Birthdays and Holidays galore!

I'm incredibly behind on the blogging - I know this! I apologize. Things have been hectic around here. Ever since out little pre-term labor scare around Thanksgiving, I havent really gotten caught up with much of anything.

BUT here's a little catch-up I've done.

Ryan's 9th Birthday:

About a week or so before his actual birthday, we surprised him with a birthday celebration at Chuck E Cheese! It was great! Dennis booked us early in the morning so we had the ENTIRE place to ourselves (well there was one other family but we barely saw them).

The kiddos had free range of all the games they wanted to play.

Chuck E even came out to crown Ryan with his Birthday crown.

Then Ryan got to go into the Ticket Blaster!

He got SOOO many tickets he didnt even know what to do with them all! He was able to "purchase" his very own Chuck E Cheese Pillowpet with all of those tickets.

Christmas:

Christmas morning we all woke up early and had the pleasure of going to church to celebrate the holiday as it should be.

Since we were all dressed up we took the opportunity to take some family photos!

Then when we got back home, we all quick changed BACK into our PJ's and started opening our pressies.

Elizabeth's 3rd Birthday:

She has been so excited about her special day!

She loved all the pressies and the cake and singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY! She ate it all up! (not just the cake either!)

A BUSY, BUSY but fun month we have had to finish out the year!

Home school Week:12

Last week was a little hectic and I never got around to posting on the blog, but I'm getting back on track this week!


Art: the boys both did projects learning to combine primary and secondary colors to make a whole new "look" to their art.
Sean worked on these leaves layering several different colors and learning how to blend them.
Ryan did the same with his Parrot but he used watercolor. For each body part he had to use one primary and one secondary. He loved the neat colors that came out!

Bible: This week (and last week) we studied the book of Esther. A really great example how God works in our lives even when we don't see every step He is doing. And how important it is to wait on God and let Him do his wonderful Works!

History: We learned about India, its history of kings and eventually being taken over by the East India Company and England. It was really neat to learn about the Taj Mahal! We thought it was a palace, but really, it was a tomb built for a beloved Queen.

Science: We looked at Mollusks (snails, slugs,oysters, etc) and Cnidarians (pronounced ni-DARE-ee-ans) - jellyfish, anemones, coral. The boys liked all those gooey animals!

Lang Arts: Sean is working on a very large Library Research report on the Alamo. We took a trip to the library, got our library cards, and learned some library skills for everyone this week.
Ryan, on top of going to the library, began learning the rules to making nouns plural.

Reading: Ryan finished reading Chalk Box Kid this week.

And Sean began The Matchlock Gun.

P.E.: Last but not least we had our weekly PE class. The boys are continuing with their Soccer drills and games. They're really enjoying it!

Sean playing goalie:

Ryan blocking his opponent:

Elizabeth just running around, having fun!!

" this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW
at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "

Homeschool Week: 10

We had a pretty good week this week. We ended up taking the day off today because I had a doctor's appointment which lasted longer than expected. The doctor gave me a hard time over my "in office" blood pressure readings again, despite the fact that I gave him a record of my readings being normal at home. He wants to begin seeing me more often and even send a nurse to our house to check my blood pressure at home. I am very thankful Dennis was there or things could have ended up a lot worse. I'm trying not to let it bother me, but, you know, it does....

Anyway!! for what we accomplished in school!

Bible: We finished up our very interesting study in Daniel. What an amazing book Daniel is! I have a hard time grasping the end times prophesy stuff but just learning about Daniel himself and seeing what an amazing man of God he was, always standing on the side of God no matter what everyone around him was doing! So many great lessons are learned from him that pertain to today's world!

History: We learned a bit about the 'age of discovery'. Including Isaac Newton, who began a whole NEW way of thinking about things. His scientific discoveries rocked not just the science community, but changed the way people thought about how government should be ran and even farming!

Science: We started a new unit now on invertebrate animals, starting with the Arthropods (or BUGS for us laymen). Sean's face cracked me up this week when we talked about the different types of arthropods, especially the crustaceans (crabs, lobsters, etc). He said, "I didn't know crabs were BUGS?!!" hahah! I laughed and told him, now you know why mom calls them yucky sea bugs!

Math: Sean learned how to divide in decimals and write his answers using a decimal verses a remainder. Ryan worked harder on his division this week and also started learning to multiply by 6.

Language Arts: Sean is learning how to form a proper paragraph and we discussed topics that he will be using to write a library research report. Ryan finished his unit on possessives and punctuation.

Pre-K: I found some neat "school" on this website for Elizabeth too!! I made this poster of the week for her and every day we take a few minutes to learn a letter, number, shape, and even a new vocabulary word. Every day we focus on just one item. For instance, for the "square day", we walked around the house together to find everything we could that was a square. Her face just lights up when I ask her if she wants to do "school". She loves it!

" this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW
at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "

Homeschool Week:9

We had a very busy week this week trying to catch up on some of the work that we missed last week plus a ton of interruptions early on this week.

On Monday, we had PE class. The weather was beautiful!! I even got a small sunburn which was surprising! Dennis was with us because we had a ton of errands to run, to include dropping off the van for some maintenance. Since he was there, he was able to lead all the kiddos in exercises and some soccer drills. They had a great time!

On Tues, they kicked us out of our house so they could clean the air ducts. We really didnt get much done this day either. It was well worth it though, to have cleaner air to breathe!


History: I finally got off my rear and thought of a way to implement the timeline into our notebooks. I found these free timeline sheets, printed them out and placed them in the front of each of the boys' notebooks. We glued in and colored the pictures that came with out curriculum.

This week in history we talked about different nation's colonies that were forming in the new world. In particular we talked about the French colonies and the wars that were flaring up between the Europeans and the Native Americans.

Read Aloud: We started reading Madeleine Takes Command which fits perfectly with this week's history lesson. It is a true story about a young 14 year old girl in the French colonies. She is left in charge of the fort while her parents are away and the Iroquois attack! This story is giving the boys a good taste of what colonial life would have been like.

Science: We studied Reptiles!! The boys loved it! We learned how to tell the difference between a reptile and amphibian; a turtle and a tortoise; and a crocodile and an alligator. :)


Art: The boys each had their art project to do today.

Ryan made a 3D paper sculpture of an owl

Sean leaned about the horizon line and perspective. He had to copy the drawings presented, using perspective. The last picture in each group of three's is his drawing (the first two are the step-by-step examples). He did quite well!!

Reading: Ryan began reading the first book of the Third Grade Detectives Series.

Sean began and finished The Courage of Sarah Noble this week. He is also working on his first long book report of the year to this book.

" this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "

Homeschool Week: ??

Well we managed to get one day of home school done this week, and that was it. We have been struggling with sickness and different doctor's appointments and other interference, so this week has turned out to be more of a "rest" week.

Earlier this week, both boys went in for allergy testing. Sean came away with just dust and sycamore tree allergy. Poor Ryan however came out worse. He is allergic to all trees, grass, weeds, dust, etc, including peanuts. We are thankful that he at least is not allergic to cats and dogs. We are going to get some blood work done for him to find out more specifics on the peanut allergy. He was pretty bummed that he will probably never get to try a Reece's Cup.

This week I also had my "20 week" ultrasound - even though Im 23 weeks. Unfortunately baby wasnt very cooperative. She slept with her back to the doctor the entire time. They said they werent able to get a good view of her heart. I dont know exactly what they were looking to see, but we did see all 4 chambers and that it was pumping along as it should. The doctor hinted that they might send me back for, yet another, ultrasound. We'll see. Otherwise, they said she looks healthy and is a normal weight - a little over 1 pound. ;) I think that was the first ultrasound that I've been through where they didnt exclaim how big my baby is. HAHA!

That's it for now... next week, back to the BOOKS!!
Have a good weekend! :)

Homeschool Week: 8

We had a pretty normal week, for once! Not many interruptions and we were able to make it through all of our lesson plans for the week. Next week? Well that will be a whole different story!

On Tues, we started our first P.E. session with the other home schooled children who attend our church.

They got to get some exercise, do some soccer drills, and even play a game before it was time to go.
The boys and Elizabeth had a GREAT time! The boys were even talking that they wanted to join a soccer team, they enjoyed it so much.

Elizabeth didnt join in with the game, she chased butterflies most of the time. She thought that was great fun too. :)

Bible: We finished up our unit on David, learning a whole lot about the consequences of unconfessed sin. For our Hymn, we began learning "Now Thank We All Our God". Which was written at the end of the Thirty Years War (see History), thanking God for getting them through that terrible time.


Science: We studied fish, their anatomy and fins, and how God specifically designed them to live in the water.

On Friday, we watched Disney's Oceans for a special treat - Netflix streaming has been a great source for our school year this year!!


History: We learned about the Thirty Years War and Oliver Cromwell, the king who wasn't a king.


Math: Sean worked on fractions and Ryan continued reinforcing division and proving his multiplication facts.

LA: Ryan finished his unit on commas and Sean is working on different forms of punctuation.

Reading: Sean is reading Meet Thomas Jefferson this week to get ready for his first long book report for the year. We have discovered that the books that I bought him for this year seem to be much too easy for him. We're going to finish up these books (he's flying through them) and then I think we'll be bumping up his reading level quite a bit. This HUGE for me though, he has struggled with reading so much since grade one and to see how much he has grown, thrills me!

Ryan just finished his Riding the Pony Express book. He'll be starting a new book next week. He has been doing outstanding in his reading as well, almost needing no help from mom! :)


" this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "

Homeschool Week:7

I cant believe it's Friday already! We had a pretty full week

Monday we had the day off for Sean's birthday, so we had a short and full week.

History: We learned about how the New York colony began and also about the start of the southern plantations and slavery. We also learned about a brave queen in Africa that stood up against the slave traders. We know her area of the world today as Angola.

Science: We learned all about birds this week.
Different bird's beaks and feet and their purposes:

Their wings and how God designed their bodies perfectly for flying:

And finally the bird's digestive system, which led us to our fun project of the week:

I surprised the boys with Owl Pellets to dissect this week!
What is an owl pellet, you ask? Owls eat their prey whole and whatever they do not digest (bones, fur, etc) gets regurgitated back up into the owl pellets we see here!

We had a blast!! I bought a "kit" online which included the pellet, tools and a little observation packet which helped us identify the bones and use our scientific method.

The boys had to measure and observe the pellet describing what it looks like. They also had to fill out a hypothesis on what they thought might be inside the pellet.

Boy were they surprised!

They both found several skulls and all sorts of little bones.

We soaked the bones in a little bleach water as we went along so that we could clear off some of the fur and get a better look at what we had.

Then the boys used their chart to match up the bones and try and identify the skeletons.

It was a really neat learning experience!!

Art: We learned about hue (color) and value (shade) . How to use our colored pencils, by the way the pencil is held, to lighten or darken the value of our hues.

Sean had to color this nature scene using the techniques he learned.

Ryan had to use his pencil to shade over real leaves and cut them out to add to his picture.

Bible: We discussed David's sin with Bathsheba and the consequences of his sin. We continued learning the hymn "The Lord's My Shepherd".

Math: Sean is reviewing using fractions in addition and subtraction. Ryan is learning his 5 multiplication tables and still getting the mechanics of division down.

Language: Ryan is learning the different uses of a comma. Sean finished up a unit on capitalization and comma uses.



" this post is linked to Homeschool Highlights in MFW at Discover Their Gifts or 2 ladybugs and a lizard "