Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where We Stay Home... Mostly

We didn't do much outside of the house this week, just our weekly co-op for music and art. How nice it is for home schoolers to stay home. That's rare. And I love it. Being a full time pancreas for 2 extra people on top of homeschooling and running a house is exhausting.

Mackenzie

Mackenzie was wrapping up India and moving onto the Arab countries. She was excited because she currently has 2 readers scheduled. The more reading the better. Even with two on the schedule, she still wants to read extra. Good news for her, we have a review item coming up that will require her to add yet another book to her reading list. Lucky girl!

She read the Tale of Aladdin this week and she got annoyed because it wasn't like the movie. lol A lot like Pocahontas, huh Mackenzie?

In other news, we have 6 more weeks left of our core. Woo-hoo!!! If only the same could be said for math and grammar. We're pretty close to being done with science though.

She's happily moved on from the metric system for now and is back to her preferred decimals. Multiplying to be specific.

We are currently studying mollusks in science. I had no idea that a squids or octopus were mollusks. I don't know why, but that blew my mind. lol Maybe it's the sleep deprivation?? I was also fascinated to learn that the holes in all those clam shells we've found at the beach over the years were mostly likely drilled by whelks looking for dinner. They don't look that tough.

Rumor has it that her piano teacher will be choosing recital pieces soon. Mackenzie is very excited!!

Mackenzie has also been researching insulin pumps because she is looking to feel more normal. Having to inject insulin in front of the world isn't any more fun then having to inject insulin at all.  She has narrowed it down to two and is waffling back and forth between the them. Hopefully, she'll make her choice soon so we can get the ball rolling.

Kayleigh

Kayleigh is Kayleigh. She likes what she likes and doesn't like everything else. This week she liked practicing her sight words with nerf gun, painting her letter craft, and using her Handwriting Without Tears manipulatives. She didn't like coloring her sight words, she did a good job of it.

She also enjoyed having her "finger prints" taken after reading about policemen in The Things People Do.  She really, really liked making a puffy painting of a snowman (equal parts glue and shaving cream) after reading a snowman poem in Language Lessons for Little Ones.

She is still a reluctant little cheerleader. And it appears she might be a reluctant little swim student because she's going to be getting some lessons soon and, despite the fact she loves the water, she is gripping about having to take the lessons. Sigh. She is exhausting.

How did your week go?



Linking to Weekly Wrap-Up, Preschool Corner, Photo College Friday, Homeschool Mother's Journal

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One With Tears

So there were a few tears this week. For various reasons. I'm schooling girls. They're naturally moody. One is hitting the hormonal years. Both with the diabetes.  It's to be expected. There are actually tears several times a week. I just found this weeks tears to be more interesting than normal.

Mackenzie 

Mackenzie spent a lot of time this week catching up on her swimming creatures science notebook and ocean box. She's great about taking notes while I read, a bit lazy about the other stuff. And I don't even make her do the busywork pages like the crosswords. So this week she played a bit of catch up.  She's still not caught up. lol

She did get a walrus added to her box. But the shark and ray are still missing. As soon as I work up the energy to walk up the stairs, I'm going to get her on those. I don't care if it's not a school day.

We are still studying India. India is fascinating. India is beautiful. India is heart breaking. We've been reading through Teresa of Calcutta and the images of Teresa working with the poorest of the poor led us to Sobfest 2013.  We haven't had this good of a cry over a Sonlight book since we read Lincoln, A Photobiography with Core 4. We've had a few tear ups and sniffles, of course but this was a full on cry. Great book!!!  Amazing woman. Such an angel. We're going to keep the tissues handy while we finish this one.

Now we're dying to watch Something Beautiful for God, the first documentary of Teresa. The one that brought her to the attention of the world. Except that we can't find it anywhere. You can find the book but not the movie. Gah!!!!!

We are also still loving our read aloud, Shadow Spinner . If my voice could handle it, we'd be done already because we're dying to know what happens. Thankfully Mackenzie's reader, Around the World in 80 Days ,  is not dependent on the state of voice. I think she might be ahead of schedule but she's not talking.

Kayleigh

Now Kayleigh had tears for a totally different and much more amusing reason.  I got out the scissors. Now scissors in and of themselves, do not make her cry. She likes to cut things. Things like her hair or Mackenzie's math. However, when you ask her to cut on a line. Waterworks!!

We read a poem about a bat in Language Lessons for Little Ones so I thought it would be fun to make a bat out of her hand and foot prints. Being that she's five now, I thought maybe she'd enjoy cutting out her foot while I tackled the hands. Nope. Same story, different age. Please note that she is perfectly capable of cutting on a line rather well. She just doesn't like to do it. Too constricting, I guess. She did like drawing the teeth on the bat though. lol

Cutting lines isn't the only thing she doesn't like though. She doesn't care for cheerleading either. For years she's been BEGGING to do cheer like her sister. This year was her year. Do you know what she said after the first practice?  "I didn't know this was going to be too much hard work."  I about peed my pants from laughing. Cheer is through our local homeschool group. The coach is moi. I was a dancer in my youth but never a cheerleader. Everything I know about cheerleading comes from You Tube. Clapping, stamping, and shouting the cheers are about as tough as it gets, people.

Little Miss just doesn't  like to be told what to do. I'm making her stick with it for the season. I need the extra body. This week I bribed her with a lollipop to make it through the game. It worked. Even with the knowledge that a shot of insulin followed the lolli.  Next week I'm going to tie one to a stick with a string and wave it in front of her for extra motivation. Plus it will amuse me.

In other news, she's been helping me with some review items. One you can read about by scrolling back a couple of days and the rest you are going to have to wait for because she's not talking. Or cutting. Or cheering.





Linking to: Photo Collage Friday, Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weekly Wrap-Up, Preschool Corner

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where We Dodge a Bullet

Well we survived the "snow" day and then enjoyed a couple of days in the 70s. Woot! And it was back to our regular routine, which will be demolished for the next two weeks due to a couple of birthdays. But only because Kevin insists I have to let them grow up. I'd just as soon as skip the birthdays.

Mackenzie

Mackenzie and I are still studying India. We've finished reading William Carey: Obliged to Go , India: The Culture , Daughter of the Mountains ,  and Gandhi : Peaceful Warrior . They were all wonderful. Of the four I think William Carey was our favorite with Daughter of the Mountains a close second.

We have moved on to India: The People ,  Shadow Spinner,  and Teresa of Calcutta. Mackenzie begs me to read more Shadow Spinner every day. Sometimes I oblige, if my Sonlight throat isn't too raw, because it is sooooo good.

She is still on a decimal break with MUS and continues to work on the metric system. I think she is ready to go back to decimals since all of her diabetes management has made her a decimal ace. lol

In other news, Mackenzie got her report card for her art class at Young Musicians of VA. And I learned that she is spending a little too much time socializing and not enough time creating. That didn't go over well here at the homestead.  But at least we know that she can "socialize" as well as her public school counterparts.  So to those of you who were worried about that aspect of homeschooling... Crisis averted! She can talk in class and not pay attention just like the masses. Shew! We dodged that bullet.

We studied sharks and rays in science and we need to take a trip to the local aquarium ASAP. (Are you reading this Andra?) It's going to be rough for me. I am not at all fond of the local aquarium. Especially after there million dollar redo that resulted in a bunch of "traffic jams" and exhibits that are still often broken or closed. But they do have a nice shark tank and a ray touch pool so I will take one for the team and fork over their exorbitant fees in the name of science. But that otter exhibit had better be open this time or I cannot be responsible for what I might do. Really.

Kayleigh

As you might remember, I have upon occasion (ie. every, single week) complained about how Kayleigh loves to scribble all over her work.  It's so annoying to me that you won't take 5 seconds to color in the one inch picture neatly. It doesn't matter what I say, she will scribble every time. Gah!!!

So imagine my surprise when she spent 20 minutes coloring a picture of a dinosaur. Neatly. I had visions of her coloring neatly on the 10 seconds worth of coloring in her school work. Imagine my horror the next day when she went back to her 2 second scribble. Gah!!!!

We were reading some tree poems in Language Lessons for Little Ones so Kayleigh dot painted a tree with popcorn blossoms. And since you can eat a billion cups of popcorn for relatively low carbs so she could eat a bit without needing a shot. It's amazing how diabetes sucks the fun out of cooking/food projects so it was nice that she could just eat a little popcorn.

Kayleigh has always enjoyed art. Not so much the making of it but the looking at it. She loves, loves, loves reading from her Touch the Art books. She loved visiting the Met in NYC and seeing paintings that she recognized. (On a side note, the Touch the Art books might make your child think they can touch the real art. Opps! You might want to have a discussion before hitting the museums. lol) So I purchased a unit from Meet the Masters.  

It's got a bit of art appreciation and lessons all in one. I got the lessons geared for 5-7 year olds, because Mackenzie has "professional" art instruction. Some of it is a little over her head but she loves looking at the paintings and it's very easy for me to implement without a lot of thought. And boy do I need that in my life right now.  And Mackenzie can join in too if she wants. And she usually does. lol They are currently learning about van Gogh (love him) and the art of using texture in your drawing.  Kayleigh started off strong and then scribbled as usual. Love her too. lol

One of my other favorite resources lately are the Ready2Read lessons from The Moffat Girls. Love, love, love the hands on aspect of them.  It is meshing nicely with our All About Reading lessons, which is also very hands-on. Kayleigh loves hands-on over a worksheet. She is the exact opposite of Mackenzie at this age.  It's fun to get a chance to teach things differently this time around.  And it kind of makes me sad that I couldn't really do that when I was a PS teacher. But that's another tale I guess. What a blessing homeschooling is, even when they are driving me CRAZY. You know. When they're awake. ;)

Life School

Mackenzie had the brilliant idea of going roller skating last week. So we did. It's not exactly like riding a bike. At least I don't think it is. I didn't really get to try out my "moves" because I was busy helping the kids not crash and burn. I don't think I went any faster than 1 mile per hour. lol Boy does my back hurt from bending over with Kayleigh. But, hey, I didn't fall. Surprisingly, Kayleigh LOVED it. She is ready to go back.

I left the house one day to run to the store and came back to this...

Tent City. Amazing what they can do in such a short amount of time. lol

And we had a pharmacy run. :) I know how you all like to see our haul. This time it was just for alcohol swabs and blood glucose test strips. When you get so many you can do fun things with them. See?

And that my friends, pretty much sums up our week. Next up... The dreaded, by mommy, birthdays.


Linking to Weekly Wrap-Up, Homeschool Mother's Journal, Preschool Corner, Photo Collage Friday

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One With the Snow

Here. In Southeast Virginia. Boo! One of the reasons that I left Michigan is to avoid this stuff. Plus the people around here can barely drive when it's sunny and dry. (Sorry locals, it's true. Driving through Detroit during rush hour is less stressful.)

But snow is all anybody is talking about here so what's the point of telling you about the rest of our week. All anyone cares about is the snow. So here you go. Snow....

But there's a brighter future headed our way around here. It'll be coming on Wednesday in the form of 70 degrees. Woot!

Linking to: Homeschool Mother's Journal, Weekly Wrap-Up, Photo Collage Friday, Preschool Corner

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One With a Slug

That's right. I'm doing a Weekly Wrap-Up two weeks in a row. You probably shouldn't get used to this. =o)

Mackenzie

I want to remember what Mackenzie did but it is so hard. She is very good at working independently. lol

Here's what I do know. We finished reading about William Carey and he is AWESOME. So inspiring. We were totally bummed when the book was finished. Wah.  I can't remember for the life of me what is coming up next. Oh well, that's what Homeschool Tracker is for.

We finished up our lesson on fishes. (Remember, fishes is correct because we studied more than one type of fish. lol) The experiment this week involved a live fish and we don't have one. Nor do I want one. I have enough with 2 guinea pigs, a tadpole that won't die or develop into a frog, a husband, and two kids with type one diabetes.

She's taken a break from decimals for the moment and is working on the metric system a bit. She prefers decimals.

We had a mammoth IEW lesson this week. 58 minutes long. Canadian Andy, as we lovingly call Andrew P. because our friends started calling him that and we cannot get it out of our heads, had a lot to say this week. And yes, we know he's not from Canada. While he does have a very distinctive way of speaking, he doesn't even sound Canadian to me. I'm from Detroit and I've spent a lot of time in Canada, so I'm very familiar with the accent. But we just can't get that name out of heads so here we are. But we love him and all that he says so very, very much. He's one of our two favorite video teachers. (We heart you too Mr. Demme!)

Mackenzie heard something so totally awesome during this lesson that she jumped up and hit pause because she wanted to write it down to put into her Smash Book.  What was this quotation worthy of interrupting our writing lesson, you ask?

"The slug got thorned." 

What on earth? I'm sorry dear reader, you did read that correctly. The slug got thorned. It was said in an effort to make sense of one of his students suggestions but the way he said it, in his beloved Canadian Andy way, had us cracking up. For quite a while. It was the highlight of our school week. 

I guess I remembered more about this week than I thought. lol

Kayleigh

Kayleigh was full of shenanigans and hijinx this week. Where to start, where to start...

Let's start with coloring. As you might recall she HATES it. She pretty much scribbles all over anything that requires coloring. Unless it's a gift for her music teacher Ms. Lewis. For her she'll color beautifully.

Well this week she was acting a little funny. Anything that she did this week she wanted to color on if it had a picture. She colored in every picture in her Explode the Code book, her Handwriting without Tears book, her Developing the Early Learner Book. Whether or not it was a requirement of the assignment or not.

At first I was a tad annoyed because it increased the length it took her to complete the work. But then I started thinking that maybe this would be okay and she'd do a nice job on her projects that required a little "art work." Enter her All About Reading project. She was supposed to color the K and the kite and glue on the string. I envisioned a beautifully colored page, FINALLY, to put in the book she was making with them. I wasn't even going to mind that the entire page would be colored in red and green. (She would only color the other stuff in red and green for Christmas. Maybe because our house is still decked out for Christmas? lol)  What was I thinking? Naturally she did a quick scribble and called it a day. She didn't even use red or green. Nor did she want to pose for a picture. How typically Kayleigh. Sigh.  

She loves, loves, loves to watch a show on tv without anybody bugging her. Loves it. Unless I'm working on school with Mackenzie. Then she wants to create havoc and discontent. This week she came in with her tea set and invited us to an impromptu tea party. 

I was surprised that she didn't insist on formal dress. Sadly for Mackenzie this tea was not zero carb and she had to get a shot to cover her tea. Yes, apparently at our house, even a pretend tea party is an event requiring a needle. She even offered to give Mackenzie her shot.   You might want to bear that in mind in case you're ever invited over for tea. Even I had to get a shot and I don't even have diabetes. Don't say you were never warned. lol

In other news, we were learning about simple machines this week in our Berenstain Bear Science book. Specifically, about levers. So I decided to make a simple lever with her for fun. She loved it and was really into it. 

So into it that she broke the ruler that we were using. Which wouldn't be even worth writing about except for the fact that she has broken three rulers in about six months. I wonder what she has against rulers? Rulers see Kayleigh coming and quiver with fear.  Wood, plastic...Kayleigh doesn't care. She'll take them all out. She's not picky. 

I am now the proud owner of a Fiskers flexible ruler. I feel like she won't be able to break that one. I'm sure she'll figure out a way but I'm choosing to remain hopeful. 

In other news, cheerleading has started back up and Kayleigh's joining us. That's proving to be very interesting. =o)



Linking to The Weekly Wrap-Up, Photo Collage Friday, Homeschool Mother's Journal, and Preschool Corner.

Weekly Wrap: Really!

Well a new year has begun and with it we are back to school. Thank goodness we've had more breaks then I care to think about. We practically used up all of our time off for the entire school year in the first four months. Good thing that we homeschool so that I can control the schedule.


The students might not be as thrilled to get back of a more normal schedule after all of the craziness of the past four months, but this momma sure is.

Sixth Grade

Mackenzie has jumped back into her full load. Sorry girl, no easing back in at this point.


We are currently studying India and learning a lot about the culture. We are also learning about William Carey and his work there and that has been fascinating as well.


In science we are starting our lesson on fishes. And it was really a bit of a grammar lesson too. There are two correct plural words for fish. There is fish, which refers to more than fish of the same kind. And fishes, which refers to more than one fish of many varieties. Who knew? Not this girl. All this time I thought more than one fish was still fish, no matter what kind. I love that I learn as much as the kids while homeschooling.

I tried to find a virtual fish dissection app for the iPad. I didn't find exactly what I was looking for but I did find THIS APP. This was not a virtual dissection but was a series of short videos that showed someone else dissecting a fish. It gave a bit of narrated information about what you are looking at  and it reinforced a lot of what were learning in the book. We've been using it a lot with this lesson.

She is acing math at the moment. This year's Math-U-See focus is decimals and she is a whiz at decimals thanks to her diabetes care. You can see exactly why HERE.

Pre-kindergarten

Kayleigh has had a much longer break than her sister. She wasn't feeling it with all the upheaval, and I wasn't pushing it. She's been on break since some time in November. Lucky girl!


While on her break, she was really interested in writing letters properly. She was very to see that her Handwriting Without Tears lessons have move passed coloring and onto actual letter formation. She had fun with the manipulatives, we have them all, and with the iPad app. She even taught her sister's American Girl doll how to make an L. And she did a great job in the actual book. She was excited to write something besides her name. lol


Her reading lessons were all review since it's been so long since we did anything. I'm happy to report she hasn't seemed to forget anything. I guess we'll move on next week.


She was most happy to get back her Sonlight books. She was super excited to finally get to listen to her Tall Tales cd. This week we listened to Johnny Appleseed, so naturally we had to make apple prints. And eat apples. After we counted the carbs of course.


She also is working on a review item with me for The Old Schoolhouse and so far she seems to be having fun with that.  Naturally, I'm not going to spill the beans on that one just yet. =o)


She's plowing through All About Reading and having fun with the gentle approach. Her favorite thing this week was spreading jam on bread and then tracing J into it with her finger. That's a tasty way to practice writing your letters. Then she used it to make a PBJ sandwich for her lunch.


Here's hoping we're going to get into our groove. Finally. For the first time this year.

Linking to Weekly Wrap-Up, Photo Collage Friday, Homeschool Mother's Journal, Preschool Corner.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One Where I Actually Do One

While I haven't blogged about it much lately, we are still doing school. Really. For the most part. I just seem to run out of time on the weekends and don't get around to the Wrap-Up. But this weekend has been relatively boring so I'm getting on it.

Mackenzie

History

We're back into our Sonlight full swing. Complete with our beloved readers/read alouds and Eastern Hemisphere Explorer. We're currently studying Vietnam and reading Land that I Lost, which I believe is a true story. And truly awesome.  The author shares tales of his childhood in the jungles of Vietnam, pre-war. So far it's been very exciting. It also makes me glad that I don't live in a jungle.

Math

I can't remember if I mentioned it, but Mackenzie finally finished MUS Epsilon and has moved on to Zeta. She also finished Life of Fred fractions and has moved onto LOF decimals. We are happy to have finally moved on. And the joy that we feel about this has cemented our resolve to do a lot less math reviews. Mackenzie has also discovered the perfect place to do her math. In front of a fire.

Language Arts

We are still happily plugging away with our grammar and writing lessons. I am thrilled to report that she is doing a better job at reading the instructions in Growing With Grammar so that she is actually doing the exercises properly. Woot!  She has a habit of reading the first part of the directions and then skimming the rest. The result is doing the grammar over.

IEW is, well, excellent. Just like the name promises.  And Mackenzie is finally remembering to underline her dress-ups for fear of the wrath of me. That can only help her. Dress-up underlining aside, her writing is vastly improved.

Science

We're currently studying primeval sea creatures and we have a sudden urge to watch The Water Horse. If I had unpacked any of our DVDs we would.

Kayleigh

Kayleigh is mostly interested in messy work, so we did some messy work. So we practiced our H's in shaving cream and did some sight words in glitter glue. Glitter glue is so much less messy than glitter and glue. Except the part where she squeezes the GG too hard but at least there's no glitter hiding all over the house.

In other handwriting news, she hasn't quite mastered the HWT's wet/dry/try method. Solely because she does not want to make the strokes in order.  And we've skipped the rest of the lame coloring pages in the HWT book and moved onto the actual writing. We're happier now.

We've added in some new reading activities from The Moffatt Girls. She has a Ready2Read program that has some really fun stuff, including the glitter gluing of sight words. She introduces word families as well as sight words which is fun for Kayleigh. And she has her doing stuff like "Cracking the Code" using a code to figure out the sight word. Good thing we put that page in a sheet protector so she could do it again and again.

Her Bible verse this week was one of my particular favorites, Exodus 20:12. ;) We are still using the Bible activities from Raising Rock Stars Preschool.  And now I've reminded myself that we didn't do our craft this week. Maybe we'll do that after church.

Speaking of crafts, Kayleigh did a fun and easy one (and totally not messy) craft to go along with one of her Sonlight stories, Stealing the Sun. She just drew a sun and then poked holes around her drawing using a giant thumb tack. Because who doesn't like poking stuff with a giant thumb tack? I can't name even one person. In fact, Mackenzie insisted on stopping her math lesson in order to get in on the giant thumb tack action.

In Other News

We had our last soccer game. Woo-hoo! I'm looking forward to not having to do anything on the weekend for a while. They were almost undefeated except they tied  one game that last day. Still awesome. She has seasons like that every time Coach Montgomery is her coach. He has mad coaching skills people.

We had lots of visitors. First my dad came to town.

Then my friend Joanne came in with her adorable son and brand new grandson. She'll be visiting her more often because now her grandson is living in the area. Yay me!!!

And our BFFs all came over to break in the girls new swing set. It didn't fall apart so I guess my man did a good job on it.

Lastly, in diabetes news. Mackenzie had to get more insulin. She's addicted. We refilled on election day and it was dead in the pharmacy. Woo-hoo! To see a military pharmacy empty is rare. So at least one good thing happened on election day. We didn't have to wait hours for our insulin.

 Kayleigh had a day of really high blood sugars. Like the meter wouldn't read it kind of high. And for the record. It was high before the lolly. I had to bribe her with the lolly to get her to let me prick her finger. I guess that won't work once she's diagnosed.

That's it. That's all I have. I feel good that the length of this post makes up for the weeks that I skipped. Have a nice day.

And if you haven't heard, I'm giving away a wonderful toy from Melissa and Doug. We have a lot of M&D toys in our house and we haven't had a dud yet. So check it out and see if you can win.





Linking to Weekly Wrap-Up, Photo Collage Friday, Preschool Corner, and Homeschool Mother's Journal.