, kickball, flag football, basketball, etc.) a month.  We are soooo excited.  I am sure there will be future posts about this little adventure!

Picture Post

*Warning* This is going to be a fairly long post with just about nothing but pictures.  If you are looking for some well written inspirational thoughts then you are seriously at the wrong place.  Not just today.  This is not that kinda blog.  Soooo, consider yourself warned!

This is how our family ate for the past two weeks until our kitchen table was delivered.  Oh the joys of moving!  I am just about at the point of throwing away anything that is still in a box.  Obviously, it is not something that I can't live without.  I can, however, live without boxes.  Ugh!

It was little man's birthday on Thursday.  I can not believe that he is 7 years old.  Where on earth does the time go?  Seriously?  We started his day with cake and chocolate milk for breakfast!  Why not, right?

 Ignore the really ugly island in the background.  We were so ready to move in that we told the painters not to worry about it.  We have the paint, just need to get it painted.  Right after I finish with all these boxes.  Ugh. . . again.

 Oh yes he did.

 Who could be angry at that precious face?  (Well, I can but not on his birthday!)

 Later we met the family for lunch at Gander Mountain.  It is a huge store with hunting, fishing, boating, etc. kinda stuff.  It also has a restaurant attached.  After lunch, Granddad took the kiddos shopping.  Hayden got all kinds of goodies and the bigger boys each got a toy gun.  What is it with boys and guns?

After shopping, we headed over to dad's office for more cake!

We left the office and continued shopping at Sports Authority.  We had to get a helmet for his skateboard that he got for his birthday. 

I know he wanted his day to be all about him, but that just isn't doable when you have two older brothers.  So, we headed off to football practice.  It was just conditioning practice, but it is hard work!

Maybe next time I will have a post with some truly inspiring thoughts and ideas.  Don't hold your breath.  Until then. . .