Homeschool Recap, April 26th (Week 33)...

In our lives this week...
I worked Share-A-Thon at Power FM three days this week while the boys stayed with grandma... so, needless to say, schooling took a backseat a good chunk of the week.  However, it was our second-to-last week of school, and I didn't want to get off track so we can officially end next Friday!  We squeezed lessons in where we could and finished it up on Saturday morning.  Whew.

A picture to share...

Preston aced the STAAR tests!

Everyone was posting about how stressed they and their kids were regarding the STAAR tests this week.  I had to rub it in a little that we don't have such silly things.  Lol.

It's beautiful!  Don't touch it!!!

I have the best mom ever.  She not only watches my kids for me, but organized my nightmare of a tupperware cabinet.  Seriously, the best mom ever.

People we're seeing...
On Monday, we met up with a couple of other ladies (April and Jessica) and their kids from our homeschool group to play at the park.  Then, on Tuesday, I invited April and her kids over for a movie night.  The kids wanted to watch Kronk's New Groove, lol.  It's so awesome having a new friend who homeschools, has kids around the same age as mine and lives nearly around the corner!  Thank you, Lord, for this awesome new friendship!  Oh, and thanks to Eddie for introducing us... he knew we'd hit it off!  Then, of course, it was nice to see all my Power FM peeps the rest of the week.  Love that crew, they still feel like family even after I've been gone so long.


In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Pretty much nothing formal in the way of schooling for Callen this week.  We did read If You Give a Pig a Pancake (several times) and Frederick by Lionni.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "The Word" and Preston's memory verse is John 1:1. We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that explained how important The Word is, and words, in general, are too.  We talked about the use of words, and read about Helen Keller.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. We finished with In Grandma's Attic, our last read-aloud, and Preston wrote a brief summary of the book.  This one was fun, it was all about how much trouble "Grandma" used to get in as a little girl and the lessons she learned from her mischief.  Pretty sure Preston could relate.  Lol.

History: This week Preston learned about inventors like Thomas Edison, The Wright Brothers and Henry Ford, as well as four states: Utah, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona.  My parents just returned from a vacation in Arizona at the Grand Canyon so it was fun to learn about the state they told us all about.  Books we read this week included: Leah's Pony, A Wizard From the Start (about Thomas Edison), First Flight and Welcome to the Sea of Sand (poem about an Arizona desert).

Math: Preston is going through comprehensive reviews of each chapter using Math Mammoth worksheets, trying to see what we still need help on.  He seems to have a good grasp on what we've reviewed so far!

Science:  This week's we learned about a few more birds in Birds, Nests & Eggs. And used Science with Air to learn about air's movement and how planes fly.

Music/Art: We sang through the "Armed Services Medley" one last time.

Spanish: Pretty much just quit with Spanish for the year.  =)

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, April 19th (Week 32)...

It wasn't even that hot outside!

In our lives this week...

Three weeks ago, we had our A/C company come out to do a routine inspection/tune-up so that when warm weather got here we wouldn't suddenly find out it was broken (like we have several years in a row!).  He came out, said everything was fine.  Then, on Sunday, a few hours after we turned the system on because it was warm and humid, water began leaking through our garage cieling.  Yep... out they came again to fix a PVC pipe that had come unsealed.  And then, on Tuesday, after we returned home from the dentist (Preston had to get a cavity-filled), I turned the A/C back on and several hours later, I realized it wasn't very cool in the house.  I looked and, sure enough, the unit was not cooling to the temperature it was supposed to.  Waited till about 11:30 at night, and the guys finally showed up, said it was a solid block of ice and it looked like the refrigerant was used up.  Um, shouldn't the guy have noticed it was low either Sunday or three weeks ago?  Sigh.  They didn't have any and couldn't do anything with it all frozen, anyway, so we were put on "priority" for first thing in the morning.  Annnnnd, we didn't see the guy until after 4pm that next day (priority, eh?).  He said the refrigerant was fine, it just wasn't getting released as it should so he fixed that.  Thankfully, it's been fine since then.  But man, I am so tired of trouble with our still-new, not-yet-paid-for unit. Hopefully, this will be the only trouble we have this year and we can get through the summer just fine?!?!  Praying so!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: Since we're done with our A-Z stuff, Callen didn't do much "school" this week.  He did some doodling in the Wipe-Clean First Letters book and a few other dry-erase books he has, as well as coloring books.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "The Word" and Preston's memory verse is John 1:1. We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus being The Word.  Preston did his copywork and we added the verse to our Names of Jesus branch on the wall.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Finished with lessons 79-82 in Primary Language Lessons. That's all of that for the year!  We continued with In Grandma's Attic, our last read-aloud. 

My happy readers!

History: This week Preston learned about inventors, as well as four states: Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming.  Books we read included: Volcano: Eruption & Healing of Mt. St. Helens, Mailing Mae and Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression.

Math: Preston finished Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade!  Completed a mixed review, a chapter review and the Chapter 10 test.  All that's left is a few more reviews and an end of the year test next week!

Preston with his multiplication tables card from Phoenix Trading.

Science:  This week's lessons were about Sound.  Did a couple of pages from The First Encyclopedia of Science. And used some info out of Science with Air about how air affects sound, as well.

Music/Art: Our patriotic song this week was "Armed Services Medley." We finished our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study by constructing a lapbook portfolio of all that we learned and Preston's artwork.  Can't wait to show it off!

Spanish: Pretty much just quit with Spanish for the year.  =)

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, April 12th (Week 31)...

Pictures to Share... 

Preston created a chameleon with play-doh.

My sweet, snuggly boys one cold morning in April.

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: We finished the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "Z" for Zipper/Clothes!  We read a few books that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the topic, but were just fun anyway: Black & White by MaCauley, Noah's Ark by Spier, The Three Pigs by Wiesner and Kitten's First Full Moon by Henkes.

The last letter is Z!

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "The Resurrection and the Life." Preston's memory verse is John 11:25 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus' death and resurrection.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 76-78 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued with In Grandma's Attic, our last read-aloud.  Had some extra letter formation practice:

Still needs work on certain letters.

History: This week Preston learned about pioneers who moved into the middle of the country.  We read The Long Way Westward by Sandin.  Also added two more states to the notebook: North Dakota (we read River Friendly, River Wild) and South Dakota (Preston read on his own Flat Stanley: The Mount Rushmore Calamity).

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Continued working on multiplication practice and added in using a Multiplication Wrap-Up, which he thought was great fun.

Rockin' the multiplication.

Science:  This week's lessons were kind of all over the place.  Did a few topics, like Light & Color and Friction from The First Encyclopedia of Science.  And learned about several more birds in the Birds, Nests & Eggs.

Music/Art: Our patriotic song this week was "Armed Services Medley," and the kids love this one.  Found Callen singing bits from it to himself this week, lol.  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our last artist: Jackson Pollock. This week, we looked at several books with his paintings and the boys attempted their own versions.

Beautiful day for painting outside!

Pollock-inspired artwork.

Spanish: Read a book from the library called Un Amigo de veras Maravilloso (A Splendid Friend, Indeed)... it was completely in Spanish and we had to figure out what they were saying!  Fun!

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!]

Batman Xtreme Customz MommyParties, sponsored by Ridemakerz

On Sunday, we invited a group of 10 boys and their parents over for a fun afternoon that included getting to build their own Batman Xtreme Customz Vehicle by Ridemakerz, products sent by MommyParties!  The boys were so excited and could hardly wait to begin once they caught sight of the kits!

The boys were eager to dig into these right away!

After getting them all settled near a parent, everyone opened their packages and got after it!  Opening the packages was certainly the most difficult part of the building process, lol.

Getting started with lots of parental help!

Checking out all the parts.

Giving instructions on making them customized.

Working hard at building it just right!

The initial building did seem to take quite a bit of parental involvement for most of the boys.  The younger boys told their mom or dad how they wanted it built and helped where they could.  Some of the oldest boys were fine doing it on their own with just a bit of help or instruction.  These toys are aimed at ages 5-7, though I would definitely recommend them for the upper ages.  But once they were on track, the boys quickly figured out how to interchange the parts and make them different again and again.  They really enjoyed showing off their finished, customized Batmobiles and playing with them!

Look at what we did!!!

Xtreme Customz by Ridemakerz come in a variety of different styles, including other superheroes like Spiderman and Iron Man!  They retail for $9.99 online and at stores such as Target or Toys R Us.

My boys woke up this morning, and the first thing they did was grab their Batman cars and get to work on changing out parts again.  A friend of mine from the party said her kids wanted to take theirs to bed and keep customizing them!  I'd say these were a pretty big hit with the boys I know!  Fun!

[Disclaimer:  I received free products from MommyParties to use at the party and give to the guests.  I was not compensated in anyway for my review, this opinion posted here are my own.]

Homeschool Recap, Apil 5th (Week 30)...

People we saw...

Go, Mema, go!

We visited my husband's grandma, aka Mema, and Callen hitched a ride.  We also met up with some new friends at a really fantastic indoor playplace.. the kids had a blast.  Definitely gonna have to go back there again soon!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "Y" for Yo-Yo or toys!  We read a variety of books this week, not necessarily all on topic: The Toy Farmer, The Little House and Red Sings from Treetops.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "The Resurrection and the Life" (a great follow up to Easter!). Preston's memory verse is John 11:25 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about Jesus' resurrection and such.  We added to the Names of Jesus branch, Preston did his copywork.  We were supposed to make Resurrection Cookies, but since we did Resurrection Rolls last week, we skipped that.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 73-75 in Primary Language Lessons. We started our last read aloud: In Grandma's Attic by Arleta Richardson.  So glad that this one is much more light-hearted after the last one.  Lol.

History: This week the lesson was about the railroad spreading out across America and how it changed how people settled the land.  We also studied Colorado.  We read: Iron Horses, Boss of the Plains: The Hat That Won the West and Prairie School.

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 continued about magnets, using the "Fun With Magnets" kit.  The boys really enjoyed playing with the magnets and trying 'em out different ways.  Unfortunately we could not make our electromagnet... simply could not get that experiment to work (even with Daddy's help).

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 seventh artist: Georgia O'Keeffe.  We read about her in the Usborne Children's Book of Art and Georgia O'Keeffe, and the boys colored a skull and flowers.

Spanish: We're not doing much for Spanish anymore, just reviewing where we can.  Preston read a board book called Grande Pequeno and I had practice saying the words correctly and figuring out what they meant.

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!]

March 2013 Tweets & Instagrams to Remember...

Mar 5th - What does one even DO on Twitter anymore? Hmm?

Mar 7th - T-Shirt says it all... Heck yes, we were there! #theinsyderz #kickstarter http://instagr.am/p/WlfTLoIvKI/

Mar 10th - My three-year-old on the way to church! Happy birthday, Callen! http://instagr.am/p/Wrq2w3ovE9/

Mar 14th - Doing one no-no after another must be exhausting. I put him in his room for time-out, 5 minutes later,… http://instagr.am/p/W2FCpVIvP_/

Mar 14th - And then I said, "No, this is Perry the Platypus!" http://instagr.am/p/W246ZgIvEh/

Mar 16th - Never thought I'd live somewhere with a lake view from my backyard. And even though it isn't a lake and… http://instagr.am/p/W6-5eAovLg/

Mar 21st - Someone should tell these kids its Spring now. http://instagram.com/p/XIaY6RIvGV/

Mar 24th - Those freckles kill me. http://instagram.com/p/XQrc3uovNn/ 

Mar 24th -  He is my sunshine. http://instagram.com/p/XQrgRrIvNt/ 

Mar 26th - #Homeschool #BoxDay, most of MFW ECC is in my possession now. So excited for next year! Can't wait to… http://instagram.com/p/XVBy_4ovDm/ 

Mar 31st - My handsome guys in their new Easter/Spring clothes. They are so excited to wear them to church. http://instagram.com/p/XhrqaoovO2/