Homeschool Recap, May 3rd (Week 34) DONE!

In our lives this week...
Just gotta say, so glad to be DONE for a little while.  We've got some crazy stuff up in the air, and I need a break to focus energies elsewhere.  However, the boys NEED activity, so can't sit still for long.  We'll see what can be done with our brief time out.

Even at 7, still an adorable sleeper!

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: What tot school?  ;)

Enjoying a good book and some sunshine.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was "The Alpha & Omega" and Preston's memory verse is Revelation 21:6. We looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that explained how Jesus is the first and the last!  Put our final picture up on the branch.  Isn't it awesome?

Names of Jesus Branch

Reading/Writing: We finished Spelling by Sound & Structure. Did a few final reviews/tests of words Preston has struggled with over the year. 

History: This week Preston learned about Alaska (read and watched the movie Balto) and Hawaii (read The Island-Below-The-Star) to close out the 50 states.  The boys enjoyed listening to the audio book The Scrambled States of America.  We also learned about the White House, and wrote a letter to the President and finished out our wall time line.  Reviewed some of the things in the History Notebook.

Working on White House facts and worksheets.

Math: Preston is finished going through comprehensive reviews of each chapter using Math Mammoth worksheets, and took his year-end test.  He did great.  Really, the only questions he missed was because he didn't read the instructions and/or pay close enough attention to the signs. 

Science:  This week's we learned about a few more birds in Birds, Nests & Eggs. And used First Encyclopedia to talk about electricity and computers.

Music/Art: Done.

Spanish: Did a Spanish alphabet review and read a few easy reader books in Spanish.

We did it.  ALL DONE with 2nd Grade!!!

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 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!]

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!]

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!]

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!]

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!]

Homeschool Recap, February 22nd (Week 25)...

In my life this week...

Well... I'm just now getting around to last week's update, oops.  We didn't do school the week before, but had a homeschool meeting and homeschool Valentine's party... and Preston spent the night with Grandma Jill and Grandpa Steve.  Then last week, we got back into the swing of things.

A Picture to share...

Fun at the park. All my boys in the tower!

Batman and... Batman?

In our Homeschool this week...

Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "T" for Trains/Transportation!  We read a few books having to do with trains, like Bear On the Train, Freight Train, And the Train Goes..., Dinosaur Train, Circus Train, Little Book of Train Stories and the Big Book of Big Trains.  He did a great job writing his letters this week!

Some good lookin' T's there!

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Preston's memory verse is Rev. 17:14 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about God is the ultimate authority above all other authorities.

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 58-60 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

Working on writing together.

History: This week Preston learned Iowa and Wisconsin and the California Gold Rush.  We read: Kate Shelley: Bound for Legend, Century Farm, and Gold Fever Tales.

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

Science:  This week's lesson was about Atoms & Molecules in Science with Air.  We made some H2O molecules using marshmallows (dipped in two different colors to represent Hydrogen and Oxygen).  The boys enjoyed eating those molecules!  We looked at how dish soap can do all kinds of "magic" using Science in the Kitchen.

Marshmallow molecules.  Yum!

 Music/Art: Our patriotic songs this week are "You're a Grand 'Ole Flag" and "Stars & Stripes Forever."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our fourth artist: Van Gogh. We continued learning about the artist by reading Van Gogh, Camille & The Sunflowers and The Yellow House.  Preston also colored Sunflowers and The Bedroom.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "Los Deportes" 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!]

Homeschool Recap, February 8th (Week 24)...

In my life this week...

Um... stuff.  The weather was nice this week... I remember that.  Lol.  It zoomed by so quickly, I can barely remember what took place, to be completely honest.  Next week, we are off of school again.  Got some Valentine's fun stuff to do, homeschool group activities, and Preston will be spending the night with Grandma Jill & Grandpa Steve.  Hooray for a break!

Dinner outside on Superbowl Sunday.

Movie Night!  They were so excited about Tinkerbell!

Last Saturday, Michael and I got out for a bit to go see some friends and some good music.  Our friend Adrian was hosting a house show at his loft in Dallas... and Eimi and Drue were there, with Evie!  Squeeee!  It was great to see them, it's been so long!  The other band playing with Matt & Toby, and they were so fun.  The played their songs and Emery songs and made the audience (about 50 people) ask them questions and such.  Made for a really fun evening, for sure!

Eimi and Kayla

Matt & Toby

A Picture to share...

Heehee, caught ya! New curtain & potty training.

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "S" for Stars!  We read a few books having to do with stars, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Full Moon & Star, Shining Star, Star Light Star Bright.  Callen has also started to enjoy playing dominoes.  Or, at the very least, making a big mess with them around the house!

Under the table while Preston & I do work up top.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Preston's memory verse is Rev. 17:14 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked about God is the ultimate authority above all other authorities. We made a crown that is only for Jesus and put it on display

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 55-57 in Primary Language Lessons. We continued our read-aloud, On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. 

History: This week Preston learned Samuel Morse and the telegraph, along with Florida and Texas.  We read: Radio Rescue, The Great Pig Search, Welcome to the River of Grass, Armadillo from Amarillo and The Inside Outside Book of Texas.  Preston did a great scratch representation in his Scratch & Sketch book.

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Continued Chapter 8, and worked on subtracting three-digit numbers and regrouping.  Busted out the addition and subtraction flashcards to help him get up to speed on the facts.  And we worked on some word problems, which he absolutely loves. He tells me, "Mom, if there's ever a math problem I can't figure out, just put it into a word problem and I can do it!"  =)

Science:  This week's lesson was about breathing air in Science with Air, but we had already covered most of what was in the lesson so we just kinda read over it again.  We were supposed to do "Sour Things" in Science in the Kitchen, but I didn't have the supplies needed for some of the fun experiments so we'll do that one another time down the road.

Music/Art: Our patriotic songs this week are "You're a Grand 'Ole Flag" and "Stars & Stripes Forever."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our fourth artist: Van Gogh. This week, we read from Usborne Children's Book of Art and Famous Artists.  We toured my bathroom.  Lol!  I have 7 prints of Van Gogh paintings hung up in there... so it was like our own little trip to the museum, without leaving the house. Preston colored a picture much like Starry Night in My Very First Art Coloring Book with Stickers. We finished up listening to tracks from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "Los Animales Domesticos" 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!]

Homeschool Recap, February 1st (Week 23)...

In my life this week...

This week went by pretty smoothly... and I'm thankful for that.  The boys and I got some good outside time when the weather cooperated.  I've started back to using My Fitness Pal (on my phone, and it has a barcode scanner, oh how much easier it is now!) and so I've been trying to be intentionally more active as well as watch my calories and portion sizes.  We ran around the park and today we danced to some old Audio Adrenaline albums... so much fun (and without the cost of a gym membership, lol).  

Overall, the boys' behavior was better than usual this week... so I certainly can't complain about that.  In fact, there were several sweet moments between them... being helpful to each other and getting along really well.  This isn't always the case, for sure, they know how to push buttons with each other, but it was nice to see some tender moments in there.

Preston reading Callen a bedtime story.

Thursday, Jill and Steve came over to watch the boys so I could go do a book party in Lancaster.  It was really fun, a great group of women to hang out with!  And with that, I have a head start on my February sales goal (since I had already met January's, yay!).  I am working towards earning my trip to Convention for free, with a sales challenge each month January through April.

A Picture to share... Last Saturday, Preston took part in our Pack's Pinewood Derby.  His Shark car won 2nd place every race it was in, so overall for his Den, he won 2nd place and got a fun trophy.

Second Place for the Wolves.

The Shark!

The track!

In our Homeschool this week...
Tot School: We continued the 1plus1plus1equals1.net "Tot School" printables this week with letter "R" for Rainforest!  We read a few books having to do with rainforests, like Up a Rainforest Tree and The Rain Forest Counts.  Callen also helped Preston with his Spelling work one more.  Preston's questions were things like, "Which word has the 'er' sound spelled 'e-a-r' and when he read that to Callen, Callen quickly pointed out the words that had e-a-r.  That boy definitely knows his letters!

Callen helped Preston with his Spelling work.

Bible:   This week's name of Jesus was Head of the Body. Preston's memory verse is Col 1:18 and we looked up verses in The Discoverer's Bible that talked the church being the body and God as the head. One of the suggestions in the lesson was to make a gingerbread man and decorate it, talking about how God is the head and we are the body.  Well, at Aldi earlier this week, I saw that they had the Gingerbread Man kits on clearance so I nabbed a couple.  Today we decorated them, and the boys can't wait to eat them, of course!

Callen had some help, but told me where to put things.

Preston did his by himself.  Nice Chef's hat!

Reading/Writing: We continued Spelling by Sound & Structure. Continued with lesson 52-54 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 four states... Maryland (read Island Boy), Missouri (read Pony Express), Arkansas (read Good Morning, Granny Rose) and Michigan (read The Real McCoy and The Michigan Counting Book).

Math: Preston continued Part B of Math Mammoth, Second Grade.  Started Chapter 8, which is adding three-digit numbers and regrouping.  We do need to work on addition facts, as he still often uses his fingers for facts he should just know off the top of his head.  Need to do some drilling!

Three digit math and a puzzle to solve.

Science:  This week's theme continued with the human body, and we covered subjects like the brain and senses in the First Encyclopedia of Science and made pages in his Science Notebook.  Also did some sense experiments from Science in the Kitchen.

Music/Art: Continued practicing "The Star-Spangled Banner."  We also continued our World's Greatest Artists, Vol 1 unit study, with our third artist: Monet. This week, we read from Monet & The Impressionists for Kids, Monet's Impressions and the Usborne Children's Book of Art. Preston colored in a black and white version of "Woman with a Parasol" and created his own version of a "Japanese Footbridge." We are also listening to and learning more about Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, and read Swan Lake.

Spanish: Continued with the next episode of Salsa. We reviewed words having to do with "El Tiempo" 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!]