Weekly Wrap-Up (Ladybugs and Spanish)

6 weeks down, and I don’t want to even count how many are left. 


This was another “character building” week around here, and I was just too worn out to do any extra planning for fun school.  Luckily, I have enough options for quick lessons and we made it work. 

Here’s a bit of what we did:






Elaina is learning about insects in her homeschool enrichment program, so she requested to do the Grouchy Ladybug pack.  Sure, why not?  She covered every basic skill in it including: ABC match-up, counting, and skip counting by 5’s, time telling, copy work, reading, and a few other things.  Sooo glad I printed this off early this summer…it was nice to have it all planned out and not have to think to hard.



We both played the Ladybug Grid Game a bunch…



She won every time!



She made thumbprint ladybugs and even embossed them with red glitter.



We finally got setup for our Rosetta Stone online Spanish curriculum.  Elaina really enjoyed it and caught on quickly without much help from me. 




Olivia had another busy week.  She painted her face with mascara and lipstick…



Grated soap to help me make laundry detergent…








And played with a bunch of toys: Wedgits, ladybug bean bags, and an abacus were the favs.



Isaac had a great week!  He has been doubling-up on his math to get through to 3rd grade.  I’m so proud of how far he has come since last year in his maturity.  He has been leading the other kids through calisthenics for indoor recess because it’s been raining a lot here.  No matter what he is working on, he allows Olivia to sit in with him and sweetly encourages her to help.






He LOVES the Rosetta Stone and will probably go through the lessons quickly.  He has picked up a lot during our Spanish Circle Time too, as I speak mostly all of it in Spanish to the kids.  I’m thinking I will be adding even more to our board very soon…



The boys are both moving along with the Winter’s Promise American Story, and have made great progress in their make-your-own history books.  We have finished up with the Conquistadors this week.



Nate had another very bad week. 


For now, I am trusting that God will continue to strengthen me through this phase, but this weary momma is just.so.tired….




I finished up another book pack, for The Day Jimmy’s Boa Ate the Wash for our farm unit next week.  Hopefully, I have the energy to put everything together that I am hoping too.


Please pray for us as we work out the details of our upcoming move.


It may prove to be an interesting month!

 

Linking to: Weekly Wrap-Up

Moments to Remember

Look at that busy table:



Four kids, each doing something different.


Working.


Quietly working.



I was sitting in my chair, just taking it all in.  After a very rough week, I was happy to see everyone on task, without complaining, without fighting. 



Yea for moments like these!  They make all the hard ones melt away in my memory….

 

 

 

 

Weekly Wrap Up {the black eye}

I’ll be upfront and honest.


This was not a great week.



Lots of conflict.  Lots of stress.  Lots and lots and lots of time-outs. 



I almost didn’t write this post, because frankly, I’d like to forget about this week.



It didn’t start off too bad, with my very first 5K race.  The kids had a blast playing in the park all day.



The first day of school this week, Isaac got a black eye.  From his baby sister.  I’m still not clear about how it happened (isn’t that awful!)  Something about her kicking him to get her way. 


Frankly, I’m shocked….as IF my daughter would ever have a fit to get her way {insert sarcasm here}.






We are diving deeper into the inductive Bible study technique.  The boys are learning different ways to mark key words in their study texts.




The boys learned about Hernan Cortes and Montezuma this week in history.  They both had fun learning about the different weapons that the Spanish and Aztec used in battle.







Isaac is a very mobile student.  It isn’t uncommon for me to find him in weird places doing his work.  This week, he was under the table a lot.  Sometimes, it’s the stairs, or the kitchen floor.  I used to fight it.  Now, I pick and choose when I want him to sit at the table.




Nate had a very rough week.  He did enjoy the history lessons though and I am so proud of him for drawing out a few weapons for his Make-Your-Own History Book project!




Elaina was cracking me up all week with her random “survey” taking.  I have no idea what she was graphing here, but I love her initiative to do something creative in her own down-time!







We are still working through our basic ABC review.  I tried to push her a bit to read.  Nope .  Not yet….



She’s also working through her Critical Thinking Book.  This week was a lot with interlocking cubes.






Olivia stayed busy with lots and lots of coloring….



Cooking…



And sorting. 


We found out early in the week that we have to move again.  This could have been part of why this week felt so awful.  I was pretty distracted looking for a new place to live, and we had to be out of the house a bunch to look at different houses. 



The kids did get to go on their first field trip with The Homeschool Academy, to the School in the Woods.  They all loved it and had so much fun riding on the bus.  Funny…I don’t ever remember thinking that riding the bus was fun..…oh well.


We are looking forward to having some down time this weekend.  It may be our last one to relax for a while, as we will be busy packing and moving after this.


Pray for me please?  I’m gonna need it….

ZOO

We had so much fun doing our first unit of the year: Zoo!


We used A Sick Day for Amos McGee for most of our activities.  It would have gone along perfectly with our first Apologia unit (Zoology 3), but we still haven’t gotten our books in yet.  (ahem…)


Here’s a look at what the kids did:



We read the book every day, similar to FIAR style.  The girls didn’t mind at all reading it every day, but the boys were bored with it until I gave them the scavenger hunt (from the Book Pack).







The first day they worked on some mapping skills, and mapped out their own route for Amos’s bus ride to the Zoo.  I had included clip art for them to cut and paste onto their maps, but they surprised me and chose to draw their own landmarks.





Nate got a little carried away and drew the Empire State building. 






Elaina and I worked on some time telling skills, and she wrote out different times for Amos to wake up.












Then she counted syllables with the vocabulary cards.




She also used the vocabulary cards with these Read, Build, Write mats and our letter tiles.  The animals we used to re-tell the story and also for the Animal Sort activity.



We sorted animals from the story in a few different ways: number of legs, animal size, classification, where they live, etc. 



Then she wanted to make another map for Amos.  Sure…why not!



The next day, I set out the doctor kits for the kids to play with after we read the story.  They got to pretend to be Zoologists, and gave these stuffed animals check-ups.  They all loved this imaginary play!



Our cat “Duck” was a great sport and got many check-ups that day!



We talked a bunch about what a Zoo Keeper does, and watched this video.





Each of the kids made a poster with a zoo, a zookeeper, and then listed three roles of a zookeeper.  We used Curious George Feeds the Animals for inspiration for our posters.








These are Elaina’s “Ballerina Zoo Keepers”.  Because even Ballerina’s can feed elephants.  (Do you see the man with the yellow hat from Curious George?)






The third day we talked about what it means to be a friend, like the way Amos was a good friend to the animals.  Elaina made a cute little book about being a friend.







She is so annoyed with me taking pictures here…



She wrote out her Bible Verse.  Am I the only mom who loves the cute messy letters of an early writer?  Keeping this one for sure!

There were a few other things we did that I didn’t get pictures of including having tea like Amos drank, playing chess (the boys), and lots of racing against each other (just like in the story!)



On the fourth and fifth day, we got out the Zoo Pack from 2Teaching Mommies and went through those activities as well.













Her favorite was the graphing!




On the fifth day, after reading Put Me in the Zoo, we got out our magnetic counting chips and this printable for a little spot making fun (just like the book!)



We’d been reading Polar Bear Polar Bear a lot, especially with Olivia who memorized the story and is so adorable making all of the animal noises.  We got out our game,  Polar Bear ABC for some word building.






We used these story telling prompts from Making Learning fun.  Both of the girls loved these and fought over them all week.


The kids are still waiting for the promised field trip to the zoo.  Hopefully we can do that soon!  I’ve heard great things about the zoo here and we all can’t wait to go.





This book has easily become a new family favorite, and one I would highly recommend for any home library.  Do you want your own set of printables to go along with it? 

 

Click here for the book pack:

A Sick Day For Amos McGee. 

It’s free and so much fun!