Sunday, November 18, 2012

Our Weekly Adventures - Week 24


In my life this week....

It has been another tough week to remain positive.  I feel like a drowning fish.....But I just keep swimming, swimming....swimming.  LOL!!!

I have been trying to be positive this week.  I have been trying not to raise my voice too much.  Because raising your voice when dealing with kids with sensory issues is kind of like trying to freeze water while it is boiling...it's just not going to happen.

The boys did have med checks this week, and we have to do some med adjustments for Brayden.  Also had a brief discussion with the doc about some other issues with the girls.  So basically we will eventually end up with an hour block of his time once a month.  Yippeeee.....my suspicions may be more accurate than I would like them to be.  So now we are in wait and see mode.  And we just deal with whatever wave of emotion that comes our way.

Lydia hurt her foot pretty bad.  So we have been changing a lot of bandages, and she has been limping alot.  She sliced 3 of her toes open on her foot.  She missed gymnastics, but was able to dance her recital....with a bit of a limp.  It happened Monday night, but she seems to be healing well.  By bandage change today, I can see a huge improvement.  We are going to start stage 2 of treatment which includes clove oil.

In our homeschool this week....

We actually accomplished quite a bit.  Caty has been working on her 'F' sounds by playing a game that I printed from Speech Therapy Ideas.  I am liking this website a lot, and plan to get some more games ready for Caty...as well as Lydia and Brayden.  Caty is loving playing on More Starfall.com.  I am happy that she is doing so well in the Math on there.  She and I sat down a couple times this week playing on the game together.

Joey and Brayden finished another unit in their Dayspring Christian Academy Pilgrim study.  This has been a wonderful historical study.  This week the Pilgrims have finally arrived in America.  Joey and I are working on building a Pilgrim home from popsicle sticks.

Lydia had zoo class this week and also Girl Scouts.  Our troop worked on blankets to donate to Project Linus.  So Lydia and I are working on two quilts, in addition to the one that she was doing at the meeting.  We were feeling inspired by the Quilting Queen that came and was showing us all the fun types of quilts that you can make.  We also decided we are going to learn how to crochet.  I already know basic stitches and can do a quilt that way.  But I cannot read a pattern.  So we found a great set with a DVD on how to read patterns.  We are going to start next week.

What I have been cooking....

On Tuesday we made a big family meal to go with the book Cranberry Thanksgiving.  We made pumpkin pie custard, baked chicken, hm gluten free stuffing, hm cranberry relish, cranberry orange bread and pecan sweet potatoes.  It took all afternoon to finish.  But was sooooo very yummy.  We actually baked the bread for the stuffing...yummy!!!  Made chicken and dumplings also.  We didn't starve this week.lol.  We also made Belize Stewed chicken with rice and beans to go with our American Girl book Jess.

What I have been reading....

The Bible....I am trying really hard to read the entire Bible.  Small, small chunks.  It never fails that as soon as I start reading, someone fights or screams or wakes up in the morning.  Go figure...lol

I also have decided to force myself to read, something other than the kids books.  I used to love to read, but just get too busy, so then I feel too tired.  To get me started again I saw a poster about reading books from all 50 states.  But some of those titles really looked something I wouldn't enjoy, so I found this list also.  I will be starting with Alabama this upcoming week...with Alabama Moon.


What is not working for us.....

I am not in love with Caty's speech therapy team.  So since in our state, she will be pushed toward public school when she turns 5 in a couple months....I am taking on another task of working speech therapy into her schedule.  I found this site Speech Therapy Ideas the other day....and LOVE it!!!  These games are exactly what her speech therapist does with her.  So I printed her first one and laminated it.  We changed up her letters and books we are reading to help center a bit around whatever sound we are working on...which currently is "F".  I will change up a little next week, so we are still moving forward in our alphabet.  But we will still read the "F" Alphatales book when we are doing that for speech therapy.  Trying to be proactive....if you don't like it, then change it.

Pictures from our week....

While Lydia was at zoo class, Caty and I explored.  They have some new things in Nature's Neighborhood.  The computer actually takes a photo of the child and then puts it in the picture they are coloring.

 We went to a Family Carnival that was held by our Special Olympics Booster club.  Lydia and I volunteered to do things such as run games and pass out tickets for the raffle.  Lydia won one of the movie bags....she was so excited to win Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
 Helping to clean up the golf game.
 3 of our 4 cat rushing to eat before another could take a bite....it was rather comical.
 Our fruit fly project.  Not sure how it's going yet.
 Joey's science this week was on Vacuum.....This is the project that we performed.  It was a lot of fun!!!
 We filled a bowl with water.  Used the peppermint patties to hold the matches.  Lit the matches and then covered them with the cup.
 The suction was created and the water vacuumed up into the glass.  We could hear the suction noise!

 We did add some food coloring to some of the water, we could see the water better in the cup then.
For our Five in a Row this week, we read Cranberry Thanksgiving.  We made a big family meal of baked chicken, hm gluten free stuffing, hm cranberry sauce, and sweet potatoes with honey and pecans.

 We also made Cranberry Orange Bread from the book.

 We did cranberry experiments and learned about the  4 hollow chambers that cranberries have that allow them to float.

 And we tested to see if they could bounce, and how high!

Lydia also watched these Curiosity Quest segments on cranberries.


This is Lydia working on her Project Linus quilt at scouts.
The start of our Project Linus Quilt.  Hope to finish this week, but we'll wait and see.  We also have some Elmo and Dora material.  We'll see how the week takes us.  We might get 3 done, but I am doubtful.
Lydia practicing her violin, until the cat came in.
 Our bird seed just keeps growing.  So we were able to have a discussion about how birds transfer plants when they are eating the seeds...lol.
 Aren't the pony beads so pretty....we're at co-op.  They did bracelets with these to remember the story of the Pilgrims.  We are learning about George Henry Boughton and the painting Pilgrims (Puritans) go to Church.
 Joey continued to read about John Smith for Adventure Club.  But he also started working on Argentina for World Travelers.  This week we will look at the book and pick out a topic for him to research.
 Lydia worked on coin recognition this week, next week we will work more on adding coins.  There is a great BrainPopJr. video on counting/adding money that we will review again.
Here's some of Caty's work this week...
Her Scholastic mags that we read together.  I love these because each one has a short kids video on the theme.  There are games they can play also.  We are really liking these this year!!!
 Our letter this week was F, because this is a sound that she needs to work on for speech therapy.  We used Erica's Alphabet block patterns and read these books to go with our letter.
Here's the F sound game we were playing.  I found this at Speech Therapy Ideas.  This is a great site and I recommend it!!!
Lydia at the zoo.  We walked quickly through Tembo Trail on our way out of the zoo.  It was a nice little walk between activities.  We were able to see the elephants, rhinoceros and the hippos.  Oh and the lions!  The meerkats and camels were not out...oh my!  Maybe next time. Hope everyone had a wonderful week.  We are looking forward to a bit of a down week next week.  Art class and some projects and we are going to play catch up on book activities for American Girl Club and Adventure Club. Linking up with other moms at

Homeschool Mother's Journal.



 And No Ordinary Blog Hop....
No Ordinary Blog Hop

3 comments:

  1. Oh, gosh, what a challenge for you! I totally understand about the sensory kids. Those off days are certainly...tiring! Hang in there!

    I love Cranberry Thanksgiving! And your meal to go with the book sounds YUMMY!

    But wow! did you ever get a lot of learning in this week despite the other challenges! Phew!

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  2. As always you do so much with your four kids. HOpe Lydia foot gets better soon. Going to check out the book reading list that sounds kinda fun and I am always looking for a good book to read.
    You hubby must be a saint to let you hatch maggots, LOL my husband cringes every time I bring in something that needs to hatch:)
    Thanks for sharing on the NOBh

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