Easter 2013 Recap...

We took this past week off of school... our last break before we're done with the school year!  We got to hang out with home school friends at our group's Easter Egg Hunt and Picnic on Wednesday.

Let's do this!

Gathering up the eggs!

This was fun!

We also did some fun Easter crafts:

Oiled-Paper Sun Catchers

Egg Scripture Garland

Working on a Three Trees lapbook

Finished lapbook

On Saturday, we went to the Grand Prairie Farmer's Market Easter Event. The boys jumped, did a decorated egg craft and did a little "hunt."

Jump! Jump!

Creepy Easter Bunny.

And, of course, on Sunday we went to church.  But, not before Easter Baskets!  And afterwards we had dinner with my parents (and watched the first Rangers game of the season - too bad they lost).

Goodies from mom, dad, Grandmas, Grandpas & Uncle Daniel!

Happy faces!

New Easter/Spring clothes - they wanted to kind of match.

Homeschool Recap, March 22nd (Week 29)...

Pictures to Share...

Playing in the leaves.  Boys!  It's SPRING now!

Helping Daddy cut back the trees.

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "X" for Xylophone/Musical Instruments!  We read a few books having to do with music: Boom Bah!, Play Me A Story and Animal Music.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "Good Shepherd." Preston's memory verse is John 10:14 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus being a shepherd and us being the lambs.  We added to the Names of Jesus branch, which is nearly full!  Wow.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 70-72 in Primary Language Lessons. We finished Mountain Born, and Preston wrote a brief report on it (a few sentences).

History: This week Preston learned about four states: Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada and Nebraska and we read a book for each of them... Wagon Wheels, When I Was Young In the Mountains, Hoover Dam and Dandelions.

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Finished Chapter 9 on adding and subtracting money, and did the chapter review, mixed review and chapter test.  Also, did a subtraction with regrouping worksheet to continue practicing that skill.

Science:  This week's lessons were about magnets, and we started off with a couple of pages in The First Encyclopedia of Science.  Then we moved on to the "Fun With Magnets" kit and did a few of the projects in there - like floating a bar magnet on water and it pointing North to make a compass.

Playing with Magnets

Music/Art: Our patriotic song this week was "Battle Hymn of the Republic."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our sixth artist: Pablo Picasso. This week, we read from Picasso, Paris in the Spring with Picasso and When Pigasso met Mootisse (just for fun).  Preston finished coloring Three Musicians. We listened to another track from Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty and continued the story.

Spanish: Since we are done with Salsa, and don't have the next disc for Las Clase Divertida... we've slowed down on Spanish work lately.  We used a cheap, little work book on food this week just to review those terms and finished it up as well! 

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!]

Happy 11th Anniversary to Us!

Looking through our wedding album.

Michael and I celebrated our 11th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday.  We had a great time together, too.  We dropped the boys off with my parents after lunch, and went to see the Titanic Exhibit at the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  My friend Veronica works there and scored us some discounted tickets, woot woot!

Me and Veronica in front of the "boat."

I have always been interested in the history of the Titanic tragedy.  Michael wasn't terribly thrilled to go, but ended up thinking it was interesting anyway.  We actually TOUCHED a piece of the hull... how cool is that?!  Also, when you start, they give you a "boarding pass" and on the back it has information about one of the real people from the voyage, and at the end you see if you survived or not.  A little morbid, perhaps, but I thought it was pretty neat.  My person was a 34-year-old 2nd class passenger with her kids, 8 and 2 (wow!), and she and the kids survived.  Michael was a 1st class passenger, yet he, his wife and daughter didn't survive (though his 1 yr old son did!).  Crazy, huh?  Anyway, I really enjoyed seeing the artifacts that used to lay beneath the sea for so long. 

After the exhibit, we drove around Fort Worth a bit trying to figure out what to do till dinner... the Titanic exhibit had only lasted about an hour so we had a lot of time to spare.  We explored a little, then headed to Sundance Square.  We visited the Thomas Kinkade gallery, the Barnes & Noble down there (the first one I ever experienced back in the day, haha) and walked around.  For dinner, we went to Pizzeria Uno's.  Mmm!  So good!  The waitstaff there was so funny... this one guy kept busting out in song and getting stuff stuck in my head. 

Ridiculously delicious!

After dinner, we walked around some more and then at 7:30 it was time for our carriage ride.  What?  Haha.  Michael reserved a tour of the square via carriage ride.  So fun!  Lived in Fort Worth almost all of my life, never done THAT before.  Our horse was nicknamed "Lucky" for the weekend (St Patrick's Day weekend) and had sparkly green hooves and everything!  Haha.  Michael picked just the right time for us to take the ride, too... the weather was perfect, the sun was setting.  So romantic!

Giddy up, Luck!

Happy couple!  After all these years!

Despite the construction, it was a fun ride!

After the ride, we reluctantly headed back to pick up the boys and get back to normal life.  Lol.  It was so great to get to spend a fun day with my husband, just the two of us.  It's so rare these days.  But I'm glad we were able to do it on our anniversary!  Thanks, honey!

Homeschool Recap, March 15th (Week 28)...

In my life this week...

It was a gorgeous week, the weather was perfect for Spring Break (other kids were on it, we weren't).  It was really nice that we didn't have anything going on in the evenings... Michael was off from teaching, there was no scouts or Awana.  It was great to have some down time!  We got to hang out with our homeschool group for a meeting on Tuesday and then with some other homeschool moms and kids at the park on Friday.  And I got to have a girl's night out with some friends, even.  Total win.

Enjoying the weather and the backyard.

Chalking.  I drew Perry the Platypus for Callen.

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "W" for Window!  We read a few books having to do with windows, like Sophie's Window, Right Outside My Window, Outside The Window, The Hello Goodbye Window and Ten Dogs in the Window.

My precious three-yr-old enjoying breakfast outside.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "Good Shepherd." Preston's memory verse is John 10:14 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus being a shepherd and us being the lambs.  We added to the Names of Jesus branch, which is nearly full!  Wow.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 68-69 in Primary Language Lessons. We started a new read-aloud, which goes along with Jesus the "Good Shepherd."  It's called Mountain Born, and was written by Elizabeth Yates.  To be honest, it is not keeping the kids' attention at all, and I'm stumbling over the language (and big words, lol).  Plus, the first two chapters are pretty depressing/disturbing.  Thankfully this book only takes two weeks... I believe we'll be glad to be done with it.

History: This week Preston continued learning about Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.  We read from Red, White & Blue and Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt.

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Continued Chapter 9, and worked on adding money and making change. 

Science:  This week's lesson were about energy, forces, hot & cold and gravity, all from The First Encyclopedia of Science.  Preston gets the concepts, but we're still having a hard time notebooking things that he's learned.  He doesn't enjoy writing a few sentences about it, so that has been a big battle this week.  He did enjoy the experiment we did using a bottle and a balloon, with expansion and contraction.  We ran hot water over the bottle, put the balloon over the opening, then stuck the bottle into cold water... the balloon was sucked in.  Then we put the bottle in hot water and it was blown back out.

Music/Art: Our patriotic song this week was "Battle Hymn of the Republic."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our sixth artist: Pablo Picasso. This week, we read from Usborne Children's Book of Art and Famous Artists.  Preston colored a picture like Three Musicians. We listened to another track from Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty and continued the story.

Spanish: Since we are done with Salsa, and don't have the next disc for Las Clase Divertida... we've slowed down on Spanish work lately.  We used a cheap, little work book on food this week just to review those terms.  We also finished up the pages of First Thousand Words in Spanish, with "La fiero y El Circo."

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!]

Callen is Three, Wowzers!

I'm three!

It's Callen's birthday today... he's three!  I was telling Michael over dinner how strange it was that Preston turning 7 was a big deal... so hard to believe that he's already 7... and yet, Callen's ONLY three?  It seems he's been around forever, lol.  I can barely remember a time before he was with us.  Funny how that happens.  Anyway, to sum up another year of his life I have to say... it's been a tough year.  Callen definitely embraced the phase known as the "terrible twos."  If there was a limit, he pushed it.  If there was a line, he crossed it.  Yes, he's smart.  Yes, he's adorable.  Yes, he's a sweet, snuggly boy.  But, boy howdy... he is a handful and a half!  I've said it before, but this kid makes for a great source of birth control.  I am praying that as a three-year-old, he will chill a bit and we can move past this rebellious phase quickly.  

After bath-time fun.

We are in the midst of potty-training.  He's doing pretty well.  As long as I'm consistent with him, he rarely has accidents.  He still wears a pull-up when we go out or during bed/nap times... and when I forget to change him back into underwear.  Heh.  Callen still has a hard time pronouncing hard 'c's which is funny considering his own name!  It's getting better slowly, words are starting to sound more like they should.  He is doing really well at his school work when he's interested in in.  We've been learning the alphabet and he's been doing well at tracing the letters, he definitely recognizes them all, and he knows what sounds most of them make.  Pretty proud of my smart, little monkey.

A little yearly comparison:

Newborn Callen & giraffe

1 year old Callen & giraffe

2 year old Callen & giraffe

3 year old funny face with giraffe.

We had his little party today with just a few friends.  He woke up from his short nap with a fever and a little cough, so he wasn't really feeling 100%, poor thing.  His theme was Spiderman.  He has been saying for a while now "For my birthday, I want a skateboard."  Pretty sure he didn't realize he was only turning three, haha.  We ended up getting him a Mickey Mouse Tilt and Turn Scooter, which is SURELY going to be safer than an actual skateboard.  Right?!  Let's hope. 

Slinging Spiderwebs!

My friend Lizz did the cupcakes!

Blowing out his candle.

Basketball Hoop!

His new scooter!!!

Homeschool Recap, March 8th (Week 27)...

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "V" for Volcano!  We read a few books having to do with volcanoes: Hill of Fire, Big Friends, The Giant from the Little Island, Adventures of Polo and Dear Katie, The Volcano is a Girl.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Servant. Preston's memory verse is Matthew 20:28 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus being a servant or that our job is to serve others.  We also put servant-hood into practice by joining a new group at our church called K.I.C.K.S. (Kids in Christ's Kingdom Serving) and we went to Mission Arlington on Saturday to help where we were needed.  The kids (and adults) sorted donated canned goods for several hours.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 64-66 in Primary Language Lessons. We finished our read-aloud, On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder and Preston wrote a short (two-sentence, lol) book report.

History: This week Preston learned about the Minnesota, Oregon and Abraham Lincoln.  We read Marven of the Great North Woods, The Buffalo Storm, Abraham Lincoln and A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln.

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Finished Chapter 8, did chapter review, mixed review and took his chapter test.  This is the first math test he failed.  He can do regrouping subtraction, he just... didn't on the test.  I emphasized again and again, that he has to LOOK at the problem, read what it's asking to do, look at the signs make sure he knew how to proceed... but, when he was finished (and sure he did it all correct), he was pretty upset to see all of the problems he had missed because he just didn't do the subtraction problems correctly.  We'll definitely be working on that more.  We also started the next chapter, counting money/change.

Science:  This week's lesson was about material changes, using First Encyclopedia of Science  We also talked about "freezing and melting" using Science in the Kitchen.

Music/Art: Our patriotic song this week was "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our fifth artist: Henri Matisse. This week, Preston recreated Icarus and did his own version of panting with scissors using The Snail as an example.  Callen joined in too, and they both made nice pieces of art.

Prestons & Callen's paintings with scissors.

We listened to another track from Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty.

Spanish: Finished with the very last episode of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "Los numeros" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish and went through some review using the Spanish Words & Phrases Flashcards.

Last episode of Salsa!

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, March 1st (Week 26)...

In my life this week...

This week was a bit wacky, because I had Usborne events on 4 out of the 7 days.  The boys got to spend time with friends and Grandma and Grandpa this week, so they enjoyed that a lot.  We squeezed school in as best we could.

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "U" for Umbrella/Weather!  We read a few books having to do with weather, like Bear In the Sunshine, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Unbrella.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Servant. Preston's memory verse is Matthew 20:28 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus being a servant or that our job is to serve others.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 61-63 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

History: This week Preston learned about the Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails, as well as the state of California joining the U.S.  We read Roughing it on the Oregon Trail and The Josefina Story Quilt.

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Continued Chapter 8, and worked on subtracting three-digit numbers and regrouping. 

Science:  This week's lesson was about solids, liquids and gases in Science with Air, and we talked about different states of matter.  We also talked about "fizz" using Science in the Kitchen, and did this fun little soda and raisin experiment.



Music/Art: Our patriotic song this week was "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our fifth artist: Henri Matisse. This week, we read from Usborne Children's Book of Art and Famous Artists.  Preston colored a picture like the Sadness of the King in My Very First Art Coloring Book with Stickers.

Recreation of a Matisse masterpiece.

We listened to a track from Tchaikovsky Sleeping Beauty and watched the Disney version (even though MFW suggests we don't since it's not really a good representation of the composer's work.  Oh well).  We also listened to Best Loved Stories in Song & Dance, read by Jim Weiss.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "Colores y Formas" in our First Thousand Words in Spanish and went through some review using the Spanish Words & Phrases Flashcards.

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!]

February 2013 Tweets & Instagrams to Remember...

Feb 1st - I want to always remember moments like this, when they are being sweet to each other. Preston helped… http://instagr.am/p/VLIpUEIvPE/

Feb 2nd - New shower curtain, yay. Heehee, caught Callen doing his biz. http://instagr.am/p/VPrqNeovGy/  

Feb 3rd - Superbowl cookout in the backyard. Guess the groundhog was right... Springtime weather for today anyway http://instagr.am/p/VSPq9vIvGp/ 

Feb 9th - My boys just might be a tad too excited to watch a Tinkerbell movie, haha. http://instagr.am/p/VflHINovN_/ 

Feb 13th - Preston was sad that his toes busted through his shoes. But then we found nearly the exact same pair in a… http://instagr.am/p/VptGkiovCh/ 

Feb 14th - Watching movies with my littlest valentine this evening. http://instagr.am/p/Vu0TUyIvF_/ 

Feb 16th - The boys wanted a 'sleepover'... they are in Callen's room giggling their heads off right now. Think there's any chance they'll fall asleep?

Feb 17th - The loves of my life. I locked them in a tower so they could not escape. http://instagr.am/p/V2JQ5MovFx/

Feb 18th - Curse you, Milton Bradley! Curse you! http://instagr.am/p/V4Vd6ZovPc/

Feb 22nd - Love this view. #HeyDJ #radio http://instagr.am/p/WA-dG2IvIv/ 

Feb 23rd - You betcha! (My maiden name was Jade Lilly!) http://instagr.am/p/WFoaxNIvP3/ 

Feb 24th - Both kids are crying... must be time to leave for church. Oh, they love church, its just that they have to have their drama before hand. 

Feb 25th - Family photos tomorrow and he bonked his noggin good. But he's fine, obviously. Lol. http://instagr.am/p/WI8b3dovP6/