Merry Christmas from The Clarks!

And...

Because it's my favorite and I have to watch it every year:

Callenisms on Mommy & Snow Angels...

Callen dumped out the basket full of clean clothes, laid down on his back and moved his arms and legs back and forth.

Me - "What in the world are you doing?"
Callen - "Making a snow angel!"
Me - "Oh, well in that case, carry on."


x

Callen was playing with Michael.

Callen - "Daddy, when I grow up I wanna be like you!"
Michael - "Aww, thank you.  But I bet you'll be something even better."
Callen - "Like Mommy?"

Yessssss!  Ha!

x

Our Christmas Tree and Decor 2012!

I forgot to post about how we went to cut down our own Christmas tree last week, and then... well, didn't end up cutting it down afte rall.  We went out to Canton, stopping to have lunch at Dairy Queen, of course, and fully intended up hunting down and chopping down the tree of our choice.  But, turns out, the selection was terrible.  All of the trees were too big or too small.  I mean, we weren't being picky or snobby, at all.  There literally were not ANY trees that would work for us.  Pretty disappointing.  We did end up with a tree, though.  It was just already cut and ready to go.  No sawing for the Clark Family this year.  Oh well, hey, at least we got a tree!!!

Callen made a better tree than the actual trees.

There's a tree in the house!

Trimmed in blue!

Michael did a fantastic job of doing the Christmas lights on the house this year and came up with a neat way to make use of the branches we had to cut off the bottom of our tree!

Our big tree in the front blocks the view if you're too close.

Got our Nativity and Peanuts Gang.

Love it!  The branches and lights look so pretty!

Homeschool Recap, December 14th (Week 19)...

In my life this week...

It's been a crazy couple of days.  Monday was my birthday, and it snowed just a tiny bit.  But that was a really nice birthday gift for me!  Callen and I have been sick... just a cold or something, coughing, lots of yucky drainage, etc.  Well, it seemed we were getting better.  Michael and I dropped the boys off to spend the night with Grandma on Thursday, so that we could have a date night.  We used Christmas money my Grandma Evelyn gave us to go see the Dead Sea Scrolls in Fort Worth.  That was a neat experience!  We also found a revived Bennigan's and had dinner... oh, how many times we ate at Bennigan's back when we were dating, haha!  Meanwhile, Callen threw up a bunch of times while at my parents' house... not sure what the real cause of that was, but... oops, sorry, Mom & Dad!  Eep.  Friday morning I turned Michael's TCCC grades in for him, dropped a present off for a friend who just had a baby (a month early!), stopped by Auto Zone to see why my check-engine light came on (no big deal, whew!) and then finally made it Chickfila in Southlake to set up for their last Women's Expo.

Half way through the event, I heard the news of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.  I couldn't stop shaking and my eyes kept filling will tears... 20 sweet children killed along with 6 adults at the school.  Plus the shooter's mother and himself.  Unbelievable.  I know that we can never understand such things... there is no "answer" for something like this.  It's completely unfathomable and utterly heart breaking.  Last night, as I watched classic Christmas tv shows and movies with my little ones, all I could think of was how there were so many families who weren't doing the same thing that evening.  It's hard to celebrate a holiday after losing a loved one... but to lose a child so near to Christmas.  Wow.  Their precious ones were taken from them in what is supposed to be a season of cheer and goodwill.  I can't do anything but pray for peace and comfort and that despite what they're going through right now... that the family and friends who have gone through this tragedy will turn TO God and not AWAY from Him with their grief.  And as people scream and argue about gun control, better school security, etc....A friend of mine, Layne Rogers, posted this as his status yesterday and I just love it, and I pray we all remember it forever: "We do not eliminate darkness by destroying everything that casts a shadow, we push back the darkness by increasing the light."

Anyway, a quick recap of what we did earlier this week...

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "N" for Net (insects)!  We read a lot of fun bug-themed books:



Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Lamb of God. Preston's memory verse is John 1:29 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being a lamb. We also made a lamb out of the boys' hand prints and cotton balls.  They did not... um.. come out as I had hoped... Preston has a bit of trouble writing that day (due to his bad attitude about it, mostly).

Not exactly what I had hoped for.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 40-42 in Primary Language Lessons. We finished our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Preston wrote a short book review on it. We have been reading a ton of Christmas books as well to go along with our Advent/Christmas countdown. 

Writing the Farmer Boy review.

History: 
This week Preston learned about Johnny Appleseed, moving to Ohio and the state of Ohio.  We recreated a New England Primer, and Preston stumbled over the use of the letter "f" in place of an "s."


Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Working on hundreds and skip counting by different numbers, using addition and subtraction.  He is zipping right through this stuff.

Science:  This week's theme was animals, so we read from the First Encyclopedia of Science on different kinds of animals.  We also played the Memory Match game included in MFW, helping to categorize different types of animals.  Oh, and we checked on and threw out our milk/bacteria experiment from last week... nasty!

Music/Art: Skipped music and art this week.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "LaGente" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish. Unfortunately, I just realized that the box set of La Clase Divertida was incomplete and did not, in fact, include the second DVD with the last half of the lessons.  It had two audio CDs in it instead.  Oops!  So, we're on pause with that type of Spanish lessons for the moment till we figure out what to do about it.  We can order the Lesson 1 DVD set (of two discs) for $40, but dang... that's a lot of money right now.  So, considering my options and will hopefully have something figured out before we start up again after New Years.

We will take a break from MFW lessons, and do "Christmas School" next week, which will be fun things like crafts and simple lessons using the holiday theme.  And then we'll have a two week break off of school!

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Homeschool Recap, December 7th (Week 18)...

In my life this week...

We celebrated Preston's 7th birthday this week, and had his party on Tuesday evening.  So much fun!  We also had a cub scout meeting on Monday and AWANA on Wednesday.  Friday evening we had an open-house type event for my Usborne business... trying to do some last minute Christmas sales.  Then some of the Power FM crew came over and hung out.  We had a blast, the kids really enjoyed having them over and getting to perform and do "tricks" for them all evening, oh man.  I miss those people!!! Callen and I have been under the weather... coughing our heads off.  =(

Michael put up our outdoor Christmas decor on Friday and Saturday and we also went out to Canton and got our Christmas tree!  We walked around, prepared to chop down our own tree but were really disappointed in the selection this year.  Couldn't find a good one that was the size we wanted, so we had to get one that they had all ready to go... a blue spruce.  It's pretty!  We haven't decorated it yet, but did some indoor decoration as well today.  Woo hoo!  And on Monday (my birthday!), there's a slight chance of snow... we'll see!!!

Got our Christmas cards mailed!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "M" for Mouse!  We read a lot of fun mouse-themed books: Mouse's First Day of School, As Quiet as a Mouse, Whose Mouse Are You?, Mousekin's Thanksgiving, Cat & Mouse and Louie & Dan are Friends.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Lamb of God. Preston's memory verse is John 1:29 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being a lamb. 

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure, doing our Chapter 18 review.  Not sure if he wasn't focused enough, but both tests we did this week didn't go so well.  Continued with lesson 37-39 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. We have been reading a ton of Christmas books as well to go along with our Advent/Christmas countdown.  Preston read his little brother a night-night story the other night, and it was so sweet!

Getting along!  Yay!  Haha.

History: 
This week Preston learned about Eli Whitney and the cotton gin.  We read from our Story of the U.S. and a biography of Eli Whitney.  We studied about the state of Tennessee and read Daniel's Duck and Casey Jones.

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Working on hundreds and skip counting by different numbers, using addition and subtraction.  He is zipping right through this stuff.

Science:  This week's theme was living things... what makes them different.  We read four pages of First Encyclopedia of Science on living things and cells.  We created a cell model out of Jell-o and fruit chewies.  And we have an experiment going about growing bacteria.  Do NOT drink the milk we have stored in our cabinet... eww!!!

Cell membrane, nucleus and organelles! Yum!

Music/Art: Started learning a new patriotic song called "There are Many Flags."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, and our first artist is Leonardo Da Vinci. We read a couple more biography books on him (Neo Leo, Leonardo and The Mona Lisa Caper), and looked at a bunch of his art online. Preston and Callen also colored printed out sheets of the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper.  I thought Preston did a really good job coloring in the Last Supper, especially since he doesn't really like to color all that much.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. Reviewed body parts via La Clase Divertida, Lesson 7.  We reviewed words having to do with "La Ropa" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish. 


We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Preston's 7th Birthday Party...

We decided to do Preston's party on his actual birthday this year, which fell on a Tuesday.  We have run into holiday parties and all kinds of other scheduling conflicts in the past when we've done it on the weekend... but wow, I was so surprised at the fantastic turn out!  There were a ton of kids filling my living room floor last night!  It was awesome!  His party was Lego themed, and the kids dumped out the blocks and got to building right away!  And Preston was blessed with some fun presents, including lots of Legos!  Thanks to everyone that came!!!  And super big thanks to Lizz, who made the cupcakes - regular and Lego-bricks!  So fun, and tasty!

7 Years Old, How Is This Possible?

Well, today's the day... my oldest boy is officially 7 years old.  I don't know why, but this birthday is hitting me hard.  Five and Six, no big deal... but SEVEN YEARS OLD?!  No way!  That's crazy.  How in the world did this happen?!?

SEVEN YEARS OLD!

Preston James Clark, you have grown up before my very eyes... and it's happened so fast, I can hardly believe it.  You are tall, handsome, smart and funny... and though you have an attitude and tend to be a bit moody and over-dramatic at times... you are amazing and I wouldn't trade you for the world.  Just thought you should know that.

Six Years Old!

Five years old!

Four Years Old!

Three Years Old!

Two years old!

One year old!

One day old!

Another Lost Tooth, and I Do Mean Lost...

When I got home on Sunday, Preston showed me his haircut and his second lost tooth.  This tooth has been loose for a LONG time, and the adult tooth was grown up behind it already, so I'm glad it finally came out!  So far both of Preston's bottom adult teeth have grown up behind the baby ones before they fell out, no gaps for that boy!

Hair cut and second lost tooth.

Michael brought me the teeny-tiny baby tooth and I didn't want to take it, so he put it somewhere out of the way... or so I thought.  I didn't pay attention to where he put it and quickly forgot about it until bedtime.  I asked Michael, "Where did you put Preston's tooth?" And when he told me he had put it in a little plastic dish on the cabinet, I suddenly realized that must have been the little dish I took away from Callen earlier.  But there hadn't been a tooth in it when I found it.  Meaning... I have no idea where the tooth went!  I asked Callen, he said he didn't know.  I looked everywhere... I had already done dishes so if it had been near the sink, it went down the drain.  I swept the floor earlier and hadn't noticed anything unusual.  So, seriously, I have no idea where that teeny-tiny tooth went!

I had to break the news to Preston that I lost his tooth!  Eep.  He wasn't thrilled, but at least he wasn't upset.  I told him we could write a note to the Tooth Fairy, and instead he said, "I'll make you a deal..."  Uh oh.  Lol!  He said, "Why don't you just pay me for the lost tooth?"  Well, ok fine.  Let's just skip the whole Tooth Fairy thing, then.  Deal.

Sigh. That boy turns SEVEN tomorrow.  :::freaking out:::

November 2012 Tweets & Instagrams to Remember...

Nov 1st - I'm thankful: that my husband doesn't take part in No Shave November.

Nov 3rd - Usborne BFFs: Cuddle Bear and WhatIf Monster http://instagr.am/p/Rk4JedIvAe/

Nov 4th - Callenism: Yay! I love waterlemon! (watermelon)

Nov 4th - They have informed me that they are, in fact, superheroes. http://instagr.am/p/RogWfyIvNC/ 

Nov 5th - Sitting in the shady breeze, kids playing, doing our read-alouds in the backyard. This is the #homeschool life! 

Nov 5th - Watching #Nashville might be causing ill effects: bringing out my twang & I'm not hating the country music. Yikes! 

Nov 12th - Glad they are playing nicely together, but does it have to be right in the doorway of my bedroom? http://instagr.am/p/R8JhTpIvG7/ 

Nov 16th - Because my kids have never had these, had to #Hostess http://twitpic.com/bdrpfy 

Nov 18th - Happy birthday to me (3 weeks early). "The Scoop" has replaced my Senseo! #coffee http://instagr.am/p/SLUT3WovBM/ 

Nov 18th - German food-ish. Kielbasa and Spaetzle. http://instagr.am/p/SMI8paIvIH/ 

Nov 20th - The pineapple is officially dressed for Thanksgiving! http://instagr.am/p/SREpcGovKh/ 

Nov 21st - Callen points to a bump on the wall, "What's that?" Me: "Just a lump in the wall." Him: "Yay! I LOVE LUMPY THINGS!" Um, ok. Lol. 

Nov 22nd - Oh my gosh, I cannot even handle the military/American Airlines commercials. #blubbering 

Nov 22nd - And #Folgers commercials..... Aughhhhh! Continue #blubbering. I am such a girl/baby. 

Nov 22nd - I love that even our #homeschool Morning Board looks nice and festive today! #thanksgiving http://instagr.am/p/SWJU6RIvI2/ 

Nov 22nd - Happy #Thanksgiving 2012 from The Clarks! http://instagr.am/p/SWoPNtovEd/ 

Nov 23rd - Wow, Callen got REALLY good at Hide & Seek! He says, "I fit in here just fine." Haha. Can u see him? http://instagr.am/p/SZIBMCovFN/ 

Nov 24th - Last piece of my mom's chocolate chip pecan pie. Noooooooo! http://instagr.am/p/Sb0yZPovKQ/ 

Nov 26th - Ok, here's a new one: #Pumpkin Pie Spice Pringles. http://instagr.am/p/SgfecxovAm/ 
 

Homeschool Recap, November 30th (Week 17)...

In my life this week...

Ok, so really, I'm posting this on Monday evening... the week and weekend totally got away!  I had a two-day Usborne booth in Keller, so yeah... pure chaos at my house pretty much.  Michael did a fantastic job of taking care of the boys while I was away... they got haircuts, even!  And Preston lost a tooth!  Anyway, I thought I better make sure I get a recap posted, even though it features absolutely NO pictures.  Booooo!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "L" for Leaf!  We read a lot of fun Fall books: Lucky Leaf, Leaves, Fletcher & The Falling Leaves, Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf and Why Do Leaves Change Color?

Bible:   This week's focus continued with Jesus as "Immanuel."  We continued learning O Come, O Come Emmanuel, the Christmas song.  Preston's memory verse is Matthew 1:23 and we looked up a couple of other verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked God being with us. 

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 34-36 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Both boys really enjoy this and ask for it (even Callen asks for it by name, heh).

History: 
This weeks main focus was life during the time of the Wilderness Road and Daniel Boone.  We read a few stories from our books about moving from New England further into Tennessee and Kentucky.  And our state study continued with Kentucky.  We read through Kentucky Facts & Symbols and the storybooks A Regular Rolling Noah and Counting On the Woods.

Math: Preston started his Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Working on hundreds and skip counting by different numbers, using addition and subtraction.

Science:  This week's them was weather.  We read two pages of First Encyclopedia of Science on different kinds of weather.  And we talked about wind with our Science with Air book.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful."  We also started on a World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, and our first artist is Leonardo Da Vinci. We read a couple of biography books on him (Leonardo Da Vinci and Da Vinci), and looked at a bunch of his art online.  Next week we'll be trying to recreate some of his art!

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. Started up La Clase Divertida, Lesson 7 about el cuerpo.  We reviewed words having to do with "El Cuerpo" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish. 


We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Sears Holiday Cheer Review

I was sent a Sears gift card by Smile360 to experience the Sear's Christmas Shop.  I went a few weeks before Thanksgiving, so it was just getting started, but already... the mood was festive!  They had trees and lights and fun outdoor displays up and twinkling!  Household items like towels, dishes and decor was in ample supply. And even though we don't decorate till after Preston's birthday (Dec 4th) it certainly made me long for the time when we could bust out the tinsel and garland!

Since we didn't have our Christmas stuff out of the attic yet, I wasn't sure what would really be on our decorating list just yet.  But, I found some adorable coffee mugs for all of us, and well, I couldn't pass them up!  Being a coffee addict, and having passed on my love of cocoa to my kids, I am always on the lookout for cute, functional mugs for all of us.  The kids' mugs are especially hard to find, because they are still young and need something that will keep the spillage to a minimum.  Sears had just the thing I was looking for, though!  Yipee!

The kid cups have lids and straws and swirly glitter!

Cute penguin mug for me, "manly" Fa La Latte for hubby!

[I was sent a Sears gift card as described above from Smile360 in exchange for my opinion via facebook, twitter, blog and/or word-of-mouth.  I was not further compensated for my opinion and the text written above is in my own words.]

Crock-Pot® Seasoning Mixes Review

I received some samples of Crock-Pot® Seasoning Mixes from Smiley 360.  Always eager to try new things in my slow cooker, I was pretty pumped to give these mixes a go.  The first one I used was BBQ Pulled Pork.  Now, I make pulled pork quite a bit in my slow cooker, and while I like it, honestly, my husband isn't a fan of the way I make it.  But, I'm happy to say that he, the kids and my brother-in-law (who is a picky eater!) all really liked it this time around.  Yay!  It was simple to make following the recipe on the back, and yeah... came out delicious!!!

Over the course of the next few weeks, I also made the Savory Pot Roast and the Hearty Beef Stew, and they were both wonderful.  I've always had a hard time making Beef Stew come out just right, but I nailed it with the help of this seasoning mix and the recipe on the back.  Woo hoo!  I felt like such an awesome wife/mom/cook on the nights I made these, because they were so good (and EASY!).  I will certainly be picking these up again in the future!!!

[I was sent samples of the above mentioned product from Smile360 in exchange for my opinion via facebook, twitter, blog and/or word-of-mouth.  I was not further compensated for my opinion and the text written above is in my own words.]

BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers Review

We received a package of BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers from Smiley360 along with a fun pumpkin decorating kit.  And, well, you know how I feel about pumpkins!  The kids and I had a blast coloring and glittering the little pumpkins, making them all kinds of lovely and fun!

 

 

We used the BIC Mark-It™ Permanent Markers, and they were a huge hit at my house.  These markers come in so many different colors, you can't really go wrong!  And they write on nearly any surface you can think of... which certainly can't be said for a lot of other so-called permanent markers.  Besides the pumpkin decorating, I have used these markers to decorate cards, make notes, color in fun little school activities and more!  Definitely diggin' them.  These are perfect for any artist in your family, or simply to have on hand for anytime you need a permanent marker in a color other than black!

[I was sent samples of the above mentioned product from Smile360 in exchange for my opinion via facebook, twitter, blog and/or word-of-mouth.  I was not further compensated for my opinion and the text written above is in my own words.]

Homeschool Recap, November 16th (Thanksgiving Week)...

In my life this week...

This week was fun, and that means it flew by.  It was pretty chill.  We didn't do a full load of schoolwork, but focused on Thanksgiving and Fall activities.  My Father's World has a built-in Thanksgiving week to use whenever you get there, and technically you're supposed to do it the week of Thanksgiving... but I wanted to take that week completely off... so we did it this week instead.  Yay flexibility!  Anyway, we ran errands.  Had scouts, homeschool group meeting and AWANA as usual.  Put my van in the shop and will be picking it up this evening... praying they were able to fix all the crazy noises it was making.  I swear, some days it sounded like it was just ready to crumble into a million pieces, then the next day, not a peep out of it.  I'm pretty sure people thought I was crazy when I tried to explain this to them, but the shop found some issues that seem to explain all that.  I hope!  Praise God for my parents who are paying for this van operation!  I am so blessed!!!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We didn't do a specific tot school this week, but Little Brother got to do lots of the same stuff we were doing!  So he enjoyed that a great deal.  I also had a few easy things for him to do that I printed out.  He traced lines, went over some letters like "P is for Pilgrim," did lots of coloring and such.

Bible:   We focused on verses expressing thankfulness, of course.  We looked up several passages in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about being thankful for what we have and what God' done for us.  We'll continue trying to memorize these verses next week too.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Had to do this to keep on track to finish by end of school year.  Preston also did several fun activities, like write a story describing "How To" help a turkey escape being Thanksgiving dinner.  He came up with the information, I wrote it for him and he illustrated the scenes.  He also filled out an acrostic for AUTUMN that contained words having to do with Fall.  And, as always, we have been reading like crazy.  In fact, I had checked out a bunch of books from the library for us to read together, but one day while I was working, he ended up sitting and ready nearly every one of them on his own.  No fair!  Haha.  Here is what we checked out: Gus the Pilgrim Turkey, We Gather Together, Now Please Get Lost, A Turkey for Thanksgiving, One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims, Apples & Pumpkins, Thank You, Sarah: The Woman Who Saved Thanksgiving, The First Thanksgiving, The Thanksgiving Story and The Tale of Two Bad Mice (which isn't about Thanksgiving, but Callen picked it up and then Preston said, "Hey, we're your two bad little mice, we have to get this!"  How could I refuse?)

Callen enjoys visiting this little girl at the library

Preston, well.... yeah.

How to Help a Turkey Escape, basically he just needs to blend in!

History: Obviously, we have been going over the history of Thanksgiving some more.  We've been reading several chapters a day from Stories of the Pilgrims, which is really interesting because it even focuses on before the Pilgrims went to Holland... I haven't found many books that go over that part of the story much, so it's been nice to learn more in depth of how awful they were treated in England when they refused to obey King James.  And Preston wrote up a quick summary of why Thanksgiving is celebrated in America.


Math: Preston did one little Fall-themed addition and subtraction worksheet.  He also helps me do math around the house, and he spent a long time helping me do some math work for my book business earlier this week, trying reconcile my inventory and sales slips.

Science:  We did some pumpkin experiments with our Halloween pumpkin, which is still in great shape since we didn't carve it.  Preston did some estimations about it's weight, if it would float and how big around it was, then we measured to find the real answers.  Both boys created a pumpkin book about it's stages of growth from a seed to being ready.

It's gotta be 52 pounds! (it was 23)

It'll never float!  (it did)

Music/Art: We worked on some fun coloring and crafts for the grandmas to use as decor, lots of ideas from here.  The boys did turkey handprints in paint... Callen giggled through the whole thing, so cute!  We also made Thankful Pumpkins, and the boys put in pictures of what they were thankful for... including Mommy's iPad, apple juice, snacks, tv, and oh yeah... family.  Lol.

Falling leaves

Thankful Pumpkins!

Spanish: To stay on track, we did two reviews  First Thousand Words in Spanish. It was "La Tienda" and "Los Alimentos."  Mmm!

We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Homeschool Recap, November 9th (Week 16)...

In my life this week...

I am posting this recap only, y'know, 4 days late, but who's counting, right?  Hmm.  We had a great school week last week, but a crazy busy weekend.  I had three Usborne booths/events, just one after the other.  That certainly kept us hopping!  Feel like I totally abandoned my family for the whole weekend, but I really did have fun.  And the work I put in helped to further my business and get my recruit to hit her first important sales goal, which in the end, helps me too!  Thankfully, this week we are taking things easy and doing only Thanksgiving studies, and next week we'll be completely off of school to focus on Thanksgiving.  Woo hoo!

Oh, and on Tuesday, we closely watched the results of the election.  I helped Preston keep track of poll results on a map.  We wrote in how many electoral votes each state got and colored in the state as the polls were called.  At first it was great fun for him, but eventually, he was bored and I finished it up for him.  Ha!

Charting the results as the come in.

Finished project.

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "K" for Keys!  It was supposed to include other household items, but we didn't really go into that too much.  We did read a couple of abc/counting books from the library: Little Birds ABC and Anno's Counting House.

Bible:   This week's focus was on Jesus as "Immanuel."  So, of course, we started learning the Christmas song.  I only know the first verse, so we both get to learn as we go!  Preston's memory verse is Matthew 1:23 and we looked up a couple of other verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked God being with us.  We'll continue on this subject after Thanksgiving.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Continued with lesson 31-33 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Both boys really enjoy this and ask for it (even Callen asks for it by name, heh).

History: 
Rhode Island - Books: Rhode Islands Facts & Symbols and Some of the Adventures of Rhode Island Red (tall tales about a boy the size of an egg and raised by chickens, lol).
Vermont - Books: Vermont Facts & Symbols and The Canada Geese Quilt.  I checked out the book and audio cassette from the library, but, of course, the cassette did not work at all. Sad face.  So, I sat and read the whole book to the boys.. and it's kinda sad, but they sat and listened (while I choked back tears and my voice broke, geez).
Only two states this week, then we studied about Daniel Boone.  We read from our Story of the U.S. and Pioneers book (from MFW), along with a booked called Bewildered for Three Days.  Preston read nearly the entire book outloud to me while I worked one afternoon, he did a great job.  We also did a lapbook on Daniel Boone from here.  It's loaded with info on his life, adventures and legends.  I had a lot of fun doing this with Preston, who seemed to enjoy it as well.  After Daddy got home, he showed it to him and they talked about how our family line is connected to Daniel Boone.

Finished lapbook and Daddy talking about our family tree.

Math: Preston finished up Chapter 5 in our Math Mammoth book, which also finished up the first workbook (there are two).  This last part was over fractions, which he has no problem with besides determining which is bigger when they're really close.  He did a Mixed Review of everything we've covered so far, a chapter review (geometric shapes and fractions) and then the test, making an 83%.

Science:  We went back to our Science with Air book, and talked about how can change the size of something (causing a bottle to expand or collapse on itself when heated or cooled) and how warm air rises.  Did some fun little simple experiments to emphasize those points.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful" this week, and finished up listening to the CD of "The Nutcracker."  We also watched an online BBC version of the ballet... Callen and I fell asleep, Preston was quite bored.  Haha!  Oh well.  We tried!  We also read The Nutcracker Doll, which is a cute little story about a girl participating in the ballet.

Ninja superhero ballerinas.

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "La Fiesta" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we didn't do anything from La Clase Divertidas.


We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]

Homeschool Recap, November 2nd (Week 14)...

In my life this week...

So, we took last week off of school as a bit of a "Fall Break," but also because I worked Wed-Fri at Power FM.  It was great to be back there for a little bit.  I had a blast catching up with everyone, meeting some new folks and just doing something different for a few days.  As soon as that was over, I had an UBAM booth at a Craft Fair in Fort Worth on Saturday all day long, meanwhile Michael went and picked up his dad from the airport... and he stayed with us through Tuesday evening.  We really enjoyed having him here, the kids had a lot of fun with Grandpa.  We had a Scout Meeting and Halloween and just a ton of errands and various things to do.  Felt like we shoulda taken this week off too, as school was definitely a challenge to squeeze into our day, lol. 

Enjoying time with grandpa in the nice weather!

Fun and food!

The boys found their Dorothy, Toto & Lion!

What I'm Watching on TV (well, not really on tv, online!)...
I'm missing SMASH and Bunheads... wondering if they're gonna come back.  And man, I hate waiting for new episodes of Psych, lol.  Right now I'm really only watching Parenthood and Once Upon a Time.  Occasionally I'll watch whatever show Michael is watching (he follows a bunch), like The Mentalist or NCIS.  I watched the first two episodes of Nashville last night.  We'll see. 

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "J" for Jellyfish and Under the Sea Life!  Callen seems to really enjoy all the fun pictures and information about fish and dolphins and whales and octopi and whatnot.  We checked out several tool books from the library, including The World of a Jellyfish, An Octopus is Amazing, A City Under The Sea, Clumsy Crab, Fidgety Fish and Abigale The Happy Whale.  I also found a little United States Workbook that Callen can do while we're working on the states with Preston.  Basically, he just pulled off all the stickers and stuck 'em on one page, but whatever... it's his.  Heh.

Matching Capital and Lower Case letters.

Learning about the States.

Bible:   Preston continued John 14:6.  We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked Jesus being the only way to God, to heaven.  There are so many!

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure.  Preston stumbled a bit over 'houses' and 'kisses,' but I think he just wasn't focused that day, lol.  Continued with lesson 28-30 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, Farmer Boy, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

History: 
New Hampshire - Books: New Hampshire: Facts & Symbols and Ox-Cart Man.
Virginia - Books: Virginia, The Blue Hill Meadows and All Those Secrets of the World.
New York - Books: Journey Around New York From A-Z, The Copper Lady and Mirette and Bellini Cross Niagara Falls.
North Carolina - Books: North Carolina and Soap! Soap! Don't Forget The Soap!
Preston has a notebook page for each state, on the back is a bunch of information and interesting facts about the state, and on the front is a picture of the state, it's motto, state bird and flower, plus the year it came into the U.S.A.  He colors the page, writes the state capital and the state abbreviation.  He also colors in each state on a map of the U.S. as well (I make him hunt down where the state is located).

Working on New York!

Found a mini-version of the Statue of Liberty in Grand Prairie!

Math: Preston continued Chapter 5 of his Math Mammoth workbook this week, which is shapes and geometry.  We cut out and created a cube, cylinder, pyramid and a cone, and talked about things in the world that come in these shapes.

Science:  This week's focus continued to be birds.  While running around doing errands on Monday, Preston read from Birds, Nests & Eggs all about cardinals.  We also watched a video we borrowed from the library based on the book Birdsongs (also had Bees, Snails and Peacock Tails, which went along well with our shape study in math).  We also did the activity from a few weeks back where we made our own Edible Bird Nests!

Twigs, grass and mud bird nest - only not.

Music/Art: Continued learning "America, The Beautiful" this week, and listened to some more of "The Nutcracker."  The boys worked on some artwork involving making models from things around the house (recyclables). 

Spanish: Continued with the next two episodes of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "El Hospital" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish.  And we continued with Lesson 6 of La Clase Divertida!.


We are using Adventures in My Father's World. See our curriculum here.



[This post contains affiliate links for Usborne Books & More and Amazon.com.  By clicking on those links and purchasing items, you are helping me continue to be a SAHM so that I can focus on homeschooling my children!  Thank you!]