We can't thank them enough for such a wonderful time!
Some links of interest.
It was very different experience. I haven't done anything like that since high school. Definitely an out of the ordinary school day for us.
Special Needs Homeschooling, Traveling and Running a full-time business. Everyday brings a new hurdle, tears and laughter. Follow our homeschool adventures throughout the United States.
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Science this week
So one of our friends offered to host a dissecting party....lol. If anyone is up for that...it's Lydia.
We can't thank them enough for such a wonderful time!
Our frog
This is my niece Bryce....she really liked this too.
They were actually fighting over who was going to get to make the first cut and where they get to cut.
Check out that tongue!
Believe it or not...she was not saying Yuck...
Looking to see what is in there.
When we got home, the boys, Caty and Joe took a look at Sir Hopsnomore.
Then we got serious and started looking at the organs.
We started taking them out to examine things closer.
And then she accidentally squished an organ under the lens....so we decided it was good to be done for the night.
We can't thank them enough for such a wonderful time!
Monday, June 4, 2012
Our weekly plan.....
Tomorrow we are going to dissect frogs at a friends house. I am grossed out by it, but Lydia is pretty excited. I am hoping that it goes smoothly....and Lydia gets to do most of the work.
We are going to our first park day this week also with our homeschool group. Our dynamic is changing just a bit this year. I will be fully responsible for all 4 of my children's education and therapy choices. Caty will not be returning to a "public" school in the fall. She has been attending a special needs preschool on IEP for speech. They are closing. I think she has made great improvement in speech though, and unfortunately regressed in some other areas that we are going to be working on. Not quite sure why there has been such massive regression, and probably never will. We will just help her overcome this.
What's on tap for school:
Joey
Math-Continue multiplication review using his montessori board and iXL.com (watch for the review)
Science-Some experiment he chooses from the kit and he will be learning about the platypus this week
Handwriting-Getty Dubay Book B
Grammar-Continued Grammar work with Houghton Mifflin and Inference Jones
Reading-He is reading a Madagascar 3 Junior Novel, and also will continue working on his reading comprehension Little Critter Workbook
Spanish-Rosetta Stone
Music-He'll resume guitar lessons
4H-They will be attending their first meeting this week. Joey is working on Photography 1 unit for his Fair.
Brayden
Pretty much the same as Joey, except science. He will just work on the experiment. Brayden also does not enjoy Spanish, so we are not forcing him to learn.
Math-He will be finishing his Teaching Textbooks level this week, so they can get started on the next.
Reading-Brayden will be reading some books we found at the library for him. He reads 15 minutes a day approximately. He makes sure of it because he sets his Time Timer app on his iPad.
Lydia
Math-She will be starting back with MUS. And alternating with the Kumon Time and Money books for review.
Science-She will be working on an experiment and then working on her Horse project for Girl Scouts.
Handwriting-Getty Dubay Book B
Grammar-Language Lesson
Reading-She will be working with Reading Eggs and of course reading...lol. She also is using a Little Critter Reading Comprehension Workbook
Music-Continue to practice her violin
4H-She will be starting 4H, but won't be working on a project. She is a Cloverbud.
American Girl-We started reading Lanie Books. We also bought the Cutest Nature Book Ever, and started working on that. She will continue this.
Caty
Math-Team UmiZoomi Math and montessori shape activities
Science-Something with the big kids and she will be sitting in on the nature stuff with Lydia
Handwriting-Handwriting without Tears PK book
Nick Jr. Boost activities
Mickey Mouse activity book from 1+1+1=1
Speech/Language therapy-Super Star Speech
That's our week in school.
For our lunch and dinner menu:
(I'm just listing....no particular order)
Lasagna
Egg Drop Soup and General Tso's w/ rice
Cinnamon chicken
Cold meat sandwiches
Chicken and pasta
Grilled pizzas
Lemon Chicken Soup
Meatloaf
Beef Stroganoff
Pizza spaghetti
Beef rib on the grill
Our alternating breakfast right now are:
Pancakes
French toast
scrambled eggs and ham
Bagels or english muffins w/ cream cheese
Homemade doughnuts
Cereal
Breakfast tacos
I am trying very hard to stick to our menu, we are a little off this week, but haven't ordered out for Joe and I. The girls were at a sleepover Friday night, so we ordered the boys a pizza as a treat. Daddy and I enjoyed steaks as a treat!!!
Everyone have a wonderful week!!!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Family BBQ fun---Another bucket list item
We had built a small fire pit in our backyard last year, and my dad spotted it over the winter and asked to have a hot dog roast with the kids. So I hustled around and got everything ready....little did I realize just how hot it was that day!!! I realized it as I set up tons of chairs and tables for food and built the fire. It was our family, my parents and my brother and his family.
Brayden came out long enough to have a hot dog. We basically forced him out. We set him in front of the fan (yes a fan next to the campfire) to help keep bugs away from him.
The kids swam while the adults cooked the hot dogs. I got the fire a bit hot!
Everyone was enjoying the food.
And the kids were splashing in the pool. A little too much when it started getting the food. So Grandpa got in and played pool inspector...Told them,"No fun is allowed!!!" He got in the pool in his work clothes. My mom wasn't happy.
The kids loved having Grandpa get in with them.
Yes....folks....those are his very expensive slippers that he is wearing into the pool. They were thoroughly soaked!
Of course, mom was mad about the slippers and even more upset when he sat down on her with his soaked clothes.
Our dog Rocky loves Aunt Lisa. He jumped right in her lap and wanted some attention.
Then we added marshmallows for smores and toasted marshmallows.
Rocky getting some hot dogs from Uncle Bobby.
Grandpa enjoying some marshmallows.
Brayden emerged from the house again because he knew he could get smores.
This is my brother, Bob.
It was a fun evening, even in the heat.
It was a fun evening, even in the heat.
Friday, June 1, 2012
2012 Summer Bucket List
Most of our readers know that we school year round, but this year I thought I would try and throw a few cool extras in. Kind of as a reminder to me of fun things I want to do with the kids. I do believe that if this works, we are going to have fall and winter bucket lists too!
The truly fun part was cleaning up the silly string and confetti before the rain front moved in last night. Don't want that stuff getting wet on concrete!
Homeschool Mother's Journal - Week 1
In my life this week.....
We have just been trying to get back into the swing of things after a couple weeks off from school. I still feel like all I get to do it clean up messes. I also have been trying to declutter some areas. I did our supply closet the other night. I really want to get some shelves for there. We have a couple plastic garage shelves, and the one is about to break. Apparently I must have broke it by just throwing items in there and not really paying close attention the last couple months.
In our homeschool this week....
We are working on getting into a schedule. I really want to get a schedule more into place. But we are working on many projects. Lydia has some projects she is working on for Girl Scouts for the State Fair. Joey is working on a 4H project for our county fair too. We have met most of our plan this week, but we chose to go strawberry picking yesterday, and that took some time away. We also had a surprise visit from Joe's sister, and that took the afternoon away from school too. So we have a little catch-up to do this week.
My favorite thing this week.....
I think that is strawberry picking yesterday. I am sore today, but it was fun. And then there was the strawberry cake that I made last night. We ate the whole thing!!!
Places we're going and people we're seeing....
We went to the library to get some holds and find a couple new books to read. We were going to dissect frog's with some friends today, but the frogs didn't come in on time. So that is moved to next week.
I'm reading....
I just finished this book. I skipped over some sections, because it's things I am not sure about. But I laughed alot in the sections describing her life with 3 girls with autism. It's meant to be a bit of a look into everyday life,and I can laugh because some of this stuff is our daily life. They have had a rough road, and they keep bouncing back!
I'm cooking.....
We ate a lot of chicken this week. The kids like it. I just changed up the side dishes. We BBQ a couple time too, and I need to remember to not walk away from the grill for long periods. Dried out our dinner last night :(! But I did make a great strawberry cake from scratch yesterday...none of it left. Should have hid me a piece for breakfast.
A photo to share.....
Caty playing with her toy with the air conditioner on high....it was hilarious!
Dive into your Imagination
Do we watch alot of television? Do I really have to admit that? I know that my answer should be, "No, we only watch television at specific times during the day. We do not sit and just watch television." Is that the answer I should give the doctors or TV police?
We do admittedly watch a lot of television. Joe and I used to watch a massive amount of evening drama and crime shows, but we have gotten better. We have discovered the "Educational" channels and watch a lot of documentary television now. And I do admittedly use a lot of videos and television shows for school also. I have found some really nice series that go great for science and history topics that we are studying. Apparently seeing it on TV makes it so much more believable than me just telling them.
We recently have been learning more about the ocean, so I was pretty excited about getting the opportunity to review a Dive into Your Imagination product called the Dive Into Diversity DVD about ocean life. Dive Into Your Imagination was started by Annie Crawley, A.K.A Ocean Annie. With her experience as an underwater cinematographer and scuba diving instructor, and her passion for our environment and ocean, Ocean Annie gives us a fabulous ocean education!
From their website:
“Dive Into Diversity” teaches children about all the variety of life under the sea and how animals rely upon one another for survival. Take a ride to a depth of 1500 feet in the deep sea with a submarine pilot! Find out what happens on the reef at NIGHT. Learn what eating ice cream and brushing your teeth have in common.
Why do crabs have claws? What can grow three feet in just one day?
Here is a sample from their site:
Ocean Annie takes children on a journey to an area that they hear about, but do not get it visit. It is really like being underwater. And on our TV it was like being under the ocean.
Our DVD featured the Ocean Song, Crusty Crustaceans, Night Diving, Coral Reef Living, Be a Submarine Pilot, Swim in a Kelp Forest, Sea Animals with Backbones, Diversity, and Invertebrates of the Sea.
Their website offers a fun kids section, that includes coloring pages.
Joey did not enjoy the music as much as the rest of us. He felt the music was a bit young for him. The girls both enjoyed the whole movie, including the music. It fit in very well with our study of the ocean. It had lots of facts, but not "boring" the way the kids feel that History Channels shows can be. This wonderful DVD had soothing music and lots of great facts. Even my husband stopped and watched it for a while and said he heard something he didn't know. I would also consider this a great choice for one of those "movie" afternoons or even when you just want to put in something educational.
It's produced with ages of Preschool children and up. Included in our review, we were also given the PDF study guides that go along with the DVD we received. These guides were packed full of information. They are full of lesson plans, discussion questions as well as coloring and activity pages.
Interested in Checking out their other titles:
They also offer some other beautiful forms of imagery in DVD form.
Here is a special offer from Annie Crawley in regards to the PDF educator guides: “As a special for the Homeschool Crew and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine and followers Annie Crawley of Dive Into Your Imagination, she will gift you a set of PDFs with purchase of the DVDs. When you place your DVD order, just let her know in the notes that you are a Homeschool Parent!”
Check out what other crew members have thought about Dive into your Imagination.
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