Monday, September 30, 2013

Menu Monday



So I haven't done this post for so long.  I kind of got out of the habit of menus and I shouldn't have.  They really do make life easier when you live a really busy life.

Sunday
D- Chili w/ sweet potato biscuits (which I forgot to make and it was so last minute..didn't get to)

Monday
B- Cereal and fruit
L- Baked potatoes w/ leftover chili or bacon bit, cheese and sour cream
D- chicken pot pie and carrots & peas

Tuesday
B-Smoothies
L-Pack lunches (field trip to Science center for class)
D-Beef stew (crockpot)

Wednesday
B-Pumpkin bake
L-Leftovers
D-Butternut squash curry w/ rice & salad

Thursday
B-Smoothies/cereal
L-Sloppy Joes and hashbrowns
D-Spanish rice

Friday
B-Fruit salad
L-leftover clean up
D-Chicken and stuffing

Saturday
B- Milk gravy and biscuits (might make chocolate gravy too...feeling southern right now)
L- Open (so will see what leftovers need used up)
D- Chicken Parmesan w/ noodles

All meals will be allergen friendly...meaning I won't use dairy/soy/eggs/gluten/wheat/peanuts/ etc.  I'll try and remember to share some recipes.  Hope everyone has a great week!!!


What we are up to this week....Week 18




I am hoping for a calm week.  Due to rain, I had to cancel our Homeschool Field Day...even though this was the rain date.  So that took one more thing off the schedule this week.  But the girls are excited.  They are doing their first Homeschool Science class at our local science museum.  This week we also have our regular soccer practice, ballet lessons, piano lessons, Minecraft class, bowling, and we have our World Geography club.  Very excited about the stuff we have going yet.

Around all that we are going to do some house rearranging, yard clean up and basement cleaning.....ugh.  And then there is schoolwork.....

Joey
He'll be working on learning how to run and oversee our Minecraft server.  So instead of screaming to have it fixed, he will be taking care of that.  He is also working in his Minecraft class on the Roman Coliessium and his Temple of Artemis creation.  On the side to go with this class, he will be learning about the Collesus of Rhodes, the mausolium and Lighthouse of Alexandria.  I bought a book from Evan Moore that has info on each of the 7 wonders, as well as worksheets.  (I just didn't have time to create my own on this.)  For math, he will continue working on money and I am going to start him in Life of Fred and see how well he likes it.  Grammar/Writing, he will be working on topic sentences for his History of Halloween essay.  This project was put on the back burner.  He had some anxiety moments last week, and I had to cut a few projects off his list.  Using Spelling City, he will be working on subject/verb agreement and the usage of commas.  Science he will be looking at dinosaurs and whether they truly evolved or were created.

Brayden
He'll be practicing multiply 2 digit by 1 digit and 3 digit by 1 digit.  For some reason he is multiplying one column and adding the next.  So I am having his work another week on it.  In History he is starting the Revolutionary war.  It's on his Time 4 Learning schedule.  In Science, he's still working on Energy and what it means for Humans this week.  In Grammar/Writing he will be working on what a Plot is and taking the quiz for the material on summary.   He'll also work on spelling rules.

Lydia
She is almost done with Life of Fred Butterflies.  She really....really....really likes these books.  I am throwing in some more math addition/subtraction practice sheets this week.  In Science, we'll be working on eyes and ears.  She'll be working a bit on Inferences.  Also working on her Cambodia project.  Not sure what she wants to do for sure.  She thought about food.  So might cover types of food and probably rice farming.  She had her Magic Tree House Class on the Middle Ages this week too.  I saved a bunch of boxes from Aldi's and Costco so that she can start creating her castle for this class.  She will also be working on a few sewing projects.

Caty
She is working on the Letters L & M.  Oceans and continents are being continued and we'll be working on the 2nd half of the song about landmarks in these places.  I found a great app for her to use.  She is working on using the BOB books app on her iPad.  She really likes it.  She is still following the All In One Homeschool Plan.  She is working around Day 80 right now.  Almost time to start doing the reading stuff with her.  We have our McGuffey printed and ready to start with her soon.   She is going to learn about an animal from Cambodia.  We'll see if she speaks at this meeting or not.  Guess we'll wait and see.

Hope everyone has a great week!!!



Sunday, September 29, 2013

Homeschool Mothers Journal - Week 17




In my life this week.....

It was soooo busy.  I had to cut out activities because of last minute additions.  I really...really dislike those weeks.  There were so many things to do and places to be.  And it all culminated into Lydia and I walking in the Susan G. Kormen Race for the Cure on Saturday morning.  I speed walked, she said she felt dragged.  It was her first 5K.  And she wasn't ready to run it.  So we are going to work a schedule together to see if she would like to continue running.


In our homeschool this week....

So not only was I feeling the stress burn, but I also felt the time burning from our homeschool.  So we had to make some adjustments to finish our work.  Brayden struggled a bit in math this week, so I reworked his math.  The benefit of homeschooling :)

The girls are loving piano...or so they say.  I hope they are.

Next week I decided to make some other adjustments.  Joey is going to take a server class from daddy.

Places we're going and people we are seeing....

We had our first LEGO class at a local business.  They started offering homeschool LEGO classes.  I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was beyond what I was expecting.  All the kids enjoyed it.  Even Brayden, and he wasn't going to build he said.

We had Art class on Monday and it was fun, as always.  Lydia had soccer, and both girls started back to ballet class this week.  Of course there was bowling also.

Lydia and I did the Susan Kormen 5K walk Saturday morning and then we went to a local corn maize as a family that afternoon.  Saturday was constant running between the 5K, a trip to Toledo to go shopping at Costco and then the corn maize.  Let me say I felt Saturday all day today.

Projects I am working on.....

Time to get winter clothes and coats out of storage.  Went tennis shoe shopping for the boys today.  Need to make sure they have boots that fit also.  So all that means I need to clean the basement.  YUCK!!

We are going to be working on some room re-arranging to help out .... I hope.  But who knows.

Joe and I are also working on our somewhat secret project.  We are trying to get this idea up and running.  So we are going to spend a day working on that this week.  The kids are going to be excited to see they get a second day off from school this week because of that.

My favorite thing this week....

I honestly don't know.  We had some fun at the corn maize.  But let's just say sleep has been a favorite this week.

I'm cooking....

The girls and I made sunflower butter cookies made with garbanzo beans and sunflower seed butter.  We had fall pumpkin chili.  We had hamburger gravy, chicken and dumplings...a lot of comfort food.  The sunflower butter cookies were a HUGE hit.  Joey loved them.  Will have to make them again this next week.

I'm reading....

Nothing....still have the same book, sitting in the same spot...never touched :(

Photos from our week.....

Art class...working on grid drawing pop art.
 Books that Caty and I read about our seasons.
 Lydia's brain hat for science.

 Caty playing Animal Jam in her PJs for Pajama Day.
 Brayden working on his multiplication.
 Those of us who wanted our picture taken in our PJs.  Brayden didn't want to be in the picture.
A very cool ant sculpture by the LEGO Class.
 At LEGO class.  Caty decided to just build, which is fine.

 The assignment was to build race cars and then test them with weights and angles of the track.

Measuring how far his car went.

 Caty at bowling.  She's not 8 yet, so doesn't get to participate.  So she and I watch the others and play games and do puzzles.
 Caty's rainbow hair for Crazy Hair Day.
 All of our crazy hair.
 Lydia working on contractions with the help of Brownie.
 Our Cambodian meal....BBQ chicken with rice and sweet and sour cucumber salad.
Cambodian Banana cake
 Caty's 4 seasons project.  We traced her hands and then she used torn construction paper to make the trees look like their appropriate season.
 She used feathers for snow.  She said she wanted a really tall pile of leaves to jump in for fall.
The picture of the corn maize we went through.




 We had a few injuries.  Lydia got burrs in her foot and they hurt, so I gave her a ride for a little bit.  I got a few burrs too.  Brayden had a bug jump at him.  And I being allergic to corn...should not have went into a corn maize in high allergy weather.  Boy did I suffer later!  But it was still fun.

That was our week....hope everyone had a fun week!  Linking up with other moms at So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

See It and Say It Flip Flop Learning Spanish Review




It has been several years since I took Spanish in High School.  Dora just doesn't cut it for an 8 year old.  Lydia has been wanting to learn a foreign language.  I have been hesitant because she does have some speech issues we are working to overcome.  I was assured by her doctor to go ahead and try.  I was worried about having a frustrated little girl.

We were given the opportunity to try out See It and Say It Flip Flop Learning Spanish (Ages 3 - adult) created by Senora Gose and published by Flip Flop Learning.  In the back of my mind I was still skeptical about introducing a foreign language to a child who has marked delays in reading due to her visual perception.  I mean if she isn't getting that, how is she going to handle picking up another language.


See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish ($99.95) is a two year curriculum that teach ready to use Spanish.  In your first lesson you will learn to create your own sentences.   Included in See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish are 4 audio cds (for use with each lesson),  a dry-erase paddle, lesson plans that are broken down into 45 weeks...including breaks, a white board paddle for visual learners, and 3 sets of colored flashcards.

The lesson plans are completely broken down.  Senora Gose has included recommendation about what to cover on certain days, how many days of the week to have Spanish and even has breaks built into the schedule.  It is so easy to plan this into our schedule.  I really spend a few minutes reading over that weeks lesson and gather the flashcards needed for that week.  I paperclip them to the lesson page and I am ready to go.  

We start our lesson by listening to our track and I flip the cards as they say the words.  


Next we play with the flashcards.  Lydia totally caught me off guard one lesson by copying the flashcards into her notebook.  She insisted matching the words up.  This was huge for her, since she has trouble copying from a book or board due to her visual delays.  She is actually more excited about learning another language.

The lessons in See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish are short, and not only does planning take no extra time, but the lesson itself is as long as we want to make it.  Since she is working at improving a few speech sounds, I have not been pushing the foreign language with her.  But she is making improvement and loving it.

I really like the flashcards.  They are durable and bright colored.  Each include a nice picture on one side and the Spanish and English translation on the other.  With Lydia's reading delay, by seeing the picture first she does not seem to be feeling as frustrated about practicing her Spanish words.  She really liked creating her own sentences using these flashcards.  



See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish is so much more than I expected.  It is not just learning words to use in Spanish, but it's learning how to speak conversational Spanish.  Included are grammar lessons along with the vocabulary.  See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish  could easily be adapted for multi-level teaching.  Older students could be given harder writing assignments (depending on their ability levels) to help reinforce what they are learning.  Younger ones can still learn without writing too much, or actually any at all.

We have been moving a slight bit slower than is recommended by Senora Gose.  See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish  can also be adapted for special need learners or even those who may be gifted.  You can simplify or increase the difficulty level of any of the lessons to adapt the program to your specific child's needs.

I have been extremely happy with See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish and we will continue to use it.  I will also recommend this program to our friends and readers.  It is a little costly if you are on a budget, but it is very much worth it.  I am leaning toward purchasing the French program after Lydia has progressed through the Spanish program.  I will also be encouraging Joey to attempt Spanish again using See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish .  

Several members of The Schoolhouse Review Crew were given the opportunity to review See It and Say It Flip Flop Spanish .  If you are not sure how this program will work for your family, please take some time to go through the the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog to see how they were able to use it in their homes.

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