Weekly Wrap Up - September is nearing the end

Week 2 of school

Friday we did a science day with cousins- We did a little study on digestion and then we made our own stomach to see how acid breaks the food down. Here they are squeezing out the stomachs to see what the acid(vinegar) did to the food(bread)

Squeezing the stomachs(balloons) to break up the food with the acid. ewwwww

After one of Evangeline's Bible readings this week she was supposed to do a quick sketch of something in the story. I always do this with her and we use the white board. Look at our lovely art. :)

For science Evangeline was supposed to test beak types and try and catch popcorn. The boys enjoyed helping her with this. We decided that birds with big paper beaks can catch food the best.  (just joking)

Evangeline is finally more than halfway through her guide and doing very well at being mostly independent. Timothy is not as far along as her and still codependent. I have learned that by breaking math up throughout the day in between everything else it does not overwhelm him as much and things go far more smoothly. The little boys are loving math which is very simple at the moment and I will be starting more serious phonics with them this week.

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Weekly Wrap up - 9/4/2011

Teaching the 2 little boys Little Hands to Heaven has been such a blessing. They are so excited each day and ready and willing to do there work. :) It makes my heart happy.

Here is an art project that they did making rainbows.

Timothy is doing very well this year and we are finally getting through the work each day. I had to change a few things for him. First I took an index card and cute a small window just large enough for one line of text in a book, this is really helping him at reading time to concentrate and keep his spot. I also ordered him a table top book holder for when he is doing copywork ect. at his desk. He was having a hard time tracking his sentences and keeping his spot with the books laying flat next to what he was writing. It is really helping him so far. He adores the Science, Hymn study, and Art especially and is even reminding me that he needs to do math. Wowser

This Saturday we headed to Bandon to meet Grandma and Grandpa. They were camping and let us join in for a day. :)

Playing with some fun bubble makers

Watching a critter collect nuts and stash them in a tree.

Found a fun balloon man at a yard sale.

Attempted to use an old overgrown path to the beach.

Decided is was far to steep and muddy after a bit. hehehe

Decided to use the stairs.

Ahhhh the Beach

Playing at the park with Cousin Kaylin

Kaylin and her Timmy

Grandma leading the way on the worlds least slippery slide.

Evangeline is also doing well on her curriculum. We are working through some perfectionism so she can get her work done in a timely manner. I will be sure to snap a pic or 2 of her this week.

Caleb starts Kindergarten

Caleb and Haven started school this week. Next week the big kids start and we will be getting used to our new routine.

The boys are using the Heart of Dakota: Little Hands To Heaven program together. Caleb is doing everything and Haven is doing most of it with him.

We are loving the curriculum. It is holding there interest and each step is short and simple yet they are learning and retaining information.
Caleb is such a perfectionist I am having to spend a bit of time helping him to just do his best and not over stress about being perfect. (Just like his sissy)

Haven is just thrilled to do most anything and has no worries about being perfect. :) Also everything he does is usually green.

We were supposed to do just the uppercase A on this project but Caleb insisted on adding a lowercase A as well.

So that was our slow start to the school year. Starting out with just the youngers was very nice and relaxing for all of us and the big kids got a few days to hang out with Grandma Ardel and Aunty Amy. Next week we add in HOD's Bigger program for Timmy and CtoC program for Evangeline.

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Weekly Wrap Up (Yes we are still schooling)

So I realized today it has been a very long while since I did a weekly wrap up. Yes we are still doing school, I just have not taken as many pics or gotten around to posting the last few months.

Evangeline started Heart of Dakota - Drawn into the Heart of Reading program awhile back and she is really enjoying it. It has been a really good way for me to offer her a chance to think about what she reads and offers her something mostly independent to do. This is something she really needed and so far is really enjoying.

Timothy is still working his way through Heart of Dakota's Emergent Reader books. Slow and Steady and I pray that he catches a fire for reading this summer.
He is also still working through a mixture of explode the code, beyond the code, and a little phonics pathways.

Math has been going slow for a few months but just in the last two weeks both kids have started to really speed through it again. Finally getting concepts that have been rattling around in there heads for awhile. :) We will be doing Math and Reading throughout the summer with both of them.

Evangeline completely finished her Reason for Handwriting cursive book this week. She will not be doing any more formal cursive but instead will just be using cursive for any copy work she may have to do. This program worked perfect for her and we did not even use the teachers guide. She simply did it anywhere from 2 to 4 days a week and we stretched it over 2 school years.

I have more than half of next years school books and will be keeping my eyes open for the rest used as I can find them. We are all really excited to be starting HOD and I pray it is the perfect fit.

The little guys have been doing a Toy Story preschool Pack only when they ask for school. So maybe 2 days a week. http://1plus1plus1equals1.blogspot.com/2011/05/toy-story-preschool-pack-free.html
Not surprisingly Haven has been more patient with it than Caleb. I am praying they will slowly grow into doing a bit more school work as I plan to start a gentle curriculum next year.

Playing with the Math U See Blocks

Some copy work of Timothy's

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Weekly Wrap up 13 and 14

I have been trying to do one Science experiment/activity with the kids each week recently. This is one subject Timmy would never get enough of and since he is trying to have a better attitude about his other schoolwork I wanted to encourage him even more.

Working on a T-Rex Dig

These were from a big Smithsonian kit we picked up at Costco last year, we still have a few more in this kit before we have to get something else.

Working on a Gem dig

I still love our Draw Right Now books. I love that the kids and I can do it together and it is a slight challenge while still being actually doable. I also like that we can draw pictures to go along with what we are studying.

Drawing Lincolns Cabin

Hiding her Cabin from me

This is what the big kids school area may look like on a typical day. There is a bit of order in the chaos. See I even have a planner.

Our School Desks. :) AKA the kitchen table

We have been studying Lewis and Clark so yesterday I sent the kids out with an empty shoe box paper and a pencil to Journey around the house and return with information about the environment - weather, animals, plant life ect... They had a blast and want to do it again.

Preparing for a Lewis and Clark expedition

Showing me what information he gathered

One of the expedition journal entries.

We also joined an Oregon Trail Co-op which we will be doing on Thursdays and I will do a post on that in a few weeks.

Weekly Wrap Up 12

So we have been back to school for 2 weeks but I would say this has been the first official week back to school.

On the 11th my Beautiful first born turned 10. 1/11/11 Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl!
We had a sparkly brownie with a candle at our small group Tuesday night since it was her real Birthday. We will be having her sleepover party tonight and she will get her ears pierced with a friend tomorrow. Check back for those pics and posts next week. :)

 The kids eating brownies on Tue!

 I got Justin a new Childrens Ministry Bible for Christmas since his was falling apart. Here it is with a cover I sewed this week out of old dress shirts. My first book cover and I think it turned out pretty well.

 Here is Timmy with some little paper houses we printed off of Made By Joel this week. He had so much fun cutting and folding extras to go along with them.

 We made some Game Boxes at Lowes this last Saturday. They really enjoy the Build and Grow clinics.

As for school Evangeline is really doing well in math and sometimes doing 2 lessons per day because she actually gets it. I am still so happy we switched from Horizon to Math U See.
We are still working our way through Studying the Presidents and States and early American History.
Timothy is mostly doing reading, we have cut out most extras until he can really grow in his comprehension skill.s Just in one week of Reading focus I see improvement so we will keep it up until he is fluent and confident which is the main issue. We are mainly using Phonics Pathways, Explode the Code, and Early Readers along with writing on a white board (His favorite).

As for the little boys I have really started to focus on giving them a dedicated schoolish time every day and it is going super duper well. I will post about that Monday if you want to check back.

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Weekly Wrap up 11

Started our week by Taking all 4 of the kids to Lowes build and grow clinic. The 2 littlest had so much fun. This was there first time there and wow they concentrated so hard on those hammers and nails.

Put together Shoe Boxes for Operation Christmas Child with our small group. We will be sending them off this Sunday.

The kids did a lot of Mayflower/ Pilgrim study this week, we listened to a live interview from Plimoth on Scholastic and then they worked on some printable for a board we put together.

Here is the completed board they all love to go look at it and talk about it, although Caleb still insists he colored a Pirate ship. :)

 A little Thanksgiving banner Evangeline and I put together.

 I made some Turkey shirts for the kids this week. I got the idea and tutorial here http://thecottagehome.blogspot.com/2010/11/gobble-gobble-turkey-shirt-tutorial.html

I did not have any interfacing so I just used a glue stick to hold the fabric down as I stitched it. :)

Here is one with the feathers and turkey sewn down. (These were the girl design and above is what the boys got)

Sorry my computer is being wacky again and won't let me flip this. :( But this is one of the completed Turkey's with handstitched feet and face. :)

I will get a pic of the kids in there shirts on Thanksgiving. :)

We have a super busy weekend ahead but that is for another blog post and then we head into Thanksgiving week. Hoping to get more sewing done next week and looking forward to the family meal on Thursday as well as beginning the plans for Christmas.

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