Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Buddy's Latest Trick!

Buddy's new favorite thing is standing on whatever he can reach. The poor little boy had an ear infection this week, but after a long wait at urgent care he is feeling a bit better today. My kids love getting sick while our Dr. is on vacation. He also started saying Mama and it is super cute!

So Happy!






Saturday, June 26, 2010

Blog Updates!

I just added a new page devoted to our curriculum choices for the coming year. I'm really excited about our choices, and trying some new things this year. Be sure and check it out at the top of the screen under pages. I'm particularly excited about trying a Heart Of Dakota guide this year, "Beyond Little Hearts For His Glory", and a new math curriculum "Singapore Primary math". I will let you all know how it goes. Our new school year starts July 5Th! I will also be adding in whatever items I'm chosen to review as needed. Just so you know my reviews will be starting in July, and I will post what I'm currently reviewing on the side bar. Also any review post I do will contain a TOS banner.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Weekly Wrap up!

No school this week unless you count VBS. My husband is on vacation this week and we are working on the house. Buster and Sweetpea have been at VBS this week from 8:30-12. I have spent most of the week working on the kids bedroom. My sister sewed the curtains and I painted along with some help from my dad. I was able to get the room finished and put back together this evening. Buster wanted green, and Sweetpea purple so we did both. I will be starting reviews for the TOS crew very soon, so keep an eye out for them. I also sent in my letter of intent to home school Buster last week. I recieved an official letter from the ESD that they recieved it Monday, so now he is officially a homeschooler!

All three in bed!

She loves her new pillow.





Peek-a-boo


Check out my previous post for before shots
Head over to http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/ for more wrap ups.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

House Work!

My husband is on vacation this week, so we are working on our house. The house was built in 1939, and some one remodeled it in the 70's. they slapped up some T-111 over the original siding. My husband and his brother are working together to restore the siding this week.

Here is a before shot of the front of our house.

The guys tearing of the T-111


Looking good ;)


Needs a lot of work.

My sister and I are working on the kids room while the big kids are at VBS.
Here is what the paint looks like now.

The last time we painted was 7 years ago before buster was born. It was fish theme.
Stay tuned for the after shots!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Weekly Wrap Up!

Summer finally arrived last weekend, then it promptly went back into hiding after about three days of sun. We bough the kids a pool, and they had a blast in it all weekend. This week I spent finally doing my spring cleaning. Just in time, because Summer officially starts next week. We didn't do any school this week except for Buster reading Mouse Tales to me. He really enjoyed reading it, but I noticed the level two books are getting pretty easy for him to read. It is about time to jump into some harder books. We are having a garage sale tomorrow, so hopefully we can get rid of some junk, and make some money too. Next week my husband is on vacation, and we will be working on the house. The two big kids are going to VBS in the mornings, and my sister and I are going to work on some projects inside, while my husband and his brother work on the outside of the house. Stay tuned for some pictures to come. I have also been contemplating changing math curriculum next year. I'm still up in the air about it so we'll see.




Head over to http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/ for more wrap ups!

Baby Time!

Our little Buddy is 7 months old now, and is getting everywhere. His favorite past time is scooting around and eating random things he finds.

Little Mozart!



Friday, June 11, 2010

Weekly Wrap up!

I just want to start this weekly wrap up by saying we have had the soggiest spring that I can remember in recent years. Due to that and the fact we are kinda on break the kids have spent far to much time indoor, and in front of the TV. Here is a break down of our week:
Monday: I started the day out with a run in with the kids over cleaning their room, because of that I decided it was time for a media fast. Also I needed to get back to telling the kids once and expecting a response the first time. Once we got through that the day went well actually. Monday was actually a decent day weather wise. The kids spent a bunch of time playing outdoors. The Cicadas were out and we found one that Buster attempted to catch. After that failed I told the kids to pick a flower they wanted to draw. I think they did an excellent job. Other than that Buster read from Owl at Home to me, and the kids played with Cuisenaire rods while I read Jungle book.
Buster's drawing

Sweetpea's

Tuesday: Buster woke me up by reading the rest of Owl at Home to me in bed, since he couldn't watch TV. We spent quite a bit of time outdoors between raindrops, and in raindrops. We also did some fun math together using the new dry erase board I bought. I read some more Jungle Book, and the kids took turns reading. Tuesday evening the kids started swimming, which means we all had to spend about 2hrs at the YMCA.

Wednesday: My sister and her kids came over to play. Buster has been trying to catch snakes all week, and he had to show his cousins their hiding spots.
Thursday: We had another great math session. The kids continued to play outside, and with all their army toys. I found Sweetpea outside chasing Buster around with a greater than less than sign trying to eat him. Gotta love MEP. Buster finally caught a Cicada and got to look closer at it. Once again we had swimming. Sweatpea's class is first, and she swam the width of the pool. Between classes we went to the park for a bit. Then came back for Buster's lessons. Daddy and Buster almost finished Zoology 3. I'm told they will be done tonight.

Friday: Well so far nothing much except playing :)



Be sure and head over to http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/ for more wrap ups


Last Soccer Game!

Buster had his last soccer game on Saturday! He decided that it would be fun to get blue hairspray, so I bought some and sprayed his whole team. With parents permission of course. My husband rocks he did such a great job stepping up as soccer coach. It was a lot of work, but Buster loved it.

Of course the girls had to have some too!





He loves being goal keeper.




Friday, June 4, 2010

Weekly Wrap up!

This week was super wet, so we spent a lot of time indoors. I just recently started going to The Well Trained Mind forum. Oddly enough I have never read The Well Trained Mind. Since then I have seen several discussions on using Cuisenaire Rods for math. I had heard of them before, but never really thought much about them. We have been making a point of doing hands on math over the summer, so I figured why not give them a try. I bought a set off of Ebay for like 12 dollars. It came with rods, a stack of game cards, and a instruction manual. Once I got over the goofy 70's pictures we were off. The kids love the rods especially Sweetpea. We have spent some time playing with them, and doing some of the game cards. Cuisenaire rods are by far the best math manipulative I have used or seen. The learning possibilities are endless, and the kids don't even realize it is school. Other than playing with the rods we have done some MEP (followed by Sweetpea begging to do more), and started reading The Jungle Book. I have been reading A Charlotte Mason Companion, so far it is a great book and I highly recommend it. I also have attempted to get Buster to do narrations this week from The Jungle Book. Attempted is the best word I can use to describe it, so far it is like pulling teeth. I have no idea how to get him to do it right. When I ask him to tell back to me what I have read he will just tell me a handful of key points. I then instructed him to tell it back like a story, and he went into describing the Movie "Jungle Book" instead, which by the way was not like what we had read. If anyone has any narration tips I'm open to suggestions. I was able to get him more into it with "Owl at Home" I had him read the first chapter then I narrated it to him, and then he gave it a go. It went a little better that time, but I guess we just need to practice. I signed both Buster and Sweetpea up for swimming lessons yesterday, and Buster will have his last soccer match of the season tomorrow.

Making pictures with the rods on graph paper.


Counting


Making a staircase pattern



More counting! It was quite funny when I came in the room to Sweetpea playing with the rods yesterday. She had a blue rod(#9) and a white rod(#1)
"Hello 9 I'm 1 if I stand on your head we will be 10" This was totally unprompted and so cute.


Be sure and head over to http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/ for more Weekly Wrap Ups.