Tink turns 6

Where did all the time go? I can NOT believe that my baby is now 6 years old. She is growing into a young lady. Here are some pictures from her birthday weekend.

Daddy and I gave her a microphone. She adores it!

Tackle Cousin!

She really loved her Pet Shop tent.

Her unicorn and a visiting flat traveler

The BEST cake hands down I have ever tasted!

Yellow cake from http://www.cookforlove.org/

I love you sweety.

Week 6, 3rd Quarter, 1/17-1/21/2011

Morning Meeting - Words of the day (generous, respectful, obey, natural, discuss), calendar work, gathering stuff for our Flat Travelor from Pennsylvania.


Science - Living vs. Non-Living
History - Ch. 9, The 1st Cities of India
Math - MEP for both

FIAR - Night of the Moonjellies
Language Arts - Funnix and other curriculum

Nature Study - Bird bodies
Art - underwater city and Cub Scouts Art belt loop

Color wheel

Left page is his tea cup. Right page is a dog (exploring texture).

This is Tink's dinosaur egg and bird.

Life Skills - forgiveness and animal care

Silent Reading

Week 5, 3rd Quarter 1/10-1/14/2011

Morning Meeting - Words of the day (difficult, clutched, scrumptious, kind, and quality), calendar work, sent off Flat Travelor to Pennsylvania.


Science - Gravity I

History - Ch. 7, Hammurabi and Ch. 8, The Assyrians

Math - MEP for both
FIAR - Owl Moon
Language Arts

*Continuing with Funnix and regular curriculum.
Nature Study - Bird wings

Art - vehicle of the future and Cub Scouts Art belt loop
Life Skills - forgiveness and animal care
Silent Reading

Week 4, 3rd Quarter 1/3-1/7/2011

So I said I was going to try and take pictures this week, but I didn't have batteries until Thursday! I am set for next week though and have my camera sitting on the workbox! No way I can forget right, right.

Morning Meeting - Words of the day (satisfied, beckoned, amazing, gleam, and tidy), calendar work, made flat trav for Pennsylvania. We received our flat on Friday.


Science - Matter and it's Particulate Nature
*We did a simple experiment with blowing bubbles in soapy water. We also ripped up some paper.

History - Ch. 7, Hammurabi
*We are going to have to push this to next week. I ran out of printer paper and we just didn't have time to even read the selection.
Math

*Still loving MEP.
FIAR - Beatrix Potter selections
*I adore these stories. I am going to just finish the book with my daughter.

Language Arts

*We are trying the program Funnix based on the Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. There are two levels, so each kid is trying it out.

Nature Study - Bird tails
*Focus was much better this week.
Art - Color Wheel and Cub Scout Art belt loop
*Daddy will be teaching the kids about the color wheel on Sunday and the kids and I will be making an Elements or Art book.
Life Skills - honesty and cleanliness

Silent Reading

*Optimus has started reading the Magic Tree House series. He wanted to make a deal with me that if he finished one book, I would buy him the next. DEAL!
Happy Homeschooling!
Michele

Tea!

I have never done a post about a product other than used for homeschooling, but I can't contain this one. I must share the awesomeness that is this tea.



Honey Vanilla Chamomile, herbal caffeine free tea
It's made by Celestial Seasonings.

Oh my, it is wonderful. Even the kids like it.

I now return you to your regular broadcast.

take care,
Michele

Week 3, 3rd Quarter 12/27-12/31/2010

This is my favorite picture of 2010!

Week 3 is over. Here are the highlights.

Morning Meeting - Words of the day (struggled, delighted, horrid, cozy, and responsibility), calendar work, choose next state for Flat Travelor.

*We chose Pennsylvania and I was able to find a nice family we will trade with. This week we will be making new flats to send out by Friday.

Science - Air is a Substance

*The kids really understood the concepts and loved the experiments.

History - Ch. 5, The First Sumerian Dictator
*We had a bit of a break before getting back into SOTW, but I was super surprised by how much Optimus had retained!

Math
*We started MEP. I really like the the pace of this program. I was shocked when Tink was answering the < > = correctly! I think this program is a keeper. Optimus took the New York State, 3rd grade Math test and received an 82%. I am happy with this considering he is in 2nd grade. It was a good exercise to see if we had any gaps. We will focus on those and retake the test later in the year.

FIAR - Make Way for Ducklings
*My kids adore this book.

Language Arts
*The kids each had their own assignments in LA. Tink is at Lesson 30 in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. She still loves it. Optimus started First Language Lessons, Level 3. I really love the drill and he is learning a lot with this program.

Nature Study - Bird heads
*We really had a struggle with focus for this project. Tink, who is my artist, lacked interest. Unless it is unicorns and reindeer, I guess she just doesn't want to draw it. Optimus took his time and added good detail.

Art - self portraits

*I had each child go into the bathroom with their papers. They looked in the mirror to draw their own faces. Fun.

Life Skills - honesty and cleanliness

Silent Reading

*This was a great week. I feel like we accomplished a lot. I am very happy with both of the kids for jumping back into the swing of things after a big break. Next week I hope to take pictures of our lessons.

A New Year and a Fresh Start

Now that Christmas is over and we are mostly settled in to the new house (don't mind the boxes in the background!). It's time to make those New Year resolutions. I feel like this is going to be a great year for us. I am so excited about the things we have planned and our current situation.

I have a few New Year's resolutions. I make a resolution each year, but have never followed through with keeping them an entire year. Perhaps if I cronicle them on the blog, like a journal, I will keep up with them.

#1 Get fit.
I am not making a resolution to loose a specific amount of weight or to exercise a certain number of times a week. Those just have never worked to keep me inspired enough to do it. All I want is to be more physically active with the kids. I want to be able to play football (really play) by Thanksgiving. Last Thanksgiving we talked about playing football afterwards. I thing that sounds like a lot of fun. There is a really big park near our new home and it would be perfect for this purpose. I know I'm thinking almost a year away, but that is my goal.

#2 Play with the kids more often.
I am a homeschooling mom, so I am with my kids nearly 24/7. You would think that meant that we played all the time, not so for me. Our routine has been more like: make food, eat/clean, lessons, eat/clean, lessons, free time, eat/clean, movie, bedtime routine, sleep. With my free time I am usually going through emails, watching tv, reading or planning homeschool stuff. I am going to set aside my a half hour of my free time to just PLAY with the kids. I am also "scheduling" dates with each kid individually.

#3 Blog more.
The key to this will most likely be to write blogs ahead of time and schedule them to be posted. I really like blogging about our life and the things we do. It has taken the place of scrapbooking for me. So, one those nights I can't sleep or the mornings I wake up at 4am, I am going to remember to blog a few extra entries.

What are your New Year's resolutions?

take care,
Michele