Wordless Wednesday

How ironic to have a Scrabble board on Wordless Wednesday :)  Miss Muffet & Hug-A-Bug played last night.  Hug-A-Bug went first, all by himself; the word in the very middle starting with "S".....yep, he is a 5 year old boy :)

What did we do this week (ending Nov 25th)?

(Oops!  No photos this week - can't find my cord!)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends!  We are celebrating here by having a big turkey dinner with all the trimmings tonight.  Hope you all enjoyed a nice little break from school :)

No break for us here. It has been full-on, pedal to the metal at our house.  It is the first week in a very LONG time that we have done a full 5 day week.  The kids did fantastic.  Great attitudes, great focus, and great motivation all week long.  In spite of having runny noses & coughs............

Here is what was accomplished this week at the REAL Jellybean Clubhouse;

Chunky Monkey is still not talking that much, but understands everything.  He wants to be involved in the schoolwork and he loves to help out with the chores.  He hasn't tried climbing out of his crib again, but he has fallen down the stairs twice this week!  Nothing serious - the stairs leading to the basement are carpet and are only 6 steps to the landing area so although he was scared, no injuries.  This child definitely has his Guardian Angels working overtime these days.

Hug-A-Bug was just a machine this week again!  I can't believe how much he is into his work and how he enjoys it.  It brings such joy to watch his eyes sparkle and light up as he learns so many new things.  This week in math, he was reviewing counting by 2s & 10s, solidifying his number facts (addition of the doubles facts, addition & subtraction of the 1s up to 10), learning about pennies & dimes and how to count money and starting on fractions (halves & quarters).  I was going to start him on Spelling Workout A this week but decided to give him a break.  We will give it a go next week.  We started Poetry this week and he had his poem ("The Little Turtle" by Vachel Lindsay) memorized on the 2nd day! 

Miss Muffet had a fabulous week as well.  We spent a lot of time reviewing grammar concepts this week.  I was worried about her retention in GWG this year and was almost about to switch back to FLL but I think we will keep at GWG, with some pretty intensive regular review built in.  She has a much better understanding of subjects & predicates (simple & compound) as well as quotations (direct & indirect).  We will jump back into GWG next week.  Math is coming along - she is on Lesson #46 and did all of it independently again this week.  French is going well, no issues at all.  Now I'm trying to figure out when to add in Prima Latina.  Maybe in the new year?  Miss Muffet's poem this week was "The Violet" by Jane Taylor - I think this poem will take us through next week before it is fully memorized.  She has done a great job so far.

Mr R had an awesome week as well.  He had all of his work done by noon almost every day.  I'm beginning to think I'm not giving him enough!!  He finished up Lesson #34 in Saxon 7/6 and is not finding it very challenging.  There are so many new concepts though (like reciprocals this week!) that he doesn't know, but then he gets it right away and has zero issues with the rest of the lesson.  In order to challenge him a little more, I ordered the Singapore Math Challenging Word Problems.  I'm going to try & sneak in at least 1 of those a day.  I love Saxon but I find that there is a real lack of this type of problem solving in their program.  Mr R also finished up his biology unit (all 31 lessons!) and he has the BIG test next week.  It looks pretty hard to be honest so I am going to help him study over the weekend.  I'm disappointed that we didn't get around to the fish dissection :(  He still wants to do this so perhaps tomorrow??  He also finished A Triumph for Flavius and can't get enough extra reading in.  Mr R's poetry selection this week was "The Arrow & The Song" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.  He has it memorized 100%!!  This is the same child who couldn't remember a single sentence when we did WWE4 dictation last year!! 

Well I better get this posted and get back to the turkey & all the fixings that still need to be prepared!  We have Miss Muffet's birthday party this weekend - which is a trip to the movies to see Arthur Christmas!  Should be fun.  Wishing everyone a great weekend!

(I actually got this done on Friday!!!  WhooHooo!! - but only because DH is home today and helping out with the kids!)

Wordless Wednesday

Thanksgiving 2004......so sweet.

Our Week in Review - Ending November 18th

Phew!  Another busy week!  Glad that one is over.  Too much running around and too many extra activities this week. So let's see how we did:

Chunky Monkey discovered how to climb out of his crib - or more appropriately, learned that he can fall out of his crib when he is trying to climb out :(  Fortunately he wasn't hurt and hopefully it scared him enough not to try it again!  However, the playpens were another story.  He was trying all week to climb out of them so I packed them up and put them away.  The rooms they were in look so much more spacious now!  This little guy does NOT sit still for very long.....although I did notice that he really enjoyed playing with his toys this week - for longer than 5 minutes.

Hug-A-Bug was so motivated once again this week!  He is just flying through his work and asking for more!  He finished up Little Angel Reader, Level A this week and wants to start Spelling Workout Level A next week so why not! 

His printing showed a huge improvement this week.  I switched him from those big red pencils (with a gripper) to a regular pencil (with no gripper) and his printing was so much better!! 

The trouble is that he isn't holding the pencil properly, and he is getting lazy in the letter formation and needs reminders on which strokes to do first and how to do them.  He also finished his Nate the Great book in just one day!

Miss Muffet went to the symphony on Tuesday morning.  I think she was more excited to spend time with her friends than she was about the actual performance!  We didn't get to review as much of the grammar as I would have liked this week (my fault - too busy with my PT work) - so it is on the list for next week again.  She did manage to finish up her science unit on The World of Vertebrates and did well on her test.  And she is on Lesson #43 for her math.  The C rods arrived last week and I am trying to figure out a way to incorporate these into her lessons.  Miss Muffet spent a LOT of time this week working independently and I'm not sure it was a success.  She wants to do the work on her own but she still needs my help, even though she doesn't like to admit it.  She finished up book #3 in The Boxcar Children series and is LOVING these books.  Apparently there are 120+ books in this series and she is on a mission to read them all!!

Mr R also attended the symphony this week, and much like his sister, seemed to have more interest in the social part of the day and not necessarily the music!  Good thing the tickets were at a huge discount.  We are trying the new way of checking Mr R's math - which is not correcting any of the mistakes in his day-to-day work.  Not sure if this is working yet or not - he has a test on Monday so we will see how he does.  He is really enjoying the VP NTGR history course - and the literature that goes along with it.  This week he was reading A Triumph for Flavius (just finished Lesson #40) as his directed reading and he just started The Cricket in Times Square as his free reading.  I don't think I can keep up with him on all these books! French is going well and I think we should be finishing up Level 1 of LÁrt de Lire in the next couple of weeks.  We are behind in French since technically we should be in Level 3 (Grade 5) this year but I'm pretty happy with his progress in both French & Latin - and he should have no trouble getting to the end of Level 3 by next Spring.

Mom flying solo & having lunch with the kids at one of our favourite restaurants in the USA.

All in all - they did accomplish quite a bit this week considering that we had a trip to the symphony on Tuesday, a trip across the border for some shopping & lunch on Wednesday, and lots of household chores on Friday to prepare for our friends staying over on Friday night. 

A few things for next week;

I am a little concerned about the VP history courses that they are doing.  On the WTM forums this week, there was some discussion that VP has an anti-catholic slant on their materials (??).  I'm quite concerned about it and plan to dig deeper.  The kids haven't said anything to me about any of the material (and I'm not sure if it would be that obvious of a bias that they would realize??) but I need to figure this out. 

I've decided to add Poetry to their daily subjects beginning next week.  It is one area that I think is very valuable & that we really should be doing, but I've always had an excuse for not tackling.  Well enough excuses, we will spend 5 minutes each day memorizing a poem and hopefully be able to recite it for Dad on Friday evening.  Here is what we are trying this upcoming week;

Mr R:  The Arrow & The Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Miss Muffet: The Violet by Jane Taylor

Hug-A-Bug:  The Little Turtle by Vachel Lindsay

Next week is a stay-home-and-hunker-down kinda week.  It has been a long time since we've done a proper 5 day school week around here.  We need to get back on track.

Our Chore System

Chores at our House

I've seen & heard so many people asking about chores and wanting to find a "system" for their families.  I thought I would share our chore system.  It is easy to set up & easy to use.  Here is how I did it:

I started by first brainstorming some of the regular chores that need to be done at our house, either on a daily basis or weekly basis.  I also added in a few extras, that don't get done that frequently but still need to be done.

Next, I purchased some labels that can be printed out - using MSWord to create the templates.  I made up chore cards that listed the steps for each chore so there was no confusion about what was expected :)

 I gave the chores funny names - and the kids still think it is pretty fun to read them.  Here are some examples:

Once all of the chore labels were printed, I put them on plain white index cards.  I guess I could have laminated them but I didn't want to go to the trouble or expense.  And they have held up pretty well anyway.

I put a little red dot on the chores that can also be used as consequences for unacceptable behaviours. 

I keep all of the chores in a recipe card box (found cheap at the local dollar store) and put a card (or 2 or 3) in each child's slot every evening for the next day. 

The chart is posted on the wall in our kitchen.  They check it every morning and pull out their chore cards when it is their chore time.  Once the chore is done, they put it in the Completed slot and I can easily keep track of what has been done and what still needs to be done.

When we first started doing this, I took the time to work with them on each of the more complicated chores (like laundry and bathroom cleaning).  I wanted them to be clear about each of the steps and how they were to be done.  I also wanted to show them how to do it so they knew what was expected.  

I think the kids do a great job - the bathrooms may not be done perfectly or as I would do them myself, but what a huge difference it makes in keeping things running smoothly and keeping the house tidy.  They learn a lot in the process and it has become part of our day.

Hope it can help some families out there!

Our Week in Review - Ending November 11th

What a fantastic week!  We were off to a shaky start on Monday but it seemed as though the week got better & better with every day. 

Mom woke up Monday morning with a nasty case of pink eye.  Fortunately I was able to get into the doctor that afternoon but oh my gosh - going to the doctor with 3 little kids.......I definitely don't recommend it.  Mr R stayed home so that he wouldn't miss his piano lesson, and Miss Muffet & Hug-a-Bug brought their DS games to play but Chunky Monkey was all over the place.  He was trying to open cupboards, touching the garbage containers (gross), climbing everywhere.  I could not get him to sit still!!!  I know the Dr was running way behind schedule but I think that the nurse took pity on me and got us in more quickly :)

That same afternoon, Miss Muffet's desk for her room was delivered!  We didn't tell her it was coming that day so she was very surprised when the doorbell rang.  Unfortunately the hutch was damaged so we will have to wait a while for the replacement to arrive but in the meantime at least we have the desk!  The funny thing is that they were all more interested in playing with the BIG box it came in, than in the actual desk itself!!  I thought that playing with boxes was more for the younger years, but evidently the older kids have fun with them too!  They spent hours playing in this box in the garage. 

Daylight Savings Time threw all of us out of whack this week - but in the most pleasantly surprising way.  Mr R was up by 7am every morning and working away on his schoolwork, completely motivated, and completely independent.  Most of the days, his work was done by 9am!  And he even wanted to do some subjects in the evening so he could be ahead for the following day.  I was so impressed, and told him so.  That seemed to further motivate him and he was just a machine getting through his work for the rest of the week.

He finished reading the D'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths - which was a literary supplement to his VP history class.  And has been working on memorizing the Latin verbs, SPECTO & SUM in addition to the 10 commandments.  Grammar & writing were pretty light this week and he has asked to start IEW again, so I need to figure out how to schedule that since it is pretty teacher-intensive. 

We are on pace for math with Mr R completing lesson #26 this week but scoring just 15/20 on his math test.  He doesn't think it is important to show his work - even with daily reminders and then he makes silly mistakes that result in a really low score on his tests!  It isn't that he doesn't understand the concepts, he just tries to do it all in his head!  I need to figure out a way to get through to him on the "show your work" issue.  If you have any ideas, I am all ears!

I think the highlight of his week was the science experiment he did on evaluating the presence of starch in various foods by using Lugol's Solution (iodine).  It was really exciting to see him develop his hypothesis and then test it out. We are just starting to work on the scientific method and learning how to properly set up our experiments, record our materials & observations, and then summarize the findings and conclusion. 

Inspired by her big brother, Miss Muffet also started getting up early and working on her schoolwork.  In the past few weeks, I found that she needed a lot more help in math so I was spending more time with her but this week - she did not need me at all!  She did all of her work independently. She finished up Lesson #40 in math and will have a test on Monday so we will see if this independence was a good thing or not.  Writing was a little challenging this week. It was all about similies and metaphors and she was struggling to remember the difference and how to use them properly.  I think we will spend some more time on this next week before moving on.

The big academic accomplishment this week was completing her Headsprout Reading Comprehension program!!!  All 50 lessons are done!  She said it was a little too easy, but I think she enjoyed it :)

Hug-a-Bug had a good week, even though he spent the entire day Wednesday in bed.  Poor guy even slept for 3 hours that afternoon!  He was back to his usual self on Thursday though and even managed to do 2 days worth of work in just one day!  He & Chunky Monkey loved that the older 2 got their work done so quickly - it meant they had more time to play this week!

And speaking of Chunky Monkey - he actually sat still for a few minutes and watched a little bit of a video.  Hi-5 was a big hit here with Miss Muffet & Hug-a-Bug when they were toddlers so it looks like a winner with him as well! 

The best day was Friday - Miss Muffet's 8th birthday!!  Hug-a-Bug was so sweet and started her day off by serving her breakfast in bed (he did it the day before as well thinking that her birthday was Thursday!) - so sweet.

And as is the usual birthday tradition, the kids all piled into mom & dad's bed for present opening before breakfast :)

We finished the day by going out for dinner and celebrating with family at home after. 

Happy 8th Birthday Miss Muffet :)

We also took some time to remember & pray for all of those men, women (& their families) who have made and continue to make such tremendous sacrifices in order for us to live in the land of the free, and home of the brave. 

We honour and remember them.

11-11-11

Wordless Wednesday - November 9, 2011

What did we do this week (Oct 31st)?

You know it won't be an academically successful week when Monday is Halloween........I purposely did not schedule a lot of formal school for Halloween knowing that the level of interest & focus would be ZERO! Although I do have to applaud the kids for getting some work done the weekend prior just so they didn't have to do much on Monday.  

HALLOWEEN:  We did manage to get in Math, Piano Practice, Grammar & Religion, in addition to swimming lessons and piano lessons for Mr R.  Not too bad considering the excitement for the evening's events.  A fellow homeschooling family joined us for dinner & the Dads took the kids out while the Moms held the fort down at home.  They even brought their beautifully carved pumpkins as seen above.  

I am not very good at remembering the camera.......so I have very few photos from Halloween :(   DH was particularly annoyed that I didn't have any video of Chunky Monkey happily giving out the candy to the trick-or-treaters.  He wasn't scared at all and gave each of the kids a fistful of treats.  (his costume was a cow)

The rest of the week did not go smoothly at all.  The kids were more excited about sorting their treats (that counts as math right?) and then documenting it all (that could be cursive practice?) and then trying to find a spot where they could hide it so certain people couldn't steal any (a'hem.....that would be me).

Miss Muffett broke her retainer last Tuesday afternoon, eating popcorn (!) which is a big no-no with the orthodontist.  Kinda ironic how it happened just before Halloween :)  Hmmmmmm......just in time to be able to eat all the sticky, chewy things she is supposed to avoid.  Mr R was not impressed - he thought she did it on purpose just to be able to enjoy the Halloween treats!!  So off we went on Wednesday to get the replacement retainer put in.  Yet another interruption in our already unproductive week.

We had planned to go to the cemetery on November 2nd to put flowers for White Baba on All Souls' Day but Mr R was not feeling well and spent the entire day in bed.  White Baba is my grandmother who passed away in 2008.  We miss her a lot. 

When Mr R was little, he had trouble distinguishing between my Baba and DHs Baba so one day he told us that one was White Baba and the other was Pink Baba.  He decided to differentiate them by their hair colour!!!!  And it stuck.  All these years later - that is still how we refer to them.

(Mr R claims he can do his work anywhere - including in the play area.....ok whatever works)

Mr R is flying through Saxon 7/6.....which concerns me a little.  We switched him from 6/5 back at the end of September.  He is on Lesson #24 and can normally get an entire lesson done in under 30 minutes with just 2-3 errors.  In the past I've always checked his work and had him do the corrections immediately (most often it is a transposition error or something equally benign), but a recent article (http://homeschoolwithsaxon.com/newsletterpage-2011.php)  suggested that we should NOT have them make the corrections, and use the tests as an indicator of their understanding; not each daily lesson.  So we are going to try that and see how it goes.

Miss Muffett managed to get through quite a bit of grammar this week but I'm still considering a switch back to FLL after Christmas.  For Math, she did Test #6 and scored 18/20 - the trouble was she was supposed to do Test #5!!  Ooops.  I will still have her go back and do the lessons she would normally complete before writing Test #6- she tends to need the practice in this subject.  I'm considering the cuisenaire rods for her.  I think she needs some help in cementing her math facts.

Hug-a-Bug is just motoring along with his work.  He always says that the work is too easy - we finished up Lesson #44 of Saxon 1 & he is doing GREAT!  His reading for the week was supposed to be a Nate the Great book but he was too busy reading the Saint books & Magic Treehouse!  I can't complain.  I do need to work with him more on his printing - he keeps mixing up the capitals with the lower case in words.  I put up a manuscript chart so he can refer to it but I think he just wants to be independent with this.  Oh well - it isn't a big deal.  We will just keep doing the copywork and I will gently remind him as he is printing.  

And today, November 6, 2011 - we celebrate Pink Baba.  Today is her 100th birthday!  We are going over to the retirement home where she lives and will celebrate this amazing day with her.  We have been telling the kids how rare it is to be able to celebrate a 100th birthday and they are excited that we are having a party for her!   

Happy 100th Birthday to Pink Baba!