Friday 20 November 2009 - This Week in the Olive Grove

Well, our formal academic studies are over for the year.

• We finished reading aloud The Struggle for Sea Power, Dr. Dolittle, and Just So Stories.
• The boys finished their assigned silent readings for literature, history, science, and nature.
• We got our last spelling words for the year into our notebooks.

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Friday 13 November 2009 - This Week in the Olive Grove

This Week:

• We finished memorizing our verses from Psalm 139.
• We finished reading Now We Are Six.
• Lulapalooza finished his Bible Reader.
• Toodles finished her Bible Reader and Flower Fairies of the Autumn.

• We have 2 stories left in Just So Stories.
• We have 1 chapter to go in The Story of Dr. Dolittle.
• We have 8 more readings in The Struggle for Sea Power.
• J~Man has one more chapter to read in Men of Science; Men of God
• Lulapalooza will finish reading A Picnic on the Island for literature and Snakes and Stars for nature.
• They will each have one more spelling list.

• J~Man and his partner completed their robot for the upcoming LEGO-Robotics competition.
• Sgt. Elf bought a bunny.
• Toodles helped me prepare 20 boxes for Operation Christmas Child.
• Lulapalooza finalized plans for his birthday next week.
  

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Saturday 17 October 2009 - This Week in the Olive Grove

I am always amazed when God works things out ~ even though I shouldn't be!  October 5-9 was a planned academic break week, which worked out very well since we spent most of it in the hospital.  So this week we were back in the swing of things without having to play catch-up, and we had a great week.

• we started reading The Story of Dr. Dolittle and Just So Stories for literature
  
• Now We Are Six for poetry
  
• and The Struggle for Sea Power in our world history series
• we memorized the first four verses of Psalm 139
• I got my supplies organized enough that the kids could draw and play with modeling clay while I did our history and literature read alouds; they were quite excited about that.
  
• on Friday we did a little geography block with a story from Africa out of Folktales from Ecosystems Around the World, some songs from Africa from Wee Sing Around the World, and an African-inspired craft from Global Art.  The kids really enjoyed this ~ even the too cool 11yo boy!

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Friday 25 September 2009 - This Week (and last week) in the Olive Grove

We are winding down the year here in the Olive Grove.
We finished quite a few of our books over the past two weeks:

• The Wonderclock
• God's Marvels in Washington
• The Complete Book of Nonsense
• The House at Pooh Corner
• Lulapalooza finished his nature & history reads
• J~Man finished his science & literature
• Toodles finished Flower Fairies of the Trees

• The Complete Tales of Beatrix Potter
• When We Were Very Young
• Pilgrim's Progress
• The Awakening of Europe

• Spiced Apple Cider & Apple Pie Coffe Cake
• Candy Corn
• Pumpkin-scented orange candles
• Some Autumn Poetry
• Some crafting
• And, of course, Vivaldi

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Thursday 4 June 2009 - 25 Things

I shamelessly stole this idea from the Dominion Family Blog.

Here are 25 things that I have been doing of late:

1. reading more about unschooling (and arguing with myself)
   
2. re-arranging the furniture
3. walking in the mornings
4. watching L. four days a week
5. daydream-gardening
6. praying
7. trying to love my husband better
8. driving Frap to work
9. driving Frap home from work
10. feeling frustrated with myself that I still haven't finished reading aloud The Silver Chair
11. enjoying reading Edward Lear's Nonsense with the younger kids
12. feeling pleased with myself for keeping up with the reading aloud of Beatrix Potter, A. A. Milne, Howard Pyle, and M. B. Synge
13. neglecting Brahms
14. completely ignoring Cassatt
    
15. watching a pair of Barn Swallows
16. memorizing Psalm 8 with the kids
17. wondering if we might just be able to take some sort of actual family vacation this year
18. and if we can afford to
19. and if so ~ where?
20. watching So You Think You Can Dance
21. trying not to kill my ferns
22. head-blogging
23. tweaking our schedule/routine now that we are watching L.
24. enjoying the summer break from classes: the kids' gymnastics, dance, and robotics, and my Children's Bible Classes at church
25. trying to save as much of the money I am making watching L. as I can

So, what have you been up to?

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