Weekly Wrap-Up: January 28, 2011

                       

It’s been a while since I’ve updated, so I thought a good way to do so would be by participating in Kris’ Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up.

We officially started back from our Christmas break on January 18th.  Unfortunately, I’ve been struggling a bit with some anxiety, so we’ve just been plugging along trying to get the scheduled items completed. So far, so good.

We have been cooped up a bit inside, due to the weather and my issues (Yes, I have some issues. I can share more later.), but this week was much better so we managed to spend some time out of doors.

We decided to explore Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park that lies just on the outskirts of town. We found it has a couple small play structures, suitable more for toddler age, and a larger, wooden playground set that the boys loved. Even more exciting was the fact that the park houses two baseball diamonds, a basketball court and a nature trail.  There is plenty of room for the kids to run around and even to ride bikes if we choose to take them out there.

On Wednesday they spent some time on the playground and on Thursday we loaded up some bats, gloves and a ball and the kiddos took some time for P.E.

My husband found a snakeskin in a shed while he was working, so I took the boys to see it. Blake, of course, started to touch it and examine it, while Connor yelled at him, “Don’t touch it! Don’t touch it!” They are two totally different little boys! Blake then informed me that it was an old snakeskin because when snakes shed their skin, their eyelids come off with it and the eyelids were no longer visible on this one. Just in case I was concerned they weren’t learning anything being homeschooled!

Inside the schoolroom, we’re continuing our Ancient Egypt study and have begun reading Exodus. Just for fun, they watched The Prince of Egypt yesterday afternoon.  I’ve also decided to start with some early American history, mainly for Connor’s benefit, so we’ve started reading the Landmark book, The Vikings and will continue on from there.

That will do it for this week. I’m hoping to get back into some sort of regular blogging again soon!

Weekly Wrap-Up #11

I’ve missed a few weeks of Kris’ Weekly-Wrap Ups, so I thought I’d jump back in for a quick summary of this week.

Lulu had volunteer training for our church’s vacation bible school on Monday. VBS is next week and all kids in my household, including my niece who stays with me, will be attending. They’ve really enjoyed it in the past. Lulu will be working as a leader for the preschool kids. This year’s theme is Joseph and Egypt.

After training, we had lunch at a friend’s house and I was able to do some catch up while the kids swam.

Tuesday entailed a quick trip to the closest “larger” town that has a Whole Foods Market.  This is about an hour away from us. While we were out and about, I took the opportunity to visit the Aveda salon and pick up some hair products and the Sephora store for some makeup. I am all about budget living; however, I have found that there are some items that I just can’t compromise on. I’ve tried-they just don’t work as well! We also spent some time wandering through Borders and I picked up some books on living gluten-free. More about this in another post.

Wednesday was a stay home and do nothing day. Actually, it was a stay home and pack and do desk work/phone calls for moving day. It’s amazing how much has to be prepared before moving out of state.

Thursday the kids enjoyed swimming with their cousin, who is almost 3. I’d forgotten how much fun the little ones have splashing around. Usually I can just float around and enjoy the water, but that day I left the pool totally soaked.

Today was the usual Friday errands. Haircuts for the kids, bank deposits, grocery stores. And I’m hoping to sneak off in a short while and get a pedicure!

That’s it for this week. Enjoy your weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up #10

Monday and Tuesday of this last week were fairly uneventful. I can’t say the same for the rest of the week, however. 

I shuttled Lulu back and forth most of the week to our church’s middle school day camp. They took trips to a water park, Boomers, and Yosemite National Park, and on the last night had a sleepover at a local lake.

On Wednesday, we had family from San Diego arrive to visit for part of this week and they will return on Monday to spend all of next week with us.  I also was babysitting my niece on Wednesday and Thursday.  We counted a total of 9 kids here at one point on Thursday, and they were all having a ball!

On Friday, I loaded up my boxes of used curriculum I had cleaned out and headed to a homeschool curriculum sale that is held once a year, about 40 minutes from where I live.  Last year was the first year I attended to purchase items and this was the first year I set up a table to sell.  I managed to sell quite a few things and what I had left I donated at the end of the sale to the support group. So no more boxes of curriculum sitting around!  I was also very pleased with my finds for the day.

I picked up a complete set of Math-U-See Algebra I for Lulu. For free!!! The only hitch is that some of the student pages have been written on, but I figured I can work around that little issue.  Especially since it saved me from spending $85 on a new set!  I was also able to purchase a complete set of Math-U-See Stewardship from the same vendor for $5.  This set came with two student books, so I’ll have an extra for later.  I don’t plan on using this until Lulu is done with Algebra I, but for the price, I could handle purchasing it early. $80 saved.

I bought Tramp for the Lord by Corrie Ten Boom for myself. I had a copy but when I went to read it I discovered some pages had been chewed up. Something I didn’t notice when I had originally purchased it. 

The other items I found were:

Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt by Jean Fritz (.50 cents)

Desert Giant (.25 cents)

Sam Houston, the Tallest Texan (a Landmark book, $1.oo)

Addition and Subtraction facts sing-along cassette with activity book (for Conman, who needs to work on these. $1.00)

Some Body board game (I’ve been wanting this, but it was too expensive, around $23.00.  I bought a brand new one for $3.00)

The Fourth Anti-Coloring Book (.50 cents)

Ida Clips-a building set for the boys. ($1.00)

I think that was everything. I even managed to make a little money!

Hope your week was great. Check out what others have been up to at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly-Wrap Up.

Weekly Wrap-Up #9

Our week was somewhat short and easy. To see what others have been up to, head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers' Weekly Wrap-Up post.

I am happy to announce I am posting this from my brand new laptop!! While out running errands last week, we stopped off to research laptops. I found one that seemed like a good deal and had everything I wanted, so with my husband's blessing, I brought it home! I am so excited to be mobile. I am actually blogging right now from sunny San Diego, where we're spending the weekend. I'll post more on our trip over the weekend.

As a family, we attended a wonderful FFH concert at our church last weeekend. Inspiring music and an amazing testimony were enjoyed by all.



Conman completed one of his science sections this week and I gave him his first Charlotte Mason style "exam." I used the examples in the text and asked him to tell me all he could about several different items, such as the solar system, atmosphere, water cycle, etc. He did really well informing me about everything he learned-with a song! He answered every question by turning his answers into some sort of rhyme and singing them to me. If I was grading him, he would definitely get an "A" for creativity!

Blakester spent some time outside the orthodontist office this week during Lulu's visit exploring the landscaping and came out with a snail which he proudly showed off. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera handy.

Lulu has been working on her quilting project and should have it completed next week. I'll be able to show it off to everyone at that point.

I'm still working away at next year's lesson plan, and am happy to be able to plan on the road. I will be completing the entry of our poems for next year over the weekend.

Til tomorrow~

Weekly Wrap Up #8

I spent yesterday afternoon with a few friends enjoying a wonderful outdoor concert by Britt Nicole and Natalie Grant. The weather was warm, but not intolerable. Afterwards, we had a leisurely dinner where we chatted and just played catch-up. A nice way to wind down the week for me.

The kids got to spend some time last night with their dad at a friends house, making smore's and hanging out. I met up with them when we returned from my big girl's night out.

School wise, Blakester did complete both his nature reader and Apologia science this week. He wanted to know if he had to start right away on his next science. I told him no, but there is supplemental reading he'll be doing over the summer for science.

The white board was what worked best for Conman this week for his math problems. He didn't want to complete the worksheets, but once I wrote the same, exact problems on the white board, he whizzed through them. Go figure.

I'm jumping in and cleaning the boy's room thoroughly today. We finished Lulu's yesterday. Only 3 more months til the move!

If you're interested in reading what others have been up to this week, check out
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly-Wrap Up posts.

Weekly Wrap Up #7

Here's our week in review. You can head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others have been up to.

The weather was pleasant, but windy, this week. Conman took advantage of it and practiced his kite flying techniques.

He also spent some time outside exploring with the cats.

And he pointed out the white and lavender alysum that has bloomed. He's been very busy this week.

Our picture study this week was "Two Children at the Seashore".

Instead of having the kids color the picture we studied, I had them color a different picture, using their own shading and colors. I don't have photos of them, but they did turn out quite nicely.

I'm pleased to report that we did follow through with our hymn study this week.

I have spent most of my time this week cleaning out the schoolroom. I did some serious purging and rearranging to make that particular room look larger and more inviting to prospective buyers. I boxed up four boxes of books that I will not need to get to over the next couple of months, so that I could move out some small bookcases.

I've been planning out next years lessons using the Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education resources from Simply Charlotte Mason, and am currently working through Lulu's year. My goal is to get the next year planned before summer and moving overtake us.

I also received a box from Rainbow Resource today. I had ordered this beautiful
Book of the Centuries from them. We've tried keeping timelines several different ways: in individual 3-ring notebooks, in small notebooks, on the wall, on index cards....but nothing seems to fit right. So next year we'll start out with a family Book of the Centuries. I figured if I spent the money to obtain a nice one, we'll actually use it and take care of it. That was my big splurge for the year.

Bob the lizard now has a boxmate. Blakester rescued blue-belly that Dallas caught and brought into our garage. He is yet unnamed. Now I buy 4 dozen crickets at a time.

I hope everyone has a joyful Mother's Day weekend.

Weekly Wrap Up #6

Here's our week in review. You can head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others have been up to.

Our Mary Cassatt picture for last week's study was "Sarah in a Green Bonnet." This was such a sweet picture I couldn't resist posting it.

Our poem of the week was "A Boat Beneath a Sunny Sky." Here is the link to the site where I found a listing of Lewis Carroll poems.

We were able to add some new critters to our personal field guides. Blakester found some June bugs in the flowers.

Conman captured a ladybug one day. After he let it go, the little bug flew back into the house. He swore it was following him.

Blakester is pretty adamant he spotted a Bald Eagle soaring overhead one day. Very cool.

I spent some time watching my Charlotte Mason All-Day Seminar on DVD. I'll post a full review on this later this week. I also started using the Planning Your Charlotte Mason Education resources to plan for next year. I made purchases this week online of all the necessary books, with the exception of math, that I'll need next year. I'll get my Math-U-See books at the convention in July to avoid shipping charges.

We also spent some time shopping for some much needed spring clothing and restocking the cupboards since we're at the first of the month.

Til tomorrow~

Weekly Wrap Up #5

Due to the creepy-crud taking over our house this last week, my wrap-up will consist of things we did and didn't get to do. You can head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others have been up to.

First of all, we didn't get to participate in planned field trips to an aquarium, a Civil War days reenactment or a zoo trip with family. I did get to visit my doctor who prescribed some antibiotics, nasal spray and sinus medicine. Fun stuff.

I did decide to get serious about my weight loss and in just following a 7 day Biggest Loser menu from a magazine, I've lost 2 pounds since Monday. Just diet, no exercise, due to being under the weather. I've been considering starting a blog on this subject. Maybe it would keep me motivated.

I won the book Chop, Chop from an Ultimate Blog Party giveaway at Teen Lit Review. Their site reviews pre-teen and teen Christian literature.

We did flounder our way through school this week. I had to forgo any read-alouds, though, due to major coughing fits.

We had fun reading about Lewis Carroll, and his poem Jabberwocky.

For our artist study, we chose Mary Cassatt. We read a short bio about her and the kids watched a nice slide show of her paintings set to music. Our painting for this week was entitled "The Bath."

I found some coloring pages which depicted some of her paintings, so the kids worked on those also. Lulu's was done quite well.

Lulu has a very artistic spirit. She worked on her 4-h quilt this week, stuffing it with batting, and will start quilting it after her next meeting. I'll post pics when it's complete. She also pulled out her watercolors and tried some free hand painting.


Conman learned about the water cycle this week. We read The Cloud Book, The Water Cycle and A Rainy Day. These were not recommended in 106 Days of Creation, we just picked them up at the library. I had ordered some Moody science videos to supplement his science and he and his brother seemed to enjoy the one they watched this week-Water, Water Everywhere.

We did not get into our hymn or composer study. There's always next week.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up #4

Here's our week in a nutshell. You can head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others have been up to.

We were officially on Easter break this week and had company visiting from San Diego. We had a total of ten cousins (including my kids), ages 2-20 that spent all or part of their break here with us. The weather cooperated so nicely that the kids were able to spent a lot of time outside playing.

We visited the flea market, some thrift stores and the library's used bookstore. We took a drive back to the olive oil plant and stocked up on some goodies. We spent some time just sitting around and reading. We ate an awful lot. I came down with a sore throat and a cold. And it was all good!

We read a new (to us) Dr. Seuss book, Happy Birthday to You. That produced some giggles.

Blakester spent several hours creating an elaborate spaceship out of Legos.


Lulu spent an afternoon making a ton of strawberry freezer jam with Grandma and others.

I spent some time at the Ultimate Blog Party 2010 partying with other bloggers. That was a lot of fun!

I prepared our next couple weeks of schoolwork. We'll be back to the grindstone on Monday.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Weekly Wrap Up #3

I'm back. At least for now. Here's our Weekly Wrap-Up. You can head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others have been up to.


This was a slightly odd, short week. We completed some school along with some other activities thrown in.


I won't bore you with details of our mundane errands, such as dentist appointments, grocery shopping, etc.


I did get to attend our Spring Tea at the church on Tuesday. This year my daughter, being 13, was old enough to join us. It was a wonderful morning with some delicious food, hot tea and fellowship.


School wise, we finished up our six week artist study on John James Audubon. Our picture this week was the Wild Turkey.


We also finished our poet study on Robert Louis Stevenson. This week I'll be choosing new poets and artists using the Simply Charlotte Mason schedule, so we're prepared for after Easter break.


Blakester completed his Math-U-See Delta book this week. He'll be starting on Epsilon, which is their 5th grade book. So, I'll have a 4th grader doing on 5th grade math and 6th grade grammar. Hmm.


Thursday night, the husband and myself were able to go on a much needed date night. We attended the Rock and Worship Roadshow about an hour away from our house. Talk about an awesome night of music and worship!! We finished off the evening with a stop at The Cheesecake Factory. Yum!


We wrapped up the week on Friday with a few tests and I finished inputting grades into the Homeschool Tracker so I could print out report cards for this last term. The kids did really well.
Blakester ended up with a GPA of 3.92 and Lulu with 3.75. They both brought them up from last term.


For fun, the kids got together with some cousins and colored Easter eggs. They had a great time. Especially the little ones who thought the eggs would make good balls. Only a few were cracked.

The eggs, not the kids.

That was it for our week. We're getting ready to enjoy a relaxing Easter day tomorrow. Be sure to stop and give praise to our Creator and Saviour for the wonderful gift He gave to us!

Weekly Wrap-Up #2

I like the idea of a Weekly Wrap-Up so I plan on continuing with it. It's also a lot of fun to see how other homeschoolers have spent their weeks. If you click here, you can read about other Weekly Wrap-Ups as well.

I posted last Monday about Bob the lizard moving into his new abode. Here is a photo of his fancy new home. Unfortunately, Bob likes to hide in the sand, so we don't see a lot of him. Every now and then Blakester will dig him out so he can watch him run around for a while. I also had to purchase 24 more crickets on Monday. Apparently Bob has a large appetite.

Tuesday, Conman attended his gymnastics class. A little more attention was paid this week to his coach.

Our picture study this week was on Audubon's print, The Large-Billed Puffin. The kids are doing well at narrating. I leave the prior weeks pictures up and they are even noticing similarities between the prints.

We wrapped our reading of The Bible Story by Arthur S. Maxwell. This is a 10 volume set of wonderfully illustrated bible stories that came from my grandparent's house. There are 409 stories and we started reading them when we began homeschooling. Arthur Maxwell is the same author who wrote Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. We have some of the audio cassettes of these and the kids really enjoy them.

We started Conman's 106 Days of Creation study by reading about the days of creation and starting on Day 1, light. Here is his rendition of each days topic. I somehow managed to create the notebooking page with all the little circles myself! You can download the template here if you'd like one.

We also started reading about California Missions all together using California Missions History and Model Building Ideas for Children. This was the best book I could find at our library that gave a summary of each mission's history. We worked on narration this week, and mapped the missions on a blank California map. Next week the kids will be sketching one of the missions and we're going to attempt to build one. We also plan on visiting a couple of them in a few weeks so the kids can get a first hand glimpse at the history they've been reading about.

Thursday was the sunniest day weather wise this week, so after a morning of schoolwork we headed to the park. I know spring is coming because plants and trees are in full bloom around here.

The kids hung out on the twirly things eating their PB&J sandwiches while I soaked up some short-lived sun. It's raining again today.

I even managed to pull out some creativity and start on my Texas scrapbook. (More on my Texas obsession later.) I completed two pages this afternoon and just left the mess on the craft table so I'll be sure to go back to it.

That's all for this week. Enjoy your weekend~