In School This Week...

I'm combining the last two weeks of school in this post.

Monday (4/15):  We started school all together.  Then Kent practiced the piano while Katy worked on cursive.  They worked through their list of work for the day.  After lunch we read history, science, and Rascal.  We also began studying a new poem.  I had planned to go to the library, but we were unable to go because the irrigation control system was being installed in the garage and I didn't want to leave with the garage open.

Tuesday (4/16):  The day started on an off note, but we got it turned back around quickly and school was soon underway.  Kent and Katy practiced the piano and worked on their individual work.  I worked on math and thinking skills with Kaomi.  I read some stories to Clark and Lissie and cleaned and de-cluttered the toys in Lissie and Clark's room.  After lunch break we completed poetry, history and science together.  In history we were reading about the Wright brothers and their bicycle shop.  Then I did reading with Kent and Katy.  Kaomi and I finished reading The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel.

Wednesday (4/17):  We volunteered at church.  My parent's arrived a little earlier than we were anticipating, so we didn't get anything else worked on.

Thursday: (4/18):  No School.

Friday (4/19):  In art we designed daggers as party favors for Kent's Birthday.  We visited our local playground and had a beginning lesson on sword fighting to go along with the theme of Kent's birthday.  We used foam swords to prevent any damage, but still had a great learning experience.

Monday (4/22):  No School.

Tuesday (4/23):  Field Trip for science and history.  We went to the Log Cabin Village in Fort Worth.  We all enjoyed our time there.  It was a fun place to visit.  We really enjoyed the hands on cabin where we could touch and try various things from pioneer times.  We also enjoyed seeing the mill with the water wheel that we learned about several weeks ago and the woodworking shop where we got to see a lathe and how it works which we had been talking about last week.  The blacksmith also explained what he did and showed us a little bit how he could make different tools. 

Wednesday (4/24):  We volunteered at church again.  After lunch we caught up on last week's corrections and completed history reading about the Wright Brother's and history notebooking.

Thursday (4/25):  This morning we read another chapter from Seed Sowers.  Then Kent put the finishing touches on the first draft of a paper he is writing for English.  He is doing a great job on his paper.  I will be posting his paper in another post when it is complete.  Then he moved on to working on math.  Katy practiced the piano and worked on cursive.  She is having a bad attitude about her cursive today, because she doesn't want to do it.  I'm hoping when she does turn it in it will be done carefully and neatly, but I'm expecting it to have to be mostly redone, as this is the way she works when she sets her mind to not wanting to do something.  Kaomi worked on subtraction in math and reviewed reading words with the hard and soft c sounds.  After lunch Felicity made gingerbread men cookies for snack to go along with the story we've been reading several times over the last couple weeks. Then we read history and storytime.  Then I did reading with Kent and Katy individually.

Friday (4/26):  This morning we headed outside to learn how to play one on one kick ball.  We all had a lot of fun and didn't want to stop when our time was up.  I told the kids they could play it by themselves when they are playing outside if they want.  We came inside and I worked on math with Kaomi while Kent and Katy began working on their lessons.  I read stories to Felicity and Clark and read The Adventures of Buster Bear to Kaomi.  Then Kaomi did reading and I gave her a writing practice sheet with a sentence from her reading lesson to copy.  I worked on reading individually with Kent and Katy.  We did a science experiment with yeast to how how it produces carbon dioxide to help bread rise.  We also read more of Rascal for storytime.

Quinn is Laughing

Last night I was trying to keep Quinn from fussing before everyone said "good-night" to him.  I was making a sing-song sound and moving his hands to clap and touch his face.  He started laughing about it.  Then today Katy was helping with him and she was bouncing him in the bouncy chair and talking to him and he started laughing at her.  He'll be 3 months old tomorrow and this is one of those fun milestones to get to.

Happy 9th Birthday, Kent!

Special Place Setting!

You had a fun birthday with a Robin Hood theme.  Pa and Mimi were here to help you celebrate.  We made "daggers", had sword fights, played on the playground and had a fun day.

Robin Hood Cake

9 Years Old!

Grammy came over in the afternoon to say "Happy Birthday".  Kent and Daddy did a little BB practice shooting and we topped off the day with presents.

Why Do Kids Seem to be Out to Get You?

Why is it that any normal day things are always the same? - Children bickering, diapers needing changing, babies wanting to get up in the morning, nursing on a fairly regular schedule, school, chores being completed in a timely manner, breakfast, etc.

Then on the day Mommy finishes her quiet time and decides to get a good start on the day just a little earlier, everyone acts out or up and everything that Mommy usually does is way behind.  -Children fighting and arguing, diapers needing changing more than once, babies wanting to get up earlier than usual, older kids who are supposed to be working on their chores are bothering the baby who was contentedly laying in his bed and when they leave he starts crying and thinks he should eat again, some children don't finish their chores by the designated time, cereal and milk are spilled all over the floor, etc.

Now the bell has rung to start school and I haven't had breakfast, I'm running on overload, not ready to start and haven't even started my morning responsibilities yet.  I did manage to make the bed and put the mail in the mailbox before all this started.

Maybe we can set time back and start over?  Then I won't try to get anything done just a little earlier and maybe the morning would be normal.  Or maybe this is going to be the new normal?  Maybe I should have skipped writing here, but I was using it as an outlet to decompress and hopefully reboot my brain at least.

Don't Blink

If you want to catch the action around here you better not blink, because Clark will be gone in a second.  This morning we started school and in  a flash there was cereal all over the floor.  Then Katy was bringing Clark downstairs where he is supposed to stay.  Then I catch him trying to pick Quinn up from the bouncy chair.  I help him get busy in his room playing Legos and cars, then hear a cry of distress "Clark!" from upstairs.  Kent brings him down.  He eats some cereal from the floor.  Then Quinn is fussing.  Clark is trying to "-old it" again.  I get Quinn and take him to change his diaper.  Clark sneaks into my room before the door is closed starts singing "Jesus Loves Me" and grabs a bottle of BB's off Jeff's desk.  Fortunately I caught him before he absconded with them.  I finished changing Quinn's diaper and called Clark to come hold him.  Clark is upstairs again.  I bring him down and he "holds" Quinn and gives him lots of kisses.  He gets a book and sits at the table in Felicity's chair "reading" it.  I take a couple school books upstairs, put them on the shelf, give hugs to Katy and Kent, write a silly message on the white board and am gone less than 5 minutes.  When I return Clark is sitting in Felicity's chair with a card game and has shredded the box it was in while trying to get it out.  I get him down.  While I fix the box with packing tape I hear paper rustling.   When I finished fixing the box and went to put the packing tape away he was playing "doodle -oo" with the wrapping paper and had partially unrolled a couple of rolls.  Oops!  I guess I didn't latch the door and he noticed.  I roll the wrapping paper back up and he starts to tear Felicity's butterfly off the wall.  Since I'm right there I am able to put a quick stop to it.  I fix the tear with a piece of tape and run up the stairs to catch Clark.  I strap him into his high chair and fix lunch for a short reprieve.

Don't blink because if you do you will miss Clark and just see the aftermath of his adventures.


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In School This Week...

Monday:  We started with The Pledge of Allegiance and then Kent and Katy worked on correcting work from last Friday while I worked on reading and math with Kaomi.  She also completed her handwriting.  During this time Clark played with a toy and read a book in his chair at the table and Felicity played with some animal cards, horses, and a doll.  Kent and Katy worked on math and English.  Kent began reading Bud and Me for extra history reading and Katy did a couple pages in her cursive workbook.  Before lunch I read The Gingerbread Man to Felicity and Clark and a couple other stories.  Then they decorated a foam gingerbread man with markers and I added glitter glue where they wanted it.  After lunch and a short break we did poetry, history, and health all together.  After Felicity and Clark went down for their naps we completed storytime and science.  We got to pop air bubbles that come in packages in the mail as we learned about how popcorn pops.  Kent and Katy had science worksheets and copywork for health.  Then I completed reading with each of them and they finished up their school work for the day.

Tuesday:  We started with the pledge and began learning our verse for the week, Proverbs 17:22.  We worked on poetry, too.  I gave Kent his piano lesson.  Then Kent and Katy worked on their individual work.  Kaomi did reading, math and a color by outline paper.  I read The Gingerbread Man and some other stories to Felicity and Clark.  Then they had a coloring page with "two picnicking bears" from our story.  After lunch I read The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel to Kaomi.  Then we completed poetry and history together and Kent and Katy added to their timelines.

Wednesday:  This morning we were supposed to work in the classrooms at church.  It ended up being a rough morning with lots of fussing which drained my energy before it was time to leave, so we didn't go after all.  So Kaomi practiced reading her lesson from yesterday and I did reading with Kent and Katy together.  Kent and Katy also practiced the piano.  We also completed history, science, and storytime.

Thursday:  This morning after the pledge we practiced our verse and poem.  Then Kent and Katy worked on piano practice, math and English on their own.  Katy also completed copywork and cursive.  Kent worked on his extra history reading.  Kaomi did a reading lesson and a color by number.  After lunch we talked about history and started reading the realistic fiction book Rascal for storytime.  Then Kent and Katy worked on a history notebooking page.  They all spent a lot of time looking out the window watching our front yard being dug up for an irrigation system.

Friday:  Kent and Katy started off the morning working on their piano practice, English, math and other individual work.  Kent finished quickly.  He's going camping this week so I guess he worked extra hard to get done early.  Kaomi did reading, math, and handwriting practice.  I read Felicity and Clark The Gingerbread Man and other stories.  After lunch we did science, our verse, our missionary story and poetry together.  Then I worked on math with Katy and read The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel to Kaomi.

In School This Week...

Monday:  Teacher's Day.  No Official Schooling took place.  Friday's work was corrected.

Tuesday:  We started with The Pledge of Allegiance and the Missionary story of the week.  Then we started memorizing Acts 16:31.  Kent practiced the piano while Katy helped watch Clark, so I could make sure the corrections from Monday were correct.  Kent switched with Katy.  When Katy finished practicing the piano she worked on cursive and English.  I did Kaomi's next reading lesson with her and gave her a sentence to practice writing neatly.  Kent was released from Clarky duty to work on copywork, math and English.  He's been learning about writing letters.  He chose to write a letter to Nannie.  He wrote the first draft for me to correct before he writes the copy to send to Nannie.  Katy moved on to working on copywork and math.  After lunch we completed science, history and poetry.  Then I worked on Reading with Kent and Katy.  They started new books today in Realistic Fiction.  Katy is reading The Secret School and Kent is reading Gentle Ben.  They will have 15 reading lessons to complete the books and follow them with a 4-5 day project.  I taught Kaomi that math sentences can be written either horizontal or vertical and she worked on the next 2 pages in her math book.

Wednesday:  We started back to volunteering at church today.  After lunch I did a reading lesson with Katy while Kent practiced the piano.  Then I did a reading lesson with Kent.  It was already quiet time, so I asked Kaomi if she wanted to review reading, but she chose to have quiet time instead.

Thursday:   We had a full day of school.  In science we learned about how pioneers made ink and sealed letters with wax.  We each wrote a sentence, folded the letter we wrote and sealed it with wax.  Then I handed them out randomly and everyone had their own "mail" to open.

Friday:  We had another full day of school.  Felicity found that a "beaYOU--tiful" butterfly appeared where her reading caterpillar and cocoon had been.

I gave the kids an incentive that if they completed their school lessons with 0-1 answers wrong they would get a treat.  Everyone earned a couple of treats.

2013 Easter Family Picture

Saturday with the Kids

This Saturday I was shopping with Kent, Katy, Kaomi, and Quinn.  First we went to Burlington Coat Factory.  I was looking for a nice dress for Katy mostly, but Kaomi would've liked one too.  We didn't find anything we liked in the right size.  The selection was slim this time, but we did find a long skirt for each girl.  Then we went to Bed, Bath and Beyond.  I was looking at a couple things and was trying to decide what I wanted to get.  I came home with a food dehydrator and an immersion blender.  The other things I'm interested in will wait for another day.  Then we went to Target to pick up the few groceries on my list for the week.  While I was in the produce department finishing up I was looking at the asparagus and noticed the good price on it, so I thought I should get some.  I asked the kids what they thought about having asparagus with our dinner one night this week and they all chimed in "YESSSS!!!  We like asparagus, let's get it."  I like having kids who like different kinds of vegetables.