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!