Weekly Wrap-Up: Work Edition

This is the work edition of my weekly wrap-up because I worked a lot this week! Ugh, I do NOT know how full-time work-outside-the-home moms do it. I'm so very, very blessed that I do not work full-time outside of the home.

I'm so glad that God changed my thinking years ago and made me realize that, for this phase of my life, my main job is to be a wife, mother, and teacher of my children. Yes, I work a little bit (I'm usually gone about nine hours a week, split between two evenings, when DH is home with the girls), but my main focus is on my family.

Years ago, before struggling with infertility and having children of my own, I had bought into the lie that women need to have jobs outside of the home in order to be fulfilled and be productive members of society. I thought I would continue working full-time as a public school teacher even after I had children. I'm so thankful that God, in his infinite wisdom, made us wait to have children so that I could come to the place I am at today. If we had had children when we first wanted them, I'm not so sure that DH and I would have realized how much I needed to be a full-time wife and mother.

In school news, Lauren and I are really, really enjoying The Witch of Blackbird Pond. It has led to some great little discussions (very little since she's only 8 years old, but still, we're laying foundations here!) about dating, courting, and expectations in a future mate....primarily that as a follower of Christ, the Bible tells you to marry a follower of Christ.

Ashley is REALLY taking off in reading! It is so very, very exciting to see your child learn to read! We use Headsprout which she LOVES. It's fairly pricey, but because Lauren used it, we had a sibling discount plus got another coupon code in an email. We got a terrific deal on the lessons for Ashley!

Ashley & Lauren both love doing Mind Benders. Ashley has been reading the clues and figuring out the answers on her own which just amazes me! Ashley does this book. Lauren is in a higher-level book and can do them on her own as well. In my tutoring job, I find that so many, many kids are lacking in the critical thinking area, so I'm super excited to see my own children developing those skills!

For more Weekly Wrap-Up reading, head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Grandparent Edition

We had visits from both sets of grandparents this week, so it was a very exciting week for the girls!

The girls played games and went to the park with Grandma & Grandpa.

I dubbed it "Grandparent Day" for library book club on Friday. Papa went with Ashley to her class, and Mimi went with Lauren to hers. Earlier in the day we learned about consumer economics. (at the mall) (where I got some really good deals)

On Saturday, Papa ran his seventh marathon of 2009, so Lauren and DH went to that while I tested a kid at work (I'm a tutor at a special tutoring place, NOT SYLVAN), and when I was done, Ashley, Mimi and I drove so that we could see Papa finish. His time was under 4 hours (3:57 something I think?) so he was pretty happy!

As for school work this week:

Lauren & I are almost done reading The Case for Christ for Kids by Lee Strobel. It's been a great book to read together.

Lauren (and myself) learned a lot about the Puritans and their beliefs as well as about the Quakers in Pennsylvania and how their pacifism affected the colonists in Pennsylvania. We read about them in The Landmark History of the American People (Sonlight Core 3) which I guess some people find really boring, at least at the beginning, but I found that if we made sure to stop and really talk about what everything meant, it wasn't that bad.

We're studying primates in science. It's been interesting. We found the proboscis monkey to be very interesting looking.

Ashley is really starting to read well! This week, we played an easily made little game to review sight words. Actually, you can use this game to practice sight words, math facts, letter sounds, letter recognition, number recognition....the ideas are limitless!

We just call it the Rainbow Game. I made our home game on a large foamy piece, but I would recommend making it on a file folder which is what I did for work. Just draw a path of circles or squares and color them in 5 or 6 different colors (like Candyland). I make a couple of the spots stars, so if you land on those, you get to go again. I also make a bridge or two (again, like Candyland), so if you land on the spot at the end of the bridge, you get to cross the bridge. The kids LOVE this! Make sure you make the final spot ALL of the colors so that you don't have to roll the right color to win.

To play, you can use a die or make a die with each of the colors on a face. If you only used five colors, make the blank side say something like "go ahead 2 spaces." For sight words, if it's your turn, you draw a sight word from the pile (we have them on cards from Learning Language Arts through Literature), read the word, and if you're correct, roll the die to see where your marker will go. You can use buttons, Barbie shoes, coins, beans, whatever is available, for your markers.

I always tell the child that I will get some wrong on purpose (since I know how to read and/or do math facts), and if she catches my mistake, she gets to have my turn as well as hers. So I always pause after I give my answer.

I hope that explanation made sense. Email me if it didn't or if you want to make the game but have more questions!

We had an audience watching us play the game:

Check out more Weekly Wrap-Ups by heading over to Kris's blog.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Science & Art Edition

This is my first attempt at doing the Weekly Wrap-Up which is hosted by Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Check out more weekly wrap-ups by clicking here.

We did a lot of art activities this week. We went to a homeschool class at the public library that was about Mexican Folk Art. The girls made sugar skulls which is what is made in Mexico to celebrate Day of the Dead (not a gruesome holiday, but rather a celebration of life and loved ones, or so the librarian told us).

We also had our art appreciation co-op. We learned about Rembrandt. We made etchings since Rembrandt did a lot of etchings. Unlike Rembrandt, we used crayons for our etchings, but we got the idea. We've discovered some terrific videos about artists that are funny and educational. Gotta love that! The moms in the co-op get a kick out of how the animators cover up certain parts of certain works of art, if you know what I mean. The DVDs are from a series called Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists. There are books and DVDs in the series. Our library has several of both which is fantastic.

We're making little scrapbooks from paper lunch bags as we study each artist. We glue on a picture of the artist and/or a picture of some of his greatest works. Then the girls write down (on an index card) some things they've learned about the artist. The card then can go into the paper bag.

Before he painted them in a picture, Rembrandt sometimes liked to dress people up in funny clothes, so the girls put together some fun outfits before we started our etchings.

The girls also attended a birthday party at a local pottery painting place and got to make and paint three Christmas ornaments each. They were in craft heaven this week, especially Lauren!

On to science:
For our regular science studies, we use Apologia's Young Explorer Series. We're doing Land Animals of the Sixth Day which we love, love, love!!! I've heard that some people think these are too in-depth for their kids, but I'm wondering if those people either just read too much each day or started when their kids were a bit too young. My girls are 6 and 8 and ASK to do science. They DREADED science for the last two school years, so it's wonderful to hear them asking to do it now! We finished up our study of marsupials this week and began the chapter on primates.

We threw in some more fun science when we took a field trip to a local hands-on science center. Some out-of-town homeschooling friends met us there which was very fun!

Lauren and I got to ride this bike that is on a track waaaaaay above the ground. It was very strange to have such a big drop-off next to you! Stranger yet was the fact that I actually rode the bike given my adult-onset fear of heights! (Really, it's a fear of anyone falling from any height.)

And of course we did our regular subjects like math, reading, language arts, and history this week, but the theme of the week seemed to be science and art!