Here are my New Year's Resolutions:
Me: wake up at 7:30am, exercise and brush teeth. Take showers after kids go to bed every night.
Kids: Learn how to dress themselves in clean clothes every day.
Wake up at 8am, dress on their own, and come downstairs ready for breakfast.
8:30am Breakfast. (Get husband's stuff ready for work if he goes into the office that day).
9-9:15am Quick tidy up of the school area - kids help. I hate doing school in a messy area!
9:30am (leaving some wiggle room here) Kids start on school.
Other things:
Keep up with the lesson plans (I've adopted Lisa's method of Lesson Planning & its working great!)
Buy a few shirts that make me look pregnant, not fat
Buy the kids some clothes and organize their wardrobe. This will make the whole morning dressing thing go a lot smoother.
Get my novel edited and jazzed up before the baby is born.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
You know you have a reader when...
...you get no peace on the computer. You're new reader hovers over your shoulder asking, "why does that say...?", "why did you say that?", "click on that, I want to read that," and "go back, I wasn't done reading that!"
Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!!
Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!!!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Weekly Review
We did a short week of school. We schooled Monday and Tuesday, and did an informal half day this Friday.
In Math, the 6yo started a new unit on 3-D shapes. The 8yo continued her unit on fractions. She is doing well imagining fractions in her head and determining which size is bigger.
In Language Arts, the 6yo started a 4-part Christmas story retelling the writing of Silent Night. She practiced writing step by step directions. The 8yo finished up her 2nd grade Reading and is ready to start 3rd grade Reading, Handwriting, and Spelling next week. In English, the 8yo is learning about writing thank you letters - just in time to practice writing thank you letters for her Christmas gifts!
In History, we learned about Islamic conquest of Spain (the Moors). In Science, we learned about volcanoes, and drew a labeled drawing of how a volcano erupts.
On Friday, the kids watched a movie called Fly Away Home, and Daddy assigned a written paper on the movie. The first 5 minutes were pretty miserable in the movie. I didn't watch the rest, but the kids did. Later, we wrote one Thank You letter for a Christmas present. We have another letter to write and will hopefully get that done tomorrow.
The kids helped their daddy build their big Christmas gift - a pedal car. The 8yo has also been working on her wooden matchbox car for the AWANA race in January. We've been building a movie theatre room in our basement, which is a gigantic project.
In Math, the 6yo started a new unit on 3-D shapes. The 8yo continued her unit on fractions. She is doing well imagining fractions in her head and determining which size is bigger.
In Language Arts, the 6yo started a 4-part Christmas story retelling the writing of Silent Night. She practiced writing step by step directions. The 8yo finished up her 2nd grade Reading and is ready to start 3rd grade Reading, Handwriting, and Spelling next week. In English, the 8yo is learning about writing thank you letters - just in time to practice writing thank you letters for her Christmas gifts!
In History, we learned about Islamic conquest of Spain (the Moors). In Science, we learned about volcanoes, and drew a labeled drawing of how a volcano erupts.
On Friday, the kids watched a movie called Fly Away Home, and Daddy assigned a written paper on the movie. The first 5 minutes were pretty miserable in the movie. I didn't watch the rest, but the kids did. Later, we wrote one Thank You letter for a Christmas present. We have another letter to write and will hopefully get that done tomorrow.
The kids helped their daddy build their big Christmas gift - a pedal car. The 8yo has also been working on her wooden matchbox car for the AWANA race in January. We've been building a movie theatre room in our basement, which is a gigantic project.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monthly Checkup
Most family and friends know by now that I am pregnant. Yesterday was my 12 week checkup at the OB. I braved the icy roads and heavy traffic to get to my 9am appointment (left early and arrived 15 minutes late). I lost 3 lbs, blood pressure is good, and we were able to hear the baby's heartbeat with a doppler (yay!). For those that follow along with the old wives' tales, the baby's heart rate was 160. One old wives' tale is that the baby's heartrate can reveal the gender. We searched the internet and found that heartrate has no accurate scientific relation to gender (well, sort of...) If we were believers in old wives' tales, then this one would be a girl.
My last pregnancy was pretty awful: pre-eclampsia at 29 weeks and an emergency c-section that left a vertical scar down my stomach. Because of all that, I would need to deliver this one early. I found out more details on that yesterday. If all goes well (knock on wood) and I make it to 37 weeks, then I will have an amniocentesis, which involves sticking a large needle into your stomach and drawing up amniotic fluid. The fluid is tested to see if the baby's lungs are developed. If the lungs are developed, then I would be sent in the next day for a c-section.
My last pregnancy was pretty awful: pre-eclampsia at 29 weeks and an emergency c-section that left a vertical scar down my stomach. Because of all that, I would need to deliver this one early. I found out more details on that yesterday. If all goes well (knock on wood) and I make it to 37 weeks, then I will have an amniocentesis, which involves sticking a large needle into your stomach and drawing up amniotic fluid. The fluid is tested to see if the baby's lungs are developed. If the lungs are developed, then I would be sent in the next day for a c-section.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Weekly Review 12-15 through 12-19
Yes, we're just crazy enough to do school. Seems like everyone else is on break. Here's what we did:
Math: the 6yo is learning money and was introduced to the quarter. She took her test this Friday and scored 100%. I still have to help her get her numbers in the right order (30 = 3,0 not 03). Today she got everything going in the right order and right direction. Sometimes things run smoothly. The 8yo is learning fractions and it is easy. She learned how to write fractions, draw fractions, and compare fraction sizes (2/4 is bigger than 1/4, and 1/2 is bigger than 1/3).
Reading: the 8yo is now - officially - 3 lessons away from 3rd grade! She'll do 2 lessons on Monday, and 1 lesson on Tues and then be ready to move up after Christmas. The 6yo read the story Stone Soup and we put on a play (we even got Daddy into the 3rd act). Next week, the 6yo has all Christmas stories to read, so we must be pretty close to following the timeline of the private schools that use BJU (maybe we're off by 1 week?)
Spelling: the 6yo did great with her spelling list and dictation sentence this week. Some weeks her final test has oodles of misspellings. I usually just hint her through it and move on. I figure at 6yo and 1st gr, we're really just introducing the concept of spelling - not going for perfection. The 8yo will start back with spelling when she starts 3rd gr.
English/Phonics: The 8yo finished learning about nouns and pronouns, and got 100% on her test. This week we began the Writing section of English. We are learning about letter writing. The 6yo learned about 2 vowels together in words where the first vowel is long. She has been learning about word endings and the rules that go along with it (short vowel words need 2 consonants before adding -ing, -ed. Long vowel-silent e, drops the e before adding the ending. Two vowels do not add anything before adding an ending).
In History we read about the Franks and the unification of Gaul (France). In Science, I read to them about the earth's layers and they made a mini book about it.
For fun this week, we went to a friend's house for a Movie Day for the Moms, while the kids played. Several families came and brought potluck. The girls played legos, tea party, and played outside in the snow.
Math: the 6yo is learning money and was introduced to the quarter. She took her test this Friday and scored 100%. I still have to help her get her numbers in the right order (30 = 3,0 not 03). Today she got everything going in the right order and right direction. Sometimes things run smoothly. The 8yo is learning fractions and it is easy. She learned how to write fractions, draw fractions, and compare fraction sizes (2/4 is bigger than 1/4, and 1/2 is bigger than 1/3).
Reading: the 8yo is now - officially - 3 lessons away from 3rd grade! She'll do 2 lessons on Monday, and 1 lesson on Tues and then be ready to move up after Christmas. The 6yo read the story Stone Soup and we put on a play (we even got Daddy into the 3rd act). Next week, the 6yo has all Christmas stories to read, so we must be pretty close to following the timeline of the private schools that use BJU (maybe we're off by 1 week?)
Spelling: the 6yo did great with her spelling list and dictation sentence this week. Some weeks her final test has oodles of misspellings. I usually just hint her through it and move on. I figure at 6yo and 1st gr, we're really just introducing the concept of spelling - not going for perfection. The 8yo will start back with spelling when she starts 3rd gr.
English/Phonics: The 8yo finished learning about nouns and pronouns, and got 100% on her test. This week we began the Writing section of English. We are learning about letter writing. The 6yo learned about 2 vowels together in words where the first vowel is long. She has been learning about word endings and the rules that go along with it (short vowel words need 2 consonants before adding -ing, -ed. Long vowel-silent e, drops the e before adding the ending. Two vowels do not add anything before adding an ending).
In History we read about the Franks and the unification of Gaul (France). In Science, I read to them about the earth's layers and they made a mini book about it.
For fun this week, we went to a friend's house for a Movie Day for the Moms, while the kids played. Several families came and brought potluck. The girls played legos, tea party, and played outside in the snow.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Weekly Review
I have every intention of getting back to weekly reviews and regular posting. It is good to have a record of the things we do and the things we've learned. December is a crazy month for most people, and it has been no less crazy for me.
November, of course, was my 50,000 word Novel Writing Month. Laundry did not get washed and our dirty dishes stacked to the ceiling as we attempted to create some magical Seuss sculptures out of them.
December 1st arrived, and with it came a gigantic Web site project that always tends to arrive sometime in the Nov-Dec timeframe.
I spent one whirlwind day throwing in load after load of laundry, and stocking our drawers. It doesn't take long for that pile of dirty laundry to grow again.
We have kept up with schooling basics: Math and Language Arts. The 8yo is 1-2 weeks away from finishing her 2nd grade Reading - and then will move on to 3rd grade with much Pomp and Circumstance. The 6yo is growing in her reading skills by leaps and bounds - she has moved past silent e words and into the realm of double vowels (ai, ay, ea, ee...). She is still not really reading independently, so I guess that is the next big phase that I can look forward to (and I'm really looking forward to it!!)
The 8yo finished learning multiplication tricks in math (0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 3, and 4). The 6yo just finished up the section on subtraction of tens and ones (66 - 23), which we went very slowly through. I really don't like teaching subtraction, and the kids do not like learning it, so we take it in small chunks.
We did do some History reading about China, Japan, and Korea during the Middle Ages. We also learned about Australia and New Zealand. The 8yo's Reading assignments also incorporate quite a bit of history - just recently she learned about the War of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. I tried to make her suffer through an interesting History Channel show about the War of 1812, but that proved to be an exercise in futility (I enjoyed the show though!)
In Science, we made our own Rocks mini books about the 3 types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. I've learned so much!
We've enjoyed some fun days, too. Last Friday, the kids enjoyed a Christmas/Pool Party with our local homeschool group. I believe we had some 120 people there! After eating and visiting, everyone spent an hour swimming in a heated indoor pool (very nice!).
November, of course, was my 50,000 word Novel Writing Month. Laundry did not get washed and our dirty dishes stacked to the ceiling as we attempted to create some magical Seuss sculptures out of them.
December 1st arrived, and with it came a gigantic Web site project that always tends to arrive sometime in the Nov-Dec timeframe.
I spent one whirlwind day throwing in load after load of laundry, and stocking our drawers. It doesn't take long for that pile of dirty laundry to grow again.
We have kept up with schooling basics: Math and Language Arts. The 8yo is 1-2 weeks away from finishing her 2nd grade Reading - and then will move on to 3rd grade with much Pomp and Circumstance. The 6yo is growing in her reading skills by leaps and bounds - she has moved past silent e words and into the realm of double vowels (ai, ay, ea, ee...). She is still not really reading independently, so I guess that is the next big phase that I can look forward to (and I'm really looking forward to it!!)
The 8yo finished learning multiplication tricks in math (0, 1, 2, 5, 10, 3, and 4). The 6yo just finished up the section on subtraction of tens and ones (66 - 23), which we went very slowly through. I really don't like teaching subtraction, and the kids do not like learning it, so we take it in small chunks.
We did do some History reading about China, Japan, and Korea during the Middle Ages. We also learned about Australia and New Zealand. The 8yo's Reading assignments also incorporate quite a bit of history - just recently she learned about the War of 1812 and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner. I tried to make her suffer through an interesting History Channel show about the War of 1812, but that proved to be an exercise in futility (I enjoyed the show though!)
In Science, we made our own Rocks mini books about the 3 types of rocks: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. I've learned so much!
We've enjoyed some fun days, too. Last Friday, the kids enjoyed a Christmas/Pool Party with our local homeschool group. I believe we had some 120 people there! After eating and visiting, everyone spent an hour swimming in a heated indoor pool (very nice!).
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