We’ve had an awesome week of Christmas fun!
Plus a bit of school work, just for good measure.
Historically it does get extra hard to be motivated this time of year. I could easily fill our days with holiday crafts, yummy new snacks, and fun field trips and justify each of them as learning experiences. But after 4 years of homeschooling, I know better. My kids and I just do better with routine, and the longer we can hold onto it during the month of December, the better off we are.
This week we started our 25 Christmas scriptures chain. I love this special family time first thing in the morning. It helps keep our focus on the real reason for the season.
The boys have been taking turns reading and we spend a bit of time discussing each as well.
I’m trying to keep it simple with school this month, so nothing fancy to share really. Isaac is starting division and fractions in math, and Nate has been working on measurments. The boys have added a few new pages to their make-your-own history books. This is turning out to be a fun project for all of us!
We are going through our Abraham study, though slower than I had planned to. It is still the favorite part to our school day for Nate. This week the boys are learning about the Abrahamic covenant.
Elaina has finally decided that maybe she would like to learn to read after all. She’s at least trying now, and gets excited for our lessons. We also worked on a few sight words together and she was so proud of herself for remembering them. I am so proud too!
As part of our 25 Days of Christmas Magic, the kids and I made 4 kinds of scented Christmas play-dough. We all had fun with that!
Wednesday’s the kids go to The Homeschool Academy. They all call it “real school” though really it’s just fun school.
I’m really loving Wednesday’s. They are the perfect break in the middle of the week. They are also great for providing special time alone with Olivia.
She did a bunch of Tot School on Wednesday. I was so impressed with her attention span with this activity! She moved each magnet and was so proud of herself when she finally finished.
I am also very impressed with her imagination skills while she plays with dolls. She played a ton with the Little People house this week, and was so cute making all of the different voices for each doll.
Wednesday night we surprised the kids with the minivan express. So much fun and a tradition I hope we are able to hold onto for a long time!
Our cat Duck has been super wild. I’ve been making him spend a lot of time outside, which he doesn’t like at all. He usually comes back in the house a much calmer kitty though, so like it or not, he’s going to have to get used to it.
I feel like I did a ton of baking this week.
I made Cream Cheese Blueberry Danishes, Baking Powder Biscuits, Chocolate Chip Scones, Snowballs, and Christmas Trial Mix.
Tis the season to be pudgy….
My parents flew in late Thursday evening, and surprised the kids in the morning!
And then I got to surprise them with a special trip to Disney on Ice, Dare to Dream.
All of the kids liked it, but this kind of thing is right up Elaina’s ally. She LOVED it!
That was our week. How was yours?
4 comments:
What a week full of surprises!
We toned down school this month too. I'm getting in the basics and letting Josie decide if she's up to doing the extra crafty stuff or just wants to play.
What is The Homeschool Academy? We are sending Josie to a Hybrid Homeschool next year. She will go for a full day on Wednesdays and the rest of the week will be home with me. They give me work that she should do before the next class, but there's still LOTS of room for me to teach what I want to. Thinking it's going to be WONDERFUL for our family!
It sounds similar, except the Homeschool Academy has no homework. It is public and free to enroll, and purely enrichment activities like art, music, p.e., language, library and media, etc. We love it! It helps the kids make some friends, get out of the house, and gives me a break!
Is that Sequential Spelling you're doing? Do you have a post on how you use it with your kids? I am using it with my daughter and doing the color-coded thing, but *I'm* not getting it. Perhaps I'm putting too much thought into the hows, whys and whats! LOL (Oh, and I think we're just ahead of you, list 29.)
Your Cat DUCK? LOL Beautiful!
Yes it is sequential spelling! We just do it like they say to, color coding the similar letter groups. I think it is meant to be simple and the kids build on it as they go, learning how to spell based on similar words. I like it because it seems to be working and takes no planning on my part.
Yes - our cats name is duck! Funny right? It's from when he was a baby kitten and sort of waddled around like a duck. We also call him "duckie" which always makes me want to watch Pretty In Pink ;)
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