This and That



I asked Kristen what I could do to make school fun for her and she replied, "Remember when we used to eat the special snacks that went with our lessons.  I want to do that again."  Who knew snacks could be so exciting and make all the difference.  Well, back when we were doing preschool we learned about a certain letter for a week and our snacks for that week would be things that went along with that letter.  It was easy then because I had to calm well behaved girls.  Now that Dallas has entered into our lives and we have started to homeschool, the girls are lucky to get a snack, much less anything special. I told her that I would try to plan a special day during the week where we would do some fun things and have something special for a snack, but she had to do good in school the rest of the week.  She agreed and this week went a  lot better than last week.  Every day, except for Monday, we were finished with school before lunch.  That's an awesome week!

 

 

This week in our reading the optional book to read was Horton Hears a Who.  I love Dr. Seuss and his books.  They are silly books that are easy to read.  My all time favorite Dr. Seuss book is Horton Hatches an Egg, but I really like all of his books.  I thought our fun day would be a Horton Hears a Who Day.  I printed off some fun connect the dot worksheets and coloring pages and I made elephant ears as our fun snack.  We also watched the movie Horton Hears a Who.  A person's a person, no matter how small.... I just love Horton.  Kristen and Lauren both had fun and I realized how important it is to do these fun things

 

Overall this week was a very good week in school.  I am really looking forward to only doing school three days this week.  I am also looking forward to a laid back Thanksgiving.  I think we usually have so much going on during the holidays that it is hard to enjoy them as a family.  I plan to relax this thanksgiving and just be thankful for all the things in my life, big and small.  There is so very much I have to be thankful for.

 

Oh...and before I go...Kristen lost another tooth today.  This makes a total of five so far.  I guess for Christmas all she is going to want is her front tooth.  She might just loose the other one before Christmas. 

 

 

 



Changes

To say this week was a bad week would be an understatement.  This was the first week that I was very seriously contemplating enrolling Kristen in school and wiping my hands clean of homeschooling.  Yep, I just wanted to quit and never look back. Wouldn't it be nice to go to work and have adult conversations and only be responsible for me?  Not to mention the extra income would be awesome!

I know you probably get sick of my moaning and groaning about it, but it is a lot tougher than I thought it would be when we started.  I know she is not going to catch on to everything easily and I am fully prepared to go the extra step and incorporate some new ideas to help her.  What I can't stand is the constant whining, crying, complaining and pouting about school....and the fact that it took her an hour and twenty-seven minutes to do one side of a spelling worksheet! Talk about reaching the end of my rope. 

I hand picked the curriculum that she is using this year because I wanted to make sure I got things that were challenging and fun...well, as fun as school can be.  If I'm honest, when she complains about school (which she does to everyone), it hurts my feelings.  It makes me feel like a failure.  I want school to be fun for her and for me, so I knew some changes needed to be made (not sure what those are, but I am praying and asking for guidance).  I decided...again...that instead of focusing on the negative things I will be positive and focus on the good things.  So this week we are going to have the best week EVER....we are going to do fun things....and we are going to learn.  Okay...I'll stop before I get carried away.  One thing we are going to do this week is wipe away the last eight weeks of spelling and start over at the beginning...now that's the joy of homeschooling.  See, I am focusing on the positives...and there were some from this past week.

Kristen did try to make my week better by writing both sentences down in her writing...and she surprised me with it. This was after it took her so long to do her spelling worksheet.  I was still glad she was trying.

We packed our boxes for the Operation Christmas Child for church.  These boxes are sent to children around the world to show them God's love through a shoebox filled with gifts.

Kristen really enjoyed filling her box and understood the meaning behind it.  She very carefully picked out each thing she wanted to buy and meticulously placed all of her things in the box.  Lauren...well....she threw it all in in no particular order.  I had to fix her box.  It is hard for my kids to imagine other kids not having things.  We are surrounded by toys and anything they ask for they usually eventually get.  It really makes me sad, so my goal for this year is to bring the meaning back to Christ and not so much on the gifts.  Now, if I can just get Meme on board with me.

Since we have been discussing Mercury (which we still have our final unit project to do this week....we are a little behind), we did an experiment of sorts with a bowl of flour and some different sized rocks....on one the coldest day of the week.

Mercury is a terrestrial planet, but it has no atmosphere so asteroids fall and crash into it's surface therefore making it very bumpy.  We were recreating what happens when asteroids slam into planets.  Makes me very thankful for our atmosphere.

We ended up taking Thursday and Friday off from school, which was a HUGE positive.  We needed the break and on Thursday enjoyed running some errands and eating lunch with my mom.  It was nice to get the grocery store shopping over with.  By the end of this week I probably looked a little like Lauren....who was in matching clothes when I dressed her that morning.

And felt a lot like Dallas.

New Things

I usually have a few ideas that I want to blog about prior to a post, but tonight I have nothing.  I guess my mind has already called it a night.  Maybe it's as tired as Dallas, who by the way is already in bed an hour before his bedtime.  I am not a fan of doing this because that just means he'll probably be up an hour earlier in the morning, but he was so very tired and so am I.

Speaking of Dallas....he is currently getting the remainder of his baby teeth in.  Four at one time. I'm not sure what excuse I will use for his fussiness once he has them all.  It surely can't be teething.  He will have reached all of those milestones that I thought for sure would be the cure for our whiny child.  Oh well, I will look back and miss these days.

Our week was good.  I started babysitting a little boy who is just a few months younger than Dallas.  Take my word....he is so cute and sweet and such a good eater.  I am in awe at his eating skills, since my three have pretty much been picky eaters since birth.  It's nice to be able to feed a child from a spoon and not have to pry their mouth open just to get them to taste something they have eaten before and liked.  We have enjoyed having a new little friend around the house and he fits in just perfectly to our days.

Speaking of new little friends....Lauren got to bring the Girl Scout bear, Audrey, home. She was so excited.

Our week of school was good.  In bible we learned about Noah and his ark and did some fun crafts to fill up our bulletin board.

 

(Oh, and acorns have nothing to do with Noah's ark.  I just wanted to do some fall crafts and these were the only pictures I snapped during craft time this week.)

And what happens when you give your almost 2 year old a crayon without a coloring page?

It was easy to wipe up and he had no idea he did anything wrong.  Actually, he was very impressed with his artwork and gave me the biggest, cutest grin.

I did forget to mention in my last post that the girls are doing an awesome job at their memory verses.  Last week they finished up learning Ephesians 6:1-3.  Both girls can say them all!  I was so proud.

Kristen did good with her spelling test this week.  She only missed two words!  This week is a review of past spelling words.  It will do her good. I have got to come up with something to help this girl with her spelling.  This week we are going to read some Dr. Seuss books. She is doing good in her reading, but needs some extra practice.  She did complete her Pocahontas report this week.  I am so glad to have that done.  She was very excited to complete it.

Lauren is doing good with her letters and math.  She has already completed letters a-h in her second hooked on phonics book.  I am actually very excited to start reading.  I think she will do better than I first thought.  She is doing good in math and knows things I didn't think she knew.  Her writing is coming along, although it still isn't anywhere near what it should be.  I am happy though.  She is making progress.

I am tired and really have no idea what I just wrote.  I am not even going to proof read, so hopefully there are no horrible grammatical errors and it accurately reflects our week and the pictures are put with the correct paragraphs. Good night to you all.

What does the fox say?

So, for those of you who have heard this song....I apologize.

For those of you who haven't....here it is....BUT only watch it if you want to have it stuck in your head for the next week.

 

 

 

I'm not really sure what a fox says, although I am quite certain it is none of the sounds in this video. I do, however, know what a fox sounds like when it looses it's tail because that is what happened on Halloween.

 

Our little fox lost her tail, so we had to retrace our steps to see if we could find it.  Do you know the odds of finding that tail...in the dark...on Halloween night...with all of the leaves on the ground?  I knew that loosing her tail would ruin Kristen's Halloween, but I also knew that the odds of us finding it would be pretty slim. Thankfully we did find it in the driveway at one of the last houses we went to. Talk about breathing a huge sigh of relief. 

 

 

I am glad Kristen and Lauren are at an age where they pick out their Halloween costumes.  It makes one less decision that I have to make.  I don't know why Kristen picked a fox.  We didn't know there was a fox craze until the day before Halloween when we heard the song.  I think she mostly picked it because of the leg thingies and because it was soft.  Kristen dresses for comfort, not to look good.  Lauren originally wanted to go as Word Girl.  I was actually kind of excited because I was going to have to create a costume.  Then she wanted to go as Doc McStuffin's and I was excited because I didn't have to create a costume.  I know...I have good intentions two months before Halloween...not so much when it is right around the corner. 

 

 

Lauren looked so cute in her little doctor costume and she was happy that she already had Doc Mcstuffin's tennis shoes, so we didn't have to buy them.  That's what she kept telling people and she came up with that all on her own.  She is going to be good with her money when she grows up since she is already looking for ways to save money.

 

Little Dallas went as an inmate since he spends a lot of his time in time out.  Actually, he probably doesn't spend as much time as he should in the time out chair.  I took it as a sign that this costume was meant for him since it was the last one they had and it was in his size.

 

 

He had a good time trick or treating.  He just followed everyone else like he was a pro.  It was such a great night for trick or treating too.  The weather was perfect!

 

This past week was pretty hectic and we don't do hectic very well.  We live a pretty laid back life, so we (Paul and I) do not look forward to a week where we have a lot of places to be and things to do. We had a family get together to carve pumpkins, growth group for church, Halloween, a birthday party and we were supposed to go to Build a Bear with the Girl Scout troop, but Kristen wasn't feeling well, so we stayed home.  The good part of being hectic is that I only had to cook dinner four nights this week and for someone who cooks dinner every night, that is something to look forward to.  I am glad, however, that the week is over and we get to resume our laid back routine this week.

 

 

 

Spelling....Spelling....Spelling.....it is not Kristen's strong subject.  Remember the reading woes?  Well, they have been replaced by the spelling woes.  I feel I have exhausted all avenues in what I can do to help her.  This week she missed NINE words on her test.  The problem is she sounds them out, but I keep reminding her she is just going to have to memorize them.  We do flashcards everyday, play games to help her with her words, write words down over and over, do the five worksheets that come with her spelling curriculum, write sentences and stories using her spelling words.  What else can I really do?  She can read them off of her flashcards by test day, but can't spell them. We will be doing summer school to focus on all of the spelling words she has missed.  I am hoping it will get easier like reading.

 

 

 

This section of the blog is brought to you by the letter B and the number one. 

 

  

Lauren started her math curriculum this week.  She still has trouble writing, but she is getting there.  She is doing really good with her letter sounds and I think we might even try to start reading before Christmas.  We'll see.

 

 

This week she has been very excited to do school, I just hope that this attitude change lasts longer than a week. 

 







Happy November!!!