Hi!

I've been pretty quiet around my blog lately.  We had an irrigation system installed.  My parents (Pa and Mimi) came to visit in April.  Kent and Jeff have had birthdays.  The kids have been playing outside more.  I've been spending much of my computer time getting some stuff ready for next year's school.  Quinn is growing and Clark is busy like normal.  I finally downloaded the pictures on my camera from the last month, so now all the blog posts in my head to go with some of the pictures can be written or forgotten.  Clark got hand, foot and mouth disease and shared it with Felicity and Kaomi.  I think the older kids were spared the disease, unless they show signs of it in the next day or two.  Hopefully, you'll get to see some of the activities we've done over the past month.

In School This Week...

Monday:  We had a complete day of school lessons.  In science we added food coloring to hot and cold water to see that heat make water particles move faster.  Kent dropped Katy's piano book behind the piano so she couldn't have a piano lesson.  Kaomi was having a bad day and was coming down with hand, foot, and mouth disease, so she didn't do any school.

Tuesday:  We had a complete day of school lessons.  We finished reading The Wright Brothers and Their Sister for history.

Wednesday:  By 10:30 am Kent finished reading workbook corrections, piano practice, math corrections and grammar.  He was ready to do reading with me, but I was working with Kaomi.  Kaomi read an e-mail from Mimi for reading.  Then she worked on subtraction in math and did some thinking skills with synonyms.  Katy first thing this morning helped me make sloppy joe meat to put in the crockpot.  We will have them for lunch rather than supper today.  Then Katy went to work on English, cursive, math and piano practice.  I read a couple books to Felicity and Clark and gave them a coloring paper to go along with the stories.  After lunch, we did health all together.  Then Felicity and Clark went for naptime.  Our other together work was history and science.  Then I did reading with Kent and Katy each individually.  Then they completed their individual work for science and reading.

Thursday:  Kent had a math review, piano practice, grammar, and corrections from yesterday's work.  He completed them all by 10:15, so he took his preposition test a day early and got 93%.  He had to write the first column of prepositions which was 14 total from memory.  Katy did math with me, before completing her workbook pages on fractions.  Then she did cursive, piano practice, English, and corrections from yesterday.  Kaomi did a reading review and 2 self initiated math lessons.  I did reading together with Kent and Katy and gave them their reading project assignment.  They will be making a timeline of the book they read for realistic fiction.  We also did health, history, and storytime all together.

Friday:  Everyone worked diligently on their lessons today.  In science we did an experiment with making gases.  We used vinegar and baking soda.  The kids were pretty impressed and Clark sat in his chair with big eyes watching the cup foam and overflow.  Then he grunted something unintelligible.  He probably was wondering why Mommy was making a mess.

In School This Week...

Monday:  Kent and Katy began with their individual work right on time.  I worked with Kaomi on reading and math.  Then I read books with Felicity and Clark.  Kent finished his individual work and reading by 11:00 am and he took Clark outside to play.  Katy finished her individual work around 11:30.  After lunch we finished our study on pioneer science and read history.  Then I did reading with Katy.  Kent and Katy did a science notebooking page.  I read The Adventures of Buster Bear to Kaomi.  Kent put the finishing touches on his English paper.

Tuesday:  We started our morning with several rounds of one-on-one kick ball.  We set up a two areas so 4 people can be playing at the same time.  This works well so I can play, because Felicity tires quickly and Clark is too busy playing to try joining our game.  Kent and Katy completed their piano practice and individual work.  Katy wasn't doing her best and didn't get much done before lunch.  Kaomi struggled following directions to complete her color by number.  She read me a section from a book that she found on our bookshelf and was excited that she could read it by herself.  After lunch we read history, talked more about courtesy in health, read from our storytime book and began to learn about Albert Einstein in science.  We also did an experiment with an egg to see how strong the shell was.  Kent and Katy finished working on their individual work and I did English with Kent.  Katy didn't do her copywork, so she'll be doing it tomorrow.

Wednesday:  We volunteered in the Children's Learning Center at church.  After lunch we did science, health and storytime together.  We put water in the freezer and observed it as it froze.  Then Kent and Katy worked on their lessons for the day and Kaomi completed two more math pages.

Thursday:  Today for individual work Kent did: piano practice, math corrections and new lesson, grammar, and history notebooking.  Katy's individual work included: piano practice, cursive corrections and new page, math corrections, copywork corrections, English, and history notebooking.
Kaomi's individual work was handwriting.  I worked on reading with Kent and Kaomi on their own levels.  I worked with Kent and Katy together on their next reading lesson.  With everyone we read science, finished learning about courtesy for health, and read more of our storytime book.  The things we didn't get completed from our plans were Katy's next math lesson with me, Kaomi's next math lesson, and Kaomi's storytime.  The day ended with a "dance party" with Daddy.

Friday:  Kent completed these all by 11:15 am, piano practice, grammar, reading workbook corrections, math corrections, history and copywork corrections and a math lesson where I timed him doing different things to see how many seconds it took him to complete them.  Kaomi was having an off day, but she decided to do reading this morning on her second try with a good attitude.  Katy completed her piano practice, math corrections, English corrections and new lesson, and cursive this morning.  She was having trouble with cursive capital "z", but figured it out.  After lunch I gave Kent a piano lesson.  He was excited to have some new songs to work on.  Then we did history and reading together.  I also did reading together with Kent and Katy.

Kent's Camping Trip English Paper

First Draft:

                                                              My Camp out

Fri:  We rode with Carlos and his dad to the Camp out.  When we got there we set up our tents and then we played with the other boys that were there.  Then the air horn blew for supper, so we had go get our soup.
Fri.ni.  I read my Bible and Dangerous Book for Boy’s for ten minutes.  Then I slept
sat. morn.  We woke up and got for the day.  I drank some hot chocolate before Breakfast.  Then the air horn blew for breakfast, so we had our pankakes.  After breakfast we played capture the flag in the ravine.  After that we shot Guns.  I shot a Bolt action, single-shot rifle.  I have a bullet shell as a souvenire for shooting The gun.  after that I went to the waterfalls and built a dam.
    sat. noon. the air horn blew for hot dogs so we had our hot dogs
    sat.afteRn. we went to the waterfalls to work on the dam some more.  Then we came back to camp  Then to the ravine to play captud the feag.
Sat. eveni.  The air horn blew for our Briscket Joe’s.  Then we went to play in the sandpit for a while until the bonfire, and roasted marshmallows.  Then we played wolf.
    Sun. Morn.  We had beeakfast tacos around the leftovers of our bonfire.  Then we played a round of Capture the flag before the Bible time we had a Bible story.  Then we went to see the water falls, when we came back it was time to go home

Following Discussion with Mommy and editing by Kent and a 2nd draft, which was edited by Kent the first draft became the...


Final Draft:


                                                                 Our Camp Out

    On Friday we rode with Carlos and his dad to the camp out.  When we got there we set up our two tents and then we played with the other boys that were there.  Then the air horn blew for supper, so we had to go get our soup.
    Friday night I read my Bible and Dangerous Book for Boy’s for ten minutes.  Then I slept.
    Saturday morning, We woke up and got ready for the day.  I drank some hot chocolate before breakfast.  Then the air horn blew for breakfast, so we had our pancakes.  After breakfast we played capture the flag in the ravine.  After that we shot guns.  I shot a bolt action, single-shot rifle.  I have a bullet shell as a souvenir for shooting the gun.  After that we went to the waterfalls and built a dam.
    Saturday noon, the air horn blew for hot dogs, so we had our hot dogs.  Saturday afternoon, we went to the waterfalls to work on the dam some more.  Then we came back to camp  Then we went to the ravine to play capture the flag.
    Saturday evening, the air horn blew for our Brisket Joe’s.  Then we went to play in the sandpit for a while until the bonfire.  We had the bonfire and roasted marshmallows.  Then we played Wolf.
    Sunday morning, we had breakfast tacos around what was left of our bonfire.  Then we played a round of Capture the flag before Bible time; we had a Bible story.  Then we went to see the waterfalls.  When we came back it was time to go home.

by Kent Sears
Grade 3, age 9
April 29, 2013


Grading to the techniques and grammar learned this year Kent received a 94%  on this paper.

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.

In School This Week...

Monday:  We began with The Pledge of Allegiance and Bible.  We listened to the first two chapters of Genesis and a song about our creator.  Kent and Katy completed their piano practice.  Kent needed to work on his reading project, he also completed a English lesson and worked on Bible reading.  Katy practiced cursive, finished her division lapbook, and worked on Bible reading.  For Bible reading Kent and Katy were to choose one of the Gospels to work on reading through this week.  Kent chose to read Luke and Katy chose to read Matthew.  If they finish the book before the week is over then they can choose any other book in the Bible that they want to read.  Kaomi worked on Bible reading with me.  We used The Beginner's Bible which is a Bible storybook, and she read many words of the first 2 chapters.  I read the words she didn't know or hasn't learned yet.  She was excited about reading the stories, The Beginning and Adam and Eve.  We went to the library for storytime.  After Lunch, we listened to excerpts from Genesis 3 and 4.  The audio drama Bible we are listening to is called Kidz Bible.

Tuesday:  We began with The Pledge of Allegiance  and listened to more of the audio drama Bible.  We watched a DVD about Harriet Tubman for history.  Then everyone worked on their Bible Reading.  Kent and Katy worked on Math, English and piano practice.  Katy worked on cursive.  Kent worked on completing his reading project reflection form.  Kaomi practiced math addition, reading and listened to The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel.  During lunch we listened to more of the audio Bible.  We also worked on science and talked about how we can tell the weather from the way the sky looks.  We had storytime and everyone practice narrating the chapter that we read in The Great Horn Spoon.

Wednesday:  We began with The Pledge of Allegiance and listened to the audio Bible.  Kent, Katy, and Kaomi worked on their individual Bible reading.  Katy practiced the piano and Kent helped with Clark, while I Kaomi worked on math.  Katy completed English and the helped watch Clark so Kent could work on English and math.  Kent began reading Freedom Train as extra history reading.  Katy corrected cursive.  She's been really sloppy with her letters lately and isn't happy that I keep making her redo parts of the last couple pages, which weren't being done her best.  During Lunch we listened to more of the Bible.  We read history and science.  Everyone got a picture of an old mill to color for science and Kent and Katy were assigned the a notebooking page for history about the Civil War.  Kent practiced the piano and I worked with Katy on math.  She started learning about money and how to add it up.  I also read several stories to Felicity and Clark and wrote the titles on the reading cocoon.  Kaomi asked me to read her The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel, while we were waiting for supper to cook in the oven.

Thursday: This morning we had an errand to run, so we didn't really started any school until we returned home.  Kent and Katy practiced the piano.  We listened to the Audio Drama Bible after lunch.  We had science and storytime together.  Kent and Katy worked on their individual work in the afternoon, mostly during quiet time.  Kaomi worked on reading one of the Bible Stories in The Beginner's Bible.

Friday:  Everyone did Bible reading.  Katy had a piano lesson.  Kent and Katy did math and English.  Kaomi worked on math and handwriting.  Katy had cursive and copywork.  Kent worked on his extended history reading and piano practice.  We had storytime, history and listening to the audio Bible together.  Felicity listened to stories and worked on a puzzle.

Quinn - 2 months

Wow!  Quinn is already 2 months old.  He has changed so much from when he was first born.  This week at his 2 month appointment he weighed 12 pounds and was 23 3/4 inches long.  He's in the 53rd percentile for his weight.  I don't think any of our kids have ever been in the 53rd percentile for weight.  I wonder if he'll stay there or fall off the curve and be in the lower percentiles like everyone else has been.  He is smiling and cooing.  He will just lay in his bed sometimes kicking and making cute baby sounds without demanding attention from someone to hold him or feed him.

Week Before Easter Challenge

Last year I took this challenge.  I was blessed by it, so this year I will be doing it again.

I'm going to be sacrificing some of my "free" time to spending more time in the Word of God.  Jesus gave us the ultimate sacrifice by dying for me to pay for my sins and to show appreciation I'll be working to hide some of God's Word in my heart via memorization and through reading my Bible get to know my God and Savoir better.  I will also be intentionally spending more time in prayer.  I usually spend 15-30 minutes most days in the Word, so my goal is to spend 2 or more hours building my personal relationship with God.  I'm also going to be encouraging my kids to read their Bibles more, listen to Bible Stories and pray more this week, too.

Would you like to join me in this challenge?  Think of what you could learn from the word if you cut out 1 regularly watched TV show, listened to the Bible on CD instead of your radio while driving, not pick up a book you are currently reading or planning on reading, read your Bible during part of your lunch break, or got off the internet for 1-2 hours a day. 

My plan:
I'm currently reading Numbers, so I will continue through that book off the Bible before choosing another book, I'm planning on praying for our missionary of the week and the people who have needs in our Sunday School class as well as for my family members, and I am going to begin memorizing a passage from 1 Thessalonians.

Thinking of taking this challenge?  Tell me where you would like to start reading.

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In School This Week...

Monday:  Felicity and Clark listened to several stories.  Lissie had a matching worksheet that went along with some of the foods that the very hungry caterpillar ate.  We added onto our reading caterpillar as well.  Kaomi completed reading.  She began learning about silent e and how it makes a have a long vowel sound when added to 3 letter words.  She also worked on math, began learning a poem/song, completed a color by number picture and listened to The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel.  Katy practiced the piano, made corrections from last week, worked on her division lap book, and completed English and cursive.  Kent practiced the piano, made corrections from last week, and completed English and reading.  We also went to the library to get new books.

Tuesday: Kent and Katy practiced the piano.  Kaomi practiced reading and making three letter short a vowel words into long a vowel words with a silent e.  Felicity and Clark listened to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, some stories about bubbles, and a few other stories.  They made a bead caterpillar to show how eating causes the caterpillar to grow.  After lunch we went outside and I tried to blow bubbles for everyone to catch.  The bubbles didn't work very well.  It was a little windy, so we will have to try again another day.  We had storytime, science, history and Bible verse memory work all together.  Kent and Katy had copywork that went along with Bible and science notebooking about how to catch a fish with your bare hands.  Kent also completed English.  Katy also worked on her division lapbook, and completed English and cursive.

Wednesday:  We started with the pledge and our Missionary story of the week.  Then we worked Proverbs 8:10-11 that we started learning yesterday.  Kent and Katy both impressed me by remembering the whole thing and Kaomi did well remembering most of it with minimal prompting.  Then Kent practiced the piano while Katy was on Clarky duty.  When Kent finished he took over for Katy so she could practice her piano lesson.  Then Kent and Katy worked on their individual work.  Kaomi worked on reading more.  She seems to be enjoying it, which I am glad for.  I read to Felicity and Clark.  All together we had storytime and science.  I forgot that we were supposed to read history, too.  I guess we will do that tomorrow.  I worked with Katy on her division lap book.  It's getting harder.  Today she was dividing by 5's, 6's, and 7's.  I tried to work with Kent on English, but he had a bad attitude which I was in no mood to listen to, so I sent him to bed.  He's learning about describing things orally.  In real life he does oral descriptions very well, sometimes to the point of giving so much description that we don't have a clue what he is talking about by the time he gets to his point.  Katy is one of my kitchen helpers today.  She got to help make gluten free dinner rolls to go with our supper.

Thursday:  Felicity and Clark watched a DVD of The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Stories.  Then they colored a picture of the Very Hungry Caterpillar.  We also read several books.  Kent and Katy both practiced the piano.  We reviewed our memory verse, had storytime, and read history about the California Gold Rush.  Kent and Katy worked on a notebooking page for history and Kaomi colored a picture of a covered wagon going to California.  Kaomi worked on reading short words that have the long vowel e in them.  Katy worked on her division lapbook, English, cursive, her reading project and corrections from Wednesday.  Kent worked on math bar graphs, English, his reading project and corrections from Wednesday.

Friday:  This morning Katy worked on her division lapbook.  I read several stories to Felicity and Clark.  Their reading caterpillar went into a cocoon.  Kent did his piano practice and worked on corrections and all his lessons that he didn't need to do with me.  After lunch, we did science and storytime together.  Then Kent and Katy worked on science notebooking and finished their individual work for the day.  I read The Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel to Kaomi.

Felicity with the Reading Caterpillar

Reading Caterpillar Cocoon

Mommy's Day Off

Jeff kindly asked me if I would like to attend an event with him.  He would arrange for someone to watch the kids if I wanted to go.  After a few days of considering attending the event and thinking that I'd like to go just to get out, but wasn't really interested in the actual event I asked him if he would still arrange for someone to watch the kids and I could stay home with Quinn.

So, Saturday, on my day off I ate my breakfast and lunch, loaded and ran the dishwasher, talked to my mom on the phone, fed Quinn several times, and sewed.  I knew that I wanted to sew and had a plan to make a skirt for one of the girls, but hadn't looked to see what fabric I would use.  I found some pink fabric that I had a little bit leftover after some previous projects.  It was just enough for a skirt for Lissie.  I had enough time to finish the skirt before everyone came home.

Thanks Jeff for providing a day off for me.


Linked with:

Raising Arrows      

In School This Week...

Monday:  We had a lesson from Quinn about crying, all day long.  We went to the library for storytime and to pick out new books.  Katy had a piano lesson.

Tuesday:  Katy practiced the piano.  Kaomi practiced writing words with pl and fl.  We read history and Kent and Katy completed a notebooking page.  We did a science experiment making a "canvas" bucket to hold water like a pioneer peddler might have used to water his horse and carry any water he needed.  Ours came unfolded and leaked out the corner, but when we put a little less water in it it stayed together.  I'm thinking the peddler probably quick stitched his canvas where we used duct tape.  Katy worked on copywork and corrected math and cursive.  Kent corrected his math, too.  Kent, Katy and Kaomi went outside to make and fly paper airplanes and toss a football around with our neighbor who is on spring break this week and was tired of being home all day.  Kent "helped" Jeff fix the fence in the backyard.

"canvas" water bucket

Wednesday: We did Bible altogether.  Kaomi did a reading review, began her new math book with addition, and finished The Adventures of Grandfather Frog.  Kent completed English, Math and Piano practice.  Katy completed English, finished her science paper about yesterday's experiment, and practiced writing some words in cursive.  Felicity and Clark listened to a few stories and Felicity started making a caterpillar on our wall that is made up of books we have read.  We will continue to add to the caterpillar.

Thursday: Kent had a piano lesson.  He also completed reading, copywork, English, and math.  Felicity and Clark listened to stories and painted egg carton caterpillars to go along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  Katy made some corrections, finished her reading book, practiced the piano, worked on a division lapbook, and completed copywork.  Kaomi worked on handwriting, math, and a color by dot.  In her reading she began learning 3 letter consonant blends.

Friday:  Katy worked on her division lapbook, practiced the piano, completed English and cursive and began a project for reading.  Kent worked on math, practiced the piano, completed copywork, English, and reading.  We did science reading altogether.  Felicity and Clark had storytime and Felicity colored a butterfly with markers.  Kaomi completed reading, handwriting, and math.  We also began the Adventures of Chatterer the Red Squirrel for her storytime.

Even though we were playing catch up all week, we had a pretty good week of school.  We started everyday in the late morning and worked through the afternoon. 

Felicity's Songs

Felicity loves to sing songs.  She knows the whole chorus of Shout to the North and sings it over and over very loudly.  In some songs she gets a few words mixed up.  That's one of the things about three year olds that is fun.  When singing Old McDonald, she sings, "Old McNoah" or "Uncle Donna" had a farm.  This morning she was singing Away in a Manger and she sang "til night is morning" instead of til morning is nigh.