We are a bit low on some staples here. I'm trying to figure out what to make them for lunch. I found six slices of bread, we have lots of peanut butter (no jelly) and three cans of peaches in the fridge.

I made three peanut butter sandwiches, cut them in half to make six ;) and we can have the canned peaches and some grahamcrackers to help fill up those tummies.

Tonight we will go to Braums to stock up on milk, bread & eggs. LOL.

We do have food but nothing that goes together. I could make Oatmeal but we like milk. Noodles but we have no sauce etc.

We kind of make it a little game. I also like to teach that not everyone has food in thier pantry, we need to be thankful for what we have.

Blessings,

Linda<><

It has been some time since I have blogged. Things have been pretty busy here. A good busy though.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving day. Lupe, made the turkey and sweet potatoes. I made stuffing, mash potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole and opened a can of cranberry sauce. Everything tasted delicious. Every year Lupe's turkey gets more and more tender. This year he brimed (think that's what you cal it) the turkey and it was the BEST. I have pictures of it but I'm still trying to figure out this new computer & camera.

Our previous computer was on it's last leg, so as soon as the new Windows 7 came out, Lupe, ordered a computer. Right away Annette, said, "Does that mean we have to stay here an extra month?"

My dad and brother came over for Thanksgiving. My brother didn't eat for a whole day, just so he could stuff himself. LOL.

We are trying our best to get into the CHRISTmas spirit. Sounds awful, I know. We can't find any of our CHRISTmas stuff and a tree won't fit in our apt. house. I know CHRISTmas isn't about decorations and trees but we really enjoy them.

I did get all the CHRISTmas shopping done.

As for school we are chugging along. It's been so cold that I don't want to do school :) but it has to get done. The children can't really play outside too much because it's been so chilly. Today we left the house and it was 23 degrees outside. The air is icy so that is the reason why I don't want the kiddos out. Four of my kiddos have asthma and the chill seems to bring out their symptoms.

The children are all doing fine. Ethan still has eczema around his eyes. He told me that a little girl at church in AWANA asked his teacher why his eyes are like that. I asked Ethan, if it bothered him that people noticed. He replied, "No, not really." I told him if people ask, to let them know it's allergies.

Speaking of church, we really like Wylie Bible Church. The people are very friendly. We have made some friends. Many of them homeschool and the pastor has some wonderful services as well as Sunday School messages. Annette & Caleb joined the choir. They are really excited about that.

Blessings,

Linda<><

I have been doing all my CHRISTmas shopping online. My eyes hurt from the computer. I'm mainly purchasing gift from Vision Forum, Christianbook & Timberdoodle. I'm not getting too many toys but more puzzle type stuff and lots of survival things. My two little guys will have lots of battles with their sword and shields

Well Lance wants to play a game!

Bye,

Linda<><

I was able to purchase MFW Exp1850. I'm so glad, now I can figure out what to do next year.

I am going to read Building a City on the Hill & Trial and Triumph with Josh.

An idea would be to have Josh read; The Last 500 Years, Exploring American History, In God We Trust & George Washington's World on his own. We have the audio cd for Story of the World so we can listen to that. He can also read the read aloud selection from MFW on his own too. I can read all the 2nd/3rd grade supplements along with the two books I mentioned above. About twice a week we can do all the timeline, notebooking, mapping etc. All of us would do Bible together.

We can start our morning with Bible and I  can read anything else that the teacher manual, like notes and such. Then we can all split up. Josh & Annette finish their studies on their own. I can do Phonics with the youngers.

I'm still studying MFW TM but I think I can make it work. Now I need to figure out when to do The Phonics Road, The Bridge & Spell to Write & Read :)

I have some ideas for those also.

• Josh & Annette: Spell to Write & Read do 20 minutes a day. Once the timer goes off, just stop :)
• Caleb & Brent: Phonics Road Level 2 is broken down into three sections; Spelling/Phonics, Grammar & Reading. Each section takes about 20 minutes. Again, I'll set a timer and stop. Whether done with a lesson or not. We can always pick-up where we left off the next day.
• Ethan & Lance: Phonics instruction 20 minutes a day.

If I can stick to the 'times' and not worry about completing a whole lesson I think I'll be okay.

Just recording my thoughts :)

So glad it's Friday (doing the happy dance) LOL. Before I write about our day I wanted you all to check out my sisters blog. She has lots of notebooking pages that she creates. She is way more organized then I  am and creative. Her blog is so nice, clean and organized. She is very talented.

As for our homeschooling day. Today I had Caleb & Brent do copy lesson two from Wheeler's Elementary Speller. Tomorrow I'll have the spell the words orally and write them from dictation.

They also did a lesson from The Phonics Road. We are on week 11. They are doing very well with this program.

Once Josh completes Phonics Tutor. I am looking into Spell to Write and Read for him and Annette.  I actually wanted to get SWR for this year but have always been intimidated by it, but now that I have used The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading I think I handle SWR  I would like to add Annette. She can read very well but I still feel like she needs to go over the spelling rules. Annette started reading in 1st grade and has always been above grade level. Because of this I didn't do a 2nd year of phonics with her. She spells okay and usually misses about one word or less from Spelling Wisdom. I still feel like she should be a bit more grounded in spelling patterns and such. I'm not sure if she came across a difficult word if she would be able to decode it. Also how do I make sure she continues to progress in her reading? I think SWR would help in both areas.

 Nap time is over. Gotta go.

Yesterday we didn't get home until past three o'clock from the doctors office. We were all whooped from shots. Lupe, decided that we should all get the regular flu shot, plus each of us had some other shot we needed. Mine was the flu & Hepatitis shot. Everybody has sore arms or legs today.

I found out I have allergies . I told the doctor that my throat gets a tingly, itchy feeling when I sing at church (hymns) or read to the children. He checked my nose and throat, sure enough I have allergies same as the kids. I took my medicine that he prescribed and it's all ready helping. Who would have thought I had allergies. Bummer!

Ethan, has allergies too. His skin is really dry and around his eyes it's VERY dry. Skin peeling. The doctor said those are all signs of allergies, he is on med too.

I told him I think that Brent might have allergies because he sneezes so much and has had a runny nose for weeks. Sure enough; allergies.

Annette & Caleb has had allergies and are asthma since they were toddlers, so nothing new there. I was surprised about the rest of us.

On the way home we stopped at the flying chicken A.k.a Chicken Express.Now that flying chicken doesn't look too appetizing but the food is actually good

For years I have been wanting to use a homemade shampoo consisting of Baking Soda & Water. I don't like using the shampoos from the store. All those chemicals. Because of the price of Organic and no chemical shampoos I would continue to use regular shampoo. I did buy the 'good' stuff here and there but again the price would drive me back to the chemical stuff. Sometimes the kids would not notice that the shampoo fell in the tub while they were bathing. By the time I found it half of my expensive shampoo would be gone.

I am finally taking the plunge!!! I haven't used store bought shampoo or conditioner for a month.

When we ran out of conditioner over a month ago, I decided to try using a vinegar rinse instead. I have tried before but never stuck with it for more than a few days. I mixed equal parts of vinegar and tap water. I used white vinegar because we didn't have Apple Cider Vinegar. I'm going to purchase ACV tonight and try it.

I also purchased a shampoo bar from www.virginiasoapsandscents.com The bar of soap is wonderful. I lather it up in my hands then wash my hair with it. Our bathroom is small and doesn't get much ventilation, so my shampoo bar is going faster then normal :( Next week when my bar is gone I'm going to use the Baking Soda & Water shampoo. I'm going with In A Shoe's recipe; 1quart water and 1/2 cup of baking soda. I don't have hard water but I'm still going to boil the water the water then add the baking soda. Let it cool and add to a container. Again I'm taking In A Shoes's idea and putting it in a liquid dish soap container.

With using the Shampoo bar (soon to be baking soda/water) and my vinegar rinse my hair looks so nice.

I have frizzy curly hair.I don't brush it during the day because, well, think afro. It gets very tangly. I have to take a shower everyday because once I brush my hair out it's just so frizzed.

 I have tried many products and spent lots of $$$ trying to control my frizz. I was even going to get it straightened at a salon. My scalp use to itch all the time. I would use Head & Shoulders (I know, major chemicals). Now my head doesn't itch. My scalp feels so healthy. My hair looks great, I even go to the mirror just to stare. I love my hair now. Almost all my life I couldn't stand my frizzy our of control curly hair.

Regarding the vinegar rinse. You have to stick with it. At first my hair felt tangly and yucky. I'm so use to the conditioners and how it detangled and felt silky. The first two weeks are the hardest.

My morning routine:

• Brush hair before jumping into the shower
• Wash with shampoo bar or soda water
• rinse with vinegar/water rinse. At first I  was using 1/4 cup of vinegar & water. I think that's a bit much but my hair didn't dry out. I would put it in a cup and gather my hair (med-long) pile it, pour some of the vinegar rinse, let hair down and pour the remaining vinegar rinse. Massage and rinse. Most people use a spray bottle but I don't have one thus using the cup. Again, most people don't use that much of the vinegar rinse but it's worked for me. Eventually I'm going to use honey bottle (the honey is almost gone)
• At the end of my shower I squeeze all water out of my hair and use Olive Oil as a leave in conditioner. I put about a quarter size in the palm of my hand, rub with other hand  and finger it through my hair. Wrap hair in a towel. Once I'm done dressing and such I let my hair out of the towel pin my hair back and I'm done.

Currently I am using Olive Oil but I have read that Coconut oil works well too and I ordered some to try.

Here are some links I found that may be helpful:

•  Simple Mom
• Natural Homemade Hair Conditioner
• Nature Moms
• How to Go No Poo
• Dandruff Remover (this is probably why I don't have an itchy scalp. 
• Another Poo Free site.
• Hair Conditoner-Honey you can click on the link but I'll put the instructions here too:

  Mix 1/2 cup honey with 1/4 cup olive oil. (Use 2 tablespoons of oil if you have normal to oily hair.) Using a small amount at a time, work mixture through hair until it is evenly coated. Cover hair with a shower cap; leave on 30 minutes. Remove shower cap; shampoo well and rinse. Dry and style as usual.

• Here is another Honey Conditioner this one uses buttermilk.

To add some shine mix TBS honey to 4 cups warm water. Work through damp hair. Do not rinse out.

Honey Deep Conditioning 1TBS honey & 1TBS Olive Oil, mix and warm in microwave to melt. Apply to hair. Leave in for 30 minutes then rinse out.

Next I'm looking into a face cleanser consisting of olive & caster oil

This morning Josh and I were able to-replace our spacers with wires. We both have braces on our upper teeth. He chose a nice blue and I went with a light pink. Wasn't too painful, thank goodness. Just feels like I have yucky, gunky stuff on my teeth. I'm sure I'll get use to it.

Joshua, is a trooper. He didn't want braces at all. He's doing great. No complaining or anything.

We didn't get too much of our school done. I did give everyone a lighter load then usual. This week is pretty busy. Today we got our braces on, tomorrow my Sweets & I go for blood test and Thursday we all have our yearly doctor appointment. Lupe, took Thursday off because by the time we are done with our doctor appointment half our day is gone. We are blessed to have a doctor who will see our whole family in one day. When we were first looking for a family doctor; not many would see us all. They would say the most we can schedule is three or four a day. Well, that doesn't work for us.

Since we moved our doctor is an hour away but worth it

My boys are so into the outdoors survival stuff. They enjoy anything army or Daniel Boonish :) Yesterday, Josh was practicing his knife throwing skills. Oh, my children are growing up.

I found some nice stuff to get the boys at Vision Forum. The only thing I don't like about ordering from VF is the 8% tax. I paid over $15.00 in tax. Oh, well, I did have a 20% off coupon and that helped. It's about the only time I buy from VF because of the tax thing. I know, cheap, cheap as my dad would say.

Our school year is going great. Everyone is happy with their curriculum. Not jumping for joy but happy.

Math Mammoth is working out great. I'll have give a review sometime. Character Quality Language Arts is working well with Caleb. My only problem is we take a little longer to finish a week. I try to sit with him everyday but sometimes things come up. Yesterday my dad came for a visit (he usually stays for 4hrs.) today Caleb has a headache and has been sleeping all day. There goes two days of CQLA.

This year I'm not stressing about our weeks. I'm taking one thing at a time. As long as we are making progress in our studies, I'm not going to lose sleep ;) With Social Studies/History & Science I figure if as long as we finish over 75% by the end of the year we'll be a-okay. I remember when I was in school, we hardly ever finished all our workbooks/textbooks. Actually, I don't remember finishing any of them. My SIL's kids are in PS and they never complete every page either. Besides my children have already been exposed to a lot more history then I ever was. Same with Science.

With math, reading, grammar and writing I'm a bit more strict. We continue some of this through the summer.

Blessings,

Linda<><

Today Caleb and I  worked on his first outline using CQLA. It was so fun to do this with him. I really enjoy my time teaching Caleb. We read a picture book on David & Goliath. We had to write the title, author and when it was published. He then had to give a short summary which I wrote down, we wrote the main characters and the plot. Next wee I think we will finish it.

Caleb doesn't like reading the same passage everyday of the week but hey, it's life. We read the passage. He had to highlight the main subjects. We used an orange highlighter. He really enjoys using highlighters. Makes it more fun than just underlining or circling .

On the Well Trained Mind forum someone mentioned that they use Elementary Speller by William Henry Wheeler, so I took a peek and loved what I saw . I thought I would add it to our homeschool. Today, Brent & Caleb copied the first half of the poem, underlined the vowels and illustrated it. I love how Caleb, put different layers of soil. He made top soil and other layers under it. Brent, made a picture of a seed sleeping deep in the soil. Next week we will finish copying the poem and illustrate how the seed will wake.

Here is the first half of the poem: In the heart of a seed,

                                                             Buried deep, so deep

                                                              A dear little plant

                                                              Lay fast asleep

Caleb & Brent also finished Week 10 of The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading. They still need to practice some words but I think they will be ready for week 11 on Monday. I keep their spelling list on the wall and through out the week I drill them (weekends too). The list hangs in the kitchen so it makes it easy to remember. I just call out, "Brent, how do you spell house?"

Something great is happening at the Beltran house. Caleb is a reader. He is reading books. Yesterday he said, "Mom, the reason I don't read very well, I think it's because I'm not desperate to read."

He has not been interested until now. He wants to work at Yellowstone National Park when he grows up . He knows if he is going to work there that he must know about the plants, animals and so forth. Now he is interested in reading about animals. Yahoo! He has been reading Christian Liberty Nature Reader.

I'm so much more relaxed than I  was with Josh. I look back and see how stressed out I  was with Joshua. Feeling he was 'behind'. I know I did a real disservice to him. I see how I was shoving so much curriculum down his throat trying to keep at 'grade' level with his peers. By doing so I think I hindered him more than anything.

 As we all know, each child is so different. We can read books like The Well Trained Mind or Never Too Early which promote early reading or Better Late Than Early or School Can Wait which is more for waiting until a chld is older. And to make it more confusing they all have their research to back-up their book. You get pulled in so many different directions. Unfortunately I found  books that were bent toward reading early. I panicked when Josh wasn't reading at an early age.

It seems my boys aren't in the 'early' category and I'm fine with that now. We still start phonics instruction in 1st grade but I don't expect them to 'get it' all at that age. I see with my boys that phonics and all the spelling rules is very overwhelming for then at that age. Even though I  would love to get phonics over with and be done with it after 2nd grade  that it's not happening here. My boys need to continue their spelling & phonics instruction. I'm so thankful that we found The Phonics Road. This seems to be what we need. It's not cartoonish or anything, so even though the program is technically for 1st grade, my 3rd grader doesn't feel that it's babyish. No cute little animals or title. The binder cover actually looks more for the mature and grown-up .

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Some of the things the children are up to these days.

1. Joshua, is making a rope from plastic bags.
2. Annette, is writing down all the states & capitals as well as the state birds.
3. Caleb, is reading and loving it!
4. Brent, loves to copy maps
5. Ethan, continues to catch lizards.
6. Lance, loves to act like he is reading.

Blessings,

Linda<><

So many things going on. Christ-Centered Phonics is going well with Ethan. A little bit slower than I hoped. There is so much to cover in this curriculum. We are going over suffixes, and some spelling rules.

Ethan is six years old but like the rest of my boys at this age, some of this just flies over his head. Since he will eventually use The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading I am not having him master everything. It is a lot. I'm mainly concentrating on the phonics portion  and of course  Bible.

We usually start with going over the flashcards, then practice some blends and go over our Bible lesson. We are suppose to do a lot more but if we did EVERYTHING that is in the teacher manual; it becomes to much and Ethan gets bored. Once we are done with what's in the TM then we do the workbook pages. He enjoys the workbook. It takes us about 30 minutes. If we did everything it would be longer and we would have to break up our day.

Other times, I'll do flashcards, blends and so forth one day and do the workbook pages another. It depends on our day and how much time we have.

Regarding MFW Exp1850; I mentioned that I am not going to combine, well that is not set in stone. I would like Annette to use MFW Exp1850 in 7th grade & 1850 to Modern times for 8th (like I have it planned for Josh) so if we combine than she would be done. I know I'm making it more complicated than it needs to be, but we are not your average MFW users. As you know for the last two years we have been using textbooks . Anyway, I'm fine if we combine or not. For today it looks like we won't combine. I might find something that will be around the same time period for, Annette.

To complicate things more, I might combine my three youngest with Josh, since it's kind of like they would start Adventures. I have all the books because we used this with Josh, Annette & Caleb three years ago.

Why am I even thinking about all this? It's only November. LOL. I think it's because I want to  pre read the books for MFW Exp1850, so it's got me thinking about the rest of the clan . Also Annette & Josh work well with workboods/textbooks but Caleb I'm not so sure. For some reason Ii can't see him sitting with his textbook. I think it's because he is still learning how to read. When we did MFW Adventures Caleb really enjoyed the States sheets. I am sure he would love to go through Adventures again.....

That's it for now ;)

Blessings,

Linda<><

Interesting. Something that many of us already see.

http://downloads.cbn.com/cbnnewsplayer/cbnplayer.swf?aid=9425

Josh & I got our spacers on today. Josh was not happy about it. He still does not want to get braces. I told him, 'tough Twinkies" he still getting them .

Two of my spacers already busted. I'm going to have to go back tomorrow. Bummer! I haven't had anything hard or sticky. Some noodle soup, cookie & scrambled egg.

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Regarding school; I think I have decided not to combine everyone with My Father's World Exploration to 1850. I have thought hard and long about this and would like to combine them for History, Science & Bible but I can't see when I can pull everyone together. I am going to do Bible together though. We can do that first thing in the morning like we do now.

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Today, my dad came by. He loves visiting he grandchildren. I usually have the children do a lighter load of schoolwork on Monday because most times my dad comes and he stays for four hours. As long as we get math and language arts done with some reading we call it a school day. 

The children still need to finish. once quiet time is over they'll finish their school.

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The children like Time4Learning. We use it basically for Language Arts only. The program is great but I don't like how much time the children are spending in front of the computer. Annette, Caleb & Brent each spend about  20-30 minutes on their lesson and 20 minutes at the playground. The playground is online games. Some are educational and others are just for fun. Normally this would be okay since the first half is learning. What I don't like is Lance & Ethan watch all three of them. If you add that up it's a lot of watching the computer. For me computer is equal to T.V. time. I feel like half of Lance & Ethan's morning time is in front of the computer watching their siblings. I am not sure but I might pull the plug on T4L.

Annette, is doing well with it and she is the one I  mainly wanted it for. I asked her if she would still like to continue with T4L. She said either way is fine. She prefers T4L because she does not have to write. She did complete all of Level 3 and has started level 4.

Caleb & Brent REALLY like it. I do like all the phonics review. Maybe we'll continue with if for this year or half the year

I don't have time to reread my post today, so I'll have to check for mistakes later.

Blessings,

Linda<><

I know I'm hopeless, it's only November and I'm getting ready for next year. I have been racking the brains of my sweet friends at My Father's World forum. I had it all figured out for Joshua's 7th grade year.

• My Father's World for Bible, History & Read Aloud
• Apologia Science (as recommended by MFW)
• The Bridge to the Latin Road
• Character Quality Language Arts for spelling, grammar review, writing. I will omit the editing, all optional exercises since he will be getting some heavy grammar using The Latin Road.
• Progeny Press Guides or Christian Light Education
• Math Mammoth

I was going to have Joshua, use MFW Exploration to 1850 on his own. I would order this early and pre read the books so I can discuss them with him. I could write out everything he needs to do in his student planner.

I have been chatting with the ladies on the MFW forum and they have suggested I combine all dc for Bible, History, Science, Read Aloud using MFW Exp1850.

BUT here is my dilemma; I plan to use The Phonics Road Levels 1 & 2 and The Bridge to the Latin Road. These are all mom intensive. They can not be done as independent work. It would take me about three hours to get through it all.

• The Bridge 40-60 minutes (Josh & Annette)
• Phonics Road Level 1 20-30 minutes   (Ethan & Lance. I might also wait another year, depending on Lance how mature he is and how far Ethan has gotten with Christ-Centered Phonics)
• Phonics Road Level 2. (Caleb & Brent) There are three parts or sections and each takes about 20-30 minutes 

If I combine when would I ever get to MFW?

I do want to continue with The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading. I already see improvement in Caleb's & Brent's reading & spelling. I think it is worth the time and effort.

The Bridge to Latin Road is also something I don't want to give up. I truly believe it will give Josh & Annette a strong start in grammar. It looks to be a very solid program. I also want to use The Latin Road for High School credits (can't believe I'm talking about high school credits)

I still have the rest of my children's subjects. Annette, can do a lot on her own. Not sure where Caleb & Brent will be regarding reading.

I'm thinking out loud here. We can all do MFW Bible together in the morning. Do The Bridge with Annette & Josh so they can be set loose to finish their other subjects after we are done.

After that I'm stumped . I think that once I have the Teacher Manual for MFW Exp1850, I can get a better handle on how to accomplish everything. I can figure out if it would be better for Josh to do MFW on his own or if we should combine.

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Today we went to Mr. Jim's Pizza for lunch. We actually picked it up and took it to the park. It was pretty windy. The leaves where falling everywhere. Pretty but some of them hit your face pretty hard.

The children had fun playing. I was busy looking at the Scope & Sequence of CQLA & The Bridge. trying to figure things out. We then came home and the kiddos are napping and here I am.

As for school I still need to correct papers but other than that we are done with week 9. Amazing.

I almost forgot. Joshua, is going shooting with Lupe, this weekend. Yesterday they took a class with some men from church regarding firearms. Josh, was so excited. My boy is growing up .

Blessings,

Linda<><

I was able to purchase a used Character Quality Language Art (CQLA) program for Caleb. It's not the same color as Joshua's, so they won't be on the same character quality. It was $37.00ppd new this would have been $79.00+shipping. Normally I would just purchase it new and support the company but I want to try it out with Caleb first. He is still learning to read and all so if it doesn't work, at least I didn't spend too much.

I was going to use Christian Light LA with him but it took too long. Christian Light's LA program is really good though. I have looked at 1st-4th grade and really like how thorough it is. The program is not overwhelming for the child either. I'm really bummed that we are not using it.

Today, Caleb, is on week two of CQLA Pre-A Green. Pre-A is 2nd-3rd grade. Didn't want you to think he is doing a 'Pre' school program. They color code the levels.

This morning Caleb, had to highlight four words per sentence, write the words down and then rewrite the sentence. He also worked on prepositions. He does get tired of reading the same passage all week but hey, that's life . I don't like folding but it has to be done .

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Last year I made a commitment that I am NOT going to curriculum hop anymore. I did pretty good last year, while trying to find our textbook groove. I did switch Joshua's grammar around some and Annette's reading. Last year we settled on Growing with Grammar & CLE Reading and used all Rod & Staff for history & science. It was great.

This year even though we had a rough start with The Phonics Road & Ethan, doesn't always want to do his Christ Centered Phonics; we are sticking with it. Now when the going gets tough, we aren't running to something new anymore. We are working through it.

It's great for the children because they see what they are accomplishing. Before we would start one program, switch to another, then another. I remember Josh, would feel like he never finished anything. Even though he was learning and moving forward it didn't 'look' like it to him. Last year he was happy to finish hiw workbooks.

When my Sweets and I  got engaged my ring was way too big for my then slender finger. One time I was drying my hands in a public bathroom and my ring flew off. After that we had sized.

Once my fourth child was born, my ring no longer fit me. Not only was my finger not slendor anymore but either was I. My wonderful husband had it sized again.

Then after Lance our last child was born my ring was suddenly too big. My husband again had it sized  because I missed wearing it.

Now unless it's cold outside my ring does not fit me . Guess it's time to lose some weight.

Lupe, took Annette, Caleb & Ethan with him to Dallas today. I have Josh, Brent & Lance. We are going to go to the coffee shop and then the park in about thirty minutes.

Last week we went to our Church's Family Fest and enjoyed some homemade chili. The children also enjoyed bringing home lots of candy. Yesterday Lupe, picked us up at 3:30p.m. They were having trick-or-treat time, where the parents can bring their kids. The children left with a good grocery bag full of candy. When we got home that evening I told them that they had to pick out 15 pieces of candy to give away. They were happy to find which ones to give. Than I told them that I would pay them .2 for every candy they got rid of after that. I ended up filling a Braum's paper bag half way . We are going to use it for the children that come knocking at our door tonight. Hopefully we will get a lot of children. I don't like throwing away food but the candy will have to go.

I still need to get our school shedules ready for Monday. Can't believe another week done!

Joshua has been asking for a pocket dictionary. He loves reading and sometimes comes across words he doesn't know. A few weeks ago I purchased one for him at Half Price Books. When I handed him the dictionary he said, "I feel so powerful."

Today Lance, wanted me to cut him an orange. I was helping Ethan, with his math so I told him to wait a until I finished helping his brother. While saying that I noticed that Josh, had peeled himself an orange. I don't usually let Lance, have a piece of a peeled orange because of the skin. I have had a few scares in the past with choking. Now I wait until they are older. As I noticed Joshua's orange I thought I should tell him not to let Lance have a piece but I went back to teaching Ethan. Sure enough I hear Lance, gagging and realized that Josh, gave him a piece of his orange. I stuck my finger in his mouth and pulled out the skin of the orange. Lance, looked at me and said, "I choked mom."

I'm starting something new. At 9:00-10:00 a.m. is phonics time. At 9 O'clock I'll do The Phonics Road with Caleb & Brent. At 9:30 with Ethan. It worked out great this week. Other than my dad visiting on Tuesday we got all our phonics in. Sometimes with Ethan, he gets pushed to doing night school ;) because I get too busy with the others.

Today I sat with Joshua and we worked through some of his geometry problems in math. I like sitting with them, showing and helping them figure things out.

With Annette, we sat and worked on her writing (Meaningful Composition). The first weeks are review in grammar. She was having trouble understanding Subordinate Clauses. We worked through it and she now understands. I'll ask her through out the day to reinforce and hopefully she won't forget by tomorrow

Caleb, took a math quiz. I haven't checked it yet. I still need to do CQLA with him. He is still on week one. We are working on his sentences.

I also need to finish dictation with Annette & Josh.

Lastly I gave Lance a haircut. Yikes! This was my first time giving him one. Lupe, purchased grooming kit or whatever you call it kit from Costco about a month ago. The boys hair is getting long. We are trying to save money by using this kit. We normally pay 12 per child at the barber shop.

After nap I'm going to cut the rest of the boys hair. Josh, said he would go last and I don't blame him

My Annette is just so cute! Yesterday she and the boys were helping Lupe, dig a narrow ditch, so all the water on our property will flow to the street. Well, she comes in and ask me where dad Dewalt flashlight is.

When we were in South Dakota she bought a raccoon skin cap. She so funny. She wears it all the time. Even to AWANA and the funny thing is, it's no big deal to her. Most kids her age would not be caught dead wearing a 'coon' skin cap. Not my Annette, she is who she is. I love it that she wears her hat and doesn't care what others think about it. She actually gets lots of compliments and questions.

She loves going with her dad to the apartments on Saturday. She learns a lot about repairing things.

My dad came over so the children didn't get too much school in today. We did the unschooling thing today I found Joshua, reading a book about the Civil War. He had a map out and was putting paper different color marking the two sides.

Ethan was putting his toy boats in the water outside to see which way his boat would float. Of course it floated toward the house. That's why we are a bit flooded here

Annette was mapping out Lewis & Clark's expedition on a map. All the children are listening to a Jonathan Park cd. So although we didn't do 'school' they did get some learning in on their own. It's fun to see then explore on their own.

After quiet time is over I am going to have them all do some math. Annette, did do her Social Studies today. She was working on that when grandpa came.

Yesterday we went to Fall Festival at our church. We had a good time fellowshipping. At Wylie Bible Church many of the members homeschool. Last night Lupe was talking to a mother of three teenagers (ds19, dd18 & ds16). He was asking questions; why they homeschool, if she could do things differently what would they be, what are they doing for high school etc. It was a real blessing.

There is another mom of 8 who will be graduating her 4th child and again it's a blessing because Lupe, can see that it's possible to homeschool through high school. As many of you know my Sweets is still not sure about the upper years and originally he planned to have the children in school by now. Every year I ask him if I can homeschool the next year and so far I have been able to. I pray that I'll be able to homeschool through high school.

I'm thankful that Lupe is not closed to the idea of homeschooling through high school. I know he just wants what's best for our children. Through the years he has educated himself (with the help of me ) regarding homeschooling. We'll see.

The children had fun at the Fall Fest. we had lots of good chili. Yummy! Ethan had about three cupcakes, cotton candy and some candy from the Pinata. They all had plenty of sweets yesterday.

Lance was playing with some of the folding chairs that were in the chair rack and got squished. He squeaked like a mouse, looked up at us and began to cry. I have to say he looked so cute! He has this big Curious George mouth. I'm not all mean, I scooped him up and held him on my lap for a while. He was fine.

Today it's raining. As I'm typing I can hear the rain falling and in the kids room I can hear them listening to a Jonathan Park cd. My children love these cd's.

As for school; I mentioned a few weeks ago that Caleb & Brent do not care too much for The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading. At the time I was having them watch the dvd's that are suppose to be for the teacher. The dvd's are like a teacher manual. Even though I would stand with the remote and stop the dvd, that was not they way Mrs. Beers intended the program to be used. The dvd's are very useful for the parent but for the child it can be boring because she is  talking to the parents. Her audience is a grown-up  not children.

Last weekend I made it a priority to remember to watch the dvd. I watched it and took notes in my teacher binder. Guess what! The children enjoyed it so much more. I did exactly what Mrs. Beers showed me on the dvd. If there was a song to sing I wrote that down in my binder. If I needed to stop and go over a Building Code than I noted that in my binder. It made a huge difference and things went much smoother. I was able to fit a lot into our 20 minutes of Phonics.

Our front pourch is halfway under water. It's not a big porch, maybe about three inches high. It rained pretty hard last night and  today it has been pretty steady. Our backyard is flooded in parts and the rest is all mud.

Since our porch is flooded we can't get to the washing machine unless you go barefoot. I really need some clothes washed so Joshua put on a homade raincoat and put a load of towels. If I can get at least one more load done we'll be okay. Actually it's not suppose to rain tomorrow so maybe it can wait.

Blessings,

Linda<><

I'm thinking out loud here  and this of course is if we continue to use The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading, The Bridge to the Latin Road and move onto The Latin Road to English Grammar.

Here is my plan and it's long so if your interested grab a cup of Java

Year 1 (09/10) This year

• Caleb 3rd & Brent 2nd are using The Phonics Road Level 1

Year 2 (10/11) Next year

• Joshua 7th & Annette 5th use The Bridge
• Caleb 4th & Brent 3rd use The Phonics Road Level 2
• Ethan 2nd & Lance Kindergarten but will have just turned 6yrs. old use Phonics Road Level 1

Year 3 (12/13)

• Joshua 8th & Annette 6th start The Latin Road to English Grammar Level 1
• Caleb 5th grade will skip the last two levels of The Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading (since he started late) He will start The Bridge
• Brent 4th grade The Phonics Road Level 3
• Ethan 3rd & Lance 1st but will turn 7yrs. will either continue finishing up Level 1 depending how Lance is doing or start Level 2

Now what I'm wondering is by year 3 I will have four different levels going and am wondering if that will be possible, considering that each level does require mom to teach the lessons. The Phonics Road, The Bridge & The Latin Road are all pretty teacher intensive. Am I up for the challenge!? I am really impressed with Mrs. Beers programs and can only imagine how much we all will learn if we continue with it.

Week 7 of school DONE!

Annette, has homework. She is not going to be happy. She has to redo her writing. It was on the sloppy side. Bible, reading and social studies she has to correct some of her answers. Time4Learning she did pretty good. A few assignments were 88% but most of them were 100%.

Annette use to be my star pupil in the sense that she would get all her work done. She would just sit at her desk until she finished. Now, she is the opposite. Last week I didn't check her math daily so when I sat down Wed. night to correct, she hadn't done any math. Thursday she had to do it in the evening.This week she is trying harder.

 When I correct her work, she'll leave me little notes. She loves encouraging her mama. She'll write how well of a job I'm doing with homeschooling, or just write she loves me. I enjoy writing back. Sprinkled throughout her workbooks are our notes

Joshua use to be my student who took FORever. Now he sits and does his work until he finishes. Opposite of Annette this year. Joshua, is excited about his spelling. He looks forward to his spelling test and dictations. To him it's a challenge.

With Phonics Tutor Frequent Words Joshua, said that he learning the rules for 'tch' and 'dge' and that's really helping him. I'm excited for him. Once he completes this program I am going to have him go through Apples Daily Spelling Drills series.

Caleb, started Character Quality Language Arts this week. I am actually working off the free month downloads that the author offers. Hopefully I can purchase the rest of it before we finish week 4. I have been going back and forth about using a Language Arts program for Caleb. He uses T4L daily. I like that CQLA will introduce him to writing and that is something I like to start in the 3rd grade. I was also thinking that it would be a bit much because we are using The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading. I guess time will tell. It doesn't take long to do CQLA, about 20 minutes. I'll have to keep you all updated to see what happens.

He doesn't really like The Phonics Road but we are going to continue it anyway. I think all this hard work will pay off down the road. We'll just take it one day at a time. This week we only did three days of it because I kept forgetting to watch the dvd's which are like a teachers manual. Tonight I'll watch it so I will be ready for next week.

Brent is doing great! As soon as I can afford to I am going to purchase CQLA for him too. I was using Christian Light LA but it taks too long and we are not using the spelling or penmanship portion. For now he will continue to use T4L and hopefully soon he will start CQLA. He is doing great in math. I love using Math Mammoth.

Ethan, will start his second workbook B:2. He finished B:1 this week. Yahoo! He's excited. I have to look through the material so I'll be ready for Monday. He is doing great with Math Mammoth. I'm so happy I decided to give this program a try. I found this program a few years ago through www.WinterPromise.com  but didn't order it. At the time I was a recovering curriculum junkie and didn't want to buy. I'm still recovering  It's hard not to buy everything that sounds great but I'm doing much better .

Today started off as a not-so-good day. I actually told the kids that I wish I could drop them off at school. How mean huh? I REALLY tried to not say it but it came out anyway. One thing I am working on is not showing so much emotion and not changing my tone of my voice when I'm upset.

The reason I got upset was not even school related. It's all the little bickering that the children do. They get along great but wth the little stuff like; that piece of paper is on my side of the table or you put it away, no you or he touched me!

Another thing that has been getting to me is chores. My children are great with obeying. If I ask them to do a load of laundry or sweep they will do it without complaing but if I don't tell them then it doesn't get done (most of the time).

If you mix in a mama that didn't eat breakfast, well that doesn't help any

I'm so thankful the children and I have a good relationship; they didn't take it personally. It was a good teaching moment for them on how NOT to act

Of course I apologized and let them know that that was not very pleasing to the Lord.

After trying MANY math programs I have narrowed it down to two that I REALLY like. Math Mammoth and Christian Light . I am so tempted to use both with my children BUT I don't want to go that route of having each child do two math programs again. I don't know how others make it work. How do they finish two complete math programs in twelve months . I have tried it and it didn't work. It just drove us all crazy.

Christian Light Math: I like that CLE math uses workbooks called Light Units. Instead of one big workbook there are 10 smaller ones (light units L.U.) I love the constant review and that many topics are introduced early in a non threating or overwhelming way for the child. I like how this is a traditional math program. Depending on what grade level you are using there are tidbits of information about animals, season etc.

 Both Brent & Caleb used CLE math last year and this year Caleb is continuing with level 3. It really is a solid program. Once you have the Answer Keys, it will cost you about $31.00 plus shipping a year. I plan to continue using this with Caleb.

Math Mammoth : I REALLY like how it breaks down the math problems for you. If you used Singapore than you know what I mean :0)  Math Mammoth (MM) is a bit of everything. Math-U-See uses manipulatives, Math Mammoth does too but through illustrations. You don't have to buy block (you could if you wanted to), It breaks down problems and has you understanding math like Singapore. In my opinion it's both mastery in a traditional way. Mastery because you stay on a topic. Traditional because new concepts are introduced but there is not a lot of review. I would prefer more review.

Currently I have Ethan, Brent, Josh & Annette using Math Mammoth. Once you pay  for the download about $30.00 after you do have to pay to print them or you can purchase the printed copy from www.winterpromise.com or Lulu.

 My problem is; I want my children to use both. CLE for the way it 'covers' more in the early years and Math Mammoth for all the tricks. But I don't want to do two programs. I already own Grades 1-4 of Math Mammoth. Since Caleb will continue to use Christian Light Math I'll have the Teacher Manuls. Math Mammoth will be less expensive in the long run since I have the downloads and all I have to do is print them.

I guess I'll just keep things how they are for now.

Click HERE to be reminded "If Ever You Worshipped"  Sorry but I'm not very good with how to post a You Tube video.

Caleb, is so funny. He woke us all up at 5:30 a.m. hee, hee. He thought it was 7:00 a.m.

Caleb is our alarm. Every day except Saturday he puts on Miracle Music and gets the whole gang going.

I tried to go back to bed but I couldn't fall back to sleep. I'm tired. I took the kiddos to to the park thinking that would wake me up. On the way I bought an Almond Joy Latte, Soy, low fat whip with chocolate sprinkles and I'm STILL TIRED. I think I'm going to take a nap. 

We finished another week of school. 6wks down, 30 to go

This year I'm taking a more relaxed approach. Meaning I'm not going to stress our if we don't get everything in all the time. My top priorities are Math, Spelling. Phonics, Reading & Writing.

Secondly we then do: History/Social Studies, Science & Geography

Lastly are; Foreign Language, Memorization, Art & Music. I do think these are important too but they are not at the top of the list.

Adding in everyone's schedule took a lot of time last week, but I love to see what we accomplish so I'm going to give it another try. Yikes! You can stop reading HERE if you like  Maybe I'll summarize.

Joshua 6th Grade, Week 7:

1. Math Mammoth 15pgs
2. Bible-AWANA and daily bible reading
3. Spelling- 5 lessons of Phonics Tutor and 3 review lessons
4. Grammar 4pgs of his grammar book
5. Reading- 4 Reading Detectives and read daily in his Phonics Tutor Reader as well as all his free reading. He just finished Revenge of the Whale & Carry On, Mr. Bowditch
6. Social Studies 4 lessons this week. Sound like a lot but we are going to try alternating Social Studies with Science. Next week he'll only do Science.

Annette 5th Grade Week 7

1. Math Mammoth 10pgs
2. Bible-AWANA and CLE Bible
3. Spelling Wisdom 2 exercises
4. Time4Learning she uses for grammar and reading only. 5 lessons a wk.
5. CLE Reading 1 lesson a week since she also uses T4L
6. CLE Social Studies 2 lessons
7. CLE Science 2 lessons
8. Presidential Penmanship twice a week

Caleb 3rd Grade Wk 7

• CLE Math 5 lessons a wk.
• Bible AWANA
• Phonics Road to Spelling & Reading finish week 8
• Time4Learning Phonics 5x
• CLE Social Studies narrate back what I read 3xweek
• Bob Jones penmanship 2xwk

Brent 2nd Grade wk 7

• Same as Caleb, except he uses Math Mammoth

Ethan 1st Grade Wk7

1. Christ-Centered Phonics 4xwk
2. Math Mammoth 6pgs a wk

Lance Pre-K

Daily works on his drawing, cutting, pasting, puzzles etc. Kumon workbooks.

My "Well" streak is over. Almost all members of my family have been hit by the sniffles, sore throat, headaches & coughing. We bought our FIRST over-the-counter medicine in over a year yesterday. I'm going to stock up on our Berry Well again (we stopped taking it daily) and have the children start taking their SuperKids Vitamins again too.

My Sweets actually stayed home today. He NEVER stays home. Poor guy has been sleeping all day. I'm making some soup for him.

I have to admit something. I DON'T like E-Books. It seems everywhere I turn hardcopies are, well, hard to find. Sometimes I come a cross a nice book only to find that you can't purchase it as a bound book. Some of them cost the same as a regular printed book too.

It would be nice if they gave you an option. If it's a workbook or study guide I do like the E-Book to make copies but like the actual book to flip through. I have been known to purchase both the e-book and hardcopy in those situations. Although they should have a package deal. "Purchase the hardcopy get the e-book half off" or something.

Annette, was running around at my dads and fell. This happened a few weeks ago when the weather was still warm. She was wearing shorts. She scraped both her knees. When she got home she walks in all normal like and says, "I fell at grandpa's house." Both her knees where bloody, I felt so bad for her but she's a trooper. Not one tear or anything. I cleaned up her little wounds and told her a story when I was about five years old and fell on the asphalt. I cried though. It hurt so bad. I still remember that shiny stuff on top. GROSS! Anyway, she liked the story. I bandaged her up and told her how brave she was. She couldn't run for a few days but she's all better now. I don't think she'll have any scars.

We went to the Orthodontics today. I am so tired of my ugly crooked teeth. Why can't it be simple, just put some braces on. No, I have to have jaw surgery. I think I actually new it wasn't going to be a simple shifting of the teeth. Something just told me that it was going to be more.

Here is the plan. I get braces. After ten months I have my 'jaw' surgery. Then another year with braces. 

I'm willing to do it. I want my teeth fixed so bad that if they told be I need to have surgery on my nose to get them straight I would do it .

Josh, is going to get braces too. How cute! He doesn't want braces but I'm sure he will thank us later for it.

Lupe and I discussed that now is a good time to do it. We might have to live in our rental for another year though. It's going to cost $5.303 for me and $4.890 for Josh. Our insurance will cover $2.000 each for Josh & I. I don't know how much the surgery for my jaw will cost (Yikes).

It's been a VERY busy Monday. Not only because it's the first day of the week for school but the house is a mess. There are dust bunnies everywhere, Lupe's tools & dirt.

This weekend I was sick and didn't do too much house cleaning. Lupe, who usually will take over in the house was pretty busy trying to get the yard leveled. When it rains a lot our yard floods. I would show a picture but we still can't upload any pics from our camera. So Lupe & the kids unloaded three truck loads of dirt.

Imagine boys+mud+shovels+rain=Big mess for mom to clean. LOL. Normally I could care less if the children get muddy but when I'm sick and we only have one way into our Apt. House (yes we only have one door to the outside) then it's no fun for mom.

Today was the day to clean up all the mud tracks, muddy clothes, muddy towels and shoes. Oh, what fun five boys, a girl and husband can bring when they are leveling the yard with lots of rain.

I was reading some of my past post and noticed that I use to write out our schedules. This may be boring to you all but it's very helpful to me, so I'm going to attempt to write our school schedule so I can print it. Here it goes;

Josh 6th Grade Week 6:

• Bible-Practice AWANA verses and daily 15 minutes of Bible. Josh is actually suppose to be studying the book of Romans but we haven't started it yet.
• Math-Math Mammoth 3B p. 25-40. He usually does 3pgs a day.
• Language Arts- We haven't started Character Quality Language Arts yet because I want him to be half way through Phonics Tutor. Phonics Tutor actually has some grammar. I didn't want to overwhelm him.
• Reading-Reading Detective Go over Blue Willow with me. Mon-pgs. 28 & 29, Tues-pgs. 32 & 33, Thur.- pgs. 34-35. We haven't started Christian Light Reading yet, because I want him to do a sememster of Reading Detective to help him read between the lines. To go deeper when answering his questions.
• Science- Christian Light. Pages in his Light Unit. A Light Unit (L.U.) is basically a workbook. Pgs. 10-14. This also consist of vocabulary and answering questions.
• Christian Light Social Studies- L.U. pgs 7-14. This consist of also reading from his textbook.
• Spelling- He is using Phonics Tutor Frequent Words cd-rom, workbook & reader. The cd-rom teaches all the sounds of the phonograms, how to spell and the rules of the phonograms. The workbook is reinforcement but it also has some grammar. The reader is a bit easy for him at least in the beginning. This program can be used for ages 7-adult. He completes one lesson a day, does his review lesson (82) three times a week and works in the workbook and reader as needed.
• Penmanship  I need to print those out. Usually about 2 a week.
• Art- one art lesson a week (starting this week.)

My academic goal with Josh, this year is to get him ready for The Bridge to the Latin Road next school year.. We are backing up a little to prepare him. I am having him concentrate on spelling & grammar this year.

Praying that Phonics Tutor will help him with his spelling, while improving his reading. It covers some grammar and then he will start Character Quality Language Arts.

Joshua, has come a long way with his reading. He is no longer 'behind'. (I don't like to use that word because I know we all learn at our own pace.) He reads a lot. I'm thankful for that, but I also picked Phonics tutor so he can review his phonics and continue to progress in reading (shhh, don't tell him that. He thinks it's only for spelling. Hee,hee.)

Annette 4th Grade Week 6 of 36:

• Bible- AWANA verses and her daily reading. She will start CLE Bible soon.
• Math-Math Mammoth 3A she does two pages a day.
• Language Arts- Time4Learning. One lesson a day. Includes grammar & reading.
• Reading-Time4Learning (T4L) includes reading but I added Christian Light 400. She only does one lesson a week. Mon. she studies the vocabulary words. Tues. she reads the story. Thurs. she completes the lesson.
• Science-she starts this next week. With the move I misplaced her science program but found it today.
• Social Studies- she uses CLE 4 and does two lessons a week.
• Spelling-Spelling Wisdom. Ex 6 & 7. Mon. she studies the passage. Tues. if ready she does dictation, if she spells all word correct she moves onto the next lesson. Wed. study words, Tues. dictation.
• Writing- Meaningful Composition. She is on Week 4 and will complete Days 1-5.
• Penmanship is done on Wed. using Presidential Penmanship Bob Jones Style.

Annette is pretty much where she should be. I think Annette, is one that would do well if she went to public school. Although her penmanship can improve. Annette, would prefer to do all her studies on the computer so she wouldn't have to write.

Some areas we are going to concentrate on this year is reading & writing. She does not like to write. I picked Meaningful Composition because it takes baby steps with learning how to write a key word outline. The program actually starts with some grammar lessons.

Annette is a good reader but I want her to dig deeper with what she reads. Give more detailed answers.  I would also like her to review her phonograms. She has never completed a complete phonics program. At age five or six she just took off with reading and we didn't continue with a second year of phonics. I don't know if this will hurt her in the future. I'm still deciding on this. Any advice welcome.

Caleb 3rd Grade week 6 of 36:

• Bible-AWANA and we are also reading Making Brothers and Sisters Best Friends.
• Phonics-Spelling Road to Reading we are on week 7. This includes phonics, spelling, grammar and reading. As review Caleb also completes one lesson a day of Time4Learning. This also includes grammar & phonics. Sounds like a bit much but so far so good.
• Reading-Pathway Readers. Currently he only does a chapter a week. This includes his workbook.
• Math-Christian Light, he does one lesson a day. Currently on L.U. 302 lesson 10.
• Christian Light Social Studies & Science two lessons each a week. I usually read his social studies to all the children at lunch and have Caleb give me an oral summary of what I read.

Caleb we are zoning in on his reading. He has improved a lot.

Brent 2nd Grade Week 6 of 36:

• Bible-AWANA
• Math-Math Mammoth 2A. He completes 2pgs daily.
• Phonics is the same as Caleb.
• Reading-we haven't started a formal reading program. I do have CLE waiting for him though.
• Christian Light Social Studies & Science also the same as Caleb.

Ethan 1st Grade Week 6:

• Bible-AWANA and lots of Bible lessons in his curriculum
• Phonics- Christ-Centered Phonics B:1 pgs. 82-87. He also practices his blends on the blend ladder, sight words and some grammar. Currently for grammar he is learning about capitalization.
• Math-Math Mammoth he does between 1pg & 2pgs a day. I shoot for two but it depends on the content for that day.

Lance Pre-K:

• Working on his fine motor skills. He does one of each activity; folding, pasting, cutting, puzzles, tracing & drawing.

The first half of the year we are going to continue with the above. In Jan. I would like to add Christ Centered Phonics & Math.

All Together:

• Read Aloud-Dr. Doolittle for the younger ones and 1812 Shinnequid, Main from the book Cleared for Action, 4 Tales of the Sea for the older children.
• Making Brothers & Sisters Best Friends
• Manners Made Easy
• Art

Woke up with a soar throat, headache, sneezing and such. Even my teeth hurt. Weird.

I love the rain though. It rained all night. Love it! Only problem is nobody wants to do school on such a cozy day ;) Our yard and driveway are flooded. We can't leave the house unless you have a raft. I don't know how Lupe, got to his truck. LOL.