Friday, March 25, 2011

Homeschool Mother's Journal - Week 2

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week...

Kids down with colds.  We had a field trip to a Local Recycling Center and even a Grossology Class at a local library.  I didn't get to exercise much (ie. walk in the morning).  Just not feeling it, the weather turned too cold for me.  Need to just push through it, but didn't have the mental strength this week.  We had to take Grandma to the doctor one day.  Lydia had ice skating and the boys had their final basketball practice.  We are on our way to STATE FINALS tonight!!!!  We have some awesome players on our team.  I am so proud of Joey, last year he couldn't dribble a basketball at all.  This year he is working at it and if he concentrates, can dribble down the court.  It's so cool to see!!  Brayden is working hard at making baskets (and gets them in), and he even has learned how to steal the ball from the other team.  Which is good and bad since our team plays very with HIGH Sportsmanship.  Even in the finals, we had our team giving the other team the ball back so their player could try and make that basket.  We just kept getting the rebound and handing it back to that player.  The look on their face when he finally made the shot was awesome!!!  That is what Special Olympics is about!!!!


In our homeschool this week...

We struggled to keep up.  We talked about butterflies and their life cycle.  I started purchasing Magic School Bus DVDs because Scholastic pulled all online resources where you could watch them for free:(  I like Scholastic, but come on...help a parent out.  LIke they do not get enough of my money!!!!  Have they seen our bookshelves?!?!  We watched the episode on butterflies a couple times.  The boys are working on multiplication facts and the girls on number recognition and very basic addition.
Places we're going and people we're seeing...

We attended a Grossology (and everything gross) at the library.  We also visited a recycling center to see what happens to our recycling.  That will be in another post this weekend.


My favorite thing this week was...

Starting an American Girl series with Lydia.  I am super excited about this project!!!  I can't wait till next week and she gets her sewing machine present!!!  Then we can start little projects to go with the books.


What's working/not working for us...

Doctor appointments and teeth being pulled (baby teeth that wouldn't budge).....and seasonal colds!!!  So ready for the warmth to return for SPRING!!!!!
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I need a typing app for an IPAD.  Not just "here's the keys" adult software.  Something fun and gamey.  The boys are getting IPads next week and we bought them keyboard covers, so they can use them more like mini-laptops.  Also any recommendations for educational purposes would be greatly appreciated.


A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

HERE'S THE HENRY COUNTY COUGARS SCHOOL AGE SPECIAL OLYMPICS BASKETBALL TEAM!!!!!

GOOOOO COUGARS!!!!!!

Joey is #24 and Brayden is #15!!

13 comments:

  1. I am going to be homeschooling my daughter in kindergarten next year. I noticed that you are using Expedition Earth with your daughter and wondered how that is going. Is this one from Confessions of a Homeschooler? Do you feel it is age appropriate for kindergarten?

    Also- the American Girls- is this something you came up with? Or is there a curriculum somewhere to go along with the books?

    Thanks for your help!

    me @ livinwithme . com

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  2. What a busy week. I am tired simply from reading this post!!! Hope to see more of you and your family!

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  3. My 9YO is working on multiplication, too. Not her favorite, but a Kumon workbook is helping a lot.

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  4. Hi! Stopping over from Homeschool Mother's Journal. Wanted to say I love the Magic School Bus videos! We ordered all of ours from the library. I think you can print free sheets off the MSBus site to go with each video. If not, there is a workbook you can buy that has the same thing. Anyway, have fun!

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  5. I did a few American Girl units with my daughter when she was younger and we participated in an American Girl co-op that was SO much fun! Loved every minute of it. I'm sure you'll have a great study!

    Don't feel badly about not keeping up- happens to all of us from time to time. Blessings! :)

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  6. I literally JUST ordered our butterfly larvae (we get it and watch the life cycle every spring & then release the butterflies). I just got everything ready to make these cute butterfly mobiles too!

    If you are interested: http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/butterfly/lifecyclemobile/

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  7. Hi! We birthed butterflies years ago. I think this was my kids' favorite science experiment.

    Multiplication: we played with plain-ole dice. Roll 2 and multiply them, add them, subtract them... Also, using number cards from a regular deck works the same way.

    I have one Asperger's son and one (non-medicated) ADD. As I type this he is bouncing around the room! My Asperger's boy (age 17, grade 11) works completely on his own and has since the 7-8th grade. Give them work to do on their own (start slowly) and praise, praise, praise! Add more as they are ready for it. My Asperger's has self-taught Algebra 1, 2, Geometry, and now Trigonometry and pre-calculus.

    Dream big for your kids! They will all excel with you as a teacher/mom!

    ~ Ellen

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  8. Thanks for the encouragement Ellen:) He does not work independently at all right now. Our other son does (he is diagnosed autistic). Someday!!!

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  9. We taped a lot of the Magic School Bus episodes off the TV a long time ago, and my kids used to watch them over and over. I need to get those out again.

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  10. Thanks so much for coming by Telln' It! And I loved your posts about your boy's basketball adventures! Beautiful children! Thanks for sharing! BIG HUGS!!

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  11. Thank you for stopping by and following my blog, I love all of the stuff that your family is doing in your homeschool...sounds very busy.

    Great picture of the team...State finals, wow, that's major...Go Cougars!

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  12. Hi! Thanks for stopping by Homegrown Learners. We love American Girls at our house - my daughter has loved them since she was about five - she is almost 10 and still loves them. Have fun with your studies!

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  13. Last Summer, my boys each did a one-day science camp at Health Works. One of them was Stinky Science. So much fun... for them. ;) Glad I did not have to do that one at home.

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