Weekly Report # 23

An average week overall.

BIBLE-
Window on the World- Saudi Arabia
Memory Verse
read aloud from Hero Tales "David Livingstone"
Discussion daily about David Livingstone.

Watched "Facing the Giants"


LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory verse
Dictation of Memory Verse
DD- Letter A Word Search
Both kids added to thier blogs.
DD- Spectrum Workbook Page 16
DD- Hangman - learning how to spell number words
Wrote letters to friends and family.

MATH-

DD- Saxon Lessons 58-64

She has been teaching herself multiplication! She was listening in on DS' lesson and when we were done with the lesson she showed me what she had been writing- she figured out what x means and wrote out all the x 0's and x 1's! I thought it was neat that she had taken the initiative- she has been drawing number sentences for x problems all week now.

DS- Saxon Lessons 66, Fraction practice- made a fraction book. Slow math week for DS. We were waiting on manipulatives to arrive in the mail for our next lesson and he had a lot of reading to get done before book club so he was stressing a little so we made finishing his book a priority.

Played Money Bags ( You can read some reviews of the game here- It is a great game to teach the concepts of counting money- the kids really love it!)

http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Resources-Money-Bags-Value/dp/B00004TDTQ

GEOGRAPHY-
We entered Asia this week. We added Asia to our passports and exchanged our American Dollars for Sudan Riyals.

Intro the the Middle East- Read from the Intermediate World Atlas- became familiar with Asia- found Asia on the map- Located what hemisphere, bordering countries, water, ect.
Added Saudi Arabia to our World Map- Colored and labeled it.
I read aloud interesting facts about Saudi Arabia from "A trip around the World" Pages 58-59.
Labeled and colored Saudi Arabia Worksheet.

Daily discussion about the war in the Middle East. The kids took great interest in this topic so it became a regular topic.
We started our 7 Continents lapbook. We added the following pages- Cover page, This is where I live, Asia, North America, Saudi Arabia,


SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Wild Places- Living in the Desert pages 80-83.
Illustrated World Atlas - Nature, Farming, and Industry.

MUSIC/ART-

We made soap in the shape of tools and heart shape soap for Valentines Day. The kids love making soap so it has been a regular activity in our house for a couple years now.. Here are a few they made.

READING-
DS continued to read from the book "HOOT"
He finished the book this week and is all ready for Book Club next week!
I read aloud from David Livingstone- Chapters 10-18- We finished the book this week. It was our least favorite from the series so far. The kids seemed to lose interest early on- it was a hard one to get through! Ready for a fresh book!
Fancy Nancy- Bonjour Butterfly
The Fleas Sneeze
Pinkalicious
I started reading aloud "Understanding September 11th" by Mitch Frank. Pages 1-18. The kids have had a lot of questions latley, some I didn't know how to answer so we picked this book up. I don't know that we will finish it. It is obviously very heavy subject matter and the kids are young. But we will read through un'til the kids have thier questions answered.
We started our next chapter book "Amy Carmichael" - Chapter 1


SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-

Cheer practice 3x
Cheer Competition (They took 3rd this weekend)
Girl Scouts- Selling cookies
Royal Ambassadors

Experience Music Project

Last week while in Washington for a cheer competition we made a quick stop to The Experience Music Project. Though we only had a short time there we had so much fun and can't wait to go back! Here are a few of our pictures from our trip!

You can check out the EMP online at : http://www.empsfm.org/





Learning about the mixing board.


Rocking out to an original Pokemon song :)


Loving the drums!


Playing the guitar

Week # 22

This week was definitley one of the most social weeks we have had. We have been so busy latley that we haven't had much time for friends so we made them a priority this week.




We watched the Presidential Innaguration. It was exciting for me to see how much DS seemed to be soaking in. Even saying "Wow, we are watching history right now." He was even commenting on how Rosa Parks and MLK Jr. contributed to this event. It was so neat to hear him really"getting it"

LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-

"I have a dream" promise worksheet

Barack Obama book

DS-Yellow Book page 127-129

DD- Started her new Spectrum workbook- Pages 1-15

Martin Luther King Jr. Report

DD- Wrote a paper about Rosa Parks

GEOGRAPHY-

National Geographic Video- Baka- The People of the African forest

MATH-

DS- Saxon lesson 63-65

Assesment # 12 %100- Doing very well in Math although he still isn't caring for it, but his attitude has improved GREATLY from the beginning of the year. \

Played Money Bags Game-

READING-

DS- 4 Various Pokemon chapter books, 2 chapters "Hoot"

I read aloud "The Gum Chewing Rattler" by Joe Hayes, "Diary of a Fly", David Livingstone Chapter 9

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES:

Cheer practice 2x
Playdate with friend from cheer
Girl Scouts - Skating party at Skate World
Cheer camp - through the high school

Cheer routine at CHS Varsity Basketball game

Cheer Competition- DD's team took 1st place!
Homeschool Group Meeting- The kids all did presentations but DD & DS chose to sit this one out. DS was shy and DD didn't feel like sharing. maybe next time.

Playdate with a neighbor.
DS had his first real sleepover at a friends house- they went skating the next day and had a great time, though DS could barely walk all weekend!

MUSIC/ART-

Field Trip to the Experience Music Project.

We visited the Music Experience Project in Seattle. I have wanted to go there for years so it was exciting to finally get the opportunity to go. We didn't have as much time there as we would have liked as we had to travel home that day, but we did get a membership so we can return when we are in Seattle next (In March) The kids loved the music room where they got to use and learn about real music equipment and the process of making music. The kids were not as interested as DH and I in the exhibits with the music history. DD took interest in the poster press exhibit. She loved seeing the actual presses and the posters that they produced.





We visited the Science Fiction Museum as well. It was interesting but as I am not a science fiction fan it didn't hold my interest, except for the Teengage Mutant Ninja Turtles memoribila :P The kids thought it was ok, but it was geared more for a real science fiction buff!





Our last stop was Pikes Market Place. We had such a great time walking around the shops, exploring the streets. We had hoped for the kids to see the famous "fish throws" but we weren't there at the right time. Maybe next time. We were lucky enough to run across a shop called the "Taj Mahal" where we found some really neat Henna tattoo materials that we are excited to use when our studies take us to India. There were so many cool shops down there, I would love to go back when we have more time!

Washington trip- in DD's words

I asked DD to draw a picture and write a paragraph about our time in Washington. She did really well and was so proud of herself when I read it back to her, not having to stop and ask her what certain words were. She replied "You could read all of that by yourself?! I am a very good writer!" It was nice seeing her be so proud of herself. I am proud too. She is making so much progress.

"We slappt in a hotall room. We wet to cherled. We drev to Seadall then we wet hom now that the end. "


(We slept in a hotel room. We went to cheerleading. We drove to Seattle then we went home now. That's the end.)

Week # 21

Kind of a slow week as far as school work goes, didn't get as much done as I had expected to but I am not dissapointed either as we had a nice week together and played and cuddled alot. We took Friday off to travel to Washington for a cheer competition. We spent the weekend in Tacoma and Seattle, with a lot of learning experiences along the way. It was a great week with a lot of family time!






BIBLE-

I read aloud from Window on the World- Kal-Tamashaq
I read aloud Mathew 13:53-58, 14:1-12
I read aloud from Hero Tales- Samuel Morris
Memory Verse- Daily




LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
DS- Yellow Book- Page 122-124
Vocabulary word of the week- Abridge- added to vocab notebook
Coloring page MLK Jr. (Lots of discussion this week)
I have a Dream worksheet-
DD- Started her Alphabet Workbook - (A-C) Coming up with 6 words for each letter on her own and then drawing a picture for each.

MATH-
DD- Saxon lessons 55-57, Workbook #4 Pages 12-14
DS- Saxon Lesson 62
Played our new game "Money Bags" It is a coin counting game that I picked up hoping it would help DD with her counting skills. It is a great game and they really enjoy playing it! They didn't want to stop so it became our math lesson for the day.
Counting money worksheets (on our drive to WA)
DS- Various multiplication worksheets (on our drive to WA)

GEOGRAPHY-
I read aloud from Illustrated World Atlas- People and Places, Nature
Played AFRICA geography game 2x 25 min.
Watched National Geograhic African Wildlife video- (One of my favorites that I have watched as of yet- though some of it was a bit much for DD)

We made African animals out of homeade dough- baked them and planned on painting them the next day. Unfortanatley, our dog decided she wanted them while we were away at cheer....

We played "Mancala" after learning that it is a game frequently played in Africa. We had intended on making our own game but were lucky enough to find the game very cheap while in town and decided to buy it as it would be more sturdy than our homeade game.

Washington worksheets (busy work for our long drive) I will be sharing this later as her writing was SO impressive!
Book basket- 3x 20 mins.



SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Living World- Grassland Meat Eaters, Survival of the Grasslands, Life UndergroundDD- added a page to her Nature Notebook- drawing of an ostrich
We watched an episode of Oregon Field Guide-



MUSIC/ART-

Wee Sing- Songs from Africa



READING-
DS- Continued reading HOOT, A Juenne Fille Named Marie, Various Pokemon books
I read aloud David Livingstone Chapters 5-8
Martin Luther King by David A Adler, Martin Luther King Jr - from Jan. Teacher resource book, The Story of Martin Luther King by James Riordan




SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-

Cheer 4x- Competition in Tacoma WA- (They took 2nd place! It was the biggest competition they have attended this year, the competition was tough but they held thier own!!)

Playdate at our house with a new friend.

Trip to Washington (more on that in a later post)

Week # 20

We had a very busy week- Cheer competition season is in full effect and has us running more than ever- Girl Scouts cookie season is also in full swing so I am bombarded with cookies, and work is still crazy, but we managed and did quite well with our school work. The kids had great attitudes all week which made it all that much better. One of the better weeks we have had :)

BIBLE-
I read aloud from Window on the World- Riffi Berbers
I read aloud Mathew 13:31-52
I read aloud from Hero Tales the story of Marry Slesslor.
Memory Verse- Daily.


LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-
Copied Memory Verse
Vocabulary word of the week- Abrasive- Copied to Vocab notebook
DS-Yellowbook pages 110-119 + Assesment #13 (100%)
DD- Workbook #1 Pages 100-121 Finished the workbook- she is flying through them, I am going to move her up a level starting next week.
DD- Workbook #2 Pages 26-28- Working on vowels
SPELLING-
DD- Spelling DVD 3x 25 min each
DS- Spelling test (-1)

MATH-
DS- Saxon Lesson 56-61 + Assesment #11 (100%)
DD- Saxon Lesson 52-54, Workbook #4 Page 6, 9-11, 24 (addition tables, greater than, less than, number stories)

GEOGRAPHY-
The kids made thier geography game boards for Africa with no help from me for the first time. They did a really good job!
Played Geography game 2x 30 min each. Did very well for not having studied too much beforehand!
DD- Africa coloring pages- children of Africa
Book Basket- 3x 20 min each.
DS- made Irio (A Kikuyan tribe recipe) for dinner. The only help he had was the peeling of the potatoes. He did great and had a lot of fun with it!
DS- Continued to work on his AFRICA packet.

SCIENCE-
I read aloud from Living World- Grasslands, Grassland plants, and Grassland plant eaters.
We did the "Elephant Experiment"

MUSIC/ART-
Tooth Puppet
Tooth Box
Gingerbread house

READING-
DS read HOOT chapters 1-9 and numerous Pokemon books that he didn't log.(He is a reading machine right now!)
DD- read Hippo wants to Play
I read aloud from David Livingstone Chapters 3+4, A Light in the Attic pages 40-54, AFRICA by A.R, Schafer, A is for Africa by Ifeoma Onyefulu

SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES-
Cheer 4x (Competion on Saturday- They took 2nd place!)
Book club meeting- They made clay animals and discussed the book- Both of the kids winning the raffles- they were very excited!
Bible Study-
The kids both attended Royal Ambassadors(I have been calling it Royal Rangers...oops!)
Girl Scouts- we have begun cookie sales--- it is going to be very busy for some time now....

Best & Worst Public School Systems in the U.S. according to U.S. News

U.S. News looked at more than 21,000 public high schools in 48 states to find out which are the best and worst. They listed thier Top and bottom 10...
Not that I put a lot of stock in polls and such, but from what I know to be personally true in my town it fits.

8th Worst: Oregon
Total Score: 71.5 (out of 100)Overall State Grade: C-
Chance of Student Success: C
School Finance: C
K-12 Achievement: D

A moment of reflection

Ok.. this is obviously more that a moment...
What a year it has been!
2008 was a definite turning point in all of our lives. One of the biggest changes was obviously making the decision to homeschool. What a long time coming that was. How good I remembered feeling once we finally commited to the decision.

Since we made that decision in June of '08 we have had many ups and downs. It has been a roller coaster ride to say the least. We had so many obstacles to overcome, one of the biggest was my son's loathing of school. The last year in particular took so much energy from all of us that we had a lot of repair work to do to fix our relationships. It was definitley challenging. There were the days that I went to bed wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. I was nervous, anxious, wondering how I was going to be able to do it all. That definitley clouded our first couple of months. Most of all I was so afraid of failing my kids. Thinking that I just wouldn't be able to teach them everything that they need to know. Then you throw in every day life, work issues, death, sports, friends, extended family... well I think most people can see how this could be very overwhelming.

Once we got in to the groove things got much better. I still had/have my moments/weeks where I stress a little. I still haven't been able to get over the "We are getting behind" syndrome. I do feel I am getting better at this all the time. I wish that I was able to be a more relaxed home schooling mom- going with the flow and not worrying so much about my cirriculum schedule, but unfortunatley that is not the way my brain works. I feel the need to get done what I had planned on paper that we would. Like I said, I do feel I am getting a little better about this, but I hope to improve more this year.
Here are a few things that I feel are very positive about our experience as new homeschoolers so far.
We have grown so much as a family over the last seven months. We were having problems communicating with DS while he attended public school. He was withdrawn, spent much time alone, wouldn't express his feelings at all. He was definitley not the same kid that we had sent to that school. (http://ohkona.blogspot.com/2008/10/our-journey-to-homeschooling-part-2.html and previous posts) I am proud to report that he is back to his old self these days. He is constantly telling jokes, making us all laugh, and taking interest in things again. While in P.S. he wanted to watch T.V. in all his free time and beg to play video games. He now (without being forced) plays with creative toys,READS, blogs (more recently) and finds things to do outside rather than asking to watch t.v.
Reading is a HUGE thing for him as it was a big point of frustration for him before and he hated to do it. He was in one of the lowest reading groups in public school and is now a thriving reader, reading many selections that are at 5th grade reading level and above. He sneaks up late at night to read!

As for his school work- it has been a long battle but I feel we are finally making progress. He is showing interest in learning again. His attitude towards school gets better all the time. I finally have my baby back.

The kids get along so well. It is unbelievable! They still have thier moments like any other kids, (Ecspecially if one has a friend over, or if we have company.. oh- or let me get the rare phone call!) But they are best friends around the house. They help each other with chores, they make up games to play together all the time, and beg for sleepovers all the time. DD asks DS for advice and he gladly gives it, and he helps her with school work often.

As a family we have quality time again. Without having to abide to the P.S schedule we are able to make our own time together. It has definitley brought us closer.

Areas I need to improve:

I am terrible at scheduling ME time. I hate babysitters. The idea of it, I just hate it. I know this is ridiculous but I feel like I brought them in to the world they are my responsibility. I don't want them to be a "job" to anyone. They are getting big so fast that I just don't want to miss any of it. I know it sounds crazy, but I can't help how I feel. That being said, I have not gone to the gym since June when they got out of school. For many years I went 6 days a week and now not going at all it is defintley showing physically and mentally. I wish I could find a way to fit it all in.

I am always behind on the house work. I do realize there are more important things so I don't stress on it like I would have in the past. But it does hold me back from certain things- like inviting neighbors over for playdates as often as we used to- I find in what little down time I have I am usually cleaning and I am uncomftorable having people over when the house is messy.

I am definitley not giving as much as I used to to keeping up friendships. I don't necessarily think that is all bad though, as I realize now I was giving too much to too many and a lot of times it was one sided. I do think I could and should try harder to maintain the most important of the friendships, the ones that I have had since childhood and still remain friends with.

As far as school work goes the things I know I should improve on are scheduled art lessons. The kids, DD in particular are always drawing, painting, molding, ect. So it is not that they don't do art at all. But I know I should expose them to different organized projects more. I do have an ART book that I purchased with projects from around the world that I intended to use (and haev a couple of times) But I find so often that the items needed are things I would have to purchase and are not always cheap. I try to do the ones that are cost efficient and that we already have most of the materials...

Science- I read from a lot of books for them and we do simple "experiments" focusing on animal and plant science, but I have a hard time being excited about the subject and therfore don't find myself being as creative as I know I could be.

Nature- We do read a lot and the kids look at their field guides often but we do not do a lot of Nature Walks or activities outside now as it is so cold and wet. It seems to rain just about every day and it is so cold. It is hard to make myself want to get out there. In the summer time this isn't a problem as we love to hike and camp, but as of now- we are completley lacking.

I don't feel we are neccesarily lacking in MATH but I do know I need to make sure it happens every day 5 days a week. I don't enjoy MATH although I do like the cirriculum we use. DS doesn't enjoy it although he is very good at it. He just hates doing the work. He is getting better with the whining and such so it is becoming more bearable, but it seems that if we don't buckle down and do it in the morning that I just don't have the patience for it by the afternoon. I am going to try to be better about that this year. I am hoping to double up on lessons when possible in order to catch back up with our schedule (We got behind when we were in California) We plan to school year round, but since Math is such a stressor I would like to implement a more relaxing math schedule for the summer, keeping our skills by playing games, cooking and such- hopefully having finished the Saxon program by the end of May.


I am just touching bases at this point, of course there are many more positives and a few more negatives, but I listed the major ones. Overall, as a family we are all very happy with the decision we made to homeschool. It is a challenge at times, but also so rewarding. I hope that I continue to learn from my mistakes and improve on what I know, and never give in to that feeling that I can't do it all. The proof is in the kids, they are happy, healthy and so very smart. No matter what the books say I should do, or my own plans (I remind myself this daily!) We are raising two great human beings that will contribute greatly to this world one day. What more could a mom ask for?

Week # 19

This week was really busy for me. I had a lot to do at work, closing out the books for '08 which was more difficult this year than past years as I haven't worked nearly as much as I normally do because of homeschooling. The kids spent quite a few long days/nights at the shop this week and were SO well behaved. DS brought his electric station toy that he recieved at Chirstmas and DD brought her painting supplies and they kept themselves busy. Even with all the long hours we did manage to get some school work in and to have a little fun!



LANGUAGE ARTS/ENGLISH-

DS- Book report on Narnia
DD- Workbook #1 page 76-91 (She is reading so well now! She needed very little help from me this week, and once again did not want to stop working!)

DS/DD- I read to them about New Years customs from around the world. Afterwards we discussed the traditions and talked about our favorite ones and decided what we would like to do to celebrate this year.
They both then wrote a paper that included the following: thier hopes and dreams for 2009, Things they would like to change in 2009, and How they will be better Christians in 2009. They both did well. Although DS's hopes and dreams were for more Webkinz :(
With that we completed our New Years Book that we started a couple weeks ago.
We worked on our Months Of the Year book. Adding the January page to it. DD wrote very well on her own and did great sounding out her answers to the questions.



MATH-
DD- Saxon lesson 51, Workbook # 4 page 22+23 Addition. We worked on odd and even numbers more. She is doing ok. Needs more practice though.
DS- Saxon Lesson 54+55- Assesment #10 (He did well, missing two- having a little bit of a problem with mixed fractions)




GEOGRAPHY-
We entered Africa this week. Kenya to be exact. We entered Kenya in our passports.
We exchanged our American Dollars For Kenyan Shillings (Although we did not do the full amount of $20 that we usually do as I didn't have enough money for them both! I would have needed well over 2,ooo shillings....
Studied the map to learn what hemisphere, what oceans and countries border, ect.
We added Kenya to our world map page, labled it and colored it.
We labled all the countries in Africa on a blank Africa map.
I read aloud from the Intermediate World Atlas- an introduction to Africa.
I read aloud pages 31 -32 from A Trip Around the World- Interesting facts about Africa.
We colored the Kenyan Flag and copied flag facts on the back of it.


Just a note- I have noticed DS taking an interest in cooking. looking back I guess it has always been there and I haven't payed much attention.. But he is constantly looking for recipes from the different countries and wanting to make them.



SCIENCE:
DS/DD Played with electricity set- they made numerous projects including a fan. a radio, they had a lot of fun!
We brought out our new microscope set and did a brief overview. The kids had fun looking at different objects and just getting a feel for using it.


READING-
I read aloud David Livingstone- Chapters 1-2
Fancy Nancy- Bonjour Butterfly



SPORTS/EXTRA ACTIVITIES
We attended the book club meeting. They showed the Narnia Prince of Caspian Movie and DS got the next book- "Hoot" They meet again next week.


The kids made cupcakes ALL BY THEMSELVES. I didn't help them with anything, not setting the oven, measuring, nothing. They were very excited by the project and did a wonderful job! They turned out great!


DS made German pancakes on Saturday. He wanted to surprise Dad as he wasn't here when we made them the first time. This time he made them all on his own (With the exception of me pouring the oil and turning the oven on and off) Dad was very impressed and loved his meal! I had DS cut the recipe in half as last time we made way too much going by the recipe. He did a great job figuring out the math!
He convinced Dad to take him to the store to buy the ingredients for a new recipe that he found from Kenya!


We went skating again. It was New Years Day so we went as a family (plus one, DS brought along a friend this time) We all had a lot of fun.

DS had a friend sleepover. It was nice for him as the last month he hasn't gotten to hang out with his friends much as we have been so busy and our regular social activities have been on haitus due to the holidays.

Halfway through the year but....

We finally have a motto!
We have talked about a name for our homeschool, a motto, ect. many times. But just haven't found anything that fit.

While reading today about Kenya, we learned that thier motto is Harambee, or "pull together" for some reason this part of the reading stuck with the kids and it came up in our discussion afterwards. DD suggested that it would be a great motto for our school as well explaining that no matter what we always stick together. I thought it was a very nice sentiment. We voted and it became official. We now share a motto with Kenya, Africa :)

Week # 18

It was a really busy week for us, making last minute preperations for the holidays and we had family in from out of town, so lots of kids running around all the time.

We didn't do much that I can remember. Wow my brain is really turning to mush.. It was just last week!

We read some books, though I didn't record them nor do I remember what they were now.
We listened to a lot of music. I got a new tape (yes, tape- Goodwill had it for .33 cents!) Bach- so we started listening to it in the car. I didn't say anything about it and the kids started asking questions because they recognized one of the songs from a movie. It was a great conversation starter and they seemed really interested.

We went skating on Monday. The kids had a blast. They skated for almost 4 hours straight! It was great excercise as we have been out of all of our regular activities due to the holidays! The kids were so tired that night!


We did tons of art projects as always. Drawing and painting.

We also played a lot of games! We got some new ones for Christmas so we had a blast!