Wednesday, April 6, 2011

He's Walking When...

... we stop counting his steps and just watch him GO!!



You can find some more Wordless Wednesday at
5 Minutes for Mom,
Go Graham Go,
To Be Thode
and any other linkys I find !!!

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

TTT - Fool's Day almost Prank, Vacuum Sword & Shower drinker




Anna was thinking of April Fools Day jokes she could do. Her favorite idea was to eat lunch before Daddy came home from working at the college. She wanted to make him a plate... awww!! But put it in the fridge, so when he came in he'd think that we ate lunch and didn't save him any!!

She would then surprise him after he dropped his stuff off in the bedroom and office. She was going to have his plate ready for him at the table;) Oh, and I think she wanted to yell surprise!!

Ok... first, it's soo sweet!! She is very thoughtful!

Second, I loved how she knew Brian's routine enough to plan how to hide it from him and then surprise him:)

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Chris announced to me that he wanted to purchase a vacuum cleaner!! That was a strange request from my 5 yr old non-cleaning boy:) So I had to ask him WHY??

Chris responded, "I need a new sword. And the vacuum comes with the sword on the side with a holder, too!!"

LOL... he likes the accessories:) He made be in luck b/c our vacuum is dead... so he may get to keep the one that he's been eyeing (and using) the last few years!

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I don't remember my other kiddos liking the sprayer in the shower... in fact, they would scream when we'd use it while visiting family. Anyway, Nate is a hoot...

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up : Some KWL, Grammer and Sight Words

Bible
Besides working on our Awana verses and praying for our friends, we also started An Easter Devotional. I'll share more as we get into more, so I know if it's something I recommend or not.

But I've realized that I need something planned for this special time with my kids or else I skimp on our devotional time.... which is one of the great blessings of homeschooling as a Christian, teaching our kids about God, His story, His Word and our faith. So I'm thankful for this devotional for Easter and I'm going to use this time to make a plan for May & June!

Reading
Again, Lydia and Chris have been working on OPG. And I've been drilling both regularly on their Sight Words. I have found using a most used words as a Sight Word list has been very good for my kids. They learn simple words that are found everywhere and when they start "trying" to read books they are very confident because they already know soo many of the words they encounter in those books;) And a lot of "most used words" are sight words or words that they quickly learn to sound out;)

Anna has also been reading and reading this week. She and I have continued to work through another Robin Hood book as well as a Magic Tree House space book. She's also been reading some of the simpler books for Lydia and Chris. For free reading she's been reading an Abeka adaptation of Swiss Family Robinson:)

I'm not sure if I have included much about our Grammer lessons. I have been using First Language Lessons by Jesse Wise with Anna. And we love them:) Next year we'll see about using the 3rd/4th grade Language Lessons or changing methods to something else recommended by The Well Trained Mind. Until then we'll enjoy make funny sentences;)



Math

Lydia is still chugging away practicing her skills on ixl.com, working through numbers 1-20 and learning her doubles facts (something Anna and Chris are teaching her)!!

Chris did well with Saxon this week. I love how much he likes doing the worksheets, it's still such a surprise to me, I really thought he'd fuss about doing them. He is starting to slack on learning/practicing his math facts.... he was doing soo well so I backed off a bit to ease his workload:) So really it's ME that has to get him practicing again!!

Anna also needs some addition and subtraction fact practice. She can do the fact sheets each morning but not as quickly or easily as the manual seems to indicate she should. So we have some practicing to do with Anna, too!!

One of Anna's favorite lessons this week was perimeter;) She loves hands-on lessons... who doesn't??


Science
This week we studied the Moon. We had already had a week about the Moon in the Fall when we first started Earth Science. This wee we studied it in the context of the Moon being in space. I used a K-W-L Chart to help figure out what they already knew and what else we could learn about the Moon... I studied about using K-W-L charts in college, thought they were lame (just being honest)


Anyway, it was great. They liked the chart and I liked processing with them what they knew and some questions they had about the Moon. And by reading our reference books and some fun books from our local library it was a great Moon study week:)

We also made the phases of the Moon (it was a lapbook element).


And studie about the Blue Moon and painted our own Blue Moons, after the bigger globs of glue dried... don't miss that step, we almost did;)



History
We had a "quiet" history week. Our unit was on the Diaspora.... the what??? LOL... the spreading of the Jewish Nation when they had to leave Jerusalem under Roman rule. The placement of this unit was weird to me because we'vre already talked about the Crusades when Jerusalem was under Muslim control which happened YEARS, like hundreds after the Diaspora??? Anyway, that's been my only "beef" with Story of the World soo far.

So we read our chapters and a couple of books that out librarian had found about Jerusalem and the people who live there. Our favorite book was called The Wailing Wall by Leonard Everett Fisher. The kids colored a picture of the Temple in Jerusalem and worked on a lapbook element from here.

Picture of the Week
While having a "homeschool room" is NOT necessary to homeschooling, it is nice!! I thought abuot how thankful we are to have it and be able to leave our un-finished projects out:)



And I'm posting this on Sunday night, just amazed at how quickly the weekend has gone! And getting ready for a new week... we've got Revival meetings at our church each evening during the beginning of the week, lots of history to cover and hopefully some more sunny days to enjoy:)

I'm linking up to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Trim that Happened

Well Thursday afternoon we headed to a local salon to get Lydia and my hair cut... or I should say trimmed!!

When we pulled up, I thought the plan might have to change to just one of us getting a haircut. Lydia was not wanting to go in the store:) LOL... I seriously thought she wasn't going to do it.

I was thankful that the hair stylist was soo understanding. She immediately said that she wasn't interested in MAKING her get a haircut... I firmly agreed:)

I went first and Lydia just stood around and watched EVERYTHING!! Then she warmed up a bit and actually sat in a chair offered by the stylist so she could sit next to me:)

When my turn was over, I asked Lydia if she was ready. I did remind her of the prize awaiting her... her very own Sonic Slushy... usually they split them since the kids are little and usually can't finish the whole one on their own! It was enough....

The SOOC pics tell the story:)










She did an EXCELLENT job!! I was soo proud of her;) I loved how she immediately checked her hair to feel how much had been cut off;) And it wasn't much... just enough to get the dead ends off and have the experience!!

Within the hour as we were walking through Walmart together, so she could spend a gift card she had from her birthday, Lydia asked if she could get her haircut again next week:) LOL!! Too cute!!

I also thought it was cute that she bought items with her gift card that she could share with Anna and Chris... a pack of gum and a movie she thought they would like, too! And yes, she even shared her coveted Sonic Slushy with her siblings!! Such a sweetie!

SOOC Saturday

Friday, April 1, 2011

11 Months...


The Stats:
  • Weight (at home) - 21.5 lbs
  • Height (at home) - too wiggly, taller than 28 inches
  • 18 month onesies and tops
  • 12 month pants still fit him best, 18 with cloth diapers;)
  • Two naps - morning and afternoon
  • Still waking in the wee hours of the morning
  • Tooth count - 6:)
Favorite Foods:
  • Pasta, spaghetti
  • Banana
  • Chicken
  • Small bites of chocolate chip cookies;)
  • he eats anything.... as long as it gets into his mouth he'll eat it;)
New Tricks:
  • Walking about 50% of the time!!
  • While walking will stop, pick up a toy and continue
  • Loves carrying toys as he walks... the bigger, the better
  • Looking for stuff after it drops or when it "disappears"

  • Pushing buttons to make his toys work
  • Making eye contact when he "talks"
  • Making raspberries (truck noises) with his mouth, spit included!!
  • Pushing trucks along the ground
Favorite Things to Do:
  • Be outside!!! Loves outside!
  • Play with the TV remote
  • Play with shoes and chew on them!
  • Enjoyed playing with Duplos
  • Peek-a-boo
  • Crawling into the darkest/smallest spaces


"Bad" Habits:
  • Dropping food off his plate that he doesn't like
  • Chewing on everything
  • Still climbing into the dishwasher
  • Fussing (and kicking his feet if sitting) when we have to take something away from him or get him OUT of the dishwasher
  • Climbing behind the couch and knocking over lamps

What We're Watching For:
  • It seems like he hasn't gained anything in the last few months... I know part of it is because he's soo active!!! So I'm figuring out ways to get more protein and fat into his diet!
  • He's attempting to climb on everything... somethings just can't be moved
  • Nursing less.... (Momma's not ready for this!!)
  • Drooling again... more teeth??
  • Enjoying his paci
Momma's Thoughts

This last month has been such a delight with Nate!! He's such a content little man when his basic needs are met. Sure, he gets into EVERYTHING, but he does it happily:)

Part of this contentment is his age and the other part, we think, is his personality:) He has the sweetest spirit and he's quite the comedian as well.... especially if he knows he has an audience:)

It's just soo much fun to see him changing each day, taking more steps or babbling a few new sounds! He's getting older!!

While Nate is changing, it's also soo much fun to see his siblings adapting to his changes;) We've pulled out more older baby toys for Nate and it's ones the kids remember playing with! So it's been funny watching them play on a whole new level. Just the interaction is precious!!


Onto a new month.... the last month of his 1st year!! Oh, it's gone soo quickly but the end of the year is soo sweet as we have a cute, sweet little boy toddling around making messes and smiles wherever he goes;)