Friday, October 19, 2012

Our Weekly Adventures - Week 20



In my life this week....

Trying to keep a positive attitude, but having a very hard time with it.  It's been a very busy week for outside activities.  It's definitely borderline unschooler week.  The kids are learning, but just not in the traditional way.  But all the running has taken a toll on my body.  The change in our weather is also making things bad.  So I keep chugging along until I can barely move, which is usually by dinnertime.  I actually had to stay home from co-op today because I was hurting so bad.
I also had my crown fall out  yesterday.....not a good thing.  So now must figure out how to get into a new dentist.  Yeah it's been one of those 'kick us when we are down' weeks.  Did I mention that our car insurance doubled because of my accident in June, and without warning.  The was sent but I never received it.  Went though the mail I keep in my organizer, nothing from the insurance.  They also upped our payment date by over a week.  Yep.....another kick in the butt!

Due to the busy activity week, trying hard to keep up on the little things around the house.  It has come nearly impossible.  Joe is so busy with work and school, he tries to help.  But the kids are barely any help for the messes they make.  Joey can sit in a mess and not even realize it is there, and the same with Brayden.  It's so annoying.

In our homeschool this week.....

We had several field trips this week.  Lydia also had her first zoo class of this "school year".  We went to the Firefighter Museum with our Girl Scout troop.  We have been working on being prepared.  And this month was fire safety, the girls and I worked on our plans and learned lots of rules.  We also had a trip to the Art Museum to learn about animals in Art.  We had our Girl Scout meeting this week too.

Joey has decided that he absolutely hates Teaching Textbooks.  I don't know...he's been using it more than a year now.  So I don't know what the deal is.  He isn't progressing well in Math though, so I don't want to argue with him that the program is right for him.  So we started Math U See Gamma level today with him.  I guess we'll see how it goes.

Joey and Brayden started their study of Paul Revere for Adventure Club.  Each one is using a different book.  Brayden says he won't go to club, but I told him he must still study the person each month.  He agreed.  Joey's doing real well reading his chapter book and answering the questions I give him for each chapter.  I am outlining questions for each boy's book.  I am giving them the page numbers for the answers to help them out with research.

We also started learning about the country of Morocco for World Travelers Club.  This week we watched some tourism videos on YouTube, and we colored maps.  The kids also picked out their possible projects for their presentations.

What am I cooking this week....

I made chicken and dumplings.  I have a feeling that this may appear weekly on our menu.  Brayden loves it and there are always leftovers for a couple days...lol....which is great for me.  We also had nachos, beefy mushroom noodles, pumpkin cake (which I had to fight for a piece of), grilled cheese and tomato soup.  I am working on our menu for next week.  It's a clean out the fridge/freezer week.  I have some ideas.  Also going to do some baking this weekend.  I am also working on a gluten/dairy free turtle candy for Joe.  He loves turtles....but I can't eat them.  So figured I would create one that we could both enjoy since they are a bit of work..lol!

What am I reading this week.....

A lot of websites on Morocco to help organize the kids geography project for World Travelers.  Also reading a lot on Paul Revere...lol.  A lot on fire safety for a fire safety game for Girl Scouts.  And a lot of books for the girls on their bodies.  Since we are rowing Madeline right now, and the girls know body parts, thought I would read a couple girly books talking about their bodies specifically.  But they are only 4 and 7, some of the books are made for older girls....like 10-12.  So it's actually great that Lydia can't read yet, because I could skip over a whole bunch and she didn't even realize it...lol.

Questions.....

Does anyone else out there have kids on the Spectrum that are oblivious to a mess???  Our boys have severe OCDs....but it's not for cleanliness.  What do you do to help them realize that this is not acceptable or healthy?

Pictures for the week.....

The girls and I attended a local Applebutter Festival.  We are going to make some applebutter this weekend.  We went to enjoy the history reenactments...I was disappointed.  But the girls had some fun.

Joey was having trouble with his Science curriculum.  So we switched to another one that had more hands on activities.  This week he had two experiments on matter.

The first one was to see how much empty space can be between molecules.  We had to fill a small bowl until it was filled to the top, and then he had to drop teaspoons of powdered sugar into a bowl of full water.  We had 14 teaspoons added before the water finally started overflowed.  That's a lot of powdered sugar!  It was bulging up like a bubble.


 Firehouse Museum.
 Joey's other experiment....the Ooze made with Cornstarch and water.  Is it a liquid or a solid?
 The fire safety game for Girl Scouts.

I have a Twister board with pockets on it.  We use it for alphabet and numbers.  I simply put fire safety questions in the squares for this game.  It was super easy!!  And the girls seemed to really enjoy the game!
I put handprints and feet prints in our educubes.  I would roll them, call out a girls name and have them put their hand or foot on the question they answered.
 Lydia have a tea party with Woody in her room.

We had a busy week, and have another upcoming busy week.  Lots more fun coming this next week!!!

Linking up with other Homeschool Mothers.....Hope everyone had a great week!

2 comments:

  1. the tea party looks so like something my youngest has done! She toted woody and the horse around for years and jesse don't forget jesse lol! They are still on her bed beloved dolls that she will most likely carry off to college someday

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  2. WOW, sounds like a busy and fun week! I'm sorry you weren't feeling well, but you were able to do so much and have fun too! Thanks for sharing at NOBH!

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