Non-school Review

It was OK to play in the middle of the road today!
Is it spring yet?

This past week has been very...random...to say the least! Our co-op was cancelled on Tuesday because of the big snow we had on Sunday night, which gave me the time I needed to get our grocery shopping done for the week. Looking back, perhaps I should have done school that day! But we really did need groceries...I was scrounging for meals by then anyway! Then Wednesday morning we took Steve to the bus stop to catch his Mega-bus to Chicago (which he learned never to take again...). That made us start school a few hours late on Wednesday morning. Then on Thursday, Abby woke up with her 3rd fever in 9 days...she'd have a fever for a couple days, then it would disappear, only to reappear a few days later. That same morning Zeke woke up really complaining of a sore throat and when I looked in his throat, I saw some white spots. They were in no shape for school (and I rarely hand out sick days). We got into the doctor's office that evening and those two tested positive for strep. That evening, my mother-in-law spent the night since she had lost power that day. Friday, I woke up with a sore throat and headed straight for the doctor's office, but I was clear. I sent Z & A home with my mother-in-law since they were going to have another sick day and I was supposed to meet the designer and a painter at the new house in the afternoon. I took the younger boys with me to get my first round of carpet samples and to my meeting at the new house... To my frustration and disappointment, the realtor that is "taking care of the house for the bank" never showed up to let us into the new house...argh! Steve and I thought we had confirmed this meeting, and he never contacted us about not being there. I was very frustrated since I had two people with me, wanting to get into the house! This realtor has been very odd to work with. He will not let our own realtor have access to the house, there is no lock box on the house, he says he needs to be there every time we want to get into the house, and he only gives us one hour sharp to be there, then hovers over us until we are out the door. We have been trying to get quotes from drywallers and painters...next Wednesday, this will not be a problem any more! But Steve wanted to have the drywall repair starting ASAP--the first week we own the house. I wonder when we'll actually start the work now....

WHEW! What a whirlwind. The next 4-6 weeks are going to be very spotty as far as school is concerned as well. I'm pretty much only going to plan a couple days of school per week, when Steve has his full days at the office. One of his full days falls on our co-op day, and we do not do any of our school on those days since we are gone all morning and then have a friend from co-op over for a couple hours in the afternoon...so I will only have Monday and Fridays as a full day of school and probably Wednesday for a half day. The rest of the week, during Steve's non-clinical times, we will be spending a lot of time tranistioning into the new house. My mom will be here the third week of March...hopefully for some of the last hauls over to the new house?!?!? So...I've just got to do what I can during this transition time until we get settled again. I'll keep you posted!

I was really excited for science this week...and then couldn't do any of it! I have been using my own resources for science based off of the outline that is in the Creation to Greeks TM. So, the past few weeks, we have been reading some things about birds and I printed out a lapbook for each child to do for our bird section. But, only Eli got to do a few things on his since he was not sick. I also ordered some owl pellets to dissect and am excited to do this next week.

We did go ahead and start The Children's Homer, even though I am not finished with The Hittite Warrior. I think I can do both books for a couple of weeks--we'll probably move our reading of The Hittite Warrior to bedtime. I see that a lot of you have gotten the audio book for The Children's Homer...I should check and see if our library has it. My kids love listening to books on CD! Zeke seems very interested in all the Greek Mythology...he's been reading a few extra Greek Mythology books I placed in our book basket.

Zeke is working on writing a "tall tale" for English and seems to enjoy the planning stages. Abby is working on a letter, although she writes quite a few letters on her own. We will do the chapter, however, so her curriculum stays lined up with Zeke's. And we just keep plugging away on math. I have had to skip a lot of the vocab and art in CtG curriculum the last few weeks to keep up!

?Traditional vs. transitional vs. contemporary?

Which style am I? This is (saddly) what is occupying my brain power these days. I've looked at hundreds of light fixtures over the last few days and am finding that my tastes are all over the place! Maybe you can help me! Take a look at these links and let me know which one you think I should go with in our new home! We close this coming Wednesday and we are VERY excited to get in there and get started with the work!!!! Guess which ones are the designer's choices and which are mine :)

The Bellamy line?
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=45161OZ&pname=Bellamy - Wall Sconce 1Lt

The Abbeyville line?
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=45050OZ&pname=Abbeyville - Wall Sconce 1Lt

The Lacey will coordinate with the Abbeyville...
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=45281MIZ&pname=Lacey - Wall Sconce 1Lt

Vanity lights? Lilly line?
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=5455AP&pname=Lilly - Bath 2Lt

Or Bellamy line?
http://www.kichler.com/products/LargeImage.jsp?pid=45162AP&pname=Bellamy - Bath 2Lt

Beautiful Words in the Morning

Psalm 143:8, 10
Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I lift up my soul.
Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.

I thought these words were so beautiful the other morning when I was reading them in my (not so) quiet time with the Lord :) He is so good to me and I long to grow in my maturity so that I may honor him more with my speech and actions. I may even want to stencil these words on my new bedroom walls!

Week 18, CtG

In Bible time the past couple of weeks, we have been memorizing Psalm 23. When I saw this verse in our curriculum, I was so glad because Abby had been memorizing it as her personal Scripture this year. Every day that we add a verse to our handwriting, she is inspired to draw a picture of the verse. I loved this picture of the table being prepared for us before our enemies. I love Abby's beautiful heart!

Another source of inspiration for everyone this week was the end of Treasures of the Snow. Because the kids were so into the story, we finished it a week ahead even while starting it behind in the curriculum. The day we finished the story, everyone drew a picture of their most memorable point of the story. Very cute! That night at bedtime, Eli said, " I wonder what the Hittite Warrior will be like." The Hittite Warrior was suggested in the back of the curriculum for these weeks and I'm going to try to squeeze it in as a read-aloud. I see there is quite a bit of reading coming up, though, so we'll see how it goes! I think I'm reading it for as much my interest and benefit as theirs!



And here is a sample of what Micah does while we are doing all of our reading:

We had to skip all of our art lessons this week because we were supposed to go outside and draw a flower...not possible! I was going to buy some flowers so they could look at one and draw it, but kept forgetting and now the week is done.

Other than that, everything else was run of the mill. Zeke got to start up his Spanish lessons again today, which he was excited for.

Happy 2nd Birthday to our cousin across the country!

Psalm 23
A psalm of David.
1 The LORD is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

Colors, round 1

Here are some colors we decided on for our new house. I'm very excited to close and get in there and start working....I mean....having the work done ! ;) The top colors are for the master bedroom and the designer picked out a very pretty green for the bathroom! And the bottom colors are for my red wall that I must have. The neutral will go all throughout the house...great room, kitchen, entry way, and up the stairs to the hallway. So excited! After being at the house for an hour and a half last night with the designer talking about colors, I could not turn my mind off and had a very restless night of sleep! Hopefully, I'll be so tired tonight, I'll sleep well!

I take it back....

Ok, when it took three and a half hours for me to return home from a baby shower on Saturday, I had to admit that we do have a lot of snow! I did not hear any news of this snowstorm that hit Saturday and was totally unprepared! And then my friend pointed out to me that blizzards are fine if you don't need to go out in them, which I don't! And my van almost got stuck in our cul-de-sac, and I can barely get out of my car when I park in our driveway because of the pile of snow on the side! So, I am now content with the amount of snow we have. I might be sad when we reach the 40s next week, though....

What Blizzard?

L.A.M.E. is all I have to say about the predicted "blizzard" we were getting this past week. Sure, it was really windy and cold for one night, but lame on the amount of snow!!!! I would LOVE to be really snowed in one day! Oh well, here's what we did...no days off of school here, though. Daddy cancelled work and was home working on various kinds of paperwork in the basement. Tons of winter fun...ha...

Here's the official measurement of snow = unimpressive!

Shoveling with snowshoes.

Bundling up for outdoor winter fun.

Crying because we didn't get a snow day? (I'm not really sure why he was crying for this picture, but apparently I thought it was funny and took a picture :) )


Drank hot chocolate...how could you cry after this?

Did gymnastics tricks off the couch...again...a result of the hot chocolate (sugar high!!)?

Long Overdue Review--Weeks 16 & 17

What is this picture? Only part of the project that I've been waiting all year (or maybe longer...) to do!!!!! Read on to see the final product!

Among all the other craziness happening (boxes scattered ALL over the house, the basement becoming crowded with actual packed boxes, snow storms, bruised tailbones, to name a few!), we are plugging away in school. I've just loved the Creation to the Greeks Bible and history this year. I don't think I ever studied world history in school, so I am learning as much as the kids!

Last week we read about Moses and the Bronze Serpent and the end of his life leading the Israelites. This week, it was Joshua and his campaigns to claim the promised land. I have been using some coloring sheets and extra projects from DLTK-kids.com and this site. This helps the younger kids stay involved. Zeke doesn't touch them though, but he can hang in there with the content much better. As I was packing up yet another bookshelf, I found a Bible Hero book I had from a few years back and can use it for some projects with Gideon and Samson next week. Here are the kids with their models of bronze serpents on poles, and Zeke and Abby playing a game of Senet!

The kids are really soaring through math this year. Nothing seems to challenge Eli, but he is faithful in "doing the basics". He is already half way through Alpha in Math U See and going through Singapore 1A at the same time. Abby has almost finished her Beta Matu U See book, so I will be starting her with the Singapore 2A book soon as well. Zeke just finished up an area and perimeter section in Singapore 4A and has started decimals. He is finding the first decimal lessons very "easy". But I've been trying to keep him challenged by reviewing fractions and doing drill work on the Math Shark. Steve picked out some test books from Border's a few months ago and we have been using those on homework nights to add some critical thinking work for all the kids. Eli loves doing these books, and it is a good challenge for Zeke and Abby.

English is still proving a challenge for one particular student :) I'm not sure how many years you must go over common vs. proper nouns, possessives, and other seemingly basic things before they "stick" with the student. Abby just wrote her first book report and it was very cute (see following picture)! Zeke wrote a book review rather than a book report this year. We butted heads one day on it, but other than that, he did well (or I got regained composure and laid off of him ???) :) Eli loves reading his little stories from Sing, Spell, Read and Write, but can't get enough of them. He can read at such a higher level than he can write. I started him on the spelling tests and sentence work this week and he seemed very excited to have the added challenge.

All the kids are loving the read aloud Treasures of Snow. I usually read 2 chapters a day because they are begging for more by the end of one. They totally get engrossed in the story and with the characters. They really did not like Annette for quite a while!

Micah continues to be very LOUD. Somedays I just can't stand the noise and end up putting him down for his nap all in a huff...sigh...I wish I was more of a natural "leader". I know if I just pulled out an activity and got him going on it, he would be OK while I get the reading done for the older kids, but I cannot even get to that place mentally sometimes! And I'm not sure when he will remember any of his letters. But he does like to do his "school work". This week, he started getting out his little activity bags that he brings home from his co-op preschool class. I've been meaning to put them all in a container and bring them out at certain times for him to use, but I haven't gotten that far yet...they are all just jammed in his desk. I'm glad he was self-motivated this week! Last week, he also made a couple really cute pictures! This is a painting of him and Zeke jumping on the trampoline!

And, here it is! We have been waiting to do this project for quite some time. We actually started it in October, with the first layer of paper maiche. Added a few more layers last week, and completed it this week! The kids have had fun playing some kind of "King Tut" game all week.


Paper Maiche:

Gold Spray Paint:

Acrylic Paint:

Even Micah participates:

The final product...Yeah!!!