Odds & Ends

It has been busy around here. The girls left for Granny & Papa's house yesterday. We had co-op this week, grocery shopping, packing and the last bit of school before Thanksgiving Break. It also was the end of our 2nd 6 week period of school. I need to grade Skyeler's Algebra test and print out report cards for my record book. I spent some time shopping yesterday for Christmas. I love shopping for Christmas! Monday I hope to finish most of the shopping. It would be nice to get the house straightened up before we leave for Mom and Dad's on Wednesday. Right now it's in disarray because we were out of the house most of the week. I always have a hard time keeping up with it when we are not in it. You would think that a house would not get messed up if you're not home, but that's not the way it is around here. When we get back, it will be time to begin decorating for Christmas. We are planning to get a real Christmas tree this year. Hopefully, the cat will not want to eat it. He eats the weirdest things. I have some new pictures to post. Dan was trying out his science experiment for co-op and had the girls helping out. I'll tell more about that when I post the pictures. Now it's time to enjoy some hot cider and watch some football. Ah, I love Saturday's in the fall!

Wordless Wednesday

The Monkey

Aly has been wanting me to share her newfound ability to do the monkey bars. These pictures are actually from last month. Dan took her and Skyeler to the park and she finally got the hang of crossing the monkey bars. She badgered me to take her again because I just HAD to see it. She's so proud of herself.

Weekly Report

I can't believe it's been a week since I've updated! It's been a busy week. I am hoping to try a "Weekly Report" at the end of each week. Just getting down on paper (or blog) what we have accomplished during the week.

We began our week with co-op. We have co-op every other Monday. The girls love it but it's a long day. Skyeler has Geography, Science Lab, and History/Government in the morning. Aly has Geography, Science Lab, and Art. This week in Art class we worked with the watercolor crayons again. We are using the Artistic Pursuits K-3 Book 1 for co-op class and the kids are enjoying it. The watercolor crayons were a big surprise. They have very bright colors when painted with water. I hope to scan in a couple of Aly's art pieces soon. After lunch we have Keepers at Home classes and Little Keepers classes, gym class, and clubs. Well, the boys are called Contenders but, poor guys, most of us call it Keepers anyway. Keepers and Contenders are kind of like a Christian Girl Scout or Boy Scout club. For the past three weeks in Keepers class the girls have been learning ceramics from Miss Toni. They have poured the molds, with help, cleaned their pieces, and have now begun to paint. They were supposed to finish painting this week but no one was near to being done so they'll work on it next week. The Little Keepers (Aly, Alan, little Skyler, and Lauren) didn't do any pouring but they did clean a little last time and this week they began painting. Here are Skyeler and Elizabeth painting their pieces.


Aly painting her piece. Both girls are very crafty.

And that was just Monday...whew! Tuesday we voted and took the girls with us. We had to vote with a paper ballot so I was able to share with the girls what it looked like and how I filled it out. We won't talk about who won...we'll just pray. Wednesday we needed a day off. The house had become dirty, the laundry was overflowing, and groceries had to be bought. We decided to make up the day next week, but we've already made up all but math and science for Skyeler.

So here's what we DID accomplish this week...

Aly

Phonics - Explode the Code pages 47-54

Math - Saxon 2 lessons 35-37 - plus 10 numbers, pairs, & inches

Reading - This week Aly read her first "big" chapter book, "The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy Tale Detectives." She has read other chapter books but this one was a biggie, over 200 pages AND small print. She was so proud of herself and so were we. I haven't read it yet, so it is hard to check for comprehension, but I did hear her talking about it with Skyeler and she seems to know what it was about. Brag Alert: I checked it online at Scholastic and it was a level R reader. Aunt Cheryl tests Aly periodically to let me know how she's doing in reading. Aunt Cheryl tested her at level M/N for independent reading in September so level R is a big accomplishment!

Five in a Row - This is our unit study. We read a book for 5 days in a row and pick out things about the book to learn about during the week. This week we finished up "A Pair of Red Clogs." This book was set in Japan and we created a lapbook with some Japanese numbers, a flag of Japan, a map locating Japan, weather words, and and origami piece that Aly made. In fact, she did origami for hours one day. I meant to take a picture of her lapbook and post it but forgot. Maybe next week.

English - Scott Foresman English online pages 45-46 - asking sentences

Skyeler

Science - Apologia Physical Science working through module 5

VideoText Algebra - completed lesson D1, D2 and a quiz

English - Rod & Staff lessons 34-37 and Wordly Wise lesson 6

Literature - reading "Stowaway" which is definitely NOT a favorite. She's plugging along but insists on telling me that she's given it a fair try and she just doesn't like it. I guess she's not into a boy stowing away on a ship in the 1700's. I haven't finished reading this one (the first since we started Sonlight). What I've read is certainly not spectacular.

Latin - Skyeler finished week 3 in the Memoria Press study guide for Henle Latin I. We got our books late for this course,they were on backorder, so we are a little behind. So far, so good. I have no background in Latin so I hope that she continues to understand it. My plan was to study ahead of her, but that didn't last long.

Piano - She seems to be going along at a good pace with piano. She plays by ear so lessons have been a little trying for her. It's good for her though.

Geography - She worked on finishing the labeling for Canada and the U.S., their states, provinces, territories, and capitals. This is for her co-op class that is doing Mapping the World by Heart. By the end of December she will have to map North America and certain of it's features by heart.

Aly & Skyeler

History - we did pages 73-110 in "George Washington's World" this week. Both did a written narration on George III of England. We like the stories in GWW however, we do not like how it hops around just when we are getting into a particular person or event. It's a little hard to follow. It is better than "Augustus Caesar's World" which we read last year for our study of Rome.

Wow! It looks like we did accomplish something this week. Some weeks it is so hard to tell. This was one of those weeks. After reading some other blogs with Weekly Reports, I need to remember to take pictures of the everyday kind of things we do in school. I also want to include some of their narrations eventually. Hopefully, I'll get better at describing what were doing.

Trick or Treat

Thursday was our Trick or Treat night. Aly was pretty excited. Her friend, Skyler, came up to go trick or treating with us. Our Skyeler chose not to dress up this year, though she did don her tiara from the Ren. Fest. She walked around with us carrying a book...she's nothing like me *grin* Last year we went around our block, had plenty of candy, and came home. This year there were not many houses with lights on in our block. We had to walk a little farther to do some serious trick or treating. Aly's face got cold and she started getting slower to go to the houses, so we turned around and headed home. We were out a little over an hour. The girls had fun, though, and that's what it's all about.

Aly as Lucy from Prince Caspian (also her Ren. Fest. dress)Skyler and Aly. Skyler wanted to be a vampire, this was her and her mom's compromise. Check out those teeth. They lasted for about the first street.
The stash! Aly doesn't like anything with nuts so the rest of us get all the Snickers, Peanut M&M's, and Butterfingers. I'm good with that!