The mother's heart is the child's schoolroom. - Homeschool Blogger

Thank You

Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:42:00 -0600

Hi, this is Missey's husband Tom. I just wanted to let everyone know how much your prayers, words, and cards have meant to us. We are getting stronger with your help. Your kindess to our family truely has been (and is) the glue to help our broken hearts be put back together. Baby Missey Kate is doing fine, she has already past her birth weight and eating well. There is so much I want to "say" to all of you but time is short, I must get back to packing. Again, I want to say Thank You and may God bless you the way he has blessed me. I do hope to post again soon to tell you what it was like to have Melissa as my wife.

God bless you all,

Husband to Melissa, Tom Gray

Thank You

Sat, 4 Mar 2006 18:03:00 -0600

This is Misseys husband Tom. I'm new at this stuff so forgive me if I'm not quite right. I wanted to let you know how much you people made my missey happy. All she wanted to do was help someone else and when someone told her that she had been helpful to them it would make her day. Thank you.....all of you , you all brought happiness into her life. I am a blessed man having her for a wife, a wife far more than I ever could have hoped for or ever deserved. By the way, duct tape does not help a broken heart, but your words telling me and my children how she may have helped you mean more to me than you could ever imagine.

thank you and GOD's Love be with you

Sincerly, Tom Gray ... husband to Missey

Sat, 4 Mar 2006 18:02:00 -0600

Two more gray hairs? Blame the boy!

Wed, 1 Mar 2006 09:17:00 -0600

I have another ultrasound, dr. visit, and non-stress test today so I will update y'all this evening.

So far things have been going well. I've been getting plenty of rest (dh is very insistent on it!!) when I'm not running back and forth to either my dr. or the kids' dr!! I had to take ds in to the dr. again yesterday because he had a nasty rash all over his body, HUGE red welps! The dr. said it was hives but that he couldn't say what caused it. He told me to give him Benadryl and to try to do a little detective work to see if we could figure out what he could have reacted to. We suspect it might have been the yellow dye in dd11's SpongeBob birthday cake, but we don't know that for sure yet. He had also had a rash before that, but it was a different kind of rash so I'm thinking that we have more than one type of allergy going on here. I'm thinking that the earlier rash may have been due to a different soap or shampoo that we had used briefly. So now I'm only using a Cetaphil cleanser on Nathan until we get this all figured out. Dh thinks he might have reacted to a different brand of wipees we used for awhile. Oh, the joys of trying to figure it all out! LOL!

But the good news is that ds' hives do look a bit better today. And his lip is healing nicely. Hmmm.....how many of these gray hairs can be attributed to THIS BOY?!!! LOL!!

His dr. said (in a friendly, joking manner) that he was "really impressed" with the extent of the hives covering ds' body and I replied, "Yeah, this kid doesn't do anything halfway!" He agreed and we shared a good stress-reducing laugh. :-D

Week 8 of Term 2

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:35:00 -0600

Well, I had a dr.'s appt. on Tuesday and he ordered another ultrasound so he could check on the placenta previa. The ultrasound was done on Wednesday as well as a Non-Stress Test. The placenta is completely blocking the cervix and the amniotic fluid is low. So I've been put on bed rest. He also ordered me to come in twice a week for Non-Stress Tests. I have one scheduled for tomorrow. He scheduled another ultrasound for next Wednesday as well as another NST. Needless to say, not a whole of school got done this week.

The girls carried on somewhat with their independent seatwork (MUS, ETC, & handwriting), but I did not do any read-alouds or any individual lessons with them. They have been helping me with the housework, cooking, taking care of the toddler, etc. so I have let them have plenty of free time to play outside (the weather's been nice!).

I think it would be nice if I had kept up at least one read-aloud but I just haven't felt up to even that this week. Thankfully, the girls have spent plenty of time doing free reading of their own. They've also done their Picture Study and Folk Song for this week. And they've played educational computer games and watched videos. And dd10 has kept up with her AO Year 4 readings. She did that all on her own. She got my binder out, looked up her reading assignments, and did them w/o me telling her to! All in all, I think they've done enough "academics" for the week to still count this as a school week. It's been more of an unschooling week, but at least I know their little brains are still being stimulated. :-)

Oh, by the way, ds is supposed to get his stitches out tomorrow! :-)

Week 7 of Term 2

Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:25:00 -0600

Again, this was a very light week.

All:

Bible:

Sarai gives Hagar to Abram - Gen. 16 & 17

Story of the World 2: A Tale of the Diaspora (ch. 20b)
Burgess Animal Book: ch. 6
Exploring Creation with Astronomy: "Creation Confirmation"
Folk Song: "Billy Boy"
Picture Study: Vermeer's "Art of Painting"

Dd10:

finished MUS Beta; started MUS Gamma
Reason for Handwriting Level D
Explode the Code 6
One written narration
Reading:

George Washington's World: p. 91-103
Kon Tiki: p. 36-45
Kidnapped: ch. 9-10
Physics Lab in the Home: p. 35
This Country of Ours: ch. 45
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution: ch. 6
Trial and Triumph: ch. 32

Miscellaneous free reading

Dd8:

Math-U-See Alpha
HWT Printing Power
Explode the Code 3
Wrote 3 original sentences.
Reading:

Young Reader's Bible

Dd5:

Reading Made Easy: Lesson 17
copywork from RME
Explode the Code 2
HWT preschool workbook

One tough kid!

Sun, 19 Feb 2006 18:16:00 -0600

We had to make a run to the ER last night to get 20-month-old ds' lip stitched up; he tripped over some toys and fell into one of those oil radiator-type heaters (it wasn't on, thank goodness!), leaving behind a gash in his lip that required three stitches. Yes, this is the SAME son who had cranioplasty surgery at 6 months and a nail removed from his scalp at just over a year old. This kid is contributing too much to my prematurely graying hair!

While we were checking into the ER, ds was curiously but calmly climbing all over the furniture. The nurse commented that he didn't seem to be in much pain. My reply? "Yeah, he's one tough kid!" And, now with his stitched-up lip, he looks the part. Pictures coming soon, so stay tuned. :-S

Week 6 of Term 2

Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:46:00 -0600

Last week and, so far, this week, we have slowed down a lot. I am trying to get ready for the baby so the dc are doing mostly independent work. I have really slacked off on the read-alouds these last two weeks.

Here's what last week looked like:

All:

Bible:
- Civil War in the Jordan Valley - Gen. 14
- Lot Taken Prisoner - Gen. 15
Story of the World Volume 2: The Scattering of the Jews
Exploring Creation with Astronomy: Solar Flares and Sun Spots
Picture Study: Vermeer's "Woman Holding a Balance"
Folk Song: "Billy Boy"

Dd10:

Math-U-See Beta and Singapore 3A
Reason for Handwriting Level D
Explode the Code Book 6
two written narrations
QuarterMile Math
Reading:
- George Washington's World: p. 75-91
- Kon Tiki: p. 32-35
- This Country of Ours: ch. 44
- Physics Lab in the Home: p. 34
- Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution: ch. 5
- Kidnapped: ch. 7-8
Free Reading: I didn't keep track. I hope she remembered to write it all down for me. I haven't even checked her reading log to see if she is keeping it up! :-S
Timed reading drills from Victory Drill Book; her top speed on one of the last lessons in the book (multi-syllabic words) was 85 words per minute. Just for comparison's sake, I timed myself reading the same page and I read it at a rate of 113 words per minute.

Dd8:

Math-U-See Alpha and Singapore 1A
HWT Printing Power
Explode the Code Book 3
three creative writing assignments
QuarterMile Math
Reading:
- The Young Reader's Bible
- The 18 Penny Goose
Timed reading drills from Victory Drill Book; her top speed on CVC and CCVC words was 28 words per minute.

Dd5:

HWT Preschool workbook
Started Explode the Code Book 2 (skipped Book 1 as it was already too easy for her)
Some lessons from The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (she didn't like this as well so we are back to using RME this week)
Timed reading drills from Victory Drill Book; her top speed on CVC words was 12 words per minute.

Quarter Mile Math

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 11:09:00 -0600

In our house, daily drill with QuarterMile is not optional and I wouldn't let the dd's stop doing it if they didn't like it, BUT....

I just asked them if they like it and here's what they said:

Dd10: Yes!

Dd8: Sorta.

Dd10 (clarifying for dd8): She gets frustrated when she doesn't know the answers.

Mom (to dd8): You'll get better with practice.

I needed something for daily drill that they could do on their own and that would be at least "semi" fun. I don't really care if they LOVE it or not. Drill is not optional. I don't expect them to LOVE daily drill work, but I do expect them to "put in their time." IF QuarterMile made them cry, then I would find something else, but if they are merely ambivalent (which seems to be the case with dd8) then I still expect them to do it and just get it over with for the day.

I also feel that persevering and sticking with the daily drill actually contributes to it being more fun in the long run. It gets "funner" every day because they get better every day. :-)

Overall, I have been very happy with this purchase. I think it was money well-spent. The dd's will readily admit that they like this form of drill better than pencil-and-paper drills or flashcard drills.

My philosophy in a nutshell: if you just gotta have daily math drills (and *we* do...dh considers them a MUST), might as well use the "least" painful method. LOL!

Week 5 of Term 2

Tue, 7 Feb 2006 14:04:00 -0600

All:

NKJV Bible:

The Flood: Genesis 7 and 8
The Rainbow: Genesis 9
The Tower of Babel: Genesis 11
Abram is called to leave his home: Genesis 12-13

Poetry of Eugene Field:

"The Dinky Bird"
"Little Blue Pigeon"
"The Duel"
"Good Children Street"
"The Bottle Tree"

Folksong: "Billy Boy" (both American and English versions)
Watched "The Servants," an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies where Granny and Jed sing the American version of the folksong "Billy Boy."
Picture Study: "Woman Holding a Balance" (Vermeer)
Read from:

Parables of Nature
Understood Betsy
Burgess Animal Book
An Island Story
Story of the World Volume 2

"Rowed" a FIAR book (I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to do this for dd5 who doesn't remember much of our FIAR studies.): The Story About Ping

Topics covered:

Literature: Fiction
Literary Device: Repetition (Dd8 and dd5 both wrote stories using repetition.)
Art: Drawing Water (Dd8 and dd5 drew pictures with water in them.)
Math: Adding up the list of Ping's relatives
Science: Reflection of Light (off mirrors, water, etc.)

Dd10:

Math-U-See and Singapore
Reason for Handwriting
Explode the Code
QuarterMile Math
dictation: some sentences from ETC and some Bible verses from Susan C. Anthony's site
Rod and Staff English 2: Unit 4, Exercise 11
Independent Reading:

NKJV Bible
Poetry of Emily Dickinson
George Washington's World: p. 59-74
Kon Tiki: p. 25-31
Kidnapped: ch. 5-6
This Country of Ours: ch. 43
Physics Lab in the Home: p. 32
Abigail Adams: Witness to a Revolution: ch. 4

Free Reading:

Continued reading the COFA series

Dd8:

Math U See and Singapore
HWT Printing Power
Explode the Code
QuarterMile Math
dictation: sentences from ETC; words from Spelling Plus
First Language Lessons: lessons 1-6
Read to Mom from:

The Young Reader's Bible
The 18 Penny Goose

Dd5:

HWT preschool workbook
Reading Made Easy: lessons 14-16
copywork from RME
Chose the following for Mommy to read aloud:

Barbie Fashion Fun Show
Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow