Week in Review::October 31- Nov. 4

Monday- The boys had a great time up at the stables! (we do horse lessons on Monday) And, of course, it was Halloween. We had lots of family and friend time- pizza, playing, visiting, trick-or-treating, and candy trading.

Tuesday- Up for All Saint's Day mass, and then home to clean the disaster from the night before. Actually, it was not that bad and we all worked hard to get it done in good time. Then... I looked at my troops, who were up way too late on Monday and coming down off of a massive sugar high, and realized that there was no way we were going to get any school work done. We sat down for an afternoon of reading A Single Shard (2002 Newbery Medal award), a book that we are reading to go with our Korea study.

Wednesday- Wednesday is our "out day" most of the time. We went to mass for All Soul's day, watched a friend's little boy, had lunch out, and Paul played volleyball (much to his delight!).

Thursday- Our big seat work day. After working on some problems from Becoming a Problem Solving Genius last week, we stepped it down a little bit and tried Primary Grade Challenge Math by the same author (grades 1-4). Even though this first one is probably more grade/age appropriate for my older boys, these books work on thinking skills- a way of attacking (solving) a problem. I can see how working through this book will better prepare them to enjoy the first one we tried. We were able to borrow both books at our library (and they are very used looking!).

Primary Grade Challenge Math

I introduced another item as well. My friend, whose children are now grown, loaned me her SRA Reading Power program. I thought this would be just for James (8yo), but she encouraged me to use with all three of the boys, and I am so glad she did. Funny thing is that I remember using this (or something just like it) in my classroom as a child. It was used as filler- when I finished my work, I was "allowed" to work on this. I was just nerdy enough to think that it was fun! The cost is prohibitive, but I think (from what I see so far) that it would be worth it. I only had to purchase the student books though. Thank you, Doreen! 

Friday- Truly a TGIF!! We had our Spanish class (taught at my home by my sister's mother-in-law), and finished up some loose ends for the week! 

A few random pics: 
animal classification cards from Considering God's Creation
Just hanging out 
It has been a long time since I've seen Lincoln Logs out! 






Comments

  1. Phyllis at All Things BeautifulNovember 5, 2011 at 5:08 PM

    I love A Single Shard. It is one of my very favorite books. Lovely week!

    ReplyDelete
  2. PattyNovember 6, 2011 at 7:12 PM

    Just added that book to my Amazon wish list!!! I had not heard of that one.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Cowboy ChroniclesNovember 6, 2011 at 9:36 PM

    Lincolm logs look cool - hav e not seen them in Australia. You are so lucky your kids are learning Spanish. Thanks for linking up at the History Hop.

    ReplyDelete
  4. GardeniaNovember 7, 2011 at 9:10 AM

    Laurie, I nominated your inspiring blog for an award today!
    http://lovemylittleflower.blogspot.com/2011/11/thanks-jennifer.html

    ReplyDelete
  5. asliceofsmithlifeNovember 9, 2011 at 5:56 PM

    I have never heard of the links you gave! Thanks for sharing! Great pics too! Thanks for linking up to NOBH! It's always great to have other Catholic bloggers linked up at NOBH!

    Did you know that NOBH has been nominated for the Homeschool Blog Awards in the "Best Family/Group Blog". Go to the NOBH home page (http://noordinarybloghop.blogspot.com/ ) to find out how you can vote for our hop if you feel lead to do so! Thanks! Tracy at "A Slice of Smith Life"

    ReplyDelete
  6. TiffanyNovember 10, 2011 at 7:20 PM

    Oh my, SRA was a blast from the past! I remember loving it in school:) Sounds like a fun week, despite the feasting and sugaring! Love Single Shard, my oldest read that one. Love your photos and the LL building. Also love how you have a specified out day. I think this teacher needs that one. Now that my toddler is a little bit more mature, I'm going to consider that. Thanks for all of the sharing!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Our Morning Time

Image
Look at me writing 2 posts so close together!! So... I have loved listening to the podcasts on morning time called "Your Morning Basket". I have listened to all of them. Very inspiring! They are all worthwhile to listen to, but I have to tell you that episode #2 with Andrew Pudewa is a game changer (in the homeschool sense). We have had our own variations on morning time in our house. When my girls were younger (they are now 31, 30, 28 and 22 years old), we had "seat work time" and "couch time". I'd say that couch time was our version of what is now being called morning time. For the most part, we read historical fiction, discussed history (I would either read from or discuss from a text), learned a little geography, read the bible, had prayer time, and had some pretty fun discussions. There was a transition when my now 28 year old became sort of a teachers helper for her younger sister. I remember working on art appreciation with her at the h...
Read more

Week in Review: February 1-5 2016

Image
Lots of baby care around here as the boys' big sister (our second daughter, Jessica) was having her fifth baby. It was a week full of sword fighting, cuddles, disney movies, books, and coloring. It's also been a week full of colds. The 2 year old twins had a cold, which I assume James caught from them (although every one in the world seems to have it, so not necessarily). The problem is that no matter how many times I caution the boys, who can resist cuddling with a sweet little toddler who does not feel well? I guess germs are meant to be shared. In the way of school, we have been in "keep up" mode. Paul's strongest focus is on his Dave Ramsey finance class (which I highly recommend), his Spanish class, and his economics course. http://www.daveramsey.com/store/search.ep?keyWords=homeschool http://www.livinglanguage.com/languagelab/spanish  (I cannot recommend this highly enough. The books and cds make it easy to open and go. Additionally, the...
Read more

Din-spiration Part 6

Image
This is sort of a lighthearted post, but I am going to start by saying that all those in Paris and the World are in my prayers. There are never words when something so unspeakable happens. As it has been pointed out, it happens far more often that we usually hear about in places that are more obscure to most of us. I'm going to continue with this planned post as most of us still have "normal life" to attend to and families to feed amidst this very stressful backdrop. To keep myself accountable, I was going to keep up posting about my crusade to eat at home. I have failed the last few weeks, but the resolve to eat at home has not! The great thing is that on the days when resolve wanes in me, my husband picks it up. He is often the one to encourage me that he can stop by and pick up an ingredient I forgot, or to step in and create a dish himself. He chose make us a Lasagna last week- for me, that is a more involved dinner than I will take on a week day. Rather than...
Read more