Gathered Together

Another week of school done!  I feel like we're nearing the end but that's probably because my focus is turning to the next school year.  :)  We ditched our long desk and got a small table with 4 chairs for school.  I didn't intend to have all 3 kids gathered there for morning work but they really wanted to sit together.  I just love this arrangement much better--seems more home-like and I do like that we can gather together easier.

You can see Lily and Hunter are thinking hard.  :)

Samuel did some fishing in math this week--we are working on subtracting.  He enjoyed this a lot--he likes to be active.  Actually, I like these activities better, as well.  When I sit with him with pencil/paper, it takes a year and a half to go through the problems on a page.  Ha!  Every picture has a story so he has to tell me it and draw on to the picture and etc.  It's very funny and sweet and I don't mind it--but it does lengthen the lesson.  Here's an example of a remark that I jotted down this week because it cracked me up: 

Me: Circle the pictures that start with 'f'.

Samuel: Mom, can I circle the pig?? Because I like pigs--they're squishy."

Ha!  It's an adventure but I'm glad he's free to have some ants-in-the-pants and use his imagination during his school day.

Our Geography curriculum had us in Peru this week but there wasn't enough to do for 5 days so we took a day out to do a continent puzzle (South America, of course).  This was a huge hit!!  We'll have to do the rest of the continents.

For science, we are entering the space portion of our book.  We learned a bit about stars and then made star jars--glow-in-the-dark paint inside a glass jar.  All 4 kids enjoyed this!  It may not have taught them anything about stars but I'm okay with that.  :)

Better Late Than Never

This weekly post is a bit late because it was a busy weekend!  We have a new computer so I had to wait to switch pictures and all that.  But, we're up and running now.  :)  Unfortunately, I've lost memory of last week.  So, here are some pictures:

 

 

Samuel playing a muffin match game to make sure he's remembering the capital and lowercase match.  He did this easily so that's good!

 

Lily working on those multiplication problems.  We are taking a time out from her regular math to do a bunch of multiplication printables to help her out with those facts.  It's tough!

 

Play dough was requested this week...we whipped up an orange batch and it is the best way to pass the time for these boys!

 

The twins worked on making sentences with linking verbs.  English is so fun!  :)

We finished our read aloud (Ginger Pye) and started our new book (The Trumpet of the Swan) so that's always exciting.  We all liked the last book a lot!  We also studied Panama and tornadoes last week.  That's about all I remember.  It's Monday morning...time for a new week!!

100

This week we had our 100th day of school!  We didn't really recognize it much but it's a milestone.  :)  It was a very busy week for us!

We made shaving cream clouds rain:

Nathan painted with shaving cream at the same time.  He thought it was whipped cream so that was a surprise to him.  Don't feel too bad for Samuel--he refused to do either activity.  :)

Making some paper chains to learn about linking verbs.  Fun stuff!

The kids had their dental appointments this week.  They all did a great job but I was so happy with how well Nathan cooperated--I was worried about a biting incident.  :) He celebrated with a snack of giant snowball.  Ha! This kid loves snow.

Samuel had his physical this week.  This was the 1st time he's actually spoken to our doctor and he was pretty ornery, answering every question wrong, intentionally.  Thankfully, we have a wonderful doctor who laughs this off.  :)

On Friday, we had a Valentine party at the library.  Another homeschool Mom that arranges PE and other activities for homeschoolers arranged the event.  The kids enjoyed games, crafts and a movie with snacks (and, of course, exchanging valentines).  It was fun for them!  Since it was at the library, the kids wanted to check books out.  Lily found 8 and read 1 before supper.  She rocks at reading!

Samuel with his pile of goodies.  He shared candy with me so that was nice.  :)

Nathan at the party.  He did pretty well sitting through the movie--although, we did stay in the back.  :)  He had a pretty good time and was so happy to get 4 suckers.  

Hunter focused on decorating his bag when we got home.  He's a budding artist.  :)

This week...

 We finished January up with a somewhat eventful week.  We knew it would be a 4 day week because we were celebrating Samuel's birthday on Friday.  Then, we had a snowstorm that kept Brian home from work so I was tempted to call a snow day from school but I decided we better forge ahead.  However, we did finish all of our school before lunch that day--mainly because Brian was here to help with the one-on-one time.  Then, we had a day where Nathan was very sick with a stomach bug--he keeps me hopping when he's sick because he resists using a bucket or anything like that.  So, it was a full week for us outside of school!

We also did some cloud painting in science.

Samuel practiced his -at words with some really great printables by this blog.

Samuel also made a fraction frog in math!  He loves projects like this.

We studied Brazil this week so we did make a rainforest diorama--not as intense as the curriculum suggested but it looked pretty cool.  It was very interesting to learn about the different layers of the rainforest!

Poor Nathan....sick all morning.

On Friday, we went to Playstation for Samuel's birthday.  Samuel is a Groundhog baby so his birthday was Saturday but I don't like to frequent these kids' places on weekends--too many kids, too many germs.  :)  

The big kids got worn out quickly!

We came back home for presents from us--he voted to open them early since we were celebrating early.

For supper, he asked to eat at the Target food court.  Ha!  I can't say I've done that before but it was fun.  

We also visited Brian's parents Friday night and then, on his actual birthday, we went to my parents' house for a party.  It was a full two days and he was exhausted by Sunday but I think he had a great birthday--6 years old now!!!!!!!!

My Birthday Week

Samuel did some addition with animals this week.  He loves adding the '+' and '=' the most.  :)  He's doing okay with reading--not quite ready to move full speed ahead.  Math, I know I just have to settle in for an extended time because he likes to create an elaborate story and drawing for  each problem.  That's why we sometimes just do math orally.  Ha!

  We were in Mexico for Geography this week!  A coworker of Brian's had given him this children's pottery wheel last year so we finally got it out to try out for our craft.  The kids enjoyed it, I think.  We still have to paint and decorate their pots so no finished picture.

 Keeping Nathan occupied and away from Skylanders is taking some planning on my part.  I got out this Tupperware of beads and it kept him busy but the clean up was a little not fun.

 It was a short week because my birthday was Friday!!  We had the day off of school and Brian took the day off of work--it's kind of a big deal to me and we count it as his present to me.  Lily planned all week to make me breakfast and was even up at 1am to ask Brian if it was time.  She knows I usually just eat fruit in the morning so she created a parfait for me--it had ice cream, apples and peanut butter with a fruit twist sticking out of the top.  

I decided I wanted to take the kids to the Science Station in the morning since we have a family pass and it would pass the time until lunch.  :)  

It was a very fun, full birthday!!  I feel like I must be an adult now.

Saturday, Hunter had his pinewood derby race.  Lily was very supportive!

Hunter's is the car with the Lego guy in it.

The big, horrible news is this guy's hair cut.  Trust me, this is the most flattering picture.  I still really can't talk about it.  I cried forever about his curls being gone and the *mean* hairdresser's attitude about it all.  Sigh.  Just hoping the curls come back--they will, right????? 

Spontaneous

I didn't do so well taking pictures again this week.  My camera is dead and I just haven't taken the time to charge it.  So sad.  I did get 1 picture of Hunter and Lily with their self-portrait they did in art.  So fun!

We had an unexpected day off this week--quite the shock for us because I prefer to have school over not having it--it keeps kids busy!  And I'm pretty scheduled-oriented, although I'm much more relaxed in this 2nd year of homeschooling.  Anyway, we had a rough morning with an erased video game and grumpy attitudes and crying and etc. so we called a family meeting and decided to do double the work the next day (there were complaints the next day but I reminded them of their day of leisure!).  I had the kids help me clean the kitchen in the morning but that was really all the work any of us did.  We popped popcorn and watched a movie in the afternoon--2 kids fell asleep.  It was a nice day--we'll call it a snow day since we don't seem to be getting snow again this year.  :(  Otherwise, a fine week for us all--uneventful....  Next week is a 4 day week, as well, because of my BiRtHdAy!!!!

New Semester

This week signaled the start of a new semester of school with new plans and goals.  It was a long week but a really good one!  We got through all of our schoolwork and adjusted to new rules and routines just fine.  Not school related, we have kicked Nathan's bedtime issues this week.  It feels good!  

Nathan is being nice to Cinders, which is a picture-worthy moment.  He kicked her twice yesterday so, truly, this was a sweet moment.  

Samuel has started All About Reading Level 1 and it is HARD.  He resists the work a little but does well.  We are taking our time through the work--about a week per lesson right now.  He is doing well learning to sound words out and actually READ.  In math, he stared learning about money, pennies and dimes to begin with.  Friday is fun-day so I had him throwing pennies and dimes into a bowl and then counting the money in the bowl afterward.  He loved this game--he has ants in his pants with the longer lessons so it's good to incorporate some movement!

We were in Canada this week for our geography.  We looked online at the hotel made of ice and then tried our hand at creating ice sculptures.  Here the twins are getting ice cubes with food dye ready.

And this shows how entirely horrible it was to put food dye into the water.  Ha!  What a mess!!!!!!!!!!  I didn't think that through.  The 3 of us had green hands for awhile.  But, Hunter enjoyed building and it looked pretty good!  Lily put hers in a pile and called it good (she is my child!).  

Also, this week was the start of extracurricular activities.  Lily does gymnastics in the evening and the boys watched her once and came home begging to do gymnastics.  About that time, my friend, Jess, had asked the owners of the same gym to start a homeschool class so it worked out perfectly!!!!!!  The boys go during the day once a week with my friend's boys so we all have a good time.  There's no other class going on so Nathan has the run of the waiting room so no stress there.  It's really just a perfect set up

*watching their brothers*