Not Back to School Blog Hop- Day in the Life Week

This is the final week for the Not Back to School Blog Hop Hosted by Darcy at Heart of the Matter.

So here is a typical day for us based mostly on today's schooling. I would note that Buddy has not wanted to be very active in schoolish activities or sitting still much these days. And I have not started formal preschool activities with him yet this school year. I am letting him set the pace on that one. More on that another day.


7:45 AM  
Squirt does her Quiet Time, Devotions and Bible Reading.
Buddy gets dressed and plays with Bubba .
Mom fixes breakfast & makes new loaf of Gluten Free Bread

8:15 AM  
Breakfast

8:45 AM  
All brush teeth and wash up from breakfast.
Squirt begins her Math Drill Multiplication Tables with flashcards and tape.

9:00 AM
Squirt starts her Independent Work.
She works in her Math Textbook and Workbook.
Bubba goes down for his morning nap.
Buddy sits down in the living room to watch Curious George.
Mom takes out bread from oven and then gets her shower.

9:30 AM  
Buddy heads to room to play.
Squirt finishes her math and starts independent work for English

Mom cleans up breakfast dishes.

10 AM      
Everyone does Book Basket in separate rooms.

10:15 AM  
Buddy continues reading while Mom works with Squirt on Apologia Science.

Mom reads to her and Squirt narrates back the info to check for comprehension.
Squirt writes a notebook page to go into her Zoology I Notebook.

Once a week on Tuesdays Squirt and Buddy do Music. They listen to a selection, read library books about the composer and later paint or illustrate a piece of art work that is inspired by the music.

11 AM      
Buddy plays.
Squirt and Mom work on Greek Root word "kinesis".

Squirt writes out the word meaning and three words
from the list that contain the root word along with the definition.
Mom checks work and Squirt moves on to write out the first seven of the
Ten Commandments in her best handwriting.
She glues the 7th Commandment to the wall poster.

11:30 AM    
Recess for Buddy and Squirt.
While Mom fixes lunches.

12:00 PM    
Lunch (Dad comes home and we eat as a family most days)
And more Recess
Bubba is up now and running a muck.

1 PM or 2PM -3PM          
Afternoon Nap for Buddy & Bubba.
Buddy goes down first.
Mom spend time with Bubba while Squirt does

Health Lesson 13

Squirt reads and answers all question in her book.

and writes a letter to a friend.

Bubba goes down for a nap. (Yes! He is a big sleeper!)

Mom and Squirt read Exodus 3 & 4 and
Pages out of Victor's Journey Through the Bible
Squirt writes a notebook page about the Bible readings and illustrates her page.


Squirt will also do independent reading during the afternoon.

Read alouds get done at bedtime.


Some days are heavier academic days then others. This is a full day of academics. We will start a  Monday Coop day with our local Homeschool Association next month. Our schedule will shift a lot and we will probably have to double up some days to stay on schedule and account for the time away from academics  spending with other homeschoolers doing extra fun classes.

Other things that may get done during the afternoon time are- additional science and history reading, history or science projects, history crafts, nature or science pages, and English memorization or dictation work.

Once or twice a week Squirt works out of her Story Starters book reading the selection and completing the creative writing assignment. The following week she will correct her rough draft and Mom will type up her story. It is then placed in her notebook.

Not Back to School Blog Hop- Student Photo Week

"Behold children are a gift from the Lord" Psalm 127:3 

This week is Student Photo Week at Not Back to School Blog Hop hosted by Darcy at Heart of the Matter.


So here is our family

Squirt- she is our 4th grader, sweet ballerina, helpful big sister, tender hearted, big hugger, loves pink, girlie girl, loves to sing, loves to draw, loves to write stories, and do things for others. 


But most of all she loves Jesus and belongs to Him. She is learning to live by His Power in her life and learning to love even when it is difficult.  


She is our second daughter. Her sister was born one year prior with ARPKD and lived for an hour. Squirt was our first miracle child. The doctors told us that they didn't recommend us having any more children. We trusted God instead of doctors. She was born perfectly normal and healthy in every way. And she was not the last of our children!

Buddy- 4 years old, preschooler, loves books, Curious George, music, humming and singing, extremely gifted,  loves to build with blocks and teach his stuffed animals Sunday School lessons. 

He has multiple complex food allergies as well as environmental allergies. Spring is the worst time of year for him. He is the reason I started blogging and you can find out more about our journey with his food allergies here. He has had great challenges dealing with the physical and emotional issues brought on by such extensive allergies but he has made tremendous progress physically since his diagnosis in January 2010. He has grown over 1 1/2 inches since January which is amazing for this little guy! 

He is our second miracle baby. I was on 10 weeks of bed rest with him and we are thankful to have him as a son.  He is our second son (but fourth child in birth order). His older brother was born two years before but was stillborn. He loves to paint and get involved in any school activity he can.

 Then there is-

BUBBA!

Bubba- Our third miracle baby and third son.  21 months old he is active and into everything. He runs everywhere and loves to play with his Sissy and Brother. I could just eat those chubby little cheeks. He is ALL BOY! He talks a lot, and is in the middle of everything. 

He is sweet and easy going. He loves hats.  He may just eat me out of house and home one of these days. He loves trucks and anything that makes a noise. He has an amazing sense of rhythm and pitch. He may be our percussionist and singer one day, but I bet he will drive a really big truck! 

So there are our three blessings. 

Life is not easy or quiet at our house. But we praise God for every minute we have with our family. "Behold children are a gift from the Lord" Psalm 127:3

CTG Week 10 Highlights

Lots of Bible reading this week with the stories of Joseph.

I  have started using Story Starters by Karen Andreola

I am really loving the concept and the very applicable use of this book. It gives an illustration with a portion of a story and then leaves it up to the student to finish the story including reminder pointers about adding detail, emotion, voice etc. Squirt has been producing some very impressive writing with it. What a great way to get kids involved and loving the creative writing process.

We didn't do the Egyptian Meal for Week 10 but chose to try the Egyptian Fig Cakes from Ancient Egypt. 

I looked for fresh figs at Whole Foods when we went but was unable to find any. Thankfully, I was blessed this week by a friend with figs from her tree. So we gave the recipe a try.

I chose to do the fig cakes, because all the ingredients were safe for Buddy to eat. I didn't have any cardamom in the house and wasn't sure if he could consume it anyway. So I left it out. It may have greatly improved the over all product, but that I will  never know.

Here are the pics from the process. If you like fresh figs you will like this recipe. Otherwise you may just think (as I did) that it was ..... edible.

So I followed the recipe and what we first came up with was this-

Not very appetizing looking is it? It was waaay to wet and gooey.

So I added about another 2/3 cups of almond meal and finally got it to a better consistency.

Here is Squirt rolling the very sticky stuff into ball like shapes. We still couldn't roll them in honey as the recipe directed.

Finally the end product. Drizzled the top with honey and sprinkled a little more almond meal.

Looks better than it tasted. Squirt loved them though. So I guess that is all that really matters. Buddy liked the fresh figs but I think he couldn't get past the consistency of the fig cakes (he has texture issues).

The rest of our week was filled with reading, narrating, spelling, math (looots of math), and all the usual suspects of learning. Nothing very interesting to include here. 

Not Back to School Blog Hop- School Room Week

This week is School Room Week in Not Back to School Blog Hop hosted by Darcy at Heart of the Matter.

"School room, school house, converted space or at the dining room table… the world of academics takes place in all sorts of interesting places. Please show us where you do school, and check out how others make it work."

We are blessed to have an extra bedroom which we have converted into a school room, library, & office area for our family. I've included the kids areas. I left out the picture of our timeline wall and two others desks and computer equipment etc. 

Where We Do School!

Squirt's Desk & Everyone's favorite Reading chair

Shelves that are never big enough and Buddy's Work Area

Buddy's work area, Book Basket bins, wall map, & Prayer Wall

Reading Book shelf and Preschool Supplies
Next to Wall Map & Preschool Table

Squirt's Desk with pledges & flags, Hebrew calendar & Spelling 10 steps on wall

Art Supplies in closet

Closet for all our supplies to be OUT OF SIGHT

Buddy's Preschool Supply Cart on wheels in Closet

Our timeline wall (goes around the corner out of sight) above the computer desks.

Not Back to School Blog Hop- Curriculum Week

Not Back to School Blog Hop

So I found this idea on Kathi's blog and loved it. So I am hoping to keep up here with all these seasoned bloggers and try and fumble my way through this technology I don't really get. Kathi give me pointers if I am not doing this right!


This year’s schedule:
Monday, Aug 2 – Friday, Aug 6: Curriculum Week
Monday, Aug 9 – Friday, Aug 13: School Room Week
Monday, Aug 16 – Friday, Aug 20: Student Photo Week
Monday, Aug 23 – Friday, Aug 27: Day-in-the-Life Week


But here is a breakdown of what we are using for our Curriculum for this school year (2010-2011).

Our Preschooler will be using:

My Father's World Preschool Package  and Toddler Package

    

   

Our 4th grader will be using:
Language-

Story Starters: Helping Children Write Like They've Never Written Before by Karen Andreola

Intermediate Language Lessons

English from the Roots Up (Greek roots only this year)

Spelling Power

Science-
Health for the Glory of God from Rod & Staff Publishers

Apologia Science- Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day

Our Place in Space and 59 More Ways to See God Through His Creation 

by B.J. Reinhard

Bible, History, Music and Art-
My Father's World Creation to the Greeks
I have everything individually listed on my curriculum page.

Keys for Kids
Additional Bible- Devotional

As well as regular Visual Art classes and Ballet at the local studios.

Music-
Young Scholars Guide to Composers from Bright Ideas Press

Math

Singapore Math