Posted in homeschooling

Bible

We read through the 23rd Psalm

 David being annointed , slaying Goliath,

 Solomon's reign and building the temple

Language Arts

In grammar we studied contractions and replaced copywork with dictation.

We started reading Strawberry Girl.  That is a fun read.  The story is about a family of Florida crackers.  There's nothing more fun then my attempts at a southern accent.  LOL  The story's pretty good too.

We're plugging along in spelling and handwriting.  She still hates handwriting but she has finally learned to do it neatly the first time.  Lest she have to erase it all and do it again.

We also finished our literature pocket on The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  We're reading Aesop's Fables this year and I found an Aesop's Fable Literature Pocket to add in some craftiness to our studies.  It covers 8 fables.

Mackenzie is reading another Third Grade Detective book.  She loves those.  There is currently a handwritten sign in our front window that reads "Detective Agency."  And you'll often find Mackenzie and the baby dressed in "disguises" so I won't notice them "detecting."

A couple more books and we'll be onto the advanced readers.  I made a good decision when I decided to buy all the readers that Sonlight offered.  Mackenzie reads them double time so we go through a level and 1/2 every year.  If I'd just gone with her reading level, we'd have been out of readers by grade 1. ROFL

Social Studies

History: We have officially finished our study on Vikings.  It was interesting but we're really excited to start Knights and Castles.  We read Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky this week.  Mackenzie really enjoyed it.  Especially because it was true.  We did a little book report on it to help her learn how to pull out facts from what she reads.

I'm going to shy away from SS for a minute and talk about book reports.  I don't really think book reports are necessary for a homeschooler. I think they're very useful in a regular classroom setting, where I wouldn't have time to orally evaluate each student.  If I want to know if Kenzie understands what she read or what she thought, I can ask her.  No book report necessary.

However I found these awesome book called  How to Report on Books.  It's essentially a bunch of different forms and projects that focus on different skills like setting, main character, real/make believe, identifying problems/solutions, etc.  It's been a great teaching tool for me.  And they're quick for Mackenzie.  She loves them.  Plus I bought it as an e-book so I can just print the page I want. LOL

Now back to SS...

In Geography we've been learning about maps and globes by reading Maps and Globes.  LOL  It's been pretty interesting to learn how maps have evolved over the years.  Of course we work with real maps too. ROFL

We're also continuing on with Windows on the World.  We still love it.  Plus I've been printing out flags from each country that we read about and we're going to make those into a book.  We've been writing some reminders of what we need to pray about on the flags.

Science

We are finished with birds and have moved on to reptiles.  Neither of us are enjoying the pictures of icky snakes.  Ick!!!

We are behind in experiments.  We're going to have to have a massive experiment day in the near future.

Math

This week we studied adding with regrouping.  I've said it before and I'm going to say it again.  Math-u-See is the BEST!  The way they teach just makes sense.  Mackenzie has had no problems picking up any of the concepts with this program.  And I wouldn't say she's got a knack for math.  (Clearly judging from how long it took her to master her addition facts, especially the 2s. LOL)

And quite frankly, my math skills have improved GREATLY.

Extras

She has had a busy week this week. For brownies she went horseback riding and to Disney on Ice.  Big excitement!

Soccer is going well.  Best of all the weather has been cool so we haven't been sitting in the 99 degree hit sweating to death.  Yay!

And, like I promised, we got our art lessons done.  We worked on contrast, drawing geometric shapes, and "stacking" objects.

Posted in homeschooling

I'm going to try and get back in the habit of recapping our week every Friday.  This is a homeschooling blog after all. 

It's already not going well since it's already Tuesday and I have recapped last week. LOL

Bible:

We studied Samson and Ruth this week.  Mackenzie was fascinated by Samson's long hair.  "Why couldn't he cut it?"  "Because he was a Nazerite."  "So?"  "Because God said so."  LOL I should have said that in the first place.

Social Studies:

In History we're studying Vikings.  Neither of us our thrilled with the Vikings.  It's not that we don't find it interesting, it's just that they're so mean.  It makes us angry.  Mackenzie was horrified at the thought of them constantly raiding people, even churches.

We've done some interesting activities with the Vikings though. We made a Viking warship, a Viking pendent and we had a Viking burial.  Aladdin barbie starred as the Viking.  LOL  Sadly I didn't get any pictures because of Mc Screamy.

We're doing Weekly Readers this year.  Mackenzie gets a kick out of them.

We've been LOVING Geography Songs. Kayleigh included.  We worked on the former countries in the USSR this week.  It was hard but we got them down.

Language Arts:

Our read aloud was Ginger Pye.  It was a fabulous book.  Drama, excitement, suspence, happy ending.  We loved it!  It's just hard to read outloud.  It was soooo loooong.  We're considering it for one of our top 10 favorites.

We've been working on abbrievations in First Language Lessons.  We both like that this program is mostly oral.  Mackenzie hates to write.

Mathematics:

Math was a breeze.  Reviewing skip counting by 2's.  She had the entire weeks work done in 20 minutes.

We spent the rest of the week doing Mind Benders and Dr. DooRiddles.

Science:

We wrapped up our study of birds.  I asked Mackenzie how she liked learning about birds. "It was pretty good. I would have liked to have learned how to get rid of those 2 birds who sit on our roof and poop on the house."  ROFL  So would I dear child, so would I.

Extras:

Soccer is going well.  Mackenzie has really surpised me and loves it.  She's such a girly girl that I wasn't sure if she'd like or not.   It's looking like she might not be as athetically challenged as her mother. She scored the first goal of her first game.  She'd probably do even better if she'd stop coaching the other girls and just do what she's told. ROFL

She's in a new brownie troop this year. One that actually does stuff and earns badges. What a novel idea!  They went horseback riding this weekend, so that's already a million times more then what she did with her troop last year.  Impressive!

I haven't signed her up for dance yet.  Life's been busy. Hopefully next month I'll get around to it.

We fell off the wagon with our art lessons. It's been a few weeks since we did anything but I promise we'll get back on track next week.

That's all that I can remember. LOL  Maybe if I did this on Friday like I'm supposed to...

Posted in Family

I don't remember if I mentioned it here, I'm pretty sure that I didn't, but Kevin has had some exciting news.  He recently earned the biggest promotion of his 19 year naval career, he was promoted to Chief Petty Officer. 

It is the biggest achievement that an enlisted sailor can get.  Not only is it the biggest pay raise, but they get to leave behind the "Popeye" uniforms and start wearing the khaki's and the nice white uniforms like the officers wear.  Steffy like...LOL

The ceremony for promoting chiefs is unlike anything else in the navy. It's seeped in tradition and they do it up better then anyone else in the navy.  Even the officer's promotions are not as big a to-do.

Before the actual pinning ceremony, where they pin on their chief's anchors, there is a 6-week transition ::cough, cough, hazing, cough, cough:: period where they are "trained" on their new responsibilities.

Not only was it a "great time" (please here my sarcasm) for the selectees, it was great fun for the families as well.  I'm sure that there were many valuable lessons that they learned but I think it is utterly ridiculously that they (current chiefs) make this time so completely stressful for all involved.  But because it's "always been done this way" they refuse to change it.  That's men for ya!!

Personally, I think they should take a page out of the Bible and see how Jesus taught humility.  But that's just me.

At anyrate, it's over and we all survived.  He is an official chief and we are so proud of him!

He had a lot of people come share the moment with him... my mother, a couple of lieutentants that he used to work for, his brother, some local friends, and his parents. 

He had no idea that his mom and father were coming. His mom has an upcoming heart surgery so she told him she wasn't able to travel.  We managed to keep it from him for a month, even Mackenzie.  She came in on a Sunday and hid out as his brothers until right before the ceremony.  Boy was he surprised!

At anyrate, here are the highlights in pictures...

Waiting for his anchors and cover (hat)...

Getting his anchors pinned on by me, Mackenzie, and his mom.

Getting ready to receive his cover from his mentor, Chief Schools

Receiving his challenge coin...of all the ridiculous things...LOL

ISC AW/SW/EW Kevin Smith

A Family shot

In his dress whites w/o the ribbons and medals

Posted in Daily life

Here are Mackenzie's official 2nd grade photos.  The watermark is on there because I got them off The Picture People's website.

And Kayleigh's 6 month pictures.  For the first time in history... she did not torment The Picture People.  She actually cooperated.  Praise Jesus!

Don't let this next shot fool you.  Kayleigh CANNOT even remotely do this on her own.  It was staged and lasted about 10 seconds.  She is still pretty much a slug, only cuter.  Her best skills are nursing and sitting.  She's rolled over, maybe, a dozen times and then quit cold turkey.

For my own sanity, I am still not encouraging movement or talking so no need to worry. LOL  Sitting was the only thing I wanted her to master.

Posted in Family

Earlier this month the girls and I went to Great Wolf Lodge with some friends for a mini-vacation.

Here are the highlights...

The girls and Miranda on the balcony

PJ storytime in the lobby

The Waterpark!

Magic Quest-Kids with wands EVERYWHERE.

Posted in homeschooling

Success!!!

We finished our first official week of 2nd grade and Mackenzie did great!  We got everything done that I had planned and we got a bit a head in somethings.

Here's our run down...

Bible: We reviewed creation and starting reading The Awesome Book of Bible Facts.  Mackenzie just loves that book.  She prefers to read that one to me.  So it's gone from read aloud to reader.  

Another favorite was Window on the World.  I have to say wow!  It's a book of short stories about different people groups all over the world.  It gives you facts about the country, cultural information and ways that we can pray for each people group.  Trust Sonlight to find another book to touch our hearts.  I just love the way Sonlight gets us thinking and praying for people all over the world

Social Studies: 

For history, we mainly just reviewed what we'd covered in Core 1, which wasn't that exciting, but we did get to start reading Explorers News.  I knew that would be a big hit because Mackenzie loved The Greek News in core 1.

We both can't wait to get into the meatier history. Sonlight never lets us down!

We're using The Story of the World Activity Guide 2 to add some hands-on to our history this year.  A little more work for me then the History Pockets we use last year but I'm making do.  I'm only picking the simplest of activities. I think I might need to get the 3rd guide to finish up the time periods we're covering this year. 

SOTW has some really neat map assignments too.  Mackenzie really liked those.

We also started using Geography Songs.  Can you say fun?  Mackenzie learned her continents and oceans in about 3 minutes.  And she can find them on the map.  I like how their is a book with blackline maps for us to copy and color. We'll be putting those in our notebook. Plus it came with a large blackline world map.  And even Kayleigh likes the music. LOL

We're also reviewing in Language Arts.  Nouns this week.  And she's working on memorizing the poem, The Goops.  Spelling was a breeze she aced the pretest.  And she even did her handwriting without complaint.

Our real aloud is Red Sails to Capri. So far we're loving it.  I'm getting a little confused while reading because I always try to read with accents and voices.  This book has Italians, French, British, and Russian or German.  I'm pretty much butchering them all.   Thankfully, Kenzie doesn't seem to mind.

Mackenzie is finishing up the last of the intermediate readers and is reading The House on Walenska Street.  I have to say that she has given the  mother in the story an accent too.  Although she hails from Russia, she seems to have a Brooklyn accent. LOL Good stuff!  And it's cute to hear Mackenzie try and read the yiddish words.  I have no doubts she does better with them then I would.

She finished a week and a half's worth of math in 2 days.  The first lesson in Beta was place value review so it was pretty easy. Since we finished MUS early we moved on to Singapore 2A, which was also place value.  Funny how that works out. 

We haven't started science yet but we did start our art curriculum, I Can Do All Things.  It is fabulous.  It will teach us drawing, painting, colored pencils, and markers.  It's perfect for artistically challenged people like me.  Very simple and easy to implement and it has a video.  I'll let a real artist doing the teaching on this one.  Kenzie and I are doing it together.  She is really enjoying it.  So is mommy.

Kayleigh is working on sitting up.  We are using this as a motivater. It is my hope that she will sit up as well as this baby soon.  It will really make her 6 month portraits a lot easier.

Posted in Family

We finally found a use for the 8 billion pacies we bought in the hopes that Kayleigh might take one.

It turns out they make great chew toys.

Place baby at her desk with lots of pacies on her tray.  Sit back and watch

What on earth are these?

Clearly the round pink one was her favorite.  If you suck and pull it at the same time, it makes a great and highly amusing popping sound. LOL

The purple one was spit out in .25 seconds.  5 times in a row. LOL

Posted in homeschooling

I know it's been a while but it's not my fault.  I had a huge post typed out a few weeks ago and HSB "ate it".  I'll try a few short ones to catch you up and see if HSB behaves better.

We started school yesterday.  Mackenzie is now an official 2nd grader.  Boo-hoo! 

Kayleigh also turned 6 months old yesterday.  Double boo-hoo.

It only took me 6 months to get her to take a bottle  LOL

 ETA: What we are using for second grade

Social Studies:

Sonlight Core 2, Intro to World History Part 2 w/advanced readers and bible program

Weekly Readers

Math:

Math-U-See Beta and Singapore Primary 2a and b

Science:

Sonlight Science 1

Language Arts:

First Language Lessons, A Reason for Spelling level B, A Reason for Handwriting , and Writing A-Z

Extras:

I Can Do All Things art curriculum, Brownies, soccer, and dance

Posted in Daily life

I have been tagged to do a meme by Heather.


Okay, so here are the answers to the questions:

Three Things...

...THAT SCARE ME: losing a family member, spiders, snakes

...I LOVE: God, my family, getting our Sonlight order aka. BOX DAY.

...I HATE: VA drivers, hypocrites, fish (except tuna from a can)

...I'M DOING RIGHT NOW: typing, watching Ice Princess, and listening to Kayleigh chatter over the baby monitor when she should be napping.

...I CAN DO: not much, LOL.  I can change diapers, teach my children, and put him with my hubby's craziness.

...I CAN'T DO: beat my bil, Donny, at Monopoly, get my baby to take a bottle or a paci, sing without hurting people's ears

...THAT ARE MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE FOODS: milk chocolate, sweet potatoes, spinach artichoke dip.

...SHOWS I WATCHED WHEN I WAS A KID: Family Ties, The Cosby Show, Rainbow Brite.

If you read this you've been tagged.  =o)

Posted in homeschooling

As we finished our regularly scheduled science, we raised painted lady butterflies.  Here is Kenzie releasing them, 9 out of 10 survived.

We had some stubborn ones that didn't want to leave.

Can you see it hiding?  Kenzie was excited about see God's camoflauge plan in action.

Posted in homeschooling

Try, try as we might Kayleigh refuses to take a bottle (or a paci for that matter.)   Kevin really enjoyed giving Mackenzie a bottle once a day and there's nothing like a milk-moustashed little smile grinning up at you during feeding time.  He is disappointed not being able to share that with Kayleigh.

Not to mention the fact that I am not able to leave the house without her or better yet, have her leave the house without me.    My husband just came home from Iraq and we haven't been able to go out for a date and it isn't looking likely anytime soon.

So in our quest for alone time, we decided to try her out on some rice cereal.  A big deal because after Mackenzie's first disasterous rice cereal incident we swore we weren't giving any more babies anything but breastmilk before 6/7 months.

(Grandmas said 4 month baby will sleep through the night if you give her cereal.  Baby Mack lapped up the cereal but woke up EVERY HOUR for the 3 nights that we gave it to her.  We dumped the cereal and any further advice from the grandmas. LOL)

As Kayleigh already sleeps through the night we decided to give it a try.  Baby K also laps it up and it hasn't affected her sleep in anyway, so we continue on with the cereal, although not consistently every day.

Here's the fun...

And the happy ending...Kayleigh was so excited that she....

pooped herself!!!!!!!  

Posted in homeschooling

We went on a field trip to the Cultural Heritage Center and learned about life in the "old days".

Practicing their listening skills

Collecting eggs from "chickens"

Making butter

Washing the clothes

Weighing produce

Milking the "cow"

At the park afterward with some of our friends

Kayleigh and her fiancee Holden.  I have marriages arranged for both the girls now. ROFL

Uh-oh...someone's making a move

Posted in Daily life

We've been busy with life again and I haven't had time to post.  I'm going to play a bit of catch up with the next few posts.

We'll start with Mackenzie's class challenge for gymnastics.  Her last one because we're pulling her from it.  Since moving from Guam her gymnastics ability has gone downhill fast.  Instead of learning new skills she's lost the ability to do many that she had mastered in Guam.  You'd think that the program here would be better then in Guam. LOL

She's going to go back to taking dance again.

I didn't get pictures of bars, beam and tramp because I had to start manning the video camera.  Kayleigh was acting up so daddy had to deal with her.

Kayleigh found the mats comfy

Just being cute

Posted in Family

Our first trip to Ocean Breeze and Kayleigh's first "swim".

A Smith baby tradition...the first dunking.

It might seem cruel but she has to complete this task or she gets kicked out of the family.   We don't make the rules. 

Clearly she loved it!

She cries a lot anyway, so we figure at least she had a reason this time.  She might have liked it more had the water been warmer.  Kenzie loved her first dunking at the same age.  But she had warm water.

Lounging in the lazy river with Ava

Worn out from her trama

Refreshed after a nap

Posted in Family

family photos.  And Kayleigh's 3 month pictures.

From our lastest photo endevor.  The ones of just Kenzie are missing though. I'll have to call and get them to fix that.

Posted in homeschooling

We spent our weekend at Colonial Williamsburg. 

We went for 2 reasons...

1) It was free to military. Our family motto "If it's free, it's for me."  (Of course the free didn't extend to the cost of gas driving out there twice. LOL)

2) Mackenzie can earn a brownie page for going.  Her troop is a total dud.  This year they've earned one patch as a troop and done nothing.  Not one trip or outing. We're moving on for next year.

Plantation Life at the Great Hope Plantation exhibit

The Govenor's Palace

Outer Buildings...

In town

Capital Building

We had to drag Kayleigh out of the fountain

Posted in Family

Hello my friends in blogland!  I hope that life finds you all well.

We're doing great here.  We've been enjoying having our whole family together.

Mackenzie has been busy getting school finished for the year.  The many interruptions we've had this year have caused 1st grade to last a tad longer then normal.  Good thing we started early. LOL

We've finished science, math, and most of LA.  We're just plugging away with history, her favorite, grammar, and keeping math fresh in her brain.

She's still a great helper with Kayleigh, although she won't go near a diaper.  She runs and hides if she thinks there's a surprise in it.

Kayleigh is just growing and discovering new things everyday.  She turned 3 months on Mother's Day :sniff, sniff:.  She's getting really fun and interacting with the world more.  She's discovered how to make the music and lights on her baby gym go off, how to clasp her hands together, and that if she kicks her feet in the tub it makes a cool noise.

Daddy is back to work, of course.  But he's happy to be home with his girls and we are sure glad he's back.  We'll enjoy it while it lasts.  Lots of training coming up for the next deployment.

Here's a look at some of the things we've been up too.

Aww, snap! My foot is stuck!

Breaking Daddy's heart by not taking bottles well. (And destroying mommy's chance of having a little freedom anytime soon. LOL)

Officially 2 months old

Making Jiffy pop with Daddy for the first time

Playing is hard work.  Drools like Daddy and sissy.

First time sleeping in her crib in her room. Doesn't happen often. LOL

My beautiful girls on Mother's Day

Officially 3 months old (also on Mother's Day)

A very rare happening, a paci in the mouth and she's not screaming

Always a great big sister, Mackenzie is grooming Kayleigh to be a Sonlighter.

Pretty girl with bedhead

Watching Baby Einstein for the first time

Posted in Family

Daddy's home!!!!!  Yay God!!!!

Meeting Kayleigh for the first time...

Posted in Daily life

Well another week has come and gone.

Exciting news this week...

1) Mackenzie lost another front tooth.  The same one as her best friend Macayla.

2) We did a full week of school.  All subjects.  How about that?

3) My friend, Teresa, got a good shot of Kayleigh's "poop face"

4) Kayleigh is starting to nap a bit better during the day.  And by better, I mean at all. LOL  She's been sleeping a bit in the swing for me.  Mommy likey.  (Sorry no picture. Yet.)

I can't figure the girl out.  She is wonderful at night.  She'll go down between 8-9 and sleep til 3 or 4.  But during the day...not so much.  I'm wondering if maybe the light during the day bothers here.  It's much brighter upstairs.  Daddy will be putting up some light blocking shades when he gets home. Blinds are useless for that, aren't they?

I had my post-partum check up yesterday and Kayleigh went with me.  It was my hope that she would charm my doctor so thoroughly that she'd want to switch over to pediatrics so she could take care of my precious babies.  Yea, that didn't happen.  Can you say "Screamed bloody murder"? 

Maybe she'll do better job at charming Dr. Adriano next week when I go back?  And yes, I know my dr. really isn't going to switch for me. But she would in my perfect world so I'm going to keep dreaming. LOL  Besides nothing is impossible!

Kayleigh also screamed all the way home. (Nothing surprising there. LOL)  And it was a long drive even without her screaming. You almost couldn't blame her with the INSANE traffic.  I kind of wanted to scream too. 

Get her home and she's all smiles.  That's what allows her to continue living here. LOL

We got our Sonlight box filled with core 2.  My niece Rachel was here to witness our joy.  She thought we were crazy to be so excited over school books.  She says "school is boring." She doesn't know any better. Poor girl hates reading.

I just like this picture

Mackenzie knows that terrible things will happen if you wake the napping baby.  =o)

Posted in Family

Kayleigh does not enjoy going and getting professional portraits done.  God bless the Picture People for being able to get decent shots of my uncooperative, screaming baby.

7 year old Mackenzie, always ready for a photo shoot

It took a long time to get Kayleigh asleep, which was pretty much the only way she would cooperate

I was too lazy to cut them before I scanned them in.  Daddy was in a hurry to see them.

Mackenzie was thrilled to be able to hold Kayleigh like this.  She'd been dying and Mommy wouldn't let her.  She learned why.  By the end of this pose they were both crying. LOL I wish we could've gotten a shot of that.

Precious baby feet

Kayleigh did like the bunny

Here's how they really sucker you.  How could I resist that?

A week later I forced Kayleigh to the Picture People again.  My mom, sister and nephew were in town and we wanted to get some pictures of all the grandkids together.  Again, Kenzie was the only one who really cooperated.  No surprise there. LOL

If you look carefully you can see that Kayleigh is learning to use her hands. ROFL

Hmm, this scan came out badly.  Oh well, I don't have time to redo it.