Our Week: 4/6-4/10

We had a good week. We had a couple cool days, but also some nice spring days. The kids were happy to get lots of time outside. Sophie seems to like going for walks in her stroller.

Everyone did their own regular school work. We continued reading The Little House on the Prairie. We also read some books about people moving west.



We visited Sea Life Aquarium at the Mall of America.

 

Sophie was very interested in what was going on above her head as we walked through the tunnels.

 

The kids have been seeing lots of animals in our yard. So far we've seen a rabbit, two deer, a raccoon, ducks, squirrels, and lots of birds. This week the kids saw these birds on our deck and these ducks in our yard. The girls are hoping to see some babies soon.

 

 

We went to a fun class with a homeschool group we recently joined. They learned about habitats, ecosystems, and made their own terrariums. I'm so happy they liked the class. As soon as Molly came out she asked me when there was another class they could go to. I've already signed them up for the next 3 months.

 

Our Week: 4/22-4/26

I made more progress in the school room last weekend than I expected. I still need to organize all the craft stuff and hang stuff on the walls, but most of the books are put away. I was excited that it was good enough to do school in there and hoped to get back to a full schedule this week. Then I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat and earache. That sickness stuck around all week feeling like strep, then the flu, and now like a regular cold. Luckily, no one else has gotten it, and I'm finally starting to feel better. So we didn't get back to our full schedule, but we were able to add a few things in.

The girls had been doing review sheets and Life of Fred for math, but went back to their regular RightStart Math lessons this week. They also started doing grammar and spelling again.

Colin added logic in with what he'd already been doing. He finished Module 9 in General Science.

We finished reading Litle House in the Big Woods and doing the activities in The Prairie Primer.

We also read a few chapters in A History of US, but my voice wouldn't allow me to do as many as I had planned.



Sophie turned 3 months old this week.

This week started with more snow. On Wednesday, we went to a park to meet with some people from a homeschool group we've joined. I was probably too sick to be out and the wind made it way too cold, but I wanted the kids to be able to meet some other kids and we needed to get out of the house. Happily, the end of the week turned out to be great. Friday was in the 70s and just beautiful. Colin had a hockey game that evening so I found a park near the rink and we went there to walk the trails and let the kids play for a while before the game. We had great weather over the weekend too. At least it's looking a little more like spring out there. We did still see some snow on the ground in the shady areas today when we went for a walk. It looks like we'll only get another day or two of it before it gets a lot colder for a few days.

Still lots of ice on the lake, but at least some of it is melting

Kids playing at park

They loved this slide that goes down to the beach.

Our Week: 4/15-4/19

We continued doing a shortened version of school this week. The sink in our school room backed up and made a mess so I haven't made any progress in there. I'm hoping I can get some more unpacking done this weekend and get it organized to at least find some more of the books we need to get back to doing all our subjects.

In A History of US, we're still reading about people moving west. We also read about Texas becoming independent.

Colin is reading about DNA in General Science.

We've done a few days of the Download 'n Go study, Prairie Pioneers.

We read six more chapters of Little House in the Big Woods and used The Prairie Primer for comprehension questions, discussion, and activity ideas. Some of the things we learned about this week were maple syrup, animal tracks, cheese making, honey and bees, yellow jackets, and harvesting grain.

We seem to be having the winter that won't end. The kids are loving it since they've spent most of their winters in NC, where a few inches of snow a year is as much as they could hope for. We got a lot of snow Thursday and probably ended up with about 10 inches. To go along with snow, we read some books about snow, made snowmen from cake balls, and made our own snowglobes.

I sure hope some spring weather shows up soon so we can get out and explore our new area more. I'm glad the kids are having fun with the snow though.


Having a brother that can pull you around is always a good thing.















For now, Sophie prefers seeing the snow from inside the house.

Our Week: 4/8-4/12

We're still trying to get back into our regular homeschool routine. Just as we were adjusting to having an infant during school, we moved. Unpacking, organizing, nursing a baby a lot, and trying to keep up with all the regular household things like laundry and cooking haven't made it easy to get planning and school work accomplished. I have started unpacking the school room, but it's a huge mess right now. I feel like we'll do better with school once I get that room done.

Everyone is doing math everyday. We're reading at least a chapter each day from A History of US. Colin has continued doing Apologia's General Science on his own. We've also started reading The Little House on the Prairie (LHOP) series and we're using The Prairie Primer for activities to go along with it. I've meant to read them to the kids for a long time, but just never got to it. I'm excited that we're finally doing it. The timing is actually working out since we're living in Minnesota now close to the settings for lots of the books. We're planning a trip to Walnut Grove this summer.

Most of our week looked like this with lots of snow.



Our backyard

I'm really hoping it starts looking more like spring soon. I've found lots of places here that I would like for us to be able to get out and explore. I guess I can't complain too much since the winter in NC wasn't too cold and we had only seen an inch of snow there. It's been 6 years since we lived somewhere with lots of snow though so we just aren't used to dealing with it anymore. The snow actually went along with our LHOP studies this week though. It was snowing here while we read about all the snow Laura had on Christmas. We also got to make molasses on snow candy like they do in the book.

I have some more pictures of last week's activities, but they go along with The Prairie Primer so I plan to put them all in a post talking about just that.

Here is a picture of my baby girl just because I think she's so cute. I can't believe how much she's grown and that she's already 12 weeks old.

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe how much time has gone by since I've posted anything. So much has happened since then and we've been so busy.

The biggest change is a new addition to our family. Our sweet baby girl was born in January. We are all so in love with her.




The next big change is that we moved to Minnesota a few weeks ago. It was a big move because it's far from where we lived (NC) and a place we aren't too familiar with. We all flew here for a few days in October to look around, but that was the only time the kids and I had been anywhere near here.

A young baby and lots of unpacking are keeping me busy, but I'm going to try to get back to posting here. I like keeping a record of the things we're doing. We have plans for a lot of exciting things over the next few months so I want to write about them. I also think I'll try to post highlights from the months I haven't posted.

Last two weeks of September

We got so busy that I didn't have a chance to write a wrap-up for last week so I'm going to put both weeks here. We decided at the last minute to go to Tennessee to see my cousin and her family while they were visiting there. We hadn't seen them in over a year so it was nice to catch up and the kids had a great time with their little cousin.

History

 

 

Our first SOTW chapter was about China. We read that other countries wanted to trade with them, but their emperor Chi'en-lung didn't think they needed anything from others and made the other countries follow lots of restrictions. Then we learned that the British started sending opium to China and continued doing so even after the emperor ordered them to stop.

The next week we read about Napoleon Bonaparte, his battles, and how he came to be the ruler of France.

We also learned about the Louisana Purchase.

 

 

 

 

Science

 

 

The girls have been working on chapter 2 in Zoology 2, learning about whales. They did experiments about echolocation and to see why ocean water doesn't freeze as quickly as other water. They made paper bag whales (directions found here) and a toothed whale for their ocean boxes.

 

 

Caleigh's whale                           Colin's whale

Molly's whale

Whale books we read

 

 

Colin has been doing module 2 of Apologia General Science about scientific inquiry. He did some experiments to see how weight affects the speed at which objects fall. He started working on the study guide questions to prepare for his test this coming week.

 

 

 

 

 

Art

 

 



We did a lesson in Artistic Pursuits about seeing lines. The kids drew a model of an animal following the curves of the lines they saw while looking at the object. 

 

 

 

Colin's moose

Molly's giraffe

Caleigh's sea lion

 

Field Trips

 

 

We ended up doing quite a bit of traveling over the last 2 weeks. We went to Richmond, VA for Colin's hockey games. While we were there, we got to visit Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown Settlement, and Yorktown Victory Center. The kids liked Jamestown the best and loved checking out the ships there.

 

Last week when we went to Tennessee, we took the kids hiking on some trails in the Smoky Mountains.



We're having a GIRL!!

Last week, we all went to have my ultrasound to see the baby. The kids were so excited. The girls have had a ton of questions and were thrilled that they would see the baby and hear the heartbeat. We found out that we're having a girl! I think the kids were very surprised because they've all seemed sure it was a boy. It took them a little time to get used to, but I think they are good with a girl now.

I think having a girl when we already have two older girls is going to get expensive. We went shopping over the weekend and the girls wanted to get the baby all kinds of clothes. I can see they are all about cute and not practical. I think it will be like they have a doll to dress up. They're so excited about picking all the baby stuff. We got rid of everything years ago so I guess they'll have a lot of chances to choose stuff. They're also working on names.

 

Our Week: 9/10-9/14

I'm still surprised with how well we've all adjusted back to school. We're still not starting as early as I would like, but it's getting earlier. Everyone got used to sleeping in later while I was dealing with the tiredness and sickness of pregnancy. I'm still dealing with some sickness, but it's mostly just nausea and has gotten much better. 
The weather was great this week and I wish we had gotten out to enjoy it more. Looks like next week is going to be nice too so I really want to try to get us all outside more.

History

 

 

We ended up getting in a lot of history this week.

We started by reading more about Catherine the Great and learning how she became the empress of Russia. Then we read about the steam engine being used in Britain and how that increased the demand for coal. We also read about Eli Whitney's cotton gin and how he made standardization popular by making interchangeable parts for guns.

 

We finished the week by reviewing a little about the Jamestown settlement, the Battle of Yorktown, and what life was like in Williamsburg during Colonial times to prepare for a trip next week to visit those places.



We made our own cotton gin to help them understand how it worked.

 

Science



We finished the first chapter of Zoology 1.
The girls did a couple of experiments.

The first used a balloon and soda bottle to demonstrate how lungs react when a person dives into the deep ocean.

 

 

The second experiment was to find out if hot or cold water is heavier. This one was a little difficult
 for the girls to see. You were supposed to color the cold and hot water different colors. When the water came out of the cup into the bowl, they should have been able to see where it went, but it was really hard to see. It worked a little better when we tried leaving the water in the bowl clear and only coloring the water in the cup.

 

For General Science, Colin did an experiment that showed two chemical reactions occurring.

 

The girls were very excited when they saw the balloon suddenly blow up.

 

Art

 

This week's lesson from Artistic Pursuits was about form. We read about what form is, looked at a picture to discuss if it had form, and then made animals with form.

 



Molly's cow

Caleigh's dragon

Colin's dog

 

 

Other News

 

 

We drove two hours to go to an apple orchard Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we all had a good time. The kids picked 40 lbs of apples. We had a picnic lunch there, petted and fed some animals, and bought lots of goodies. The only bad thing was that we had car trouble right after leaving there. Luckily, we made it home, but the car wasn't going any farther. We had to have it towed and ended up getting a new transmission, which caused some rearranging earlier in the week with only one car.
 

 

Colin had hockey practice Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings. We drove to Richmond, VA today for his first games of the season tomorrow and Sunday. We're planning to get in some history field trips while we're here.





Our 2nd Week

Our second week of school went well. We've almost worked up to doing our full load.

Three Rs

 



Everyone has finished reviewing and moved on to new stuff.

Molly finished learning all the single phonograms and is ready to start Spell to Write and Read. She also started cursive this week.

Nothing else too exciting. Colin and Caleigh are just progressing with their usual things.

 

History

 

 

We did 1 1/2 chapters in Story of the World this week. First we read about the French Revolution. Then we started learning about Catherine the Great of Russia.

 

 

 

 

 

Science

 

 

Just as I expected would happen, Colin has insisted on listening in to the girls' science even though he still has to do his own. We started on the first chapter of Zoology 2, learning about aquatic animals, currents, and tides.

They did an experiment to create a miniature gyre to learn more about surface currents.

 

In Aplogia General Science, Colin did two experiments.

The first was putting different things in a glass to learn about density.

 

 

Then he did an experiment with cold water, hot water, and food coloring to learn about atomic motion.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Art

 

 

We did a lesson in Artistic Pursuits, where we talked about seeing shapes and studied Diego Rivera's Flower Day looking at shapes. Then the kids made paper cutout collages. 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Other Stuff

 



 

Colin had his first week with three hockey practices. He'd only been having 2, but will have 3 the rest of the year. 

 

The kids got to go to the doctor with me and see the baby on the ultrasound. I think it made it more real for them to see the baby and hear the heartbeat. The girls have asked how much longer until the baby is born a million times since then. It's going to be a long 4 months.

 

We met some new people at a park day nearby. The kids had a good time meeting new people and playing. Hopefully, we'll be able to go to another one soon. Since we've moved, most of the kids' friends are about 45 minutes away so it would be nice to have some friends closer too. 



First Day of School 2012

Our first day of school was last week, but this is the first chance I've had to post about it.

We started the day with chocolate chip pancakes. Each kid got the number of their grade. Those 4s and 2s aren't easy to make.

 

We also had some special cupcakes for the first day.

 

Of course, we had to take first day of school pictures.



Colin- 7th grade

 

Caleigh- 4th grade

 

Molly- 2nd grade

 

Our First Week Back to School

I am so happy about our first week back to school. After the longest break we've ever taken, I definitely expected the worst. Sometimes the kids seem to have a hard time getting back into things and act like they've forgotten all their math skills after just a long weekend. They've done great though. No whining or complaining and they seem to be ready to pick right back up where we left off. I think maybe they were ready for a little more structure to our days.

Monday was the first day for public schools in our area so we had a "Not Back to School" celebration with our homeschool friends. We've been doing this for the last several years. We usually go to lunch and then bowling, but this year we went to Chuck E. Cheeses after lunch. The kids seemed to like that better and it worked well with all ages. It was great hanging out with everyone and seeing some friends we haven't seen in a while.

 

On Tuesday, we officially started our school year. The kids did an all about me page and a first day of school interview to start.

 

For the last four years, I've made the kids a special back to school cake. We've had a box of crayons, a sheet of notebook paper, and the earth (you can see them under the cake tab at the top of this page). Pregnancy sickness has made it hard for me to be in the kitchen so this year I was looking for something easy. This cupcakes were really easy. I bought chocolate covered cookies for chalkboards and the little white candies (chalk) are from the candies you buy by the pound at the grocery store.

 

Molly is at the beginning of a math book so she has started that. Colin and Caleigh have been doing review work. Caleigh is doing 2 review pages each day from the part of her RightStart math book that she had already finished. Colin did the tests in Basic College Math for review before jumping back into his Geometry and starting Pre-Algebra next week.

Molly is doing grammar, reviewing writing capital and lowercase letters, and learning the phonograms before starting Spell to Write and Read.
Caleigh did grammar, Writing with Ease, and reviewed her cursive letters. I had planned to let her review the phonograms, but she only had trouble with a couple of them so I need to get ready and move on to the reference pages and spelling lists with her.
Colin did Daily Grams, logic, some writing, and started reading his science.

In history, we read about James Cook and his explorations. We learned more about Australia and convicts being sent there. We also read about the beginning of political parties, the White House, and the first census in A History of US.


Our read aloud for the week was Pippi Longstocking. I'm hoping to do a better job reading chapter books aloud this year. We read tons of books for history, science, unit studies, etc., but I have a hard time sticking with reading a book that takes us more than a few days. Last year we listened to books in the car, but we won't have as much driving to do now since we've moved.
Here are the kids playing with pattern blocks and tangrams while I read.