Today is 11-11-11 and while that may seem like a really neat day to you, it's a really special to me because it's my 11th wedding anniversary!! Yes 11-11-11 is my 11th anniversary!!! How cool is that??
This is my second installment of my trying to post every Friday!! Hey, two in a row is good for me!! We had a pretty quiet week but got a lot done. We studied about the end of the Ice Age and how the people spread out after the climate changed. We also finished our study on the arctic tundra in science and began studying the cactus desert. We're moving on to studying Egypt, so the desert study will go great with that. We made clay maps of the area where people first settled after the Flood, near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and added water to the lakes and rivers and put ice cubes where the great wall of ice was. It was pretty cool. We finished our book "All of a Kind Family". It was a cute story and really gave you a sense of what life was like for a Jewish family living in New York City in the early 1900's. I wasn't always in agreement with the parenting that occurred in it, but I used that as a opportunity to talk to the kids about how they are supposed to act in different situations. Overall it was a nice school week.
I tried a new recipe this week, Beef and Broccoli over rice. Sort of what you might get at a chinese take out restaurant. It needs some tweaking but it was pretty good. We'll have it again.
We're 29 weeks pregnant today! I got my results from my glucose test and I'm negative for Gestational Diabetes. That's good!! I'm also not anemic. So those were nice to get. We bought our little girl the cutest little sleeper last night. It was from Target. They're carrying a Disney line now and this one is themed Alice in Wonderland. It's very cute. Preparations for her arrival are going pretty well. We got the bunk bed set up in Joshua's room, so Abby can sleep in there if she needs to, if the baby is waking up a lot. She and Abby will be sharing a room (and Abby is SOOOO excited about it!!!). We also got Noah a new desk from Ikea since we had to take his other one out to put up the bunk bed. It's very nice, though my hands were sore from putting in all the screws!!! We'll hopefully get the crib and set it up in the next few weeks, we already bought the bedding set. It matches Abby's owl theme. I'm hoping to get some freezer cooking done in the next few weeks, so we have some meals ready to go when she arrives. I also need to organize all of the kids clothes that I pulled out at the end of summer. You know, the ones that no longer fit them. I save about 75% of their clothes and keep them organized in bins in the basement. I need to get that done again. It's coming in handy, now that we have our "2nd generation" of kids coming along!
Well I"m off to wash the sheets today and do some quick cleaning before we go visit my parents. Have a great week!!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
Remember Me?
Hello, anyone out there???
Well, I just thought I'd get around to posting today as I've wanted to for awhile now. I like having this blog as a record of what we do as a family if nothing else. I'd like to make Friday's a blogging day as our school work load is considerably shorter on Friday's (our main curriculum only goes 4 days a week). So it's Friday and here I am.
We had a nice summer, spent a lot of time with extended family. Always love that. Had some fun with church family as well. Abby was baptised in September, that was a big day for our family. We also had a vacation to Florida. We spent a few days at Vero Beach. Joshua HATED the ocean. He would scream at the top of his lungs if you let the water touch him! He loved the pool though and didn't mind playing in the sand as long as it was a bit back from the water! Noah and Abby loved it all. I love watching them gain their independence in these situations. They could've stayed at the beach for days!!
We also did a stop in Disney World. Everyone had a great time. Joshua and I took it at a slower pace, with rests at the hotel and a few half days. Overall it was a nice family vacation, but I was ready to be home!!!
Now we've settled in to a nice routine with our schooling. Our "core" curriculum is Preparing Hearts for Him by Heart of Dakota. I love it. I have tried so many different curriculums and thought I might have to just make up my own, but I'm so glad I've found this one. I think the Lord sent it to me!! Our schedule looks like this:
AM:
Bible Study/Memorization
Math
Spelling
English
Read Aloud (this doesn't go with our curriculum, I just pick a book I want to read)
Kid's Quiet Reading (a chapter in the book I chose for them)
PM:
Poetry (this year we're doing the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson, we read them, talk about them, etc.)
History Reading (a selection from a "living" book)
Storytime (another selection that expounds on the theme we're currently studying in history, sometimes from the Bible)
History Study (currently we're going through a Draw and Write book where the kids learn to draw something from the history lesson, like wooly mammoths, or they copy in cursive paragraphs from the book, but after this book it's more of independent reading through chapter books. Noah also has another book that he reads as well, as he's older and needs more in depth information)
History Project (every week, we work on a small project that goes along with the theme, so far we've made shields with a coat of arms, painted a rainbow while going over warm and cool colors and made cave drawings of bulls and mammoths)
History Activity (this rotates daily between research (researching something to do with the weekly topic, i.e. coats of arms), vocabulary work, geography (using maps, globes and atlases to learn or review geography) and timeline (adding to a timeline we're making on the back of our pantry door!).
Science (the science lessons are meant to be done more independently so as to prepare them to further work independently as they grow older, so they have a reading selection to do everyday and then they either, do an activity such as a drawing a picture and copying a selection that describes it, or narrate to me what they've read, or answer a few questions in their notebooks, or on Thursdays they do a simple experiment to explain what they've learned. I love how the lessons tie into the history lessons as well. As now we're learning about the Ice Age and times after the Flood, so in science they're learning about the tundra ecosystem. Love that!)
That's pretty much it. The morning schedule takes about 2 hours, the afternoon takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I love how thorough it is and feel like nothing is left out. This schedule is only Monday - Thursday. The curriculum is written as a 4 day. So on Friday's we do spelling tests and finish up anything we haven't done. Like today we're doing an extra Bible study so we'll be more on course to hit a Christmas study in December and we're doing a chapter in our read aloud as we didn't get to it yesterday. But if the kids are at a point in math or english where it's time for a test, we'll go ahead and do that on Friday as well, so we can start Monday fresh. This also leaves time for field trips, family projects (where real life learning happens!!) or errand running (you know for some "socialization"). It's working really well and I love it!
So I think in my side bar, I'll try to keep an updated list of the books we're reading, in case anyone wonders and I'll try every Friday to update with a new post. We'll see!!
I'm on the kitchen computer and I don't have many pictures on it, so here's one of Abby reading to Flint the poodle at Half Price Books and a 28 week belly shot I just took with the computers photo booth!! You can see Abby's cave drawing in the background!
Well I"m off to pay bills and we're working on a project in Noah's room today, so we need to get started on that. Oh and of course, Friday is when we reach another week in our pregnancy so today we're 28 weeks!! That means it's the start of the third trimester!! I can't believe it!! Can't wait to meet our new little girl!!!
Well, I just thought I'd get around to posting today as I've wanted to for awhile now. I like having this blog as a record of what we do as a family if nothing else. I'd like to make Friday's a blogging day as our school work load is considerably shorter on Friday's (our main curriculum only goes 4 days a week). So it's Friday and here I am.
We had a nice summer, spent a lot of time with extended family. Always love that. Had some fun with church family as well. Abby was baptised in September, that was a big day for our family. We also had a vacation to Florida. We spent a few days at Vero Beach. Joshua HATED the ocean. He would scream at the top of his lungs if you let the water touch him! He loved the pool though and didn't mind playing in the sand as long as it was a bit back from the water! Noah and Abby loved it all. I love watching them gain their independence in these situations. They could've stayed at the beach for days!!
We also did a stop in Disney World. Everyone had a great time. Joshua and I took it at a slower pace, with rests at the hotel and a few half days. Overall it was a nice family vacation, but I was ready to be home!!!
Now we've settled in to a nice routine with our schooling. Our "core" curriculum is Preparing Hearts for Him by Heart of Dakota. I love it. I have tried so many different curriculums and thought I might have to just make up my own, but I'm so glad I've found this one. I think the Lord sent it to me!! Our schedule looks like this:
AM:
Bible Study/Memorization
Math
Spelling
English
Read Aloud (this doesn't go with our curriculum, I just pick a book I want to read)
Kid's Quiet Reading (a chapter in the book I chose for them)
PM:
Poetry (this year we're doing the poems of Robert Louis Stevenson, we read them, talk about them, etc.)
History Reading (a selection from a "living" book)
Storytime (another selection that expounds on the theme we're currently studying in history, sometimes from the Bible)
History Study (currently we're going through a Draw and Write book where the kids learn to draw something from the history lesson, like wooly mammoths, or they copy in cursive paragraphs from the book, but after this book it's more of independent reading through chapter books. Noah also has another book that he reads as well, as he's older and needs more in depth information)
History Project (every week, we work on a small project that goes along with the theme, so far we've made shields with a coat of arms, painted a rainbow while going over warm and cool colors and made cave drawings of bulls and mammoths)
History Activity (this rotates daily between research (researching something to do with the weekly topic, i.e. coats of arms), vocabulary work, geography (using maps, globes and atlases to learn or review geography) and timeline (adding to a timeline we're making on the back of our pantry door!).
Science (the science lessons are meant to be done more independently so as to prepare them to further work independently as they grow older, so they have a reading selection to do everyday and then they either, do an activity such as a drawing a picture and copying a selection that describes it, or narrate to me what they've read, or answer a few questions in their notebooks, or on Thursdays they do a simple experiment to explain what they've learned. I love how the lessons tie into the history lessons as well. As now we're learning about the Ice Age and times after the Flood, so in science they're learning about the tundra ecosystem. Love that!)
That's pretty much it. The morning schedule takes about 2 hours, the afternoon takes about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. I love how thorough it is and feel like nothing is left out. This schedule is only Monday - Thursday. The curriculum is written as a 4 day. So on Friday's we do spelling tests and finish up anything we haven't done. Like today we're doing an extra Bible study so we'll be more on course to hit a Christmas study in December and we're doing a chapter in our read aloud as we didn't get to it yesterday. But if the kids are at a point in math or english where it's time for a test, we'll go ahead and do that on Friday as well, so we can start Monday fresh. This also leaves time for field trips, family projects (where real life learning happens!!) or errand running (you know for some "socialization"). It's working really well and I love it!
So I think in my side bar, I'll try to keep an updated list of the books we're reading, in case anyone wonders and I'll try every Friday to update with a new post. We'll see!!
Well I"m off to pay bills and we're working on a project in Noah's room today, so we need to get started on that. Oh and of course, Friday is when we reach another week in our pregnancy so today we're 28 weeks!! That means it's the start of the third trimester!! I can't believe it!! Can't wait to meet our new little girl!!!
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