Teaching Time October 25th - October 29th

We had a good week of school this week. Here's what we've been up to.

Both -

We are over halfway through reading Mr. Popper's Penguins. We also read some penguin books and listened to some music by Schubert (who is mentioned in Mr. Popper's Penguins). We read lots of other books as usual including some of the dinosaur books by Jane Yolen.

In Bible, we discussed patience and read the story of Simeon and Anna who waited patiently for the coming of Christ. We memorized I Corinthians 13:4, "Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant," and continued to memorize the Apostles' Creed. Our hymn of the week was "Come Thou Almighty King."

Caleb -

In Phonics, he finished the section focusing on short vowels and worked on consonant blends and double consonants. He also finished reading the first box of Bob Books and the first book of his Phonics readers. In addition to the work we do at home, he started twice a week speech therapy at the local elementary school (at 8:00; I hate mornings).

He finished capital letters in his handwriting book and began lowercase letters.

He began his first grade math book this week and worked on addition plus 0 and plus 1 and on writing the numbers 1-20. This was review for him, so we covered 2 lessons in 1 week. He took his first ever math test this morning and made a 100%. He is his father's child after all.

Alexa -

I got her this cutting workbook to keep her busy while I work with Caleb, and she LOVES it. She also did the letter "L" this week and continued to work in her handwriting book.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Jordanna playing with Caleb's Super Mario hat. She steals his green hat all the time, too.
Alexa has her table set and is ready to eat. Caleb is in the play room preparing her some food.
Muffin tin lunches.
Matchy, matchy.
Trying on their costumes from last year, which they will be wearing again this year.

Menu Plan Monday

Sunday - Lemon garlic chicken, rice, rolls, asparagus, cookies

Monday - (Dave gone) 3 cheese chicken pasta, garlic bread, grapes

Tuesday - Pot roast, baked potatoes, salad

Wednesday - Hamburgers, hotdogs, oven fries, apples

Thursday - Grilled chicken, pasta romanoff, broccoli

Friday - (Dave gone, girls night in) Shrimp and grits with fried okra, homemade cheese bread, sparkling lemonade, pumpkin chocolate trifle

Saturday - (Dave gone YET again) Dinner at Grammy and Gramps' church

Cuteness X2

I loved these outfits so much that so much that I decided to buy Jordanna one in the next size up since Alexa's dress still fits. And I got the matching hair bows as well. Too cute!

So Glad It's Friday

I'm so tired (and will be going to bed as soon as I write this) and so glad it's Friday. These three little people keep me busy. Especially the one in the middle. She is into everything these days.
Every three year old girl should start the day off with coffee and a magazine, right?
After a week of hard work in school, we enjoyed a trip to the park and then lunch with Daddy today.
Caleb will begin speech therapy next week on Wednesdays and Fridays from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. I'm dreading it; we don't do mornings around here. Well, Dave does, but someone pays him to get up early and go to work. The rest of us like our lazy mornings. I'm glad, though, that Caleb will be getting the help that he needs and that my tax dollars will be paying for it.
And this cutie enjoyed snacking on Cheerios, saying "Yum, yum," and watching her brother and sister play. She is too cute and is growing up too fast.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Caleb playing with his new castle legos

Alexa in her "Robot house"
Jordanna crawling in and out
Caleb watching the tree removal in the back yard

Menu Plan Monday

Since I never have any idea what we will be eating on Sunday when I write my menu plan post, I decided that I am going to include the previous Sunday instead. So there.

Sunday - Chicken and spinach stuffed shells, salad, rolls

Monday - Sausage, potato, and corn foil packet on the grill, green beans, Italian bread

Tuesday - Eggs, bacon, fruit, cinnamon rolls

Wednesday - Chicken parmesan, noodles, broccoli

Thursday - Pork roast, potatoes, cinnamon apples

Friday - Pizza, salad

Saturday - Hotdogs, macaroni and cheese, carrots

Teaching Time October 11th-15th

We plugged away at school again this week. Caleb is continuing to progress in his reading skills. One thing he loves to do is play this Leap Frog roller coaster game, which helps him work on 3 and 4 letter words. And Alexa picks up the names of some of the letters from playing with him as well.
Caleb worked on telling time in math this week. In science, we learned about the 5 senses. I ordered Alexa a new cutting skills workbook, which she loves. In Bible, we discussed sharing and giving cheerfully.

We finished off our week with a picnic at the park with our home school group.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Alexa working on her letter cards
Jordanna playing with the letter making shapes
The grumpy lunch bunch
Caleb learning how to make a PB sandwich

Menu Plan Monday (A Day Late)

Monday - White chicken, spinach, tomato pizza, pepperoni pizza, and salad

Tuesday - Beef roast, roasted red potatoes, broccoli

Wednesday - Feta pork chops, corn, cinnamon apples

Thursday - Marinated grilled chicken, pan fried red potatoes, salad

Friday - Calzones

Saturday - Chinese

Sunday - Something edible

Teaching Time

Okay, I'm finally continuing my reasons I don't/do home school. Here's the original post if you missed it.

I DON'T home school because...

4)...I think home schooling is the right form of education for every child and every family. Obviously I don't think that since I have taught many children at various schools over the years. We are tentatively planning to put Caleb in my school for one day a week next year, and I envision that eventually all our children will be in school and I will go back to teaching.

5)...I love teaching every subject matter. History and English are my favorites with math coming in close behind. I am going to have to step out of my comfort zone to make sure my children are well educated in science, art, and music. I figure that's what a good curriculum is for, filling in the gaps in my knowledge and experience.

I DO home school because...

3)...I can teach at the pace best for each child. Caleb will soon be starting first grade math. But, his handwriting skills are lagging, so we often do work book pages orally or on the white board. I love being able to personalize his instruction.

4)...I love the time that it affords my children to spend together. Caleb is not away at school for 7 hours a day; he is home interacting with his sisters. They are the best of friends. While I know that may not always be the case, I hope that the time spent together home schooling deepens their friendships with one another. I teach several sets of siblings at my school (which is for home schooled students; hi guys, if you are reading my blog), and I love seeing that they are friends not just siblings. I am sure that the time they have spent together over the years has helped. I hope my kids will always be close.

Here they are playing drive through or something like that together yesterday while I made lunch.

State Fair

It was the state fair right across from our neighborhood again last week. We went and had fun, and I totally forgot to blog about it. So, here are this year's pictures. And here, here and here are pictures from the previous 2 years.

10 Months

My little monkey is 10 months old today. She is right about 17 lbs, which puts her at about the 25th percentile for weight and the 90th for height. She's still wearing a 6-9 months in clothes. Some 12 months are starting to fit, which is good because that's the size I bought her for fall/winter.
She is constantly on the move. She crawls very quickly, cruises around while holding on, climbs the stairs, climbs on furniture, and opens cabinet doors. She stood by herself for about 10 seconds yesterday.
She LOVES to eat. Here she is with a snack of Cheerios. They were in the bowl behind her, but she prefers to eat them off the floor. She drinks out of a straw or a sippy cup, but she absolutely refuses to take a bottle while I work. She does like to suck on the Alexa's baby doll's bottle, though. She eats 3 solid meals a day with occasional snack and is still nursing like a champ as well. She has 4 teeth.
In addition to constantly being on the move, she is also constantly making noise. She loves banging toys to make noise. She "sings" along to the hymns at church and family devotions and "prays" along with us before meals. She says "Da, da" and has a cute goat sounding laugh.
I love my baby Jordanna (and that Caleb actually thinks that the word baby is part of her name)!

Menu Plan Monday

Tonight - Asparagus, chicken, and penne pasta, focaccia bread

Tuesday - Pancakes, bacon, fruit

Wednesday - Chicken and wild rice soup, crackers and cheese, apple/pecan salad, caramel apple cupcakes

Thursday - Pork roast, potatoes, broccoli

Friday - Chicken, bacon, ranch subs, chips, carrots and dip

Saturday - Date night!

Sunday - ?

My Little Monkey

I left Jordanna in the play room for a minute this afternoon and came back to find her climbing onto the futon. She keeps me busy these days!

Teaching Time September 27th - October 1

Both -

Bible -
We reviewed all our memory verses from this year (see pictures below). Our character trait this week was gratitude. Caleb and Alexa memorized I Thessalonians 5:18, "Give thanks in all circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you," and the first verse of the hymn "Now Thank We All Our God." They already know the third verse of that hymn, since we sing it during the offering at church each week.


Literature -
We (FINALLY) finished the Beatrix Potter books this week. We also read LOTS of other books as usual including If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and several other books by Laura Numeroff, Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag, and more Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems.

Handwriting -
They both continued working in their Handwriting Without Tears books. We also use the letter shapes, magnadoodle, white board, and chalk boards to work on handwriting. Caleb really wants to learn lower case letters, so he has decided to one page a day in handwriting instead of 1/2 a page so that he can finish upper case letters sooner.

Science -
We concluded our plant unit today by reading a book about fall leaves and making leaf rubbings.



Caleb -

Phonics -
He finished up reviewing the sound of each letters and is now working intently on short vowel words. He is not reading yet, per say, but he is getting better at sounding out words every day. I am very pleased with the progress he has made.

Math -
He worked on skip counting to find area this week. It was quite easy for him since he already skip counts well. Only 4 more lessons (which take about a week each) until he is finished with the kindergarten math book, so I need to think about ordering him the 1st grade book soon. Today he did math with Mommy while Jordanna ate lunch and Alexa napped.

Caleb also had his first speech therapy appointment today. The therapist said he did well. She will type up a report, and we will set up a time to meet and go over it. So, right now, we don't know if she will recommend continuing therapy or not.

Alexa -
She worked on the letter H and numbers 20-23 this week. We also did some work on colors and on matching items.