Yesterday started off on a bad note. Nathan often decides that he's going to rebel against school when daddy's home. Well, daddy was home yesterday so getting through his morning assignments was like pulling teeth. I can't quite figure out why having daddy home is such a hinderance. He is a bit more lax when it comes to discipline, but we stick together when it comes to punishment. Today I will bribe him a bit with Karate practice if he finishes his work on time.

The rest of the day went really well. We are almost done learning about birds. Today is our last day covering the topic and then it'll be on to reptiles. Nathan did a few worksheets on birds, their life cycle, and the different uses of beaks and feet. Since Nate's also in a science class at our co-op, we did some work for that too. They are studying the human body for this semester. Nathan has to learn 17 bones of the body, so we took a dry erase marker and wrote the bones on his body. It was fun to write all over him and I think he liked it too, although maybe a bit embarrassed when his dad saw him. I then quizzed him throughout the day on the bones.

We started two new books for history. I'm reading Johnny Tremain, and Nathan's reading The Skippack School. We decided to stop reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond halfway through the book because it was a bit over Nathan's head and he wasn't liking it at all. The writing of Johnny Tremain seems a little difficult for him, but I think having a younger male as a lead character may help him enjoy the book. I haven't read The Skippack School but after flipping through a few pages, the writing may be one of the more difficult for Nathan as a reader. He picked it up to read last night before heading to bed, so I haven't had a chance to ask him about it yet.

We then started a documentary on Benjamin Franklin. It's a total of 3.5 hours so we'll be watching it all week. It may be a bit over his head in some areas, but we are also working on some of the cutting and mindless work needed to start his Ben Franklin lapbook while watching the movie. I don't care if he understands all of it because we have about 4 books on Ben Franklin that we are also reading. Actually, Nathan has already read 2 of the books on his own. I think allowing him the opportunity to choose the lapbooks and pick out books from the library helps immensely with his willingness to do the work.

Our Hands and Hearts history kits showed up yesterday. We ordered Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece and Rome to use next year during our study from Creation to Christ. I'll also be ordering Ancient Far East. We also ordered the Early American History kit for this year. These look like the best kits ever! Everyone I know who has used them raves about them. This is what we get to do from our Early American History kit:

~Dip candles

~Make and study from a hornbook

~Craft an apple pomander

~Make and play the Bowl Game

~Prepare and drink black brick tea

~Create a talking feather

~Stitch a lavender sachet

~String a bone cross necklace

~Decorate and play a bamboo flute

~Learn about the importance of beads in early American history

~Create a wonderful keepsake notebook

~Learn timeless language lessons

~Study the geography of early America

~Hide God's Word in his heart

These kits are found at www.handsandhearts.com. If you want to add more hands on activities, you can't beat these kits.

So I finally feel that we are back on track with school. Not that we weren't doing the work. We just weren't enjoying it very much. Finding a balance between Nathan's hands-on learning style and my teaching style has been difficult for us, as I'm sure other parents can attest to. Everything's starting to come together now. Of course once we find a balance, everything's sure to change once again and we'll be searching for our new comfort zone. Well...I'll enjoy it while it lasts.

I think we are out of our winter slump for now. Right now we are studying Early American History. Nathan just finished reading The Courage of Sarah Noble and has moved on to The Matchlock Gun. He seems to enjoy his reading and has picked up Charlotte's Web at bedtime. I told him that if he reads the entire book, I'll take him to go see the movie. Hopefully he can finish it in time before the movie leaves theaters.

For science, we are studying birds. Nathan seems to enjoy his science books quite a bit, especially The Mysteries and Marvels of Nature. It has some great pictures in it. I also bought a science book with a bunch of reproducibles to add to our learning. On Wednesday, we dissected an owl pellet. For anyone who doesn't know, that is the remains of an owl's meal. He (the owl) eats a rodent or bird whole and what his body can't digest...well...comes back up in a compact pellet. We found out that we definitely have some sort of rodent. Probably a mouse or small rat.

Math and Language Arts are moving along at a good pace. We are in our 3rd lesson of Gamma. I purchased some multiplication flashcards and extra practice book to help Nathan learn his multiplication tables. He's now writing complete words in cursive. We have been taking this slowly since he IS a boy and handwriting is not his best subject. He's doing well though.

We decided to add lapbooks to our curriculum this year. I don't have the creativity or time to make my own lapbooks, so we purchased some from Hands of a Child. They are complete books with the information and reproducibles.  Nathan chose "Predators of the Deep" and "Benjamin Franklin" as his first lapbooks.

I haven't quite figured out what to do with Katie during school. She is outgrowing her naps (unfortunately) and wants so desperately to be in the room with us. I'm going to try using the Leapfrog videos and her Leap Pad books to keep her busy. Maybe some puzzles and toys that she can only play with during school time. Any other advice?

Today we set up our table and chairs in my bedroom to use for school. I don't like doing school at our kitchen table because I like to keep the downstairs neat and orderly. My bedroom is quite large, so we set up a good size folding table and three chairs in my room and laid out our books that we use on a regular basis along with our pencils and pens. This is also the room that holds our two bookcases, magazine files, and my seven drawer storage container for those miscellaneous items.

Katie has been wanting to do "classes" with us for a while, so I decided to allow her to skip the nap and remain with us during school. Unfortunately, this didn't work at all. Katie was just being a normal almost 3 year old. She was cutting, coloring, looking at books, drawing Charlotte from Charlotte's Web, and lacing her shapes. She was a bit distracting, no doubt about that. Nathan just couldn't handle the distraction. He kept goofing off and they both received spankings for not obeying. I was frustrated to the max. I finally dragged her into her room kicking and screaming. She fell asleep right away. Nathan was then able to calm down enough to do school with me. Live and learn, I suppose. I named my blog Living and Learning to represent that they can be done simultaneous, but sometimes we learn hard lessons.

From now on, I will school Katie first while Nathan works on chores or his own assignments IN ANOTHER ROOM! Then I will put her down for her nap while Nathan and I school together. Hopefully by the time she is old enough to school full time, they will both exhibit enough self control to school in the same room. Ugh.

We are now almost done with our first week without school. My kids are at their grandparents' house, so I have thoroughly enjoyed my time to rest, organize, and did I say rest? I've watched way too much television and have read for hours on end. I love vacation!

The kids are coming home on Saturday, so back to reality. Of course, we will still have another week from schooling, but there will be a lot more cleaning and organizing going on with the kids home. Hopefully I can keep the kids busy with their new toys and games so I can work.

I am missing the schedule that school brings. I am always ready to begin schooling after taking a break. I much prefer many short breaks to one large break. That is why we choose to homeschool during the summer.

I have had some extra time to talk to family and friends that do not homeschool. They are all stressing over their children being home for the Christmas break and are ready to send them back to regain peace in their lives. I have a hard time relating. I definitely love it when my parents have my children for a week. I don't send them both away on a regular basis, so it's a big treat. But I don't see my children as a disruption to my peaceful life. I see them as one of the main components of my life. I can understand where my friends are coming from though. I once was a public school parent. I remember what it was like for my son to be home all of a sudden for long periods and not knowing how to handle it. My son didn't know how to just "be" at home. He was so used to people telling him what to do every second of the day. Sit here. Wait in line here. Raise your hand. Work on math now. Stop and read a book. He didn't have time to discover his creativity and imagination. Now Nathan is fully capable of entertaining himself. Even though we often have to take screen time away for overuse, he is still so much better. When we took him out of 2nd grade, he needed me to entertain constantly. He didn't know how to get along with his sister. Now it is much more peaceful.

So as much as I'm enjoying my time or respite, I'll be ready to get back on the bandwagon for the 2nd semester. Can you believe this school year is half over??

Right now as the holidays are upon us, we will be switching directions for a while. We are trying to finish up on our assignments that we are slightly behind on this week. This includes some science experiments and one of our read alouds. Although we kept up on school quite a bit while I was sick, I couldn't read aloud well when I was coughing up a lung and didn't want to get out of bed to do experiments with plants when I was so ill.

Next week, Nathan is heading to my parent's house for the week. He will be working on language arts, science, and will be doing read alouds with his grandparents on the Sioux Indians. Since we're ahead in math, he'll have the week off.

When Nathan comes back home, we will begin our Christmas unit. We will be reading from a book of short stories on Christmas. This is a Christian book and the stories are all very heartwarming. Just something to enjoy together and get us in the correct frame of mind during this busy season. We will also be making ornaments and decorating the house. Most of the ornaments on the tree will be homemade this year. We are also studying Christmas around the world. We have two small books that teach a bit about how Christmas is celebrated in up to 30 different countries. One is a coloring book too. We will be learning about St. Nicholas and the historical significance of this man. We will learn about how Santa came to be and concentrate on the real meaning of Christmas.

Nathan is also working at my job helping me and others bag their papers and stuff their inserts. He's earning money to help his grandparents buy a new computer. This is something that he thought up on his own. He decided that he wanted to help them however he could. I talked to some people at my job who offered him some work to help earn money. This is a busy time at my job because of the number of ads that go out in the paper. His help will be appreciated.

So when the new year begins, we'll be getting back on track. We'll begin a new math book (Gamma) and start some new books. Nathan and I have also decided to keep grades for him. We both think it will be beneficial in keeping him accountable for his work.

So right now I'm still trying to get better. I'm feeling about 95% right now, so I'm resting when I can and trying to catch up on housework when I can. I'll try to blog on our weekend at the zoo and our Thanksgiving later.

This is a fairly new concept for me. I never liked to read while growing up. I believe it was due to a lack of interesting books tossed my way added to my ADD tendencies. Now as an adult, I still struggle with reading. I'm a good reader, but I'm not a GREAT reader. I consider myself a slow reader. I'm quite envious of people who can read through a novel in one day. I just can't. It takes me a good week to read a book. This is not just due to time constraints. It's more due to attention constraints.

Anyway, I desperately want my children to enjoy reading for fun. I try to set a good example by reading regularly. We also read a book together for school. Right now, it's The Sign of the Beaver. My son is assigned a book to read for school too. He is currently reading Squanto, Friend of the Pilgrims. I read all of the books that I assign him to read. That way, we can discuss them in detail. I also like it because I get to enjoy some books that I missed out on as a child.

Yesterday was not the best school day. Nathan worked on math, language arts, and finished his Bible and reading assignment. We didn't do anything together during school time due to my being very sick. I felt bad for not doing more together so when I felt a little better, I asked Nathan if he wanted to snuggle in bed with me while I read. I read one chapter from The Sign of the Beaver. Then Nathan asked to read a chapter. This book is a 5th grade book, but he had no problems at all with it. I think I helped with about 2 words. I could tell that he was tired of reading after one chapter. I asked him if he wanted me to continue. He said no. He wanted to go finish Squanto. He ran off and I let him finish his book last night. He stayed up a bit late, but he finished his book. He had the rest of the week to do it, but I knew he felt proud of himself for finishing early. I felt proud as I watched him enjoy a book for fun. I'm looking forward to our conversation today as we discuss the book. We also plan on finishing The Sign of the Beaver today.

Okay, remind me that I said that when I have a bad week. We just had a wonderful week this week. We kept up on most of our work on top of our added activities. The only project that we didn't get to was the gourd rattles. I bought the gourds, but I admit that they intimidate me. We plan on doing those next week. I'm also going to make some corn husk dolls for Katie. If Nathan wants one, I'll make him a boy doll.

We finished two of our books for Sonlight. The first was Walk the World's Rim. A lot of other Sonlighters said that they cried at the end of this book. I got to the sad part of the book and was proud that I didn't cry. Then it hit me when I had two pages left. Nathan thought I was nutty. We also finished Pedro's Journal. It was a good and easy read, but not my favorite.

Right now we are making our Indian feast. We definitely made too much food. This is our menu for the night:

Beans~navy, great northern, and pinto with bacon and veggies

Hominy casserole

Corn on the cob

Baked butternut squash

Indian candy corn for dessert!

Hopefully it all turns out well. It sure does smell good.

We are also working hard on our Tops experiments that are a part of our science curriculum with Sonlight. We are doing experiments with radish seeds. Right now, we have four different experiments going, so it is taking up plenty of counter space. I'm just so happy that the seeds are sprouting. A lot of people have complained that their seeds don't sprout, but all of mine have been just fine.

Tomorrow we are going to Boo at the Zoo! Grandpa is going to meet us there. I'm so happy that we have a membership +1. We always get one person in free with us. The only thing we will be paying for is our drinks and the motor safari. We'll be bringing a lunch with us, so it will be a cheap and super fun day. They have a costume parade, special zoo chats with different creepy animals, scarecrow crafts and games, professional pumpkin carvers, and goodie bags.

Katie is excited to see the lions, giraffes, and dolphins. We decided not to spend the money to see the dolphins again, so I told her that they were not at the zoo right now. Nathan wants to see the penguins and vampire bats. They also have a snake for the kids to touch. I hope it's a big one!

So we're having lots of fun during the fall season. This is definitely my favorite time of year. I'm excited that our school schedule just happens to be discussing Thanksgiving right at Thanksgiving time. Then we will take the month of December to do a Christmas unit.

I've been super busy lately with family obligations, but thought I would post about our upcoming week. We need a break from the ordinary, so we're doing more activities this week to help. Besides, Nathan needs to head to the doc so he will up the dosage of his ADHD medicine. We do this yearly, and it's definitely that time of year. 

We will be starting our Tops experiments this week. They last for 4 weeks and are part of the Sonlight Science 3 curriculum. We will be planting radish seeds. I've heard some people say that the radish seeds were old and they had to order new ones. I'm hoping mine work out okay.

We're also doing an activity each day to coincide with our study of Native Americans.

Monday~heading to the store to buy food for our Indian feast (beans, squash, corn, pumpkins, some sort of meat). We'll also go to the bookstore to pick out some books for Thanksgiving. Basically, a day out of the house (after book work and chores).

Tuesday~We're making a todem pole out of a paper towel roll and construction paper. We'll also be making Indian headdresses. Then we'll have a story time where we sit Indian style and listen to stories about the animals and how they gained certain attributes.

Wednesday~We'll be attempting to make some gourd rattles. They look a little complex, so wish us luck.

Thursday~Pumpkin carving time! I'd like to carve about 3 pumpkins.

Friday~We'll be preparing our Indian feast. Nothing too difficult. I just want Nathan to get an idea of the foods that the Native Americans ate. We'll of course wear our headdresses and have an Indian pow wow.

We are a family that enjoys celebrating Halloween (gasp!). I know, I know. Not the most popular of opionions among Christian homeschoolers, but we enjoy all of the fun aspects of dressing up, carving pumpkins, eating great harvest foods, and trick-or-treating. I know it is a pagan holiday. Christmas and Easter began as pagan holidays as well. It's much more about HOW one celebrates a holiday than whether or not it is celebrated. We don't endorse the evil that takes place. We endorse family fun. I don't decorate with frightening decorations that are all too prevalent. We stick with scarecrows, hay bundles, and pumpkins. I don't dress my children in scary or skimpy costumes. This year, we will have a super hero and a lion. Nothing boosts a child's imagination quite like dressing up.

So there, we have a packed week this week, and next will be equally busy celebrating Halloween and schooling.

Thanks to all who responded to my entry about my PCOS. I will try to respond more soon. Life is just very busy now. The holiday season has officially started here.

I thought I'd update how things are going with our new curriculum. Right now, these are the subjects that he is working on:

Math: Beta in Math-U-See~he's learning how to round and add numbers in the thousands. It's all pretty much review. The numbers just keep getting larger. We are hoping to get through Delta this year also so that he will know how to multiply. Right now we are on lesson 17 out of 30. Some weeks we cover 2 lessons. It depends on how difficult the lessons are.

Language Arts: Yellow book of Learning Language Arts through Literature~Nathan is on lesson 7 in this book. They teach concepts in a spiral format. I'm not sure how I feel about this yet. I know that certain concepts are hard for him to retain. One day he is learning how to look things up in the yellow pages of the phone directory. The next, he's learning to separate syllables. I think I like the handwriting practice the most. He can do this book almost completely on his own, which is helpful since we do so much else together.

History: Sonlight~Right now we are learning about Native Americans and the European settlers. We are doing this through The Story of the USA, which is like a workbook. Not the most exciting book in the world. We just stopping this book to move on to Pedro's Journal. This one is much more interesting. We also use a timeline and map.

Science: Sonlight~We are reading Introduction to Biology. It's pretty interesting to discuss, but much of the material is above Nathan's head. The book has a few black and white drawings, but not much to look at. I usually write some things out on large paper to help him understand. We will be starting some experiments next week, which he's excited about, of course!

Reading: Sonlight~We have readers and read-alouds for Sonlight. Right now, we are reading Walk the World's Rim together and Nathan is reading Pocahantas and the Strangers by himself. I'm actually reading Pocahantas and the Strangers too. Nathan keeps trying to catch up to my reading, so he's ahead of schedule on this book.

Bible: Sonlight~Everyday, Nathan reads out of his Bible and I read out of mine. He's reading from Genesis and I'm reading from Luke. We also read from the American Indian Prayer Guide daily.

Nathan is also enjoying his Karate, gym, and drawing class. We are doing funschool on Fridays. Last week we went to visit my SIL instead of any extra schooling. This week, we will be doing different Native American crafts. We will be constructing a miniature totem pole from a paper towel roll and making Indian head dresses. I'm hoping to get my hands on some gourds to make gourd rattles like the ones described in Walk the World's Rim.

Not much is going on with Katie. She is drawing and coloring everyday. I read about 3 books a day to her. She loves to listen to books on tape, though. She also enjoys cutting and pretending to be animals. Her favorite is still the lion. She's going to be Nala for Halloween, so I often find her dressed up in her costume. Katie has pretty much managed to dress herself. She still has a hard time with getting her shirt over her head. Of course, I still buckle, snap, button, and tie for her. She seems to understand the concept of left and right. She never gets it wrong when I ask her. It could be a fluke, but somehow she always knows. She is learning to pray a little bit better. She now closes her hands and eyes when we pray. I have to constantly remind her to not eat until after we pray.

Nathan is getting used to the attitude chart. He had a perfect day yesterday so he's reaping the benefits today. He's already lost 13 out of 15 smiley faces for tomorrow. He's bummed by it but he knows that if he acts up anymore, he'll lose it all and end up with a spanking to top it off. I feel that he's learning from it. He knows that I'm not going to put up with it.

So that's what's going on here. Oh, my sister just found out she's having another baby boy. That will make two boys and two girls for her. Everyone is very excited to meet the newest little one.

Yes, I know...curriculumoholic is not a real word. It is a real problem that many of us homeschoolers deal with. Especially newbies like myself. We want to find the "perfect" curriculum and even after we find something that works, we keep looking for something better. We constantly wonder if the grass is greener on the other side. So I constantly scan through homeschool curriculum catalogs. Now, I know certain things will never work in my home. My son will not sit down and read textbooks or work in workbooks all day long. I enjoy learning from living books and I like hands on activities. I've decided though to change my curriculum a bit though. Right now, we are using Konos as our main curriculum with Math-U-See and LLATL (learning language arts through literature). I'm happy with all of it, though I feel like I need something with a bit more built in structure. I sometimes get overwhelmed with the planning required from Konos. It fits Nathan's kinesthetic learning style, but it doesn't fit my teaching style very well. I've decided to order from Sonlight again. We used Sonlight when Nathan was in Kindergarten. I enjoyed it, but I was so green and didn't really know what I was doing. I blamed the curriculum, but looking back I realized that I just needed to be more prepared for the journey. Anyway, I am ordering  the Core 3 (4 day schedule) for Nate and we will be starting it hopefully in about 2 months. I have to buy the items slowly since it is an expensive curriculum and I'm not made of money. I think it will be worth it though. So here's how I'm planning my schedule once I start Sonlight.

Monday~Sonlight, MUS, LLATL, co-op

Tuesday~Sonlight, MUS, LLATL

Wednesday~Konos, Math and Language Arts games

Thursday~Sonlight, MUS, LLATL

Friday~Sonlight, co-op

We'll see how this schedule will work for us. I kinda told Nathan that we wouldn't be doing "school" on Fridays since we have our co-op that morning. I hate to go back on my word, but I really feel that this schedule will work well for us. It will give a good break in the middle of the week to do some fun activities. I may try to make the Konos day coincide with our Sonlight schedule or I may just choose a topic and run with it for those days. Not sure yet. I'm very excited though. Hopefully I can lay down the catalogs for a bit.

I guess I'm not going to have a chance to type out this week's schedule. I'm lucky to actually DO this week's schedule. We've been keeping pretty busy. Nathan follows his morning assignment sheet really well. By the time I'm ready to "do school", he's almost done with his assignments. Yesterday, we talked more about kings and queens and how God is the King of Kings. We sang Crown Him with Many Crowns and made an Orb. We learned more about the coronation ceremony, especially that of Queen Elizabeth II. We also read about the annointing of King Saul and King David. We've already made a scepter and crown, so we will be having a coronation ceremony of our own this week.

Today during our Konos time, we read Revelation 4 to learn about the throne of God in heaven. Nathan illustrated the throne from what we read. We also learned more about King Henry VIII and his wives. We learned that Henry VIII was a talented musician and wrote Greensleeves. We sang Greensleeves and What Child is This?

Next, we read about stained glass windows and made our own using sun catchers. Now Nathan is writing his first paragraph about King David. He's a little apprehensive about writing, so I'm trying to ease him into it as much as possible. It's not my favorite subject either, so it doesn't help my confidence level all that much when my child acts like holding a pencil is the worst form of punishment.

We are definitely behind schedule today, since Nathan went to work with me last night. We didn't get moving until after 11am this morning.

I finally recieved my Konos order on Saturday. I ordered the Classic Obedience and Classic Orderliness curriculums with the timeline characters. I still need to order the timeline, but I can only get a little at a time. I am really impressed with with books, but I haven't had time to delve into them too much. I was sick over the weekend and had a hard night at work on Saturday. I slept most of the day on Sunday and only had enough time to read what I'll be doing for the first week. I decided to do the entire 4 weeks of the Kings and Queens unit, even though we've already been covering this unit for 4 weeks. There is just so many more ideas that I would like to take advantage of. Nathan seemed fine about starting the unit from week one. I just told him that we wouldn't do anything over again unless if it's something we both enjoyed. We will probably hold another English tea party because Nathan's been asking for more tea lately. We may make one more costume too. Probably the Jester costume if I can figure it out. The knight costume may be a bit easier. We'll see.

Here is our plan for the year:

Kings and Queens~8 weeks

Light and Authority~1 week

Horses~6 weeks

Crime and Punishment~1 week

Christmas break from Thanksgiving until New Years. During this time, we may continue LA and Math at a slower speed while we enjoy crafting and preparing for the holidays.

Seasons/Solar System~7 weeks

Country of Nathan's choice for our homeschool group presentation~4 weeks

Rock/Plant/Animal Classification~6 Weeks

We'll probably pick a Konos-in-a-bag to do over the summer. My plan is to go year round so there's less stress to "fit it all in."

Hopefully I can add this week's schedule to my blog by tomorrow.

I didn't post a thing yesterday because it was a bad day. My energy level was extremely low and my patience even lower. After Nathan drove me crazy all morning, I sent him to his room to do busy work instead of the fun Konos activities we had planned. I felt bad for punishing him like that, but I just needed a little quiet and Katie was napping. He actually did quite well while he was in there. He even wrote his first book report on a book called Knights in Shining Armor. The evening wasn't much better. I still felt pretty awful and went to bed at about 11pm feeling that I didn't accomplish a thing yesterday.

Today was a much better day. I slept in until about 10am (awake on and off from 8-10 because of the kids). For those who don't know, I sleep late because I work at night. The kids do well at entertaining themselves in the morning through tv, toys, schoolwork, and chores.

When I woke up, Nathan had most of his morning schoolwork finished (that which I assign the night before) and all of his chores done. That left us with an enjoyable morning of school, lunch, and Konos activities. Today, we each created a family coat of arms. Nathan did a great job. He added a geometrical design to our basic crest. Then he drew a knight slaying a dragon on the crest. At the top, he added his last name. Along the bottom, he added a motto reading "A coeur valliant, rien impossible." This means~To a valiant heart, nothing is impossible. He picked out his own motto, and I think he did a great job.

Everything was accomplished by 1:30. Nathan was able to spend some time with his neighborhood buddy before he goes back to school next week. I have to admit I'm ready for the PS kids to go back so that Nathan doesn't feel it's "unfair" that he has to do school while his friends don't have to. Then he'll remember that often while his friends are in school, we're off having fun and playing.

I forgot to add what I will be doing with Katie this week. I want to add that I don't really do "school" with her. She's only 2.5 years old. I really do see it as fun time with her. It's a way to interact with her. I never force her to accomplish or do something that she isn't capable of doing. I don't believe in children that are one trick ponies so that we can brag about their "accomplishments". I just felt the need to bring that up.

This week's theme from "Letter of the Week" is Kittens

Monday:

Reading~Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?(our newest addition to our home library)

Mama Cat Has Three Kittens

Flashcards~We'll go over our set of shape and color hands-on flash cards, concentrating on colors.

Fine Motor~Folding from our Kumon workbook

Gross Motor~Pretend to be animals from Brown Bear, Brown Bear

Tuesday:

Reading~My Kittens (Poem)

Song~Three Little Kittens

Fine Motor~Coloring the letter "C"

Gross Motor~Dancing

Wednesday:

Reading~Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?,

Three Little Kittens

Flashcards~ABC Hands-on Flashcards, concentrating on the letter "C"

Fine Motor~Cutting from Kumon workbook

Gross Motor~Playing ball with yarn like kittens

Thursday:

Reading~The Little Kitten, Pussy Cat Pussy Cat (nursery rhyme)

Song~A Kitten For Joy

Fine Motor~sticking and pasting from Kumon workbook

Gross Motor~Hopping and running

Friday:

Reading~Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?,

Mama Cat Has Three Kittens

Flashcards~Color and Shape Hands-on Flashcards, concentrating on diamonds

Fine Motor~Make kitten puppet with mommy

Gross Motor~Playing outside

Soon, our planned school days will be cut down to 4 days a week. Katie and I will be having special time together on these days since Nathan will be attending classes at our co-op.

Our family went to our first support group meeting. We filled out the membership form, paid our dues, and I'm hoping to get a lot out of this group. They meet once a month for a topical meeting and send out a great newsletter with plenty of field trip ideas and other activities for the kiddos.  

At the meeting, we began with an ice breaker game. Ken wasn't that interested in going, but he seemed to have fun during the ice breaker. Next, they served food and we had a chance to talk to others. Then it was time for the official meeting. That's when the kids became very restless. By this time, it was past 8pm and Katie was super antsy. Ken ended up in the hallway with the kids for the majority of the meeting. I wish we would've had someone watch the kids.

It was a good first meeting, though. Afterwards, we still hadn't eaten dinner (9:45), so we went out for Italian and finally had the kids in bed by 11:30. We were woken up by Katie at 7:30 this morning. Come on, Katie! Sleep in, please!!!!

Nathan and I have been studying chess (www.chesskids.com) lately as part of our Kings/Queens unit. I wasn't sure how involved we were going to become with it. My plan is not to master the game. I want Nathan to learn how the battles are similar to real battles set in the Middle Ages. It is also a great critical thinking game (something that seriously lacks in public school). Yesterday we began lesson 2 which taught us about Check, Checkmate, and Stalemate. We didn't finish the lesson because both of our brains were on overload and we just wanted to play a game. Nathan is getting pretty good at the game. I play a more offensive game than he does at this point. I was trying REALLY hard to get a checkmate. The first game was pretty easy. I won in about 10 minutes. The next game was not so easy. I chased him around that board for over a half hour. He was able to escape all of my checks and the game eventually ended in a stalemate. Now, any expert chess players need not comment. We are just learning the game. It's great to see the excitment in his eyes when I tell him it's chess time. He seems to really enjoy the game (although anyone who knows my son knows how much he likes competition in any form). Just another perk of homeschooling.

Here's a list of some of my favorite verses and quotes that apply to homeschooling. Enjoy!

Deuteronomy 6:6-7

We are smack dab in the middle of our Kings/Queens unit when our printer decides to stop working. We have purchased two different printers since then and neither of them want to work with our computer either. I don't know what the problem is, but for now I have no printer. I LOVE to print up different pictures, workbook pages, etc. for school and now I feel lost without my printer. Also, I just ordered two of the KONOS-in-a-box (Obedience and Orderlieness) to help with my homeschool planning and am waiting for them to arrive. Although we are not stopping our unit studies completely, I want my order to come since they will have some ideas and direction for the remainder of my Kings/Queens unit. Here is what we have done so far:

Week 1: Kings/Queens

Read about Richard the Lionheart and Alexander the Great.

Created a king costume for Nathan and made a crown and scepter for each of the children. Katie enjoyed gluing her jewels onto her scepter although she annoyed Nathan to no end!

Created a timeline to explain the "Middle Ages". Nathan has a magnetic strip that goes across one wall in his room where his timeline is displayed.

Started our vocabulary book. Nathan used the dictionary to look up words, write out their definitions, and illustrate each word.

Week2: Castles/Castle Workers

Watched Castles by David Macaulay. Great video describing castles and their purpose.

Created a castle from a kit bought at Michaels. We glued it together one day and painted it the next. Nathan now uses it to play with his Medieval characters.

Read books about castles and the caste system in the Medieval society.

Discussed fuedalism.

Week 3: Knights

This is the week we are on right now. While we are waiting for our KONOS-in-a-box to arrive, we are learning the game of chess through www.chesskids.com. It's a free interactive sight for children (and their parents) to learn the game of chess.

Right now, Nathan is watching Disney's The Sword in the Stone.

Still working on the vocabulary book.

I'm tired of being a Lady in Waiting. I'm reading to get on with being Queen of my Castle (or as the kids call me~Queen Mama!)