This Week::Ending April 21


  • In my life this week…
We had these adorable little ones for the weekend. Precious time!! 

  Uncle Paul hanging with Mr. R. 


Grandpa and Little Lady inspecting the backyard. 

  • In our homeschool this week…
We are working on basics. 

We had made the switch to math textbooks a while back. Didn't really work for us. The only structured  program that has ever worked for us was Math U See- I still refer to some of the videos. We dropped that in favor of a more relaxed approach for many reasons. My move to textbooks this year has to do with wanting to make sure that Paul has all the building blocks in place to move to a math class with his sister (the teacher ;)) next year. (My daughter tutors and teaches math for homeschoolers and traditional school children in our area.) 

After giving it a pretty solid effort, we dumped the textbooks in favor of these workbooks  (Math Essentials) that each come a DVD. Yes, still structured, but it seems less tedious. So far, so good. The videos are not super exciting, but they get the job done. I actually watch the video with each boy (Mark is 4/5, Paul is Middle/High School). I find turning them loose does doesn't work for them - we watch the video, work a few problems together, and then they complete their lessons. While I could present the lesson, I sort of enjoy having the video. 

Along with that, we are trying to really pour on the steam with our Barton Reading Program. This program works. I find it to be a lot of work and not very exciting, but if my son can be a fully functioning reader when we finish, it will be worth it.  If I can just stop falling asleep during the training videos! I can see how it would be nice to watch the videos in a group setting and practice some of the teaching together. Sitting on a couch watching watching a dry (ish) video on how to tutor using this program is just a recipe for a nap for this tired mom! (just to note- These videos are a must and a lifesaver- don't mean to be critical. The program's creator does an amazing job making sure that the tutor can properly teach this program!) 


  • Places we’re going and people we’re seeing... 
That should be places I'm going and people I'm seeing. :) I ditched my boys and hubby to walk into town with my daughter and her two little man cubs for dinner one night. The little one has yet another ear infection, but eating outside was distracting enough to him that he wasn't totally miserable. It was a great way to spend the evening




  • My favorite thing this week was…
Having the time to just hang around a little bit. Mark, James, and Frank (hubby) had a game of Dog*opoly set up on the table all afternoon and are just finishing it up tonight. Those slurpies that you see on the table would answer the "I rewarded my kids by..." prompt! :)




  • My kiddos favorite thing this week was…
Boys day out! 



More on this later. There is whole day's worth of adventures to tell about. 


  • Things I’m working on…
We had a family "pet care" day. Cleaning the tortoise cage, getting a larger water area, and a larger hide (place the tortoises like to hide in together). You can't tell by this picture, but these kids are getting big! (we also have 2 dogs, a snake, and a bunny to care for) 




  • I’m cooking…
A little odd looking. I picked up some asparagus at the farmer's market today to make this. It just sounded good. And... drum roll... it was! Surprisingly so. The egg doesn't looked cooked all the way, but it was. I used shredded parmesan cheese because I had that on hand, but next time I will definitely use shaved as the recipe calls for. See Prevention magazine's recipes for fast and fresh asparagus. 

I've been pondering...

This week I sent a question out in to blog land to find out more about how others plan and organize their homeschool. I got a few very thoughtful responses that I love! You can read them here.

I also shared a two wonderful books that we read- one about the Titanic and the other set right after the Civil War. Since we have not been participating in any picture book link-ups or challenges, I have not been sharing as much. I hope to remedy that and share a few of our favorite reads each week. You can read about these two books here. 

Homegrown Learners




Comments

  1. PattyApril 22, 2013 at 6:03 AM

    Sounds like a good week to me...many rewards after schooling. I am feeling summer-itus something terrible this spring. Just sick of schooling. Ugh. At any rate, getting out and doing "fun" or relaxing is always a welcome reprieve from it all. Good for you! Looking forward to seeing pics of the boys day out!

    ReplyDelete

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