A Really Really Big Announcement...

Ssshhhh! Don't wake her up...'cause this girl is...



FINALLY SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!!!!!!

Let's all hope I didn't just jinx it by announcing it too soon...It's almost been a week though. I just couldn't contain my ecstasy.

A Buffet of My Thoughts

It's like going to Chuck-A-Rama today. You get to pick and choose which one of my random thoughts you like and want to chew on for a while. Enjoy the smorgasbord of confusion:

First off; Okay, we get it!! Football is serious. Practice is every evening from 5:45 to 8pm. Except Sundays, thank goodness! Otherwise: "IT'S GOD OR FOOTBALL, PEOPLE!!" If your son is puking, and he doesn't feel up to tackling, or you run late for a practice because you can't locate your son, expect a phone call from the coach. Toto, we're not in soccer anymore.

Next; Why was Henry VIII such a butt? Seriously? Six wives? Focus on something besides producing a male heir you doofus. Like maybe appreciating your awesome first wife, Catherine of Aragon who was like, the smartest woman alive at the time.

Third; James and I have read these amazing books. They are called For Men Only and For Women Only. They are companion books written by a husband and wife team. I've always thought that I understood men pretty well. But. Holy cow was I wrong. Seriously? My jaw just dropped. Especially while I was reading the chapter called "The Visual Rolodex". James was equally astounded. We kept asking each other "Is this true??" I highly, highly recommend these books. I've always felt that James and I had a fantastic marriage, but these books opened up a whole new world. Give them a shot.

Next; I turned 32 on the 4th. Happy birthday to me.

Next; camping is a lot less fun, now that I'm the mom and not the kid.

Next; If you do not own a window squeegee you need to take care of that, and fast. I bought this little beauty a few months ago, and kids, cleaning windows is a blast now. And so speedy. And you don't even need soap! And there are really no streaks!! And you don't waste paper towels!!! (Inhaling, exhaling). Just go buy one, okay?

Next; my blog is really really dumb.

Next; You know what is making me really sad right now? The fact that my family is hostile to homeschooling. It's dangerous to rant on your family on your public blog, but I'm gonna anyway. Apparently, a couple of my family members ambushed James and staged a full scale intervention. They think that homeschooling is a bad idea. They think he should make me stop. You know what bugs me the worst? It's that they didn't come to me. (Okay, I'm kind of glad they didn't). But seriously, it's like they're scared to ask me anything about it. They don't ask what we're studying, they don't ask how it's going, they don't ask where we get our materials...all of the stuff that people usually ask...and they are just silent. And this is my family! It's like they're afraid to ask, because then, they might have to think it's cool. And if homeschooling is cool, well, that's gonna change the way they view their whole world. They might have to open their minds. (They think that their minds are already open, because they are liberal democrats, but their minds are closed to anything that they don't agree with. Like homeschooling. Just to name a random example.) They might have to admit that they were wrong.

Next; I hope that the above rant doesn't kick me out of my family.

Weekly Report Weeks 3 and 4

School is humming right along. I'm happy with the amount of work that is getting done. Kate is really predictable with her naps now and it has made such a difference. We've even done several science experiments this week. Granted, they didn't have anything to do with earth science (which is what we're supposed to be studying), but they were fun and very educational.
Mary was sick yesterday with a high fever, but she was actually a lot easier than normal, so we still did school, though it was pretty much just the basics, yesterday. I'm trying to think what else we've been up to that has affected school...I think that's it. Right now I'm working on a list of chores that the kids need to do before they can go out to play. I'm feeling a lot like the family slave lately. That needs to change.
First off, I'm still so pleased with Winston Grammar. Keller already has common and proper nouns, articles, and personal pronouns down pat, and we've only been at it for about 3 weeks. This is a great curriculum for us. He enjoys doing it too, which is totally the point.

Last week math had a few bumps in the road for Keller. This week has been better for him. Ella is using unifix cubes to help cement the idea of larger addition and subtraction problems (sums of up to 20). She's doing pretty well, though I'm not sure how much it really means to her. She loves having her own work to do alongside of Keller though, so I just let her do it and try not to push her to finish if she doesn't want to.

Keller finished his White Star book. He's doing better in reading, skipping less words and being a little more careful, sounding things out instead of just fudging and guessing. Ella's doing great on reading. She's fun to listen to.

Keller has a fit every time he misses a spelling word. I try to calm him down and tell him it's okay to make mistakes, but he just hates to miss any words! Next week, we'll practice a little more. Ella needs work on writing. I've got to find her a writing program. Suggestions?

Science was fun. We put pepsin ( the enzyme in your stomach that digests proteins) onto gelatin and watched it dissolve the gelatin. We also labeled the parts of the digestive system, and we also tested different foods for starch content. Plus Keller had his MacGyver class both weeks. They raced their rocket cars and our car (our real car that we drive) narrowly missed being attacked when one of the cars blew up. It looked like the space shuttle explosion. But, needless to say, the boys loved it.

Um, we pretty much skipped history. Except I let them watch a video on the Celts. We'll work on improving that next week. I need to find a new book for Keller to love, also.

Well, that's it! All in all a good couple of weeks.

Weekly Report Week 2

The microscope and all the new books came last Wednesday. The microscope has been a huge hit! We spent all of Wednesday afternoon setting it up and looking at bug parts. Then on Thursday morning, we picked flowers and cut them apart and looked at them. We saw plant cells! We looked at skin cells from the inside of my mouth (gross I know, but the kids loved it).

We kept plugging along with math. It's feels so good to be doing it every day. Math is one of those subjects that needs to be done regularly. Keller is still working on techniques for working math problems in his head. During one lesson, he just wasn't getting it. I just kept repeating myself in the same tone of voice ( I was being patient)! Finally he says: "Oh, I know, I could just do this..." and then he went ahead and did what I had been explaining over and over. Yep. You could do that, Keller... LOL. It's fun to watch the "light" come on.

Winston Grammar is a hit! I love it. It's a visual and tactile way to learn all the parts of speech and sentence mechanics, and it's fun. I just didn't use the First Language Lessons of the Well Trained Mind. I don't know why, but we just couldn't get thrilled about it. Winston is better at getting the student involved.

Spelling is rolling right along. Both kids are doing the Spelling Workout books.

We started cursive writing! Keller has been begging me to do this for more than six months! How sad. I kept telling myself that I would research cursive writing books and choose the best. Finally I just broke down and ordered the first one that I saw. Of course, he loves it. He just wanted to learn it, forget about how.

Still doing our journal pages. Nothing new here.

This coming week, what we need to do better:
Get back into picture scriptures. The kids are begging for them.
Fill out Keller's weekly planner. The days go so much smoother when I do this!
Ella is bitter because Keller is learning cursive and grammar, and she's not doing these. The grammar program said that kids don't think abstractly enough to really understand parts of speech at her age. I'm not letting her do cursive, because we need more work on printing first. So, since she's feeling bitter I need to find something special that's just for her. Hmmm. Ideas?
I need to make cards for spelling and Latin. Making cards with words for them to know works so well, but I didn't do it last week. Must do it this week. Now in fact.
I need more ideas on what to do with Mary during school. For now, I've been filling pots and pans with water and letting her play with them out on the deck, but this only works when it's warm outside! Filling up the kitchen sink with water and bubbles works too. Anyone have any other ideas for occupying a precocious two-year-old?
That's it for now! I welcome comments, especially those with ideas!

Weekly Report Week 1

This week we're still easing back into the schedule of school. Kate is just barely starting to be a little bit predictable with her naps, and I think all of us are really anxious to get back into school!
This won't look like much, but it's a beginning!

Math: Keller did two pages of Singapore this week and to my relief he flew through, and was able to do most of it in his head. Ella loves her Singapore work book. She's doing great.

Reading: Keller is reading White Star. It's about a dog on the Titanic, so of course, he loves it. Ella is amazing me with her reading ability. Seriously, I taught her the sounds that the letters make, and she's done the rest. She's reading scripture verses with almost no hesitation. She seems to understand what she's reading. She's a sharp one.

Writing: Haven't done our journal pages, but I've got the blank pages copied off and ready to go.

History: We finished our ancient studies! Rome has succumbed to the various Barbarians. They did their map work, outlining the East and West Roman Empires, and also the final map, where they named and colored the continents and major countries that we studied. Next week, we're moving on to the bold middle ages. Yay!

I ordered a grammar program for both the kids, a microscope, and a surprise piano course for Keller (and Ella?). Watch next Friday for the next weekly report and we'll see how the new programs work out. We've been doing school at the kitchen table instead of in the school room. Katie sleeps in her swing and I can be doing dishes while they work on their stuff.

Hey, it's a start.