Weekly Report

Multitasking!

Quick Overview
It was a very busy week for me personally. Instead of giving you a breakdown of what each child did, here is a quick overview. We went over military techniques and the Roman Government. In science we went over volcanoes and earthquakes.
BOB Books
Big news this week is that Cameron started reading books! We love Bob books. I finally went to Barnes and Noble to pick up the first set, which I had lost. As soon as the kids saw the books, Jonathan ran and got the "lost" pack. I had combined it and it was in the second set's box. All my weeks of looking! Now I get to make another trip to Barnes and Noble!
Schedule woes
I really like how the new schedule is working out, but truthfully, with all the work I've been doing, I've been staying up late and then sleeping in. My body is crying for me to go workout. I haven't been getting the kids up early to exercise and they've been grumpy, especially Robert. I stopped school one day for him to get up and jump rope. I am also having a hard time fitting in school for Cameron. I am going to work on a few different ideas this week.
Little House
Something else new I started - I read aloud to the kids, but the books bore Cameron. At night, instead of reading her picture books, I started reading Little House on the Prairie. Her imagination has taken off! She jabbers the whole time I am reading about ideas that pop into her head, and we are working on her attention span during this time. I am incorporating science into it also, through situations in the book. I did a unit study of the Little House books when Raeley was in 1st and 2nd grade and it was lots of fun.

When a good day happens....

This picture made me laugh! Robert is making a snack for their friends and the popcorn is coming out of the top so we ran over to see. Jonathan shows the emotion of a hungry child watching his snack burn!

Today was a great day of school, and when I have a great day, I look to see what went right or different. here is what I am "chewing on".

I didn't let work or issues sidetrack me

Enough said

I told the kids funny stories

Robert kept distracting us with his sound effects. It's like, hello! Teacher here, remember me? I told them about when I was in school and, being the absent minded little girl that I was, I was playing with something at my desk. The teacher was standing over me, teaching, and I didn't even notice. She took it from me and I lost it forever. It was not even a consideration to ever ask my teacher back for whatever it was I had. I didn't think it was that funny, but the kids got a big kick out of it. Of course, I took it into the whole "you don't know how easy you have it being homeschooled" Inside joke for homeschool moms only.

I didn't get hung up on the schedule, but I kept things moving

We started late. Jonathan had speech therapy this morning. He was in a "MOOD" and right or wrong, I didn't make him go inside to his therapist. We were all the way there, standing outside the car and he was embarrassed he had been crying. It was a long , long walk down the hallway. It was a long hallway. His therapist and the other adults watched me walk the whole way in. It felt like a long, long time and I was imagining myself as little Jonathan, feeling their eyes on him, watching, watching, with each step. I am glad I felt the pressure of that long walk. For a kid, it would be hard. But on the other hand, we can't shelter our kids. I don't think I made the right decision. because he was smiling when I got back to the car. SMILING! The I WON kind of smile. He got his way. It made the rest of my day easier, though, because his mood was over. And it made me realize I suffer from the nice mom syndrome.

I had a reward for the kids to look forward to

I know this can't happen every day, but it does help! Their friends came over to play.

I didn't focus on work but on learning

Usually when we have a certain time we have to get done, I am too concerned about checking things off my list. Hopefully the kids will do their "homework" that they didn't finish before their friends got here, but I spent time asking probing questions and chasing educational rabbits.

Cameron was upstairs playing.

Not that this is optimal! I need to be more strict both with her not interrupting, and the kids not getting enthralled in her activities. Kindergarten is fun, though! Who doesn't like scissors, paint, playdough, and fun pictures?

Not Me Monday

Make sure you hop over to McMamma's sight to have a good laugh at the other not me posts!

While playing with Polly Pockets, I didn't give my daughter fashion advice, keeping in mind that she's only five, and this should be a time of bonding and encouraging. I also didn't act territorial because her doll's shoes looked so much better with my doll's outfit!

After doing a mass printing for our business, I did not make 99 copies of dipthongs and digraphs(phontics, not fancy panties). Twice!

I did not lay in bed last night thinking about what to post, then forget after an extremely busy day. By the way, I didn't forget the package I was rushing to mail, arriving to the post office arms full of letters that needed stamps and to be sealed- to get in line before they locked the door. I didn't notice till time to pay I had forgotten the most important one!

Weekly Report

We had a great week, getting back into the swing of things from the holiday season. We did a lot of review this week, but in History we covered the Roman government and military stratagies. In Science we covered the contributions the Romans made to the world, taking the ideas of other countries and improving thier application to society.
MATH
Raeley is studying for Mathcounts and learned the Pythagorean theorum and other challenging things I have no idea about. It coincided that this week she also learned it in her regular math work. She also covered solving equations using the "pemdas" order. She remembers it by Paraolympic Expert My Dear Aunt Suzy. Robert is using protractors and Jonathan is working on long division and reducing fractions. He asked me this week "Mom, how come when you teach me math I get all confused, but Mrs. Farmer makes everything clear?" Hmmm! Raeley may start teaching him math.
LANGUAGE ARTS
Raeley is studying for her adjectives test, Robert had a test on nouns, and Jonathan is working on adjectives and adverbs. We also went over encyclopedia skills. Raeley started writing a paper on Julius Ceasar and Robert and Jonathan wrote a paragraph comparing and contrasting two characters from our read aloud book, The Bronze Bow. The kids really like this book.

This is a picture of Jonathan racing to find info in an encyclopedia. OK, so it was posed, because if he was racing, he wouldn't stop to smile at the camera!

SOMETHING NEW
I know this is our first week back this semester, and we are already making changes! We are starting something new on Fridays. It is going to be more of a review/game day until mid February, when Co-op classes start. Thursday morning we are also adding an art class by Mrs. Farmer. For those of you who are not familiar with homeschool jargon, co-op classes are when moms get together to teach classes. I'll be teaching writing.

H is for hearts

Cutting out paper heart chains is right up Cameron's alley. Pink, pink, pink! And it's gotten her thinking grand thoughts for Valentine's Day. This activity is to introduce her to her new sound in reading, h. She is making great strides, having been introduced to long vowels last week and now reading words with the silent e. We love the book 100 Easy Lessons. It makes learning to read easy! Pretty soon I will be adding flashcards with phonetic rules into her school day.