Busiest Week

This was the busiest week ever!  Monday, Lily had her last Upwards cheerleading practice and then Tuesday was the awards banquet.  This is all the cheerleaders--we didn't have great seats.  I did type "Lily" on the pictures so maybe you can pick her out of the crowd.  :)

We also took the cat to the vet on Tuesday and picked her up on Thursday.  She is now recuperating from her spay/declaw.  It's been a little stressful to try and keep her from jumping off of things.  We do keep her locked up just because I'm afraid Nathan was kick her or something.  :)

Samuel had speech, like usual.  She is going through the process of re-certifying him for services.  He has masted the 'k' sound and is working on the 'f' and 's' sounds.  She will be testing him for language pretty soon.  Unfortunately, Samuel was not feeling cooperative this week and refused to speak at all for the last 15 minutes.  What can you do?!

Our supervising teacher made a stop this week to listen to the twins read.  I really wasn't sure where Hunter was with his reading level and he just has some obstacles to learning that make me feel the need to have a 2nd opinion.  After listening to both, she said my challenge is definitely in the vast difference between the 2.  They have strengths and weaknesses, of course, but this was specifically on reading.  The end result was that she gave me some awesome ideas on how to change up the reading for both kids.  She also gave me some resources to look over on how to help kids who learn differently.  Most of all, she told me over and over that Hunter is doing well and I'm doing the right thing with him.  She really is the best encouragement and support in this homeschool journey!  We're thankful for her!

Finally, on Friday, we ended our busy, busy week with a trip to a school musical.  My sister was directing Seussical at her school and we took everyone to see it.  The 3 oldest sat up front with my Mom but they seemed to enjoy it.  Brian and I sat in back with Nathan and he got into it, too.  :)  It was fun for everyone.

Some school accomplished this week:

Samuel was on 'y' and we HAD to do a 'y is for yellow' day because it's his most favorite color in the whole world.  :)  We used these cameras to go on a yellow scavenger hunt.  We found lots of things in the house that were yellow and Samuel actually really enjoyed this.  Yes, I am surprised.  :)

Some yellow painting.  This was fingerpaint but I know how Samuel feels about that so we used paintbrushes.  Later on this day, Samuel was digging in dirt/mud so it's not that he hates getting dirty all the time--just not with art.  :)

Someone that works with Brian sent home this giant pad of paper for the kids.  They've loved having it!  Especially Hunter, my artist.  

And the infamous art project.  We were drawing flowers flowers and then using beans to outline the drawing (there was some point to this but it's lost to me now).  Anyway, these were the projects I was attempting to hang up when I fell off the stepladder.  I am not sure how it happened--one minute I was reaching for the art clips and the next I was down on the ground.  Quite shocking for me and Lily (the only child in the room).  Thankfully, I didn't break anything (I was worried!) but I did somehow injure my calf muscles and now can't put weight on my leg.  No big deal.  :)

And this was my next good buy.  I have always loved grab bags and this is similar.  I peruse used homeschool sites for items I am looking for--love a good deal.  One day, I saw someone was selling a huge list of items for preschool-1st grade and it was really reasonably priced.  I received the shipment today--it was 2 boxes--and it was stuffed full of goodies!  I counted 30-some items.  So exciting to find some treasures in there!

Heat Wave

This has been our weather sign this week!  Sunny and warm in winter!  We've even had to install the air conditioner in the attic because the heat was suffocating!  It's been strange but good!  

We've done plenty of outside play:

 And enjoyed having the porch as an extra play space:

We have fit school in, too! Brian surprised us all with a day off this week so that was exciting!  We went to the library and played outside a lot that day!  

This picture is from our morning time...we have alphabet exercise cards and this week is "Pick your eXercise" so Brian was helping with push ups.  I think Nathan's form is spectacular!

 Also, for the letter X, we made an x-ray craft--that is, everyone but Samuel made the craft because he wouldn't get his hands that messy.  Ha!  I figured it wouldn't go over well!

 We also put together our full body x-rays from the twins' science kit.

In non-preschool news, Hunter and Lily finished their bodies this week!

Lily is just really into reading and we need to hit the library more often!  She finished her assigned book a week early so I showed her the next assigned book.

We did a Friday art project today...drawing/painting herring, according to written directions.  We then looked up online to see what they really look like--our pictures were close!  :)

Finally, the packages have kept coming as I've ordered more and more curriculum for next year {I can't help it--I'm excited}.  This package arrived and I was so impressed with myself (ha!) that I took a picture and Nathan sat down for a chance to smile.  This was an order from goodwillbooks.com.  The shipping is high but the prices are so low that it's worth it.  Each of these books cost me between $1-2 WITH shipping.  Seriously!  That Ben 10 car shouldn't be in the picture.  :)

Another quick week!  The year is winding up--I'm already jotting down goals for the summer and looking at the next school year's calendar.  I do love to plan and it's been a good thing this school year--some things get changed but, overall, it's helped to see where we're headed!

No News

I didn't take any pictures this week! It was a very busy week--literally had something every day outside the house. We got our work done but it was brief! In the past week, I have started receiving packages of curriculum that I ordered so that has been extremely exciting!! Anyway, I thought I would just add the pictures that our friend took of the kids....

Moving into March

Just in case you missed it, this post was written earlier this week...a chance to win an ebook about ENERGY!

Another week of hardly-any-worksheets for Samuel.  I think he enjoyed it but he did cry this afternoon because he said he hadn't done any schoolwork today.  Ha!  We had done a little bit but it was pretty laid back so I got out the workbooks and he kept himself busy tracing and writing numbers.  :)

Samuel sorting fruit with tweezers.  All the kids love this toy/game.

Geoboard work.  Lily is behind Samuel and she worked hard on making everyone's name.  Samuel is showing me "his" boat, which I found out Hunter made.  :)  We made some shapes and letters before this, though!

V was for Volcano this week!  We used up all that homemade play dough to build a volcano.  Samuel enjoyed doing this activity by himself.  The other 3 kids sat at the table to watch and seemed impressed.

Hunter and Lily added many parts to their bodies this week: pancreas, spleen, gall bladder, brain, kidneys, and a bladder.  The body is really filling out but I forgot a picture...we'll be finishing it up soon so I'll take a picture then.  We started a new read-aloud this week and we've all really enjoyed it.  It's The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne and it is our selection for the humor genre.  Otherwise, we talked a lot about the Revolutionary War and George Washington this week.  We ended our week by turning our focus to the Armor of God and there was a craft assignment but I found the cutest art project that we did instead:

Hunter had a math quiz on Thursday (part of his curriculum, Lily uses something else) and only missed one so he was so proud!  He put it up on the fridge, asked me to grade it (A but he added a +) and then wrote that Thursdays were his favorite days.  He then told me that he NEVER got A's at {his old school}...that he only got Bs, Cs and sometime Zs.  Ha ha ha!  Actually, they didn't do letter grades like that but I know what he meant--he feels like he's finally doing well in math!  It's awesome!!

And, we can't forget Nathan.  This is his "I-will-not-give-up-this-ink-pen-without-a-fight" face. 

And, here he is lounging against me, playing with my new iphone.  It's been a fun toy for us all but Nathan constantly tells me "Hewwo!  Hewwo!", meaning he wants my phone.  Ha!  Too cute.

I have been working on a curriculum list for the next school year--many, many people have been forced to read my way-too-organized chart.  :) This week, I started my search of used sites to see what I can find for a better price!  It's hard to believe we are getting close the end of the school year!!

Energy?!

*CLOSED*

If anyone lacks energy, I think it must be me!  Therefore, I was thoroughly excited to see that one of my most favorite bloggers (I'm serious) wrote an ebook about energy.  

Arabah gave me a copy to review and I am starting it today!  I have skimmed it and I was excited about what I saw but today I start to put it into practice.  Anyway, she told me that I could give a copy away on my blog.  I told her that this blog mainly saw traffic from my parents and siblings!  But, I figured it wouldn't hurt to put the option out there.  

If you would be interested in winning a free copy of this Energy Explosion ebook, leave a comment... and if you are the only one that comments--you win!  Ha!

I'll be back in a day or two with a weekly homeschool update...with pictures.