Homeschool Recap, Dec 16th (Wk 14)...

In my life this week...

Everyone in the house was sickly this week.  Not fun.  I think it was just a round of colds... lots of snot, coughing and gunky throats.  We seem to be on the mend, but there's still lots of tissue use going on 'round here.  We haven't been doing anything too exciting.  Listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies, and just taking it easy.

My favorite thing this week was...
Oh, before all the sickness hit, on Saturday (my birthday!), we went out to a ranch and had the best time!  The boys really enjoyed being cowboys!  We did a hayride, ate the most delicious chicken from a giant smoker, Callen got to sit on a "neigghh!".  So much fun!

My cowboys!

What's NOT working for me...

Still waiting for the part for my laptop to come in.  Hoping it'll be here soon and will be the fix for it.  If not... I don't even know.

I'm reading...
Well, besides all the Christmas books, I picked back up with Anne of Green Gables.  Well, technically, I moved on to Anne of Avonlea.  Can't wait to see what Anne gets herself into next!

I'm grateful for...
A Savior who blesses us, even when we grumble and are ungrateful!  The Lord is constantly providing for us in so many different ways.  What right have I to complain about anything?  ANYTHING?!?!?  Sometimes I'm a real jerk, even when it's just inside my own head.  Forgive me, Father, for questioning, doubting, complaining and just generally being a butt.  Amen.

Ahem, anyway...

In our homeschool this week...

Tot School:  Callen is enjoying Christmastime.  When asked what Santa says, he replies, "oh! oh! oh!"  And when I ask where Baby Jesus is, he points to our nativity scene.  He has also decided he likes the song "We Wish You A Merry Christmas," as he says 'WISSS!"  It's terribly cute!  He is about to climb out of his crib at any moment, so I am constantly on alert.  We are in the process of getting Preston a twin bed to move in to, so we can give Preston's toddler bed to Callen.  They grow up too fast!  Callen is still very interested in coloring and enjoys doing the Advent to Color every day.  Don't you dare leave him out!  Lol.  And, my goodness, does that boy love our Christmas tree...  Eep!

Come out from behind there!

Bible: Proverbs 30:5, "Every word of God is flawless; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him."  And we discussed, read and illustrated Noah and the Ark, God's promise, The Tower of Babel and started talking about Abram.  The boys had a great time trying to build their own Tall Tower with blocks.  Preston got it just as tall as he was before it toppled.

Working on our towers!

After two more blocks, it fell!

Reading/Writing: Spent time working on writing words we were reading in our Bible stories, talked about "ew" and "ea."

Math: This week's theme was charts and graphs, something Preston is very familiar with.  Did the pages in the Complete Book of Math on the subject, and continued to fill in his Weather Chart (we do a new one every month to keep track of the weather - at the end of the school year, we'll make a large chart using all the months' info!).  We also read Lemonade for Sale, which talks about graphs.

Science: This week's science them was Rainbows, which went nicely with the story of Noah and the Ark, of course.  We watched a Cat In the Hat episode about learning the order of the colors, and he already knew Roy G. Biv.  He colored in some rainbows, and we made rainbows using a glass of water and flashlight (since it was cloudy all week and we couldn't use the sun!).  We also read a cute little book called Skyfire.

Music/Art:  This week's hymn was "How Firm a Foundation", and there were many new vocabulary words in this one to learn!  He liked it, though.  We also talked about chimes/tubular bells and the xylophone.  We looked at a landscape portrait from our Come Look With Me book.  We didn't do Drawing with Children this week, we just weren't feeling up to it.  Tried to lighten the load a bit.

Spanish:  We skipped Spanish lessons this week too.  Might try to get in some review this week and next, and not introduce anything new.  He's getting a bit mixed up with the last few weeks' words.  Probably a good time for a break with this anyway.

Advent/Seasonal activity: Our first full week of doing the Names of Jesus Countdown Chain from Spell Out Loud.  Each day we take off a chain link, learn about that particular name for Jesus, color an ornament from here and put it up on our tree branch.  Preston is also doing the Advent Calendar to Color from Usborne each day as well.  Callen wanted in on the action this time around, and has lovingly scribbled his additions to the Calendar.  But that makes it all the more special.  =)

We are using My Father's World First Grade. See our curriculum here.

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