First Day of School--October 18, 2010

We started our new school year yesterday. It was a good start, even though it had a rocky beginning. I was in a horrible, no good, bad mood. There really was no one to blame for my bad mood...I was just feeling bitchy. Once we got in our groove though, I began to settle. Which makes me think maybe my bitchy-ness was from lack of routine (we've been having our break, then we were on vacation, then I was trying to readjust to east coast time....) and maybe it will be better now. The day went well. The girls seemed excited for their new books. We finished relatively quickly, and then we had bowling league. This week we have lots of activities going on. Bowling league yesterday, seeing grandma today, 4H tomorrow, and the state fair on Thursday!

Our final activity of the school day occurred after we got home from bowling. The kids put on the pumpkin faces! We will carve the big one next week, but for now we'll change his "Mr. Pumpkin Head" features daily.

Here is One, all ready for the first day. She is 12. This is her 7th grade year, how did that happen I ask you??? She looks so grown. She is very excited about dance this year as she moved up to a more competitive class. This means more opportunities to perform, and a real dance competition in the spring. She is the only girl in her class who hasn't had tap before (although, she did take tap 3 years ago, it was just that one time, and most of the other girls have taken much more tap) but she is keeping up pretty well.

Here is Two. She is 10 (11 in December) and this is her 6th grade year. Technically, she would be in 5th grade because of her late birthday, but since we homeschool we didn't have to wait for her to start Kindy. She is really enjoying her competitive soccer team, and has scored 3 goals this season!

Here is Three. Three is 3. :) He is currently very into Cars and Toy Story. He is still working on learning the alphabet. He really likes the crafts, and he actually really enjoys workbook pages as well.

Here is Four. When the other kids were all standing there, he was pretty sure he needed to have his turn. :D Four is almost 1 and 1/2. You can see where he recently fell off the steps and scraped his nose. :( He is FINALLY using some words, purposefully. Before the last 2 weeks he could say enough things that I wasn't worried, BUT he didn't really use them regularly. Now, he's using words in context. His receptive language though, is through the roof! I swear, he understands 98% of what is said to him, and I know his receptive language skills are way ahead of where any of his siblings were at this age. On top of all that, he's so stinking cute.

Week in Review

Here is Three working on his firetruck craft. He LOVES it.


This is Three working on an activity I made. There are numbers and stamps on each plate, and he has to match them.



One painting a "buffalo hide" for a project to go along with her Native American studies.

Three cutting out the first of his wish list items for Christmas.

Four putting poker chips in a slot. :)

We didn't quite get everything done, BUT I lost all of Monday, and most of Tuesday due to some personal issues. Then today DH took the day off for us to have a family fun day, so we didn't do school today either. That's OK.

One is ALMOST finished with her final unit in History, and we are only doing History/Math/Reading right now, so we should be done by mid-week next week, which is PERFECT since my SIL is coming in late next week.

Three started his "class" again this week, through our local parks and rec. He was SUPER excited to be there, and really participated (which he didn't do at all the last time we were there.) When he was telling Daddy about the class, he kept calling "Mrs. Michelle" "that girl teacher," for some reason I thought this was hilarious. LOL

So, the plan for this week is to finish up school for One prior to family visit. Have a lot of fun with family. Then we are on a break until Mid-October. Yahoooooooooo.

I'm going away for 10 days at the beginning of October, just DH and I. For. Ten. Whole. Days.

Posts between now and October will be sparse, and mostly fluff. :)

Week in Review

Sooo, Four came down with a cold on Monday which put a kink in goals. I only got a couple of things done with Three. Such is life. So last weeks goals for him, are the same for this coming week. However, One met all of the goals I had set, and Two did her review work and reading. We did no school on Friday because One and Four had ped appts (well checks) and it was the day I felt the WORST this week--because of course, I caught Four's cold (Three has it as well, but so far it looks like hubby, One and Two have managed to escape it.)

Now for the best part of our week, we took a trip today to an actual Civil War battlefield. These pics are out of order, but I'm trying to just get it posted. They did a musket and artillery fire demonstration and we got to tour the house which was used as a hospital during the battle.

This is one of the operating rooms:

One and Two on the steps of the house/hospital.

They were doing a bayonet charge.

Firing their weapons:

Marching:

Goals for the week

With Three, I hope to do the following:

Reading skills:

1. Sorting activities:
a.) vocab cards
b.) buttons
c.) shaped noodles

2. Letter F activities
a.) workbook page letter F identification
b.) workbook page letter F sound
c.) build a wooden firetruck (it's a kit from a hardware store)
d.) this fireman craft: http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/miscellaneous/mfireman.html
e.) Starfall.com letter Ff

Math skills:

1. Counting 7 objects (Three seems to be having a block after 6.)
2. Workbook page on written #2.
3. Patterns!

Fine Motor skills:

1. Beads
2. Pegs
3. Tongs

For Two, I plan to do the following:

Two has already finished her school year (hallelujah!) She will be doing reading each day, as we still have some books that were on my "list" for this year that she didn't get to. And, she'll be doing a math review sheet each day.

For One, I plan to do the following:

History:

1. Re-test on the Wild West (yes, she did get a D on Friday....ugh.)
2. Move on to unit on the battles with native american's over the land in the west
3. Historical field trip to a Civil War battlefield (I'm CRAZY excited about this.)

Math:

1. Finish chapter on decimal multiplication, if there is a God...we will finish this up. But, she is struggling, so we'll see.

Reading:
1. Finish abridged version of Little Women

We've completed all of our science and grammar for the year!

Letter D

Dragon craft from notimeforflashcards.com (which ROCKS.)

Tracing Letter D felt letters (I made felt letters, instead of typical montessori sandpaper letters.)

Writing Letter D in oatmeal

Coloring his "dinosaur costume:"

Working on scissor skills by cutting out the spikes for his dino

The back of the dinosaur costume:

We did a dino craft....from dltk-kids.com....but I apparently didn't take pictures. :(

It's a Wrap.

Random stuff from the last week or so....

One and Two built a skyscraper city during Three and Four's nap...and then I unleashed the Jabberwocky. Look at that gleam in his eye...tiny terror.


Yes, they are couch-cushion surfing.

Three and Four playing.

Muffin Tin Monday

This if my first time participating in Muffin Tin Monday! I was so excited to see this idea yesterday while blog cruising. It made me really think about lunch....and we've really been in a rut. It was SUPER. It got Three to try zucchini (which he swears he doesn't like.... ;))

This is Four's plate (yeah, I know, not a muffin tin...WhAtEvEr!) It has pears, carrots, broiled zucchini, and then some broiled zucchini with melted rice cheese shreds. He ate EVERY BIT, but then he eats every bit of every meal...man can this kid eat! :)



For Three's tin, we had a dinosaur theme because we've been working on letter D and had done a dinosaur craft this morning. So, moving clockwise we have: Boulders (chicken nuggets,) Dino blood (ketchup,) leaves-dino food (zucchini,) pears-dino food, sticks (graham cracker sticks,) and dino-eggs (grapes.)




This was SO fun....and I can't wait to do it again! Here is the original blog that it came from: http://michellesjournalcorner.blogspot.com/

Genius.