week # 17

We had a good week. What I can remember about it now ( I am two weeks late posting this!) We had a snow storm come through so the kids spent all of Monday outside playing with the neighborhood kids . It gave me a chance to catch up on things in the house, wrapping presents, preparing lessons, cleaning, ect. Public school was canceled 3 days this week, though we only took Monday off. It helped me feel a little more accomplished as I have been feeling "behind" as much as I try not to let myself fall in to that way of thinking.

Most of the snow had melted by this point- but it was still so pretty!

We were still studying the continent of Europe- Our current country is Germany.



BIBLE-

I read aloud from Window on the World- Turkey
I read aloud from Hero Tales- John Wesley
Memory Verse Mathew 6:19
Colored John 3:16 German Coloring page


LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
Dictation of memory verse (Daily)
DS- Yellow Book page 94-109
DD- Workbook #1 Page 67-75
DD- Workbook #4 Page 24-25
DD/DS- Started our New Year book -
DD/DS- Both kids started thier own blogs and wrote numerous entries.
DD- Language Arts DVD- Worked on Rhyming words 20 mins


Spelling-
DD- Spelling DVD (2x 20 mins)
DS- Spelling test



MATH-
DS- Saxon Lesson 52 + 53
DD- Saxon Lessons 46-50
DD- Math workbook page 21


Drills-
DD- MATH DVD- Subtraction
DS- Multiplication worksheet



GEOGRAPHY-

The Language of Germany from A Trip Around the World
Played Geography game - Europe, South and North America
We hosted a German dinner (Which is traditionally eaten at noon- so really we had lunch) The kids made German pancakes with applesauce.

SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Living World- Up in the Canopy, Forest Floor
Added to our Frog Observation notebooks.



MUSIC/ART-
We made paper snowflakes and decorated the house with them. With the snow outside it seemed a more fitting project than the one I had originally planned!
We looked up German songs online and found some that the kids really enjoyed- one of thier favorites- The theme song from Spongebob Squarepants :)



READING-

I read aloud - Who will Guide My Sleigh Tonight?
A Light in the Attic (Pages 1-40) The kids are LOVING the poems and didn't want me to stop!
George Mueller- chapters 12-17


DS- finished Narnia chapter book.
DD- Read Peters Dream. Then listened to the read along CD and read through it again.

We wanna blog too!

My daughter has been wanting to have her own blog ever since she saw her cousin with one. I thought about it and decided it would be great practice for her and she could have fun doing it. So today I helped her set it up. She picked the template and named it and came up with her own "About me." She even posted her first post today :)
I had to edit this to say that as I was making dinner DS asked me if he could have his own blog. He apparently saw a Pokemon background when DD was working on finding a background for her blog. I went ahead and set one up for him, but as he hates writing I don't expect him to use it much...

Week # 16

My Grandpa's funeral was on Monday. Needless to say we did nothing that day, or the following 3 days. We travelled back to Oregon on Wednesday. It is nice to be home, but there is so much to do to get ready for Christmas- and to get caught up on school work I am feeling very overwhelmed. We did get some school work in though. We don't usually do "structured-sit down" lessons on the weekends but did fit in some Math this weekend....
Hopefully next week will be better. If I can just make it through Christmas....

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
DD- Workbook #1 Pages 62-66 (She is doing awesome with reading and needs very little help reading questions now)

MATH-
DD- Saxon Lessons 44 & 45 (Assesment #8- 100%)
DS- Saxon Lessons 48-51 (Assesment #9- Did really well, missing one due to not reading question through- a very common problem with him)
(DH actually sat down and did a math lesson with his this weekend. He needed a little help at times, but it was really nice!)
DS- Multiplication worksheets


GEOGRAPHY-
Passport- Germany
We read interesting facts about Germany from A Trip around the World.
Took Europe test- Tested them on blank maps of Europe- DS got 10/14 correct, DD 5/13 correct.
Colored a German flag and learned flag facts.

SCIENCE-
Read from Wild Places- In a Swiss Valley
Read from Living World- Temperate Forests and Decidious Forests
Made maps of our back yard- labeling the trees decidious or evergreen.

(The kids working hard on thier maps)

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-
Cheer practice and Cheer competition- (DD's team won and got a bid to semi finals in L.A!)


We made homemade hot cocoa. The kids did all the measuring and reading instructions. They had a lot of fun with it.

READING-
I read aloud from George Muller- Chapter 11
DS- Read more from Narnia

Week # 15

The last few weeks have been really challenging. We have had some personal issues going on which makes it really hard to focus on school work. I am again having doubts whether I am cut out to do this.
While visiting family in California for the holidays my Grandfather became ill and was hospitalized. We stayed as long as we could but had to come home so DH could keep things running at the shop. On our way back home to Oregon, we recieved a call saying that Grandfather's situation had deteriorated greatly and he was not expected to live much longer. I had some things I had to take care of before we could return, so I dealt with my commitments and "tried" to do some school work with the kids. But my mind really was elsewhere. What little school work we did do was mostly done while we were at home on Monday and Tuesday. We ended up returning to California only having been home for two days. I packed hastily but did remember to pack a few school things. Some of them didn't get used, but at least I had the right intentions...

Next week we will still be in California. The funeral is on Monday so I don't expect too much school work to get done then either... I am really wondering if we can pull this off...


BIBLE-
Window on the World- Gypsies
Hero Tales- William Tyndale
Memory Verse

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
Dictation of Memory Verse (They did not memorize it this week as we only worked on it two days)
Months Book- December writing activity and colored cover page for MONTHS Book
DS- Yellow Book Pages 87-94, Spelling Test (%100)
DD- Workbook #4 Pages 58-61 (She is reading most of the directions herself now and starting to work more independently)
DS- Scholastic Reading Placement test ( I wish I had access to it when we first began!) He got 90% in each category- placing him above 3rd grade reading level.

SPELLING- DD & DS Spelling DVD 4 x each for 30 mins (I remembered to pack this so they were able to work on it while we were away from home)

MATH-
DD- Saxon Lesson 43, 5 worksheets ( I didn't bring out math program so I found some cool worksheets at http://www.math.about.com/ ) 5 worksheets- time, word problems, addition and subtraction, Order.
DS- Saxon Lesson 47, 5 worksheets (Multiplication, word problems, triple digit addition, number squares)
DRILLS- DD- MATH DVD addition and subtraction 1x 20 mins.

GEOGRAPHY-
Illustrated World Atlas- Farming and Industry
Another Trip Around the World- Language- FRANCE
Another Trip Around the World- Activity- made homeade hot cocoa- the kids loved this one!
Played Geography Game with all 3 boards (North America, South America, and Europe) We brought this with us so they played it in California too. 3x for 30 mins+

SCIENCE-

Living World- Endangered Species, Describing Living things

Unfortunatley, when we left for California the first time we left a neighbor in charge our tadpoles care. When we returned home one was dead and the other two were not looking so good. They are still living at the moment, but I don't have high hopes for them. We were all very disapointed :(

READING-

I read aloud from George Mueller- Chapters 3-10

DS read 39 Clues. Finishing it just an hour before book club was to meet- Unfortunatley we were already on our way back to California so he was unable to participate in the meeting, but the librarian was nice enough to give him next months book to start.

DD read Hippo wants to play 2x this week.

ART-

We made soap this week. We read about the history of making soap in France.

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-

Cheer, Church- the kids got to go to Grandma's church in California. I opted not to go and spent some much needed quiet time at my Dad's house.

Week # 14

We had a short week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday. We traveled to California, so technically only had two real school days. I had planned on working with the kids a little on the drive and while we were there. We had things come up and it just didn't happen.

BIBLE-
Window on the World- Albania
Colored John 3:16 FRENCH coloring page
REad from Hero Tales about Menno Simmons, review questions
Memory Verse from Mathew

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
Dictation of Memory Verse
DS- 3 pages from Yellow Book
DS- Thank you letter to Grandpa for Birthday present
DD- Wkbk #1 pg 57, Wk #4 Pg 23
DD/DS- worked on indipendent study (DD is taking this project very seriously and works on it often, Used her library time very wisely and picked out numerous different books and videos on her subject. DS is not doing well. He needs frequent reminders and even then he drags his feet)
SPELLING- DD/DS- Spelling DVD 2x 20 mins each

MATH-
DD- Saxxon Lessons 41 and 42
DS- Saxxon Lesson 45 and 46- Assesment #8 - Did well, missed a few but they were due to rushing through as usual.
DD- Subtraction game

GEOGRAPHY-
Stamped our passports, read about France from Another Trip Around the World, Crossword Puzzle- France.
Read from Illustrated World Atlas- People and Places
Colored French Flag and learned its meaning.
Played Geography Game- Europe
Watched and episode of Survivor Man (He was in the Amazon Jungle living out in the wild for 5 days)

SCIENCE-
REad from Living World- Living With People, People and Parasites, and Extinctions
Watched an Episode of Oregon Field Guide about Underwater Fossils.

READING-
I read aloud from George Muller- Chapters 1&2
DS read 39 Clues Chapters 1-4

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-
Cheer
Trip to California to visit family for the holidays!

Week # 13

This week went smoothly. The kids seemed a little burnt out on the routine we had been trying so I tried a few different things to make things a little more fun. DS dreads math so I am trying to figure something out that will make it not seem like such a chore for BOTH OF US. DD is starting to not like math so much either as we are getting in to some new concepts and she is now having to work a little harder. Overall, I think we had a pretty good week.

BIBLE-
Window on the World- Bulgaria
Memory Verse

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied memory verse
DS- Yellow Book Page 80-86, Assesment #2 (100%)
DS/DD- Creative Writing Story- FROG (From previous post)
DS/DD- Independent Study Form- They both filled out a worksheet stating that they would like to study, what they hoped to learn from the study, time frame, materials needed, ect. I am asking them to do this as independently as possible. I am going to stay out of it as much as possible, just to see what happens. I am not expecting much from this one, but I plan to make it a regular part of our schooling, and will increase my expecatations as we go. DS chose healthy eating and DD chose bug/butterflies.
DD/DS- Letter Writing, DS chose Grandpa Jens, DD- Friend Yesenia
DD- She came to me this week with an idea to start a "dog club" Not a dog club really, but a social hour for her friends, where she plans activities, they dress up and eat snacks. She named it the "DOG CLUB" because her brother has the "monkey club" and she likes dogs :) Anyhow, I told her in order to have the club she had to organize everything with an itinerary, detailed schedule, and menu. And she did, a very detailed one at that! So I have agreed to let her have her club as long as she plans all the activities in advance. She plans to have her group meet once a month. She will be responsible for writing everything out and gathering all the materials she needs and making simple snacks. She is very excited, as am I, but for different reasons! She did SO much writing and planning this week, really having no idea that she was actually working in the process!
Spelling-DD/DS Spelling DVD 3x 30 min
DD SIGHT WORD TEST - SHE DID AWESOME!(PREVIOUS POST)
DD/DS - Vocabulary word - Abhor

MATH-
A bit of a challenge this week- with both kids. Both of them moaning and groaning every bit of the way...
DS- Saxxon lesson 43&44
DD- Saxxon Lesson 37-40, Assesment #7, only missed one (and that was a simple problem that she knew but tried to rush through)
DRILLS- DD-Addition, subtraction, DS- Geometry

GEOGRAPHY-
I read aloud from Illustrated World Atlas Pages 30-33 Nature, Farming, Industry
DS- Finished Geography Packet
Played Geography Game-Europe 3x -30 min. each
Added the year that Norway got its own flag to our Book of Centuries.
Continued our Norwegian Krone activity- kids "paying" for each meal with krone. Friday we pretended we were at a Norwegian Auction. Kids bidding Krone for items out of the auction box.
Friday I tested the kids on the Europe Map. Because there are so many little countries I did not require them to learn them all. I tested DD on 13 and DD on 17 of the countries. DD got 8/13 and DS 8/17. I was very happy with the results as we really didn't study the map as much as I would have liked over the last two weeks.

SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Living World- pgs 68-69- winter in the Northern Forests.
We added to our Frog Lapbooks (What I know about frogs)
We continued to observe our tadpoles and added to our frog journals.
We continued to observe our potato plants.


MUSIC/ART-
Songs from Europe- Row, Row- Little Frogs, The Mulberry bush, The Circle goes around.
Crayon Rubs
DD- did a drawing for a scholastic contest, although I am not sure I am going to turn it in as she really didn't seem to understand the directions as he drawing shows...

READING-
Book Basket- 4x 20 mins each
DS read and finished 5 Pokemon, BMX Bully, 3 Scooby Doo 3rd reader books. It was a huge week for him reading wise. He is really enjoying it these days!! DS read to DD from MY FIRST ATLAS- Europe
DD- Read Big, Big Big Bus 2 x

I read the following books aloud.

Creative Writing - The frog story

For this assignment I gave the kids a funny picture to look at and asked them each to write a creative story about what they thought was happening in the picture. They both wrote them independently then I corrected them and they wrote a final draft. These are the storys they came up with.


(DD)
The Scary Frog and Alien

The alien wanted to eat the frog and steal the diamond. The spaceship was coming to get him. His name was Tim. He went home to rescue his family. The end

(DS)
Frog Capture

This is a story of a rich frog who got captured by aliens. Hopper was the only one on Earth. He even thought he was the only one in the world. Well, he was wrong. Since the frog was the only one he did not have to go to work. One day when he was eating fly soup outside he got captured by aliens. The end.

Week # 12

After the last two great weeks, I really had myself convinced that we were in a groove and had this whole homeschooling thing figured out. It doesn't stay one way for very long. I am guessing the anticipation of DS's upcoming birthday and the kids' anticipation of our upcoming trip to California for the holidays contributed to our lack of focus this week. It also didn't help that it was the last week for nut sales for Girl Scouts and I was very busy trying to get all the paperwork done and fielding phone calls. I learned the hard way, as seems to be my ONLY way in life, that with homeschooling things keep changing. I am trying to see that as a good thing. Some days I really feel that it is. But being the controlled and scheduled person that I like to think I am, some days it bugs me that things aren't going exactly (or even remotley close) to how I had planned. As with previous weeks though, as I jot down what we did I realize that we didn't do as badly as I had been thinking and we did accomplish a little. Whether or not it will be enough in the long run- THIS IS WHAT PLAGUES ME!!! I am trying to be more relaxed and have a "fly by the seat of our pants" kind of teacher/Mom.. I am working on this... daily...


We are now studying Europe- Norway specifically the next two weeks.

BIBLE-
I read aloud Mathew 8:5-27
Memory Verse
Window on the World- Romania
Colored John 3:16 Norwegian Page

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
Dictated memory verse
DS and DD- Book Report on Nate Saint
DS- Yellow Book Pg 70-72
DS- Letter writing- Focused on the different parts of a letter, greeting, body, ect- did a first draft then a final draft. He then addressed the envelope by himself, and mailed it. He chose to write to his Great Grandma this week.
DS- Workbook- Worked on 2 pages relating to letter writing.
DD- Workbook #1 page 46-50, Workbook #2 page 21
DD- watched DVD that came with Language Arts program for 35 minutes- It shows the story and you read along with it.

Spelling- DS- Spelling DVD 2x for 30 minutes, DD- DVD 3x for 30 minutes

MATH-
DD- Saxxon lessons 35 & 36
DS- Saxxon Lessons 40-42
Drills- DD- Subtraction
DD- Worked on a Math DVD for 30 minutes. (I found it at Goodwill brand new for .99! It is a game that has subtraction and addition problems.

GEOGRAPHY-
We stamped our passports as we entered in to Norway.
Read Intermediate World Atlas page 58-63
We located Europe on the map and started to become familiar with the different wcountries, what hemisphere, what oceans border it, ect.
We used our Flag Sticker Books and matched the flags of Europe to the right countries.
DS- Began the advanced country packet.

SCIENCE-
We continued to observe our tadpoles. Not noted changes this week.
I read aloud from Living World about Northern Evergreen Forests.
We continued to observe our potatoe plant experiments. Although, we haven't measured them as I had hoped to. Just keeping an eye on them, watering them, observing how they change.
3 Episodes of Oregon Field Guide

MUSIC/ART
No music this week other than the regular music that plays around the house daily. As for art, no scheduled projects but DD was constantly drawing as usual.

READING-
DS- Finished Journey to the Center of the Earth and Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon.
DD- Read Pop, Pop, Pop.
4 episodes of Reading Rainbow


SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-
Cheerleading, Community Group, Play date with the neighbors. DS had a sleepover at our house with 2 friends, DD went to a sleep over at a neighbors house that night. Birthday party for DS (DD and I surprised him by making a Pokemon cake while he was occupied, he was so surprised)


(In his monkey costume- he and his friends have called themselves "The Monkey Club" since first grade, DS being the monkey leader had to be in costume of course)

Sight Word Test- Results Week 1- Week 13

In September, our first official week of school, I tested DD on 108 level one sight words. She scored 29/108.

Yesterday I repeated the same test and she got 68/108!

It is exciting to see what progress she has made in just a couple of weeks! I showed her how well she had done and she was so excited and wanted to go "practice" reading some more. It is becoming more and more common to find her in her bed curled up reading a book, or sneaking in to her brothers room at night to tell him about a new word she figured out how to sound out.

DS is doing great with reading as well. He has been reading a lot, finished a book in one day yesterday. He gets excited during some books, and stops to read aloud to me a passage that he thought was funny. It is so exciting for me, a book lover, to see my kids getting excited about books!

Happy Birthday

It is so hard for me to believe that my baby boy is nine years old today! Even the hubby was a bit emotional this morning. I know it is an overused cliche but the truth is that they really do grow up too fast. I can't help but get a little teary eyed thinking that 9 years ago today I held this sweet little person for the first time ever, and it doesn't seem right. When did he get so big?

I know every mom thinks so, but I really am lucky. My son is so special. He is the sweetest, most thoughtful, kind, and loving person I have ever met. He is growing in to quite the little man.

You've come a long way baby!!

I admit, I have always been that "typical" girl who screamed and ran away at the sight of anything creepy and crawly... spiders, snakes, bugs. But a few years ago, I realized that by showing my fears so openly the kids were inheriting my fears. I decided right then and there to make a real effort to change how I expressed myself in front of the kids. I am happy to report that it has worked tremendously! DS used to be SO afraid of snakes and spiders. DD always had a natural curiosity about them. These days it is not surprising to see them capturing spiders and bugs and running to thier field guide to try to find out what exactly it is. DD in particular loves logging her finds in her Nature Book. I am finding that because I have stopped being so vocal about my dislike of these creepy crawly insects I am not nearly as afraid or "creeped out" by them. Funny how that works!
Recently, we have walked out in the garage to find SNAKES! The kids think it is awesome. As much as I have relaxed, I do not share thier sentiment! I still shudder a bit when I see them.. Anyhow, here is the kids' latest find... (This kid would NOT have come near one of these just a few years ago!)

Week # 11

Had another really good week! I wasn't great about recording everything we did this week though. Was too caught up in what we were doing!

BIBLE-
Memory Verse Mathew 5:16 - This was a really long one so I didn't expect the kids to memorize it really. Just to hear it and get familiar with it.
Read Mathew 7:13-29 & 8:1-4
Lots of discussion on Nate Saint. We visited the MAF website to learn more about him and see pictures of him and his family.

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
DD- Workbook # 1 Pages 60-69 (+ daily review of sight words) She finished her first workbook this week and started a new one. She did pages 35-48 in the new one. She didn't want to stop working! So we just kept going until I finally had to stop her!
DS & DD worked on Spelling DVD each day. they are still enjoying it but I can see it getting old very soon as we have changed the spelling words numerous times but they have won all the prizes already so...
DS- Yellow Book Pgs 55-69 + Spelling Test %100!

GEOGRAPHY-

Still focusing on South America, Brazil in particular. We got familiar with the flag, and the different maps of South America. We played the South America game, with the North America game three times this week.
DS- finished the South America packet
We continued working on our Brazil lapbook.
Friday we took our South America test. DS located all the countries but one! DD identified three!

SCIENCE/NATURE
We read more form WILD PLACES- Animal disguises and warnings, colorful birds, jungle killers, living in the rain forest.
Also read more from LIVING WORLD- Colors in the rain forest and Rain Forest Hunters.
We continued to monitor our potato plants. They are finally growing. We are all excited to have an experiment that actually worked for once! We will begin graphing thier growth next week.

MATH-
DS- Saxxon Lessons 37-39
DD- Saxxon Lessons 31-34
Math Drills- Addition & Subtraction

READING-
I read aloud- Rainforest, Amazon Adventures, We finished Nate Saint (chapters 10-16)and A Visit To Brazil.

DD- read aloud WHEN I AM BIG
DS- Read Journey to the Center of the Earth.

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES
Cheerleading, BMX race, Royal Rangers (DD has now joined this group as well) Book Club (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory- DD was able to participate too) Girl Scouts (2 Nut Sales booths and a meeting)
DS- Went on a trip to Washington, DH teaching him about the landscape and roads, directions as they went along.

Week # 10

We had a great week. There were a few minor issues but overall things went really well. Probobally our best week yet. I feel like we accomplished a lot even though on paper we have had "bigger" weeks. We focused a lot on Math and reading. The only real issue is that I am still finding it very hard to find time to work and the business is suffering from my lack of time. It is a really hard thing for me to balance. Hopefully I will figure out something that will work for us all very soon!

No Bible this week. I am sad to admit that I slacked on my own reading schedule as well.

MATH
We got back on track this week, finally.
DD- Saxxon lessons 26-30
DS- Saxxon Lessons 33-36
DS got frustrated a couple times this week. He was trying to hurry through his math worksheets and as a result got 90% wrong and had to redo the worksheets. Which led to him getting really upset. Trying to teach him that taking his time to do things right will result in less time spent than doing things the way he currently does them. This was a problem we had in public school as well.
DD- Worked on telling time. She is doing great! Telling time doesn't come in to play until quite a bit later in the Saxxon program, but she had shown an interest during her brothers math time. I decided to do it now since she seemed to want to.
DRILLS- Subtraction/Addition DD
Multiplication- DS
We watched a multiplication video that I found at the library. It was very old and outdated... and boring....

GEOGRAPHY-
Continued reading from the Illustrated World Atlas. We are still learning about South America, with a focus on Brazil.
We spent a lot of time playing our geography game, this week adding the North America game in as well. The kids find it challenging but enjoy it, and are really seeming to retain the information. I am not focusing as much on the capitals as the cirriculum suggests, more so on the location of the countries, which continents they are in, and facts about the continents, countries, ect.
DS- Continued working on his Geography packet. It is an advanced assignment reccomended for kids 5th grade and up- but there were quite a few pages I knew he was capable of doing (and he was) and the ones that were a little too hard I did with him.
We continued working on our Brazil lapbook.

SCIENCE/NATURE
We continued reading from Wild Places about jungles, where animals live in jungles, what lives in the trees, rain forests.
We also read more from Living World - Learning more about the rain forest floor, Monkeys and Apes andAnimals that climb and glide.
We worked more on our Frog lapbooks. Observed our tadpoles, and focused on the frogs of the rain forest, reading more about them and adding some more info about them to our BRAZIL lapbook.
We continued with our potato experiment.
We watched a video about the rainforest.

ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS
DD- continued working on her workbooks. Pg 50-59 with daily review of sight words. She is doing excellent! Reading first reader books on her own now!
We also worked in a seperate workbook focusing on vowels and short and long sounds.
DD- Speech and speech homework- Her speech teacher took me aside after class and told me she doesn't think we will need to continue much longer. DS's speech patterns seem to be consistent with her age group now :)
DS- We didn't work from Yellow Book this week. DS gets really frustrated with handwriting, writing in general really, and since he was having issues with math I decided not to push it this week.
DS- Finished Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last week. I had him do a book report on it this week.

MUSIC/ART
No music this week. It just didn't fit in the schedule. The suggested art projects for this week required me buying a lot of materials and I didn't feel it was neccesary so we skipped that as well this week.

READING
DS- Finished Charlie and The Chocolate Factory this week. I caught him up at night reading several times this week :) Once he finished CCF he read from numerous Pokemon books and a few others that I didn't require him to log. He really seems to enjoy reading now. I am so happy with the progress he has made in such a short time!
DD- Read When I am Big (The same book that we used to help DS to read) It brought back so many memories. It was such a neat feeling when she finished it on her own for the first time! My kids are growing too fast.
She also read Pop Pop Pop
DS- Read to DD a lot this week as well. I noticed him reading Fancy Nancy to her as well as some other random books on the rain forest and animals, some Pokemon books too. It was a big reading week around here.
I read aloud from Nate Saint- Chapters 4-7, Fancy Nancy (DD loves those books!) Also read aloud from numerous books on the rain forest, animals, and atlas'.

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES

Cheer, DS had his last soccer game, Girl Scouts, (We had a nut and candy booth that consumed A LOT of our time this week) Two playdates at different neighbors houses on different days. (We got to know a neighbor that we had been hopeing to get to know better for 2 years!) Royal Rangers, and Sunday School.

Pumpkin Decorating

The kids entered a pumkin decorating contest at a local bank. They worked really hard and came up with the ideas all on thier own. Unfortunatly, somehow I messed up the dates and we returned the pumpkins one day late, so they were not judged :( The kids were dissapointed, as was I. But there is always next year! Here they are :)


The ghost belongs to DD
Cowboy to DS

Week # 9

I came down with a nasty head cold on Tuesday. It really hampered our school efforts this week. We did manage to get a little done. Most of it on Monday and a few little things throughout the week.

English/Language Arts-
Field Trip Summary- the kids wrote about our field trip to Roloff farms and drew a picture of the things we did there.

DD-Workbook #1- page 48-49 + review of previously learned sight words.
Workbook #2- Still working on short vowels.
SPEECH CLASS

SPELLING- DS & DD- Spelling DVD 30 minutes each- new spelling words for both. They are still loving this game and are doing great with spelling!


MATH
DD- Saxxon Math Lesson 25
DS- Saxxon Math Lessons 31 & 32
DD- Math drill - addition and subtraction

GEOGRAPHY
Passport- Entered Belize- traded money for Brazilian real.
Intermediate World Atlas pg 52-55
Geography Game- (South America) By the end of the week, only having played it twice- DD could locate 3 out of 12 countries and DS could locate 7 out of 12!
A trip around the world- Interesting facts about Brazil- Crossword puzzle.
Started Brazil lapbook- Flag, Animals, layers of the rain forest


SCIENCE/NATURE
Tropical Rain forests-
Activity- where the jungles are- found all the rain forests on a world map- colored them, entered them in our World notebook
Wild Places- In the Jungle, Why rainforests are important, River Amazon, Strange Plants
Living World- Amazon, Rain forest plants

We started a potatoe plant experiment on Friday- more about it next week.

Video- Smithsonian National Zoo- Really interesting video- We learned about a lot of different endangered animals from all over the world and about thier conservation efforts. It led to a great discussion!

MUSIC/ART-
No special music this week- my head couldn't take it! We did an art project though. A local bank is hosting a pumpkin decorating contest. The kids worked on thier own pumpkins. They turned out SO cute! Pictures and results listed soon!

READING-
DS- Read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to page 68
I read aloud- 5 Little Monkeys reading in bed. Nate Saint Chapter 3 and Rain Forest.

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES
Cheerleading, soccer, Girl Scouts. DS went hunting for the first time with Hubby and Grandpa! Had a great time! DD had her first real sleep over at a friends house. She had a great time. I, on the other hand, did not. She did call me quite a bit which was nice, but it was hard for me to go to bed without tucking her in :( and waking up without her here... It will be a long while before another sleepover happens!

Nature Study- Tree identification field trip

As much as I love it, nature isn't my strongest subject. I have to ask for help a lot when it comes to teaching the kids anything new. Before the leaves fell I wanted to an activity with the kids about the different trees that are native here in Oregon. I was lucky enough to meet a park ranger who was willing to lead an activity for me. I decided the activity was too neat not to share so we invited my Girl Scout troop to come along.
It was such a fun activity. The kids walked around the lake learning how to identify different trees by thier leaves and bark. Afterwards, they did leaf and bark rubs and made a book to take home for reference.
The kids had fun and so did all the parents!

Field Trip to Roloff Farms

Our family ran across the show "Little People Big World" A couple of years ago. I had seen the familiy years before the show appeared on a few talk shows and really admired them. They had been through so much and had persevered through it all with thier heads held high. Anyhow, we began recording the show and watching it every weekend. It opened the door to so many conversations with the kids. The kids became very interested in the subject of dwarfism and we began studying it over the summer. The kids love watching it also for all the references to Oregon, as they live only a couple hours away from us! It also doesn't hurt that one of the sons, Jacob, LOVES soccer and Chandler does as well. (You can guess who his favorite family member is!)
Anyhow after talking about it for the last couple of years we decided to take a trip to thier pumpkin patch this year. I am SO glad that we did!
We had such a great time! We got to meet Amy and Matt, and also Matt's mom and dad. Oh and we can't forget Rocky- Thier dog! They were all so friendly and exactly how we had pictured them to be. We took two different tours of the property and got to see all the neat places we had seen on t.v. After we finished the tours, got a snack to eat, and visited all the other fun little places they had set up around the farm we finally picked our pumpkins! It was an awesome day! We hope to go again next year!
The kids and I with Amy
Matt

Our family with Matt's parents

One of the kids favorite places on the farm!

In the western town

My lil pumpkin with her pumpkin!

Interesting quote

When you follow your passion,
Society's help is gone.
You must be careful.
You're completely on your own.

-Joseph Campbell

Week # 8

It has been hard for me to find time to blog. I am behind in posting this and know that if I wait too much longer I probobally won't do it at all. So here it is...

The week went by smoothly, busy as usual, but no problems.

BIBLE
Greenland
George Muller
Mathew 5:27-42
Memory Verse

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH
Copied Memory Verse
Dicatation of Memory Verse daily
DD- Wkbk#1 Pgs 40-47 with daily review (working on short vowels and sight words)
DD- Wkbk #2 Animal riddles, short vowels
DD- Wkbk #4 Pgs 8-11 Short vowels
DS- Workbook- Reading comprehension 10 pages
DS- Yellowbook Page 38-42
I read to them some about the orgin of pumpkins/ Halloween.
Letter writing- They chose to write to Grandma and Grandpa Abbott this week- thanking them for a care package they sent them earlier in the week.
DD-SPEECH CLASS and homework
DD & DS- Vocabulary- lake and stream, wrote out definitions and added them to our notebooks.
MATH
DD- Saxxon Math Lessons 21-24
DS-Saxxon Math Lesson 30
DS- Math workbook 3 pages (Begining multiplication)
Math Drills-
DD- Addition and subtraction
DS- Division and subtraction


GEOGRAPHY
We continued our study on CANADA this week.
Finished our Canada lapbook- climate, religion, major industries, wow facts, people and landscape
Illustrated World Atlas- Nature Farming and Industry
A Trip Around the World- Read about Canada, crossword puzzle
CANADA STORE- Kids spent thier Canadian dollars on fun things from the "Canadian Store"
Canada Quiz- Quiz on everything we had learned the last two weeks. The kids did AWESOME! Both of them answered questions that I didn't really expect for them to get right. (I really didn't think they had been paying attention, but they proved me wrong!)
SCIENCE-
Living World- Living by Rivers and Streams, Water Birds
NATURE Video- Ugliest Animals of the world- A show I found on OPB, the kids LOVED it and learned a lot from it! SO DID I!
We continued on our Frog Lapbooks- Predator, Prey, tadpole, frog. We also continued to learn how to take care of our tadpoles- While still waiting anxiously for thier arrival!
SAHARA Video- Interesting, but too long and the kids lost interest.
Reading Rainbow- Animal Habitats

MUSIC ART
Going over the sea- Canada songs-


READING
I read aloud- The Frog Princess, Night of the Moonjellies, and Nate Saint Chapters 1 and 2.
DS- Read Cats that Roar, Started Tuck Everlasting, then his book request came through so he started Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Chapters 1-5

FIELD TRIP- I arranged for a park ranger to take us out to the lake to identify several different types of trees. I thought it would be fun to share so I invited my Girl Scout troop to come along too! It was really fun! I will post more about it another time.
We also visited ROLOFF FARMS later in the week. We had so much fun! Again, I will have to post more later.

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES
Cheerleading, Soccer, Royal Rangers, Bible Study

Still searching for a guitar teacher :(

Week # 7

We had a great week. I was really happy with all we accomplished and by how much quality time we had together. The kids got along so well. It was AMAZING! I swear they are like best friends now. It makes the days so much more fun when they get along like this! DS's attitude towards school work has really improved. We focused a lot on science and nature this week as that is what the kids were really interested in and they were literally begging for more projects! We slacked a bit in our other subjects, ecspecially math. I figured we should focus where the kids wanted to focus hoping they would retain more in the end. Hopefully this thinking will prove correct. The other day we ran in to a friend from public school that we hadn't seen since the end of last year. They asked what kids the teachers had and if they liked him/her. The both started laughing and said they LOVED thier teacher and explained that they were homeschooling. They both went on to tell her all the different reasons that homeschooling was awesome. It was really cute. It was nice to hear in thier own words how they were feeling about our big change!
( I will be adding photos later, I just realized that the camera is at work)

BIBLE-
We read about the Garifuna, although the kids were not very interested and I am not sure much of it will stick.
We also read about William and Catherine Booth (The founders of The Salvation Army) We did some review questions as well.
We read Mathew 5:11-26 this week.
Our memory verse this week was Mathew 5:11. Both the kids found it to be harder than our previous verses but they both got it by the end of the week.


LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH

Copied Memory Verse
DS- Worked in Yellow Book- Pages 29-44, He took the first assesment test in the series and did well.
DS read White Stallion, and did written review questions.
DS- Vocabulary words pertaining to the book, looked them up in the dictionary and wrote out the meaning of each word.
DS and DD- Vocabulary- RIVER and RAPIDS
DD- SPEECH class at public school + speech homework
DD and DS- Book Report on Cameron Townsend. I gave them both the same outlines although I didn't expect the same from both. DS did great and DD exceeded my expectations working really hard to sound out words on her own.
DD- Worked in Workbook #1 Pages 36-39 and reviewed previously learned sight words. She is able to identify more than 30 words off hand now. Just two months ago she was able to identify about 5 words!!
DS- Spelling Test
DD and DS- Both did the spelling DVD 4 days each this week. They have so much fun with it that they don't consider it working at all. They beg to play it. It has helped thier spelling so much!

MATH

DD- Saxxon Lesson 19 and 20 We worked really slow on lesson 19. Instead of moving on I decided to stick with it and make sure she really understood. We are working on number sentences and fractions. She is doing great and really enjoys math. She took her second assesment test and passed with flying colors.

DS- Saxxon Lesson 28- 29- We mixed things up this week and decided to try doing math in the afternoon instead of the morning. It would have worked fine but we ended up focusing more on other subjects this week. I myself like doing math in the morning and getting it over with. I am not a fan of math although I do love the program itself.

GEOGRAPHY

Passports- We moved in to CANADA, so the kids got thier passports stamped and exchanged thier American dollars for Canadian dollars. Which they again used to buy thier meals throughout the week. They love this!
Illustrated World Atlas- People and Places of Canada
DS- worked on Geography packet
Video- Discover the World- Canada
Map work- Labeled and colored the provinces
Read Pgs 95 and 99-100 from Trip around the World
We started on Canada Lapbooks. The kids think these are really fun!

SCIENCE/NATURE

We started the week with a hike up a trail near Oakridge that we had never hiked before. We had a great time. We spent about 5 hours out there finding all kinds of neat things! The kids' favorite though was a salamandar. Unfortunatley we only have an insect/spiders field guide, so we were unable to get more information on it. The kids made a journal entry about it in thier NATURE NOTEBOOK.

Living World- Rivers and lakes, Getting oxygen underwater, freshwater plants and animals.
We started a FROG lapbook this week also. We got a lot done with this unit this week as the kids have taken great interest in the subject of frogs. They asked to do more projects, read more books, all through out the week. We are still waiting on the arrival of our tadpoles.


We ended the week with an awesome hike about an hour from home. We introduced the kids to mushroom picking. We went far in to the woods, hiking for almost 6 hours. We picked about 25 pounds of mushrooms.(Chantrell's and Lobsters) It was great family time and the kids both earned $10.00 for thier hardwork when we sold the mushrooms later that evening.(I wish I had remembered to get a picture of all the mushrooms before we sold them!) We had an interesting run in with a bear while high in the mountains. Luckily after a short stare down the bear slunkered off behind some trees and didn't bother us. It was my first run in with a bear, I doubt I will forget it soon!
Here is Chandler's favorite find of the day!

MUSIC/ART
Going over Sea - Song from Canada- the kids both really enjoy this song, we sang it over and over again doing the movements that go along with it. It is really cute!

We made "Inuit soap carvings" using Dove soap. In all reality we made a HUGE mess of soap carvings but they kids had a great time and were really proud of thier soaps!


READING

I read aloud- When I was young in the Mountains, Cameron Townsend, (We finally finished it this week) From Tadpole to Frog, Watch it Grow- Frog, Red Eyed Tree Frog

DS read- White Stallion

Book Basket- Monday and Tuesday- 30 minutes each day.

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES
Cheerleading, Soccer, Royal Rangers, Bible Study, Girl Scouts. DS had a friend stay overnight. It was really busy this week, not single night with nothing going on. Hoping it slows down soon! I want some reading time of my own!
I am still trying to locate a Guitar teacher for the kids. I was refered to one in Eugene, but I am holding off because we don't have an open day to get up to Eugene. Too much going on. Finding one locally is the only chance we have of having the time to do it. Hopefully I can locate a teacher soon!

Book Club

The other day while at the library I noticed a flyer for a book club. I was excited to see it was a book club for 9-12 year olds! They have never offered anything for DS's age group before. The book for the month is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. All the copies were checked out of course, so we were a little bummed. We are still trying to locate a copy to borrow from someone before the meeting. I am hoping to get my hands on a copy this week so that he will have time to read it. I wish they had publicized the club (in the paper, maybe?) so that we had more notice, but at least we know now! Hopefully this ends up being something DS really enjoys!

Science Unit- Life Cycle of tadpoles

A couple weeks ago we started learning about life cycles. Over the summer the kids had shown interest in tadpoles/frogs. While on vacation we were shopping and ended up coming across a frog habitat on clearance. On the box it said it included a coupon for free tadpoles. I opened it today and it is for ONE free tadpole, $8.99 Shipping and handling AND they won't start mailing them until NOVEMBER :( I was disapointed. I looked all over locally and was unable to find them. The time of year isn't exactly the best for them so I ended up finding them online from another supplier. Anyhow, the kids and I have been reading up on how to care for them and how to set up the right kind of habitat over the summer. We will be going to the library tommorow to find anything "froggy." The kids are really excited for this unit!
I haven't decided exactly how we are going to go about it. I am still looking for fun ideas and projects to go along with the unit. I would love input and ideas!!! I plan on reading a lot of books, informational, and some just silly fun ones. As well as a documentation of the life cycle- having the kids write what is happening and drawing pictures. I have also found interesting news stories to read to the kids that pertain to frogs. Today I found one that is about game wardens seizing almost 200 illegal frogs from Nevada. I plan on using this to teach them about ecosystems, invasive species, ect. This is my first attempt at anything like this- I have never been in to bugs, insects, anything SLIMY... The things we do for our kids! Wish me luck!

Week # 6

September 29- October 5
This was a difficult week for us. We had a lot going on between work and family stuff. By Wednesday we had pretty much given up on doing school work. It was a crazy week. Next week is bound to be better!

BIBLE-

Haiti
Review of Mathew
Memory Verse
Review of previous memory verses

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH

Copy Memory Verse and add it to journal
DS-Yellow Book pg 25-28
DD- Wbk #2 Pg 14
DD- Wbk #1 pg 32-35 + Review of previously learned sight words
DD- SPEECH + Speech homework

MATH

DD- Saxxon Lesson 18
DS- Saxxon Lesson 27

DRILLS-
DD- Subtraction
DS- Fractions

GEOGRAPHY

A trip Around the World- Pg 3-4
State Puzzle
States Quiz- DD got 10! DS got 26! (Felt so good to know that I had taught them that! And in not much time at all!
DS- Continued Geography packet
Globes and Maps- Finished book
Illustrated World Atlas- Nature, Farming and Industry
Colored a Mexican Flag, wrote what flag represents on the back of it.


SCIENCE/NATURE

Living World- Coping with Dryness
Wild Places- Hunters and the Hunted, Things that come from the desert and making things grow in the desert
DD- We began our series on Seasons- We wrote a story about fall and drew a picture. We chose a tree in our backyard to follow throughout the seasons. (We took a picture of her by it, but my camera was being difficult and none of the pictures really turned out.) We are going to document it through written stories, coloring photos, and taking pictures.

MUSIC/ART

I bought precut puzzles and the kids loved painting thier own scenes on them. They were originally going to make something that had to do with Mexico, but decided just to let them paint whatever they wanted. Niece had fun painting along side them!


READING

I read aloud- MEXICO
DD- Read aloud Big Big Bus
Family read aloud- Cameron Townsend- Chapters 13-16

COOKING
We wanted to do more with this, but as it was a difficult week the dish that we chose from Mexico was salsa. We had hoped to have a fiesta and to have decorated with homeade pinaitas and such but it just didn't happen this week. We made salsa and talked a little about the crops that are grown in Mexico.

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES

Cheerleading, soccer, Girl Scouts

Week # 5

This week went much better. I felt like we might finally be finding our groove. We had found workbooks and activities for my neice to occupy her during "school" time and she seemed to really like learning with the kids. It made things a lot easier!

BIBLE-
Cuba
Discussion of John
Memory Verse + review of previous memory verses

LANGUAGE ARTS/ English-

Copied Memory Verse and added to our journal
Dictation of Memory Verses
DS- Yellow Book pages 14-21
DD- Wkbk# 2 pg 15
Vocabulary- Geography from A-Z badland and butte
DD- True/False
DD-Wbk #1 26-31 + review of previously learned sight words and sounds
DD- Having trouble with b's and d's- Practiced them a lot this week
No letter writing this week


SPEECH-
DD- First session of speech started this week at public school, Tuesday mornings
Speech homework- Review of last years concepts

MATH-

DS- Saxxon Lesson 23-26
DD- Saxxon Lessons 15-17
Drills/ Workbooks
DD- Sums, Number sentences, charts, addition
DS- Wkbk - Graphs and charts


GEOGRAPHY-

Illustrated World Atlas- P 20-21
DS- Continued Geography Packet
Money Exchange- We exchanged a $20 bill (Each) for Pesos- (Using fake money) We used the money throughout the next two weeks to buy our meals and at the end of the two weeks had a "store" the kids could buy things from. It worked great as a math lesson as well.
Intermediate World Atlas- pg 25 46-49
A Trip Around the World pg 5
Worksheet- Mexico-
State Quiz
Episode of "How it works" on landfills in New York- It showed NY's garbage system from inside out- We used it as Geography as NY has to haul thier garbage out of state. After watching it we discussed it in great length and used a map to find where the garbage went from NY.

SCIENCE-

Living World- Coping with desert temps
Wild Places- Birds that Live in the deserts, surviving in the deserts

MUSIC/ART

Pin Pon & Tingalayo and at nieces request Eentsie Weentsie Spider OVER AND OVER AGAIN

READING-
DD- Read aloud- Big Big Bus
DS- Read aloud- Hill of Fire
I read aloud- MEXICO, Cameron Townsend Chapters 11-12

Independent reading time-

DS- Stuart Little (Still can't locate reading log)
Book Basket- 30 mins Monday and Tuesday

Foreign Language-

Spanish DVD Lesson 1 Monday and Wednesday

SPORTS/Extra Activities-

Cheerleading, Soccer- We are unable to meet with the homeschool group until the end of soccer season as the two schedules conflict :( didn't make Bible study this week as I had Girl Scout meetings to attend that night. Would have like to have more outside activities this week.

Week # 4

This week was a little tough, as we were still trying to find a schedule that worked well for us while having to adjust to having a 3 year old in the house. We survived.. barely.

Bible-
Navajo
Discussion of our family tree (Review of our summers activities)
Hero Tales- Harriet Tubman (& review of what we learned about her last year)
Memory Verse + Review of previously learned versus

Language Arts-
Copied memory verse
Dictation of memory verse
DD-Wb #1 pgs 20-25 + Review
DS- Yellow Book Pg 8-11
Geography A-Z Canyon, Gulch
DD Wk #2 Pg 11
Wrote letters to person of choice on Friday - DD chose Nanny DS chose friend Benny, did not send them this time- delivered them.

MATH-

DS- Saxxon Lessons 19-22
DD- Saxxon Lessons 12-14
Drills-
DD- Addition, Subtraction, Sums
DS- Rounding


GEOGRAPHY-

Review of state names
Great States Game
DS- Continued Geography packet
Problem solving challenge- States
Coloring of US Flag- writing what the flags stripes and stars represented on the back
States Puzzle
States Quiz
Illustrated World Atlas- Farming and Industry
Online States Quiz http://www.pibmug.com/files/map_test.swf

SCIENCE-
Living World- Rain in the Desert
Wild Places- A storm in the Arizona desert, After the rain

MUSIC/ART-

Songs from US- Eentsie Weentsy Spider + review of previously learned songs

READING-
(Read Alouds)-
Mama do you love me?
Papa do you love me?
Cameron Townsend Chapters 7-10

Independent reading time-
DS- Stuart Little (Again unable to locate reading log for that week so unsure of what chapters were read)
DD&DS- 30 min Book Basket- Tue& Thurs

SPORTS/Extra Activities

Cheerleading, Soccer, Girl Scouts, Playdate with the neighbors

Week # 3

September 8-14
This week was overwhelming. It was 3 weeks ago but I remember the feelings well. I went to bed crying more than one night that week.
Things at work were crazy. My three year old niece came to stay with us for an indefinite amount of time. DS was getting frustrated with Math. The only subject he still wanted to do was Bible. DD was doing fine and still eager to learn.

So it was a hard week. We were still trying to figure out what does and doesn't work.

Bible-

Missionary kids
Overview of the Bible
Dwight Moody

Language Arts/HandWriting/Spelling

DS Yellow Book
Watched a documentary on dwarfism- DS then wrote a paper on what he learned, DD drew a picture showing what she learned. (This wasn't something we had planned on doing, saw the show and didn't feel like fighting with DS about Math or anything else at the moment so we made a lesson out of it.)
DD- Phonix Workbooks Pg 10-19 with daily review of previously learned sight words.
Not So long lost Treasure Hunt- I asked DH for help with this assignment and was really excited to see what he had come up with! He made a neighborhood map to scale with a seperate set of directions- It was really impressive. We had some visiting friends that weekend so they joined in too! See http://4twinklingstars.blogspot.com/ for pictures of our FLAT FRIENDS! The kids really enjoyed the hunt and we hope to do another one in the near future!
MATH-
DS- Lessons 16-18
DD-Lessons 8-11
Drills-Workbooks

Geography-
DS began an advanced Geography packet- It is a little tough for him, designed for older students so we are working on it together and very slowly.
Pre Test- Kids were given a US Map, a World Map and maps of the other continents to see what they knew coming in to this assignment. DS could locate the US on the world map. Other than that they were left blank.
Intermediate World Atlas Pg 22-25, 39
Maps and Globes pg 38-42
US Puzzle, worked on it once a day.
Lots of review of the Globe and the States.

Science/ Nature Notebook-
Deserts- What lives in the desert, how the desert changes
We grew our "magic rocks" that they found on thier treasure hunt
The difference between natural and manmade
Identified spiders and insects we found out in the garden and the garage and entered them in our Nature Notebooks. We found a snake skin this week too. The kids thought this was sooo cool! I on the other hand, was not excited to find shed snake skin in the garage right next to where I get in the car!!

Music/Art
American Indian song- The crooked Path- (follow the leader, I was impressed at how fast the kids picked up the words. It was much more difficult for me to do so!) I really want to find a foreign language class for them.

Reading-

Journeys- A book about a dog sled race. The kids loved it and were wanting to learn all they could about snow dogs. They took a special interest since our Kona is a Samoyed and often refered to as a snow dog herself.
We watched a movie that weekend that went with the theme, For the life of me I can't remember the name of it, but it was really good and the kids enjoyed it. (It had John Cusak in it and was probobally near 10 years old. I could be wrong..) Afterwards we discussed it as a family and made comparrisions/ contrasts to the book that we had read all week and the movie.
DS continued to read Stuart Little on his own. Can't find his reading log at the moment so I don't know how far he got that week.

Cameron Townsend Chapters 3-6

Sports/ Extra Activities -
Cheer continues, We had our first official meeting with our newly established Homeschool group. There was a great turn out and I was excited to see two other families that we knew from school with children in each of my kids' grade levels. We came up with a group name, took a group photo, made frames for our photos, played at the playground and had an ice cream party. This meeting was really for everyone to get to know each other. DD had a great time, DS had an ok time, playing with his two buddies that he already knows from church and when those boys were off doing something else he would come hide behind me... He has never had an easy time in group settings. Hopefully this becomes easier for him soon. We attended Bible study as usual, which is a play date for the kids who spend the evening running around with all thier friends and eating goodies
We got a guitar for $20.00 from another family at homeschool group! We were really excited about this!

Week # 2

Trying to do a lot of this from memory.. Might be tough...

September 1-7

Bible- Animism, Buddhism, Hinduisn, Islam, Judaism

Handwriting-
Copied memory verse from last week. Wrote and revised letters to family.

Math-
DD- Saxxon- Lessons 1-7
DS- Saxxon- Essons 12-15
Drills- Addition, subtraction
DD- Workbook -Graphs

Spelling-
DD- Spelling DVD game
DS- Yellow Book- Spelling list- Test on Friday %100

Langauge Arts/ English-
DD- Workbooks
DS- Yellow Book

Nature Journal-
Played in the backyard and found habitats of the different animals and insects that live there. Drew pictures of these habitats in our journals.

Geography-
Lattitude and Longitude, activities and worksheets
elevation and depth
physical and political maps
Learning names of oceans and continents
Globe Puzzle
Local Map- identify where we are and how to get other places.
Made maps of our neighborhood, and maps of our house
Grid activity

Cooking/ Math / Geography-
Kids made cakes that resembled maps. They loved this!

Science-
Living World 12-17
Cycles in Nature
Plant Life
Celery experiment
Watched Oregon Field Guide- lamprey and Aquarium divers

Music/Art
Hello to All the Children of the World- Practiced and learned hello in different languages

History-

Added to our book of centuries

Reading-
DS- Lord of the Fleas + Review Questions
DD- Sight word Test
DD- Peter's Dream
DD- Teach your child to read in 100 Easy Lessons 1-2

Independent Reading Time-
DS- Stuart Little Chapter 1-4


Family Reading time-
Grandfathers Journey, Cameron Townsend Chapter 1-2

Foreign Language- Spanish DVD - Learning the basics of communication, hello, my name is.. ect.

SPORTS/Extra Activities-
Cheerleading and Girl Scouts Registered for fall soccer, playdates with other homeschoolers, Bible Study Group


This week went well. Trying to find a routine that works for us all. DD has shown interest in learning to play the guitar for over a year now, going to look in to getting an inexpensive one.

Summer Schedule

We had a really busy summer that included three trips to different parts of California, a trip to Nevada, and a trip to Washington. We didn't do much formal work during the summer. We visited a few water parks, Hot August Nights, saw Great Grandparents and Great Great Grandparents, among many other things.

We used our road trips as Geography lessons. Frequently using a map and showing the kids where we were and how we got there. While in Nevada we spent a lot of time just talking about the landscape there and how it differed from Oregon and other states they had been to. We started learning about deserts and what animals and plants can survive in them.

We also visited Willows, California where some of my relatives live. My Great Granparents home was just sold to the city. The city has plans to tear it down. So we went down to document the history of the house and of my family. We ended up learning so much about my family that I never knew. It was a very emotional, worth while trip. I began showing the kids how family trees work and they made thier own trees with what they knew about our family.



We also visited Ocean World in Crescent City, California. It was one of my favorite things we did the entire summer. We almost didn't go, as we have been to many aquariaums and this one was really small, and we didn't think the kids would see anything they hadn't seen a hundred times before. So glad we did!

They have a guided tour that goes through and we all learned lots of interesting facts that we hadn't known from all of our previous visits to other aquariums.
We got to pet a shark. We all loved that! We learned the difference between seals and sea lions, and they put on a fun show for us! We all walked away with so much new knowledge, it was exciting. We are still talking about the things we learned on that trip!




We ended the summer with a chartered fishing trip on the ocean. The boys went out on the boat while DD and I walked the beaches finding interesting shells, hermit crabs, animal bones, and other interesting sea finds. It was a very busy summer, but it was great fun.

We came home and had 2 days before public school was back in session. We had previously decided we were going to try to stick to the public school's calendar as best we could to keep on scehdule.


video of the seal/sea lion show at Ocean World.

And so it begins- Week #1

From the beginning: JUNE 2008
The kids and I were very excited to get started and try to get a feel for how things were going to be in the upcoming year. Well, by kids, I should say DD was excited, DS was convinced he could get all the work done for the year in a few weeks then be done with school for they year.
So we started in on week one:

It was the beginning of the summer so I am already having a hard time recalling exactly what we did (Case in point why I have decided that blogging would be a great idea!)

We started Saxxon math for DS (DD's had not arrived yet and was still on backorder)
Lessons 1-5

Language Arts- (DS)
Yellow Book Lesson 1

Geography/Life Skills
Applied for our passports , filling out forms and learning how to adress and mail a letter from start to finish.
Became Familiar with a globe, and a wall map
Practiced distance and scales
Maps and Globes Book- learned about the Equator, hemispheres, The function of a compass and a legend.

Bible-
Discussed JOHN, located Greece and Korea on map, Worked on coordinating worksheets.
Memory Verse ohn 3:16
DS stayed interested and was very excited and fast to learn his memory verse. He takes a special interest in the Bible, and has mentioned becoming a missionary several times.

Read Aloud-
Family reading time before bed every night- Because of Winn Dixie

Music-
Hello to all the Children of the World- A fun song that teaches different ways of saying hello in different languages. DS was not thrilled. DD loved it and wanted to continue singing and dancing to it all day.

I felt that we were taking a slow aproach but looking back on it I realize we accomplished a lot!

Our Cirriculum for 2008-2009

So after a lot of thought and lots of talks, I decided to go with a pre-planned cirriculum for the year. I looked through and researched quite a few until I was introduced to My Father's World. I fell in love with it instantly. The program I picked is a 4th grade level, but I feel confident that DS (3rd Grade) And DD (1st grade) are both more than capable of doing the work. It is based on taking an imaginary trip around the world. With a passport, converting money, eating foods from each country, among many of the fun activities. It is really hands on and I know both my kids will enjoy it as will I! I plan to take it slow and use the cirriculum planner as more of an outline rather than a "must do" Adding my own activities where I see fit and scrapping ones that I don't. I added Saxxon Math at each of thier grade levels. Hooked on Phonix, and Teach your Child to read in 100 easy Lessons for DD. Yellow Book for Language Arts (DS) as well as a hodgepodge of other interesting books that were given to me or that I had come across. We are keeping a Nature Journal and a Centuries book as well.
The following are just a few of them: