2 Swings for Three

And they had a great time;)

Homeschooling Week in Review

I always want to share what our weeks look like.... nothing really exciting, just fun to share with some pictures!!

So here goes by subject:)

Bible
I am forgetting where I read this quote, but somewhere in the last few weeks I read this,"Our kids should be more familiar with the Bible stories and Scripture than their Saxon lessons!" Ouch!! I'm not sure how many days we zoom through the lessons to eat lunch at a decent hour and skip over our memory verses or lessons.

That being said, the kids and I were very intentional last week to work on their (but it ends up being mine too) Awana verses. And these times always begin conversations about what the verses mean and how can we obey them. And for Cubbies we've enjoyed the little activities although some weeks we don't completely finish:(

We're also trudging our way through Psalm 19... we had taken a break from working on them. But it's such a beautiful and foundational psalm;) SO we're back, and last week we memorized

¹¹ They are a warning to your servant,
a great reward for those who obey them.

Math
All together we've been learning the number families, something I've wanted to start since our friends visited in Oct:) So this week we started the 3's... I told the kids the little rhyme that we sang in softball, "3, 6, 9, batter looks like Frankenstein", just to be silly. They have been butchering that rhyme all week... argh... it's hard to listen... LOL!!

Chris has been ROCKing Saxon 1.... I planned for him to do one lesson every other day because I thought he wouldn't want to sit through the meeting book, lesson and practice sheets.... but I was WAY wrong! He LOVES it and asks to complete all his math;) And just beams when he finishes and I get to lather on the praise:)

In fact, he got tired of waiting on me to start math, so he made his OWN worksheet:) And then completed it. And he was super excited to start counting pennies and drawing pictures for word problems;)

Anna continues to buzz through Saxon 2:) She was excited to finally start carrying over in her addition problems. And this was the 1st week she had a 100 problems in 5 minutes challenge... she did a little more than half during the allotted time... I was really glad she STUCK it OUT and that every problem she completed was RIGHT... which is more important to me:)

Lydia has been working on puzzles, math manipulatives and a matching games. She counts with us and hears all that is going on during math times... she can't wait to start something more formal;)

Reading
Chris and Lydia are slowly working through Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. A few days we deviated and I let them pick little readers to work through.... like Bob Books or LeapFrog Phonics books:) While I'd love for them to buzz through it, I really want them to LOVE reading... so my goal is 10+ minutes a day versus completing a certain amount or a lesson!

Anna continues to work through library books to add to her reading log as well as working through her grammer and spelling books:) She also read fairy tales originated in France to Lydia and Chris and with me;) And some cave books;)

Anna also had to write some letters to family and friends as part of her grammer. She dictated what she wanted written as I wrote it on paper, but then she got to type it out:) She enjoyed learning how to work on the computer and I like extending activities to include other skills;)

Science
We took on two topics last week just to push our way through so we can start Space and Astronomy in Feb:) So we talked about Caves and Mountains... pretty simple;)

For caves we read through our main book, read library books and then I had the kids illustrate things that they'd find in a cave! So we had bats, bears, Stalactites and Stalagmites, underground rivers, etc all on papers. And then we built a cave in Chris' room using his bunk bed and couch. Poor Andrea called as I was rearranging the room pushing the couch to build our cave;)

Our Mountain lessons were also very simple!! One thing that was "new" to the kids were avalanches and we covered that with some fun educational online videos:) And I wanted them to know some of the mountain terms... snowline, peaks, pass, etc!! There was a cool printable graphic that I never had the chance to print... so we MADE our own by painting a mountain range with the different terms...


Of course they all look different by age:)
I thought Chris' was cute with mountain climbers on each peak:) And little mountains in front of the big ones;)
I was soo impressed with Anna's though.... I helped her with an outline of some mountains, but she did all the outlining, painting and following the different mountain layers herself....

I HAD to display it!!
(thanks to Uncle Scott and Aunt Bea, I think I found a great spot for the easel and the artwork!!)

History
We are starting to work through Western Europe in the Middle Ages... so this we studied Clovis and the beginning of France (hence the French fairy tales). While we dove into books about modern Paris and France (learning a little culture) thanks to our amazing and soo very awesome children's librarian (and sweet friend), we don't have alot of resources about soo many of the topics covered in SOTW.

We used the Activity guide this week for the Clovis coloring sheets and making a Fleur de lis symbol:) And then I love using the SOTW resources collected by this awesome homeschooling blogger. So my kids have at least heard of someone named Clovis and the start of France... something I DIDN't know until this week:)

Other:)
We also jumped into the world of Legos:) Chris received a few smaller sets for Christmas that he really liked. SO this weekend we pulled out Brian and Uncle Scott's old sets.... WHOA!! These kids have been building ever since... it's soo great to see what they create and soo much better for them than just sitting in front of the TV during "down times":)

(can you see Chris saying "awesome" in this blurry pic as Brian pulled out his Legos for the kids to play with????)


Our dining table (which we always eat on) has been covered in Legos for days:) And while they are tucked neatly away right now, I don't see them staying neatly away for very long:)

Well that's about it.... I have some pics of what Nate (the Great) was up to while we attempted to school... he is becoming quite the "distraction"!!! More motivation to school HARD while he's napping;)

Thanks to all the homeschooling ladies who weekly share what you are doing, you all inspire;)

WW: Vikings, Vikings Everywhere

Rub-a-Dub-Dub
Hiccup in the TUB:)

Gotta love some clearance halloween costumes;) And thanks to the Coopers, my kids are hooked on everything about How to Train Your Dragon and vikings.... will make our history lessons in a couple weeks a little easier;)

You can find some other picture posts at Wordless Wednesday, 5 Minutes for Mom and Go Graham Go!!!

Babies Wearing "Babies"

The Mei Tai and Ring Sling were brought out last nigt while the kids played babies:) I HAD to stop cooking dinner to help them put them on and take PICTURES... of course!!!

Believe it or not, but it started with Christopher wanting to carry his giraffe.... gotta love a sensitive, nurturing man!!!!
Then Anna got into the game. She looks so grown to me!!!
Lyida wore her baby for awhile last night and then again this morning she wanted to put on the mei tai!!!! And she gladly smiled for a picture:)

If you didn't think the above pictures were cute.... then you might not like this one either!!! But I thought it was adorable to see Lydia's back with the mei tai straps (just like a mommy's) and then her backwards shorts from her dressing herself:) And her hair in piggies....

We really are at a fun stage!! I love listening to the kids playing "pretend" with each other. They take care of babies, they pretend that each other are cats, or they go to school. TOday they have transformed the living room into their "house" with their sleeping bags as beds and a blanket as their "table" with plates set..... [what a mess!!! lol]

Off to fold laundry, work on VBS materials and stay productive while they play sooo nicely:)

Saturday Sentences

As I was working around the house I heard the kids playing... this was what I heard from Anna:

Let's do school. Everyone get your Bibles...

Ok, so today we are talking
about what God has created....

He made the sky, bird and then trees.
He made us and our hearts.... he made our hearts so that he can live in our
hearts and tell us what to do.

Everyone got a turn being the "teacher"... that means you get to tell the others what to do while you stand behind the dehumidifier! And you refer to everyone using their full name.... first, middle and last.... so funny to hear them say eachother's full names.

Anna ended her turn being teacher by leading everyone in the song "Home on the Range". But then it got silly.... they subsitituted the forgotten words with BOINK... so it all ended up in giggles:)

Chasing Planes, some more PT and Babysitting

Well, it's crop dusting time again.... or atleast the plane flew overhead a couple of times making passes over the fields in our area. The kids LOVE the planes... well Lydia isn't too much for the planes getting too close but she likes them in the sky!

Christopher was a hoot though. He immediately grabbed his bucket and found a stick to "catch" the plane with. The plane was in the sky so his sense of how BIG the plane really was ....was a little off!! But it was cute to see him so determined to "catch" the plane.

I did make a video of him, but it's kind of hard to heard him so I'm still debating about posting it. He describes how he will spray the plane with his stick and then catch the plane in the bucket..... he even makes plans to climb on the church roof to get closer to the plane....

ALL BOY!!!



Lydia on the other hand had a very good potty training morning. When I tried to PT Chris, Lydia was actually using the potty by herself. But now that the focus is on her she's been having a LOT of accidents.

I've still been sticking "big girl pants" (BGP) on her and then after she wets through a few I stick back ont eh diapers and start again in the morning. I'm thinking of this as the TRAINING stage. I will set the timer to give us both warnings that she should try but sometimes she's not wanting to try or I don't hear the timer.

I'm not really in a rush with her. I just have seen her interest and ability. And she's taking her diaper off after just drops of pee-pee because she doesn't want to be wet....so we'd really be going through diapers:) Plus she wants her BGP... and her gummy bears:)

So we'll just keep on:) This morning though I took her to church and outside to play and she didn't wet once (she held it or didn't have to go). So maybe our "training time" is starting to yield some results????

Finally tonight I'll be heading to Drea's for some babysitting.... for months we've been talking about watching eachothers' kids for the evening to give eachother Date Nights. So finally one of us saw the need and we're trying it out:) So... we hope they have a needed break and a nice evening.... our chance is coming soon:)

Just a question...... when a friend watches your kids in the evening, do they drop their kids off at your house, or do you go to theirs???

I offered to go to Andrea's just because her boys so to bed earlier in the evening and I thought they would want to enjoy the evening without any time contraints (minus businesses closing, Kroger is 24 hours though). And while they probably wouldn't care if the boys stayed up late one night... it wouldn't be good to try it on a Saturday night... sounds like a rough start to a Sunday:)

Train Tuesday

Well, it was rainy on Tuesday!!! Anna, Christopher and I decided to go to the post office anyway. The mission was two-fold....check the mail and train Christopher how to ride his bike on the road leading to the PO.

We got a block or two and it started to mist and then POUR. The kids and I took cover under an awning of a business for a few minutes. It cleared a little bit so we decided to ride to the town office to visit and wait for the cloud to pass. Needless to say, we looked like drenched rats. And when we got there our town clerk was on the phone with our Daddy. he was checking to see if we made it to her office and whether we needed a lift back home:)

We made it to the PO and back home (just a tad wet). And Christopher did OK, although he's really used to just looking around...not steering a bike!! And he might have to get a bigger bike..... with that little wheel in the front he just can't keep up with Anna.


Here is Lydia admiring the train track that the kids and I had put up (we just couldn't get outside because of the rain). Anyway, she lasts all of ten seconds, enough for a picture, before she started demolishing the track.... Lydia Kong!!