Advent/Christmas!

The Christmas Season is upon us and we have jumped right in! My husband put up our outside lights on Thanksgiving morning so they would be lit for the kids to see when we got home.

Buddy was in awe of them and he fell asleep like this!

 

 We set our tree up on Friday evening! Yes it is quite fake.

 

After daddy put on the lights the kids decorated it all by themselves!

Buddy really got into it!

 

They did a great job!

Daddy has been working like crazy to get a new Advent calendar made before the first, and he has quite the audience!

 

Our old one that he made is getting too small.

Sunday evening we started our Advent wreath!

 

We lit one candle, read a verse and a devotional, sang carols, said a prayer, and had some goodies!

 It was a very wonderful evening!

 One other thing we did was had the kids draw names so they could play Christkind for one another. I found this idea by reading an article about Maria Von Trapp's family Advent traditions. Basically each kid drew a name and is supposed to secretly do kind things for that person throughout the Advent season, and I will have them pick out a gift for that person as well. It has been so sweet to see them so excited to find ways to be kind!

 

Tonight we will start a Jesse Tree Devotional, and on the first we will be opening the little doors for treats and daily activities I have planned!

How is your Advent/Christmas going, and what plans do you have in store?

A couple of things!

I can hardly believe Thanksgiving is in 3 days! I intended to post a Weekly Wrap Up on Friday but I got busy sorting through the kids clothes, my laundry room and our coat closet. It is amazing to me how much clothes, coats, and shoes we have accumulated. We have some very generous friends who are always passing down clothes to us. It felt great to completely go through all the shoes and clothes and take out everything that was too small for all the kids. I now have two bags that I need to donate. I was also able to fill their drawers with things new to us that fit. I only had to buy for Buster, because he was very low on things that fit him. I decided to give the kids this week off of school so I'm spending it in preparation for the Christmas season. Last week we did school as usual and the kids had their last day of Co-op for the fall! We ended with a Thanksgiving feast, and the girls decided they should dress up:

No I did not sew these things we had them. The bonnets came from my sister and cousin, and the dresses were mine. My mommy made them many moons ago!

 

The kids occupied themselves by playing duck, duck, goose while the moms got everything ready!

We ate and then the kids shared some things they had learned. 

I had to take Buttercup to the bathroom when Buster's group went up so I missed them.

I hope you all have a blessed Thanksgiving! 

I will try to write a post soon about our upcoming Christmas/Advent plans!

Airplane Birthday!

Our little Buddy turned 2 on the 9th and on the 13th we had an airplane birthday party! 

He loves airplanes and had been talking about his airplane cake for weeks. My husband and I made this cake for him:

He was so excited when he woke up and saw it! 

I hung up some maps and made this banner for decorations! 

We used my husbands old RC plane instead of a pinata. Inside the treat bags were foam airplanes, and airplanes made from candy(smarties, gum, and life savers.):

Cloud punch and airplane Jello! 

The kids all made passports!

Cake time!

 

Finally he opened some gifts!

Math Mammoth! TOS Review!

I was given the choice of any one of the dozens of Math Mammoth PDF downloads for this review and I chose one from the Blue Series called Multiplication 1. This worktext is intended for grades 2-3 and covers all multiplication tables from 0-12. Multiplication 1 has 2 sections. In section 1 students are introduced to the concept of multiplication through repeated addition, illustrations, grouping, and number lines. The concepts of multiplying by zero, word problems, and order of operations are also taught. In section 2 Parents will find 2 pages of instructions on affective oral drilling and memorization skills(The author Maria Miller suggests doing 2 short drilling sessions in a day for optimal brain function.) After the instructions the multiplication tables 2-12 are taught and drilled. The tables are taught easiest to hardest instead of in order, and students will fill out a multiplication table as facts are mastered. At the end of this 99 page book you will find flash cards for all of the facts. Math Mammoth books are written as worktexts, so there is no separate teachers manual. All of the instructions are written directly to the student, so they can be done as independently as students are able and parents desire. Maria does have some video helps available at her website for parents and teachers.

Math Mammoth sells a multitude of math books for grades 1-6 including their Light Blue series(full grade curriculum), Blue Series(Single topic books for grades 1-6), Green Series(Single topic books for grades 3-7), Golden Series(Single topic books for grades 3-8), Make it real learning, and States by numbers. All of the books are available as a download, or in print from Lulu or Currclick. Multiplication 1 can be purchased as a download for $5.00, or in print for $9.20. If you get the download version you can print as many times as needed within your own family!

Buster was assigned to this review, and I chose this particular book to be used as supplementary practice. He has learned most of his multiplication tables already with our regular math curriculum, but it is always good to have extra practice and drill. Buster did not complain at all about doing this worktext. For the most part he found it easy to follow and understand on his own. I rarely had to explain it to him. The only sticky spot was the number lines. I am not a big fan of them and they tend to confuse Buster for some reason. One  other complaint I would have about the pages I have seen is that they are a bit crowded and not very pleasing to the eye. That is merely a cosmetic issue. The math instruction itself seems very solid and thorough. The best part about Math Mammoth is the price and I will most likely be looking into a few more of these worktexts in the future to be used as supplements!

Be sure to check out the Math Mammoth website for more info, and to request your 300 free sample pages! You can also contact Maria Miller, she is super helpful!

I received Multiplication 1 free of charge from Math Mammoth in exchange for my honest review. No other compensation was given.

Be sure to visit the Homeschool Crew blog as well to see what other have to say about Math Mammoth!

Weekly Wrap Up!

I have a birthday party coming up on Sunday and I really need to actually start getting ready for it! We were able to get pretty much all of our regular school work done, but I'm just going to show you pictures of some of the fun we had. Last Saturday I found this adorable coat for Buddy, and we took some pictures for his Airplane Birthday card!

 

My kids look adorable in a row, and soon they will be 2, 4, 6, 8!

 

We stuffed our OCC Shoeboxes on Tuesday!

 

On Tuesday night I didn't want to stop holding my beautiful 1 year old boy!

 

On Wednesday Buddy turned 2!
We had a cake, but his party will be Sunday.

 

Today my dad went with me and the kids to our Veteran's Day Parade! We also met up with my brother in law and his four kids, and my husband took a late lunch break so he could come for a bit too.

 

Watching the marching band!

 

Sitting with Papa!

 

They released a bunch of Orange balloons for the victims of Agent Orange.

 

After that my camera battery died! It was a great parade though and lasted about a hour and 22 minutes. It was to cloudy to see the flyover though.

Visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to read more weekly Wrap Ups!