Peek at our Week (the pogo stick, broken glasses, and too much cooking)

Pogo sticks are pretty fun.

And funny.  We spent the week watching the older three kids try to master this new toy.  And cracking up with their funny faces and wobbly legs.  (Thanks Joanna for sharing!)







Truth be told, this was a hard week, and the pogo stick was the only fun part of it.  The cold weather kept the kids inside and me a bit cranky with few breaks from the constant noise and sibling squabbles. 


I get so weary of playing referee that I feel like I come up with these crazy rules just to avoid sibling conflict.  That doesn’t make life very fun for the kids sometimes, but it’s hard to keep giving chance after chance for the same screaming result.  Something's gotta give…



We kept a fairly light school schedule and focused on the basics.  Both of the boys are done with their math books and ready to move up to the next grade.  I’m pretty freaked out about teaching 4th grade math honestly.  This will be the first time I’ve had to buy the Teachers Manuel for anything in our homeschool and it makes me a bit peeved to have to pay so much money for it.  At least it’ll be used four times right?



We are still using our morning Journal time for various language arts activities and I really like the variety and spontaneity of it.  I’m writing down all of the ideas I come up with so hopefully I can share them at the end of the school year.



The kids did the Sylvester and the Magic Pebble Unit that I put together for them and now we are onto Giraffes Can’t Dance.  I’ll be sharing them both soon.



I allowed the girls quite a few open ended crafts and ended up with a big glitter glue mess involving the cat, the kitchen floors, and a pretty dress.  We’ve banned the use of glitter glue for a while, even though Duck sure does look pretty with his sparkly tail.



Olivia has moved on to letter K in her preschool adventures.  She is begging for more and more school and I just can’t keep enough for her to do.  I made her a Kangaroo Printable pack and that helped some.  I’m totally amazed at her recollection of the letters she has learned and she is slowly getting the phonetic portion down.  Saul and I are both wondering if she will jump into reading as easily as Nate did.





My stapler broke this week which is a real bummer.  You never realize how much you use something until you are without it.

Nate confessed to stepping on his glasses and breaking them.  He handed over the $10 co-pay to replace them before we even asked him to, knowing full well that they should’ve never been in a place that he could step on them (and also from experience last spring when he did the same thing.)  Of course that made us so proud we felt guilty about taking the money, but isn’t that the point?  To teach them these lessons while the cost is low and not very painful?  ugh….parenting is so hard…




It seemed like I spent way too much time in the kitchen this week.  I made Manicotti, BBQ Chicken Sandwiches, Sausage and Potatoes, and Mexican Lasagna.  The kids were begging for dessert and bread so that kept me busy in the afternoons when I’d really rather be reading a good book.  Who knew kids could be so hungry? 



I’m hoping this next week is smoother.  The weather is supposed to warm up and there is nothing like some good ol sunshine to perk up a dreary winter mood.