10/14/09

Why Sick Homeschool Moms Need Subs

(I posted this for my Yahoo Group friends, but thought my few blogging friends would enjoy it too.)

So I'm on day two of being sick. Worse today than yesterday. Never made it out
of pjs. After my first nap, awoke to find Princess L in this year's Christmas dress. (Yes - we're in that stage.) After second nap on the couch, I discover Princess E had given her sisters ice cream for lunch. After Princess L fell asleep on the couch and Princess M was in her crib, I head to my bedroom for nap number three. Princess S wakes me to ask if she can use the tube of sugar cookie dough. Nope - that's for cookie dough maps next week. When I wake and stumble through the kitchen to the couch, I discover Princess S with her younger sisters making my mom's sour cream sugar cookie recipe - the kind that requires rolling out and using cookie cutters. Not happy because she didn't have permission, but not able to stand on my feet much longer I head to the couch. In and out of my feverish consciousness I hear the following comments:

- No, I couldn't find the baking powder. Well, just double the baking soda,
they're practically the same thing anyway. (Princess S)

- Why can't I mix this? The butter won't mix in. (Me - did you soften it
first?) Nope - just took it out of the fridge. (Princess S)

- We cannot do this with these spoons. We'll have to get out the mixer. No, I
don't know how it works. (Princess E)

- We aren't going to get more than eight cookies out of these. (Princess E)

- Why do these cookies look like biscuits? No - they look more like dinner
rolls. (Princess S)

- They kinda taste gross. Maybe we could melt some chocolate chips on them.
(Princess E)

- Now they look like poop. (Princess L - remember she's four - everything looks like that)

- Mom - I was supposed to put this mixer into the dishwater to soak, right?

So, readers, I rest my case. Homeschool moms really need to hire a substitute
when they are sick.

10/12/09

TOG Year 2 Week 10

Well, we started this week with snow. In October. So much for that global warming argument. Last week, we finished up Unit One. We are now enjoying a one week break doing a unit study on astronomy. I'll post on what we used next week. (Because I'm still not sure what all we will use myself.) Checked out a bunch of stuff so we'll see what we have time for.

Princess E
Latin - Lesson 4.1 to 4.3 and Exercises 4.1 to 4.3
Math U See – Delta Lesson 3
Literature - continue The Door in the Wall
TOG - vocabulary, geography study, important people
Reading - The Story of the Middle Ages (excerpts), The Story of the Crusades, Fine Print
Read Alouds - The Story of the World Volume 2 (excerpts), Famous Men of the Middle Ages (excerpts)
This week we focused on the three Johns - Wycliffe, Hus and Guttenberg. (The latter more commonly seen as Jan and Johannes.) We learned about how the development of the printing press helped to usher in the Renaissance and Reformation movements.

Princess S
Growing With Grammar - Lessons 1.12-1.14
Math U See - Gamma Lesson 8
Literature - Marguerite Makes a Book
TOG and Read Alounds - same as above
Reading - Usborne Internet Linked Middle Ages (excerpts), John Gutenberg and the Amazing Printing Press, The Middle Ages (excerpts)

Princess L
MFW Kindy - begin Lesson 4 - /a/ is for apple
This was a great week to be in this lesson. Because Dad had Friday off, we all went to an apple orchard to pick apples. We went to the same spot we've gone for three years. Good thing we went when we did, as the snow would have probably damaged them if we'd tried to go this week. Hopefully, at the end of this week we will get to make some homemade applesauce, apple crisp, and apple pie.
Math U See - Primer - continue on lesson 9 with place value. It seemed like last week in the middle she was starting to get it a little. Then this weekend she asked me how to write 27 and I asked her how many units and "t's" it had and she couldn't tell me.

Princess M
Trying to stay healthy, as two of her sissies were sick this past week and weekend. Trying to keep her away from them, and them away from her, is always difficult. She has observed her sisters move chairs, or the kitchen stool, around to reach items that we keep out of her reach. She discovered this week that she, too, can move said chairs and stool. So now she can be found grabbing items left high up on the counters or even in the kitchen cupboards. The others didn't do that at this early of an age - but then again, they had fewer other kids to watch do this trick. My life just got harder!

10/3/09

TOG Year 2 Week 9

We have one more week until we take a week's break from our regular school to do a science study. Not sure yet what we're going to do, since we only have a week. I'm thinking of a unit study, but picking between several possibilities. We went to a Medieval Fair at a park near us. It was free! Cannot beat that. The girls had fun seeing some of the things they had read about - or rather realistic replications of them. We saw a sundial and Princess E told me that it was a mosaic. I hadn't even noticed, but I was impressed that she did. Pictures are below.

Princess E
Latin - Word Power B4 & 5, Exercises 3.2 and 3.3.
Math U See – Delta Lesson 2
Literature - continue The Door in the Wall
TOG - vocabulary, geography study, important people
Reading - The Story of the Middle Ages (excerpts), The Story of the Crusades, The Story of Joan of Arc
Read Alouds - The Story of the World Volume 2 (excerpts), Famous Men of the Middle Ages (excerpts)
This week we focused on learning about life in the High Middle Ages. We learned about craftsmen's guilds, the Black Death, the Hundred Years' War and Joan of Arc.

Princess S
Growing With Grammar - Lessons 1.9-1.11
Math U See - finish Gamma Lesson 7
Literature - the book didn't come in from library in time, so we skipped it this week
TOG and Read Alounds - same as above
Reading - Usborne Internet Linked Middle Ages (excerpts)

Princess L
Finish Lesson Three - /l/ is for leaf - we had a drastic change in the weather this week so we really weren't able to do any of the leaf activities as leaves are now browning an falling anyway.
Math U See - Lesson 9 - Place Value - we will be camped out here a while. We've been building with blocks and using place cards. We've played a few games with them. I'm starting to move into asking her some verbal questions instead of just relying on the cards. It's a fine line, with the Primer book, between understanding and overkill.

Here are some of our photos from the medieval fair:

9/26/09

Prayers for Klickas and Ferrises

Got this from Spunky Homeschool.

Two emails from Tina Farewell:

Dear friends,

Bob's in Colorado Springs this week at the HSLDA Leadership Conference...

~ He just called asking for prayer for his dear friend Chris Klicka, who, amazingly, since the sharp downturn in his MS the last couple of months, has been there also. He's been barely intelligible and is, at this moment, was admitted to the hospital, where Bob's been with him praying.

~ Mike Farris is flying home, at this moment, to join his wife Vicky, who is hospitalized and has had a turn for the worse.

Please pray for each of these people and for our nation's Christian homeschool leaders to stand strong against the enemy and to know in their heart of hearts that God is in control!

May Christ's Name be praised!!

Tina Farewell
---------------------
Bob just called with these very urgent prayer requests….

Pray for

~ Pray for the Klicka children who have just been told to come to the hospital.

~ His blood pressure to go up

~ His temperature to go down

~ For his body to absorb oxygen or he won't last for another few minutes and his children won't get to see him again on this side of Heaven…

As Tracy often writes,

Clinging to the Vine!
Tina Farewell

9/25/09

TOG Year 2 Week 8

This was a very fast week. We didn't really do anything extra to make it that way. It just was. Here was our schedule.

Princess E
Latin - Word Power B3, Lessons 3.1 and 3.2, and Exercise 3.1
Math U See – This week she started Delta. She was very excited as she thinks she is behind her public school friends because she hasn't learned division yet. I think she will pretty much fly through this book. As long as she keeps her numbers lined up that is. She did lesson one this week.
Literature - begin The Door in the Wall
TOG - vocabulary, geography study, important people
Reading - The Story of the Middle Ages (excerpts), The Story of the Crusades, Marco Polo: Overland to China
Read Alouds - The Story of the World Volume 2 (excerpts), Famous Men of the Middle Ages (excerpts)
This week we focused on Marco Polo and his family, and the Khan family.

Princess S
Growing With Grammar - Lessons 1.6-1.8
Math U See - Gamma finish lesson 6, Test on 6, begin lesson 7
Literature - Chanticleer the Fox
TOG and Read Alounds - same as above
Reading - Usborne Internet Linked Middle Ages (excerpts)

Princess L
Start Lesson Three - /l/ is for leaf
Math U See - Lesson 9 - Place Value. We will probably camp out on this lesson and the next one for a while. Her sisters had some issues with it, so want to make sure she really understands the concept. We are playing some games with the blocks and some color-coded number cards. She has a real hard time writing numbers yet, so I am having her use the number cards instead of always writing the numbers.

Princess M
Working on transitioning from two naps to one. This will be harder on me than her I think. The problem is that she gets herself so tired out by the time naptime comes around. But then she only takes about an hour to 90 minute nap. And that isn't enough to keep her "happy" until bedtime. Nor is it enough time for us to get school in with Princess L on some days. I don't even remember what I did when the other three were making that transition. It all seems a blur!

We did some hands on fun on Friday. When I was a kid, my brother received the game "Crossbows and Catapaults" for his birthday. It was perfect timing because my parents were having a family room built on to our house. We had this huge flat floor to play on. But then they put the carpet in. We had to play on a large piece of plywood after that. We played it for hours. Two Christmases ago, his girlfriend found that game (now renamed Battleground) and got it for him. So we borrowed it to play this week. There are now many new pieces, as well as new rules. We left out lots of the pieces, and played by the rules we used when I was a kid. We tried playing it on the kitchen table at first, but that wasn't big enough. So we moved the table out of there and played on the floor. They had fun building their walls and hiding their flags. There were two catapaults, a crossbow and a cannon to shoot the chips. It was fun. Here are some pictures.

9/20/09

TOG Year 2 Week 7

This week was the start of Awana! This year I have a third year T&T'er, a first year T&T'er and a second year Cubbie. All the girls were excited to back at it. We had a faster week as we tried to get most of our work done by early Friday morning to get in a swimming play day with some other homeschooling friends. They live in an apartment with a really nice pool. Also on Friday, I planned a spur of the moment birthday celebration for a friend and got to GO OUT WITHOUT KIDS! Y'all don't know how good that is unless you are a homeschooling mama.

Princess E
Latin - Vocabulary B, Word Power B1 and B2 and Exercise 2.4 and 2.5
Math U See –Unit 3 Test and Final Test
Literature - finish Robin Hood
TOG - vocabulary, geography study, important people
Reading - The Story of the Middle Ages (excerpts), The Story of the Crusades, Trial and Triumph (excerpts)
Read Alouds - The Story of the World Volume 2 (excerpts), Famous Men of the Middle Ages (excerpts)
This week we focused on the crusades. My princesses are really not into all the war stuff, so we glossed over much of it. We tried to just focus on the fact that these were religious wars that in many respects are still being fought today.

Princess S
Growing With Grammar – Lessons 1.4 and 1.5
Math U See - Gamma Test 5 and start lesson 6
Literature - The Minstrel in the Tower
TOG and Read Alouds - same as above
Reading - Usborne Internet-Linked Middle Ages (excerpts), Francis: The Poor Man of Assissi

Princess L
Finish Lesson 2 /m/ is for moon. We made the letter M out of Math-U-See blocks. She also did Primer lesson 8.

Princess M
She learned how to say Princess S's name this week, and decided to call her all the time everywhere she went. Princesses S was going a little crazy. It was cute though.

9/14/09

TOG Year 2 Week 6

This last week marked a nice milestone. The public schools opened, which means we no longer have to turn away the neighborhood friend who didn’t “remember” each day that our princesses had school. It also was the first week of high school for my niece. That made me feel older than I’ve felt in a long time. The princesses were motivated to finish their work a little early because we were anticipating a visit from Nanny and Papa – my mom and stepdad. Papa helped them complete their hands on activity for the week – constructing a medieval castle out of boxes and egg cartons. The slideshow is below our list for the week.

Princess E
Latin - Lesson 2.2 and 2.3 and Exercise 2.2 and 2.3
Math U See –Gamma Lesson 30
Literature - start Robin Hood
TOG - vocabulary, geography study, important people
Reading - The Story of the Middle Ages (excerpts), Life in a Medieval Castle, Castle (video)
Read Alouds - The Story of the World Volume 2 (excerpts), Famous Men of the Middle Ages (excerpts)
This week we focused on knights and castles. We learned about the feudal system – which reminded me vaguely of where the American government seems to want us to go again.

Princess S
Growing With Grammar – We started the third grade book this week. Lesson 1.1 and 1.2 (She also worked ahead and did 1.3. Or rather, she was avoiding doing a chore and did it instead.)
Math U See - Gamma finish lesson 5
Literature - The Making of a Knight
TOG and Read Alouds - same as above
Reading - Usborne Internet-Linked Middle Ages (excerpts), Knight

Princess L
We began lesson 2 – /m/ is for moon. We talked about the moon and how we are like the moon. The moon does not have any light of its own, but reflects the light from the sun. We, as Christians, reflect the light we receive from the Son. I had printed out a moon calendar for her to do with Dad, but as luck would have it the first two nights they weren’t able to see the moon. Maybe we’ll have better luck this week.
Math U See – Primer lesson 7 and number writing practice. Princess L really has a hard time making her numbers. I remind myself that she is only 4, and therefore probably doesn’t have the dexterity yet to make them properly. So we just keep tracing the numbers each week to help cement it in. As long as I can tell what number she means to write on her worksheet, I don’t concern myself that it might be backwards. But she is getting the concepts of the lessons and that is what I think is important.

Princess M
We didn’t work on potty training at all this work. I was spending time cleaning some junk drawers. Instead, there were a few books that for whatever reason struck her fancy this week and we read them over and over and over and over.