Nov. 11-16: Fish

Monday

Cleaning day!

Tuesday

Today we met with some friends at the park and had a great time.  I really enjoyed talking with the other moms too.  I love them all, they are so inspirational to me! 

We needed to run to the store to get some things.  The Smith's store manager was such a nice guy he stopped us and asked if we wanted to have some ice cream, and then sent the kids on a treasure hunt, and they won a prize.  The kids and I talked about keeping your customers happy so they keep coming back.  

Random lessons of life.    

Wednesday

Ok, getting down to business.  We read a ton of books about fish.  We also decided to start making a fishing game, with a magnet fishing pole and everything.  We cut out fish and colored them all kinds of fun colors.  We then laminated them and wrote sight words on the back.  To play the game we each took turns catching a fish and then reading the word written on the back.  Annabelle even made a sentence out of the sight words.  Pretty impressive!

The kids also worked really hard to get their language arts and math pages completed, and worked on their online math quizzes.

Thursday

We began reading "The Chronicles of Narnia" starting with "The Magician's Nephew."  It's a little above the kid's level, but they're enjoying it, and I help clarify words and meanings as needed.  I love those books, and I'm so excited to share the stories with them!  It just might take the rest of the school year to read, but that's ok.  We're in no hurry!

The kids finished their packets for the week and worked on more IXL quizzes.  They're doing awesome!

Friday

Today we had the car, and so we spent most of the day running errands.  We have to take advantage of the car while we have it.  

We've decided to enter Annabelle and Evan into the lottery for a charter school for next year.  I'm hopeful we can get them in, but I'm sure the odds are not in our favor.  

Nov. 4-8th: Reptiles

Monday

Clean house day.  It went okay; but I had a really hard time getting the kids involved.  I hate nagging them, but my chore charts have lost some effectiveness.  They did help me put away their clothes, which was great. Small victory.

Tuesday

Today we read some of our books from the library about Reptiles.  I am learning a lot too!  It's so easy to get kids excited about reading when the subject is snakes and crocodiles and such.  

After devotional we did our worksheets and math quizzes.

We were feeling shut in, so we baked some carrot cake and took it to some neighbour friends.  Instead of coming home we ventured off further to a playground and had fun there for a while.  On the way home, it was that time of day when public school is getting out.  Annabelle saw several kids that she knew from last year in kindergarten.  She asked if she could go back to school.  We went home and talked about it, and made a good pro's and con's list.  She still wants to go back.  She says she "hates homeschool."  Shucks!  Well, I'd like to think I could make it better; but I wonder if nothing I do will ever be good enough.

Wednesday

We had a good time reading again this morning.  We liked reading a Native American legend about rattlesnakes.  Then we had morning devotional.  We've been learning the LDS Articles of Faith.  Both Annabelle and Evan have the first two mostly memorized.  It's led to some good discussions.

Today is our "game day" (which I'm thinking I should do Friday...it just seems more fitting.  Our home school group isn't going to be meeting on Fridays any more.  Possibly Tuesdays.  I hope.).

We made a fun little game called, "Do you have the time?"  It's kind of like Go Fish, except you match the clock face to the digital time.

The kids then did their worksheets and math quizzes.  They're doing great!  Then they watched some "Kratt Brothers" and played some educational games online.  I think they learn more from Kratt brothers about science than anything else!

I've been doing a little thinking about starting a 4-H group or something.  I don't know yet, but I've got to do something to help combat the isolation we're feeling.

Thursday

What did we do?  It was a couple days ago.  Let me see...I know Annabelle did three math quizzes on IXL.  She was getting really excited about the money section.  She is learning the names of all the coins, and their values, even the less common ones like fifty cent pieces, and dollar coins.  It does get confusing when all the pictures on quarters are different.

Friday

Today after morning devotional we worked on our little homework packets.  I decided to tear out pages each week from their math and literacy workbooks, and those will have to be completed by the end of the week.  That will help me make sure we're keeping up on everything.  

My parents stopped in today to visit.  The kids were excited to see them.

We went to the park (it was a beautiful day), and the kids had fun playing there.  They made the cutest little "sand angels", unfortunately I didn't have my camera or phone :(

Saturday

This morning Annabelle and I worked on her homework packet.  We're working on understanding place value, such as what comes after 399.  My Math-U-See manipulatives have come in handy to understand.  She's catching on very well.

We also went to Wheeler Farm today.  It was a blast.  Everyone loved seeing all the animals...especially Katelyn.  It's so funny watching her imitate the animal sounds.  Steve and the kids even went on a tractor ride.  

Oct. 28-Nov. 1: Amphibians

Monday

Clean house day :)  It was not very productive because I was so wrapped up in making all the Halloween costumes.  I, Mindy, solemly pledge to never make a Halloween costume again.  errrr...i think :)

Tuesday

We decided to begin school a little different from now on.  Instead of trying to get the kids all dressed and ready for the day before we begin, I decided (from the advice of my friend, Kimberly), to gather the kids together just after breakfast and when they're still in jammies and want to cuddle, and read.  So at 9:00 we read for about a half an hour without the kids wiggling and hyper.  It was awesome.  We read a couple different informational books about amphibians, and what defines them.  

After that we then got dressed and had our morning devotional.  Next we colored pictures of frogs and drew pictures of the things that makes an animal an amphibian.

The kids then each did a IXL online math quiz.  I've said it before, but I love that program!  Annabelle was grumbling a little at first, but then she had the great idea to listen to music while she did her quiz.  What a good idea.  She chose to listen to orchestra music.  She's taken a liking to the violin.  I would really like to start her on violin lessons, or just music lessons in general.  Anyways, she worked on her math for a half hour straight while listening to the music.  No grumbling!

I love that home schooling allows the children to really think for themselves and find solutions to problems, instead of having everything decided for them.

Wednesday

Today we read some fiction books about frogs.  The kids loved the books and the pictures.

Kids had some little time outs for not getting dressed when asked to.  That was an exciting time. 

We had our Activity days Halloween party to get ready for today.  We painted Evan's face up to look like a lion, Annabelle all cutesied up to look like Glenda the Good Witch, and Me...Dorothy.  It was a good trial run for tomorrow.

We had our game day today.  We started out playing "bean soup" from a couple weeks ago.  It hasn't gotten old yet.  The kids still loved playing it, and I've noticed Evan becoming more comfortable with counting, and Annabelle with adding and subtracting.

The kids wanted to play some computer games, so I let them each take turns playing ABCya.  There was one game that was like tetrus, but the kids had to figure out all the ways to add up to 10.  It was a little tricky, but fun.  They played several other strategy type games.

We needed a little break, so we all went outside and just got some fresh (cold) air.  

Thursday

Halloween!  Today was really fun.  We began the day by reading from our "Oh, Yuck!  The Encyclopedia of Everything Nasty" by Joy Masoff.  It's such an awesome book.  The kids love it!  We read about mummies and all the gory details of how the ancient Egyptians embalmed.  

After devotional we played a game that I didn't get to last week.  The kids had to count up tally marks, and then place an M&M on the correct number that matches the tally mark.  Annabelle understood it very well, Evan needed a little support, but did fine as well.

Next the kids painted pumpkins with glow in the dark paint (their idea).  It should be fun.  

Then, I supervised as the kids made Halloween sugar cookies and frosting.

Friday

We'll be taking today off to recover from our sugar highs.

I ended up cleaning almost the whole house and getting rid of a ton of junk.  I should have enforced the kids to help, but I just decided to let them be kids today.  They played and had fun together all day long without a single fight!  Yeah...miraculous!