School Week 27 2011-2012

Super busy!!!

School Week 26 2011-2012

Really busy!!!

School Week 25 2011-2012

BUSY!

School Week 24 2011-2012

A10 will be done reading Charlotte's Web today and is going to start The Boxcar Children for Co op, btw X7 read the book A Pair of Red Clogs last week, I've been getting my books mixed up.  That's what I get for not posting things on time!

A10 is on week 16 for Math U See Delta!  This is very good news because it means we will be able to finish it this year! She is really enjoying division... so far!  She is almost done with Book 7 of the Harry Potter books and is looking forward to finishing the Percy Jackson series as well!

X7 is rowing the book The Adventures of Taxi Dog for Co op.  He is getting better at reading everyday!
This week the kids are going to have a special craft at Co op during lunch time, they are going to make a Valentine's day "mailbox" and then give out valentines to all their co op friends!
They are very excited about this, we already bought the valentines, the ones with candy of course!

I will try to post all of the pics this week sometime... key word here is TRY!! ha ha!

School Week 23 2011-2012

Another late post... This week started with Dh complaining that his foot was hurting, by the time he usually goes to work his foot was in A LOT of pain so I told him to go to the ER instead to see what was going on.  It was no broken but probably a sprain... So he took lots of Motrin and went to work and stayed in his office all day!

A10 finished the book The School Mouse and started Charlotte's Web.  X7 rowed the book Daniel's Duck, he loved it!

We got some new readers for X7 and he is really enjoying them! he finished Explode the Code 1 1/2 and started book 2!

Both kids got to do a diorama for their Co op class, however I forgot to take any pictures of them.  Silly, silly me.. I'm feeling awful about this, I always take pics of stuff like this.. SIGH... I have a lot of pics to post but for some reason I keep forgetting to bring the camera downstairs...

We are having a Co op meeting on March 2nd.  A planning for next year meeting and I have been working on samples of what we are going to be offering for next year as far as science and history.  I created a survey/questionnaire so we know who is in and who is out and to see if anybody has any other class ideas.

This is taking a lot of my time which is way I haven't been working on the blog.... sorry!

School Week 22 2011-2012

This post is late, really late... A10 had a wonderful b-day party on Thursday! On Saturday we got her a small chocolate cake and chocolate ice cream for her to enjoy on her actual b-day, Sunday the 22nd.  Well, Saturday night she threw up... we thought it was because of  all the cake and ice cream she ate... until Wednesday morning when the boy threw up as well.  He didn't have ANY cake or ice cream.  They both felt better after vomiting but just in case I put them on a toast and juice diet for the rest of the week.

 I came down with a little nausea and put myself on the same diet as them.  I thank God there was no vomiting for me but it was not the most pleasant of weeks.  We are all fine now, our appetite is back to normal and school is back to normal as well.

I'm trying to remember what books we read during this week... I know A10 read a Ramona book, X7 read the book Warm as Wool.  We got our History, Math and Language Lessons done as usual but that was it...

School work got done quickly and the rest of the time was spent resting and working on getting better.. all of us!  It could have been A LOT worse and I am thankful that we were speared!

School Week 21 2011-2012

This week we have a four day school week since we are celebrating A9's birthday on Thursday! We are going to Monkey Joe's.  I've never been there but both kids have and they love it!  We will be going around mid morning and staying till lunch time.  My baby girl is going to be 10 years old!!

A9 soon to be A10 is going to be reading a Ramona book this week, I'm giving her a little break this week, so she got to pick which book she wanted to read!
X7 is rowing the book Very Last First Time.

Co op went very well last week, they seemed to enjoy health class and we had tons to do for history!
We have homework again so school will probably go a little longer than it has in the last two week... which is fine!

I'll be posting pics of the birthday party later in the week!

School Week 20 2011-2012

This week both kids are reading co op book selections, A9 is reading Babe: The Gallant Pig and X7 is reading The Drinking Gourd: A Story of the Underground Railroad. We are back to a full load this week!  We really miss science but the kids are enjoying history.  Also, the days are not as long since science used to take over an hour every day and history's only taking us 15 - 20 minutes.

A9 finished the 5th Harry Potter book, she is now reading the 2nd Percy Jackson book then she'll be reading book 6 Half Blood Prince.  I told her after she is done with book 6 she can go ahead and read book 7.  I'm hoping after reading all Harry Potter and Percy Jackson books, she'll get into Artemis Fowl!! or maybe 39 Clues... we'll see!

Co op starts up this Friday as well.

School Week 19 2011-2012

Holidays are over and it is time to start our 2nd semester of the school year.  As usual I change things around a bit, January and February are hard months around here so every little bit helps in making it less blah!! ha ha!!
We are done with science, American history(through reading My America books), and spelling.  We are now finally starting world history! We are using Mystery of History Vol 1, which is ancient history.  I've had this curriculum since the end of A9's K year.  To say I have been looking forward to doing this is an understatement!  The great thing is we are also using Mystery of History for our Co op class!
Vol 1 is actually 36 weeks, but we are only going to do half (18 weeks) this semester and the other half next year.  Vols 2 & 3 only have 28 weeks, so it will be easier to get them done in a year each.
Each week has three lessons, each lesson is no more than 2 pgs. You can read all three in one day if you wanted to, but I'm not doing it like that, we'll do one lesson a day and on day 4 we'll try to do an activity and any quiz or exercises.  On co op day we will go over the quiz (or exercise) any mapping exercises and of course our timeline!
A9 will be starting a new vocabulary curriculum, Vocabulary from Classical Roots 4.  She used Worldly Wise last year and enjoyed it, unfortunately book 4 is 20 weeks and I don't want to do 20 weeks of vocabulary.  Classical Roots is only 14 weeks.
As far as read alouds, we'll be reading the book Adam and His Kin, this will be a great book to do along side MOH, especially in the beginning. I also want to do Gilgamesh the Hero, and other ancient civ related books.  We'll see how far we get.

As far as independent reading, I'm hoping A9 will get to read the Little House books. Again, we'll see how far we get. She is still reading The BFG since she took a break from it last week.

X7 will be rowing the book A Farmer Boy Birthday.  He really enjoys the Almanzo books! and of course any books assigned by the co op.

Co op starts again next Friday! So now the kids will have World history instead of science and Health for 7 weeks, after that we go back to art for the last 7 weeks of co op. 

Happy New Year everybody, here's hoping we all stay healthy in 2012!!

School Week 18 2011-2012

This week the kids will be working on math and reading... that's it!  A9 is still reading The BFG and X7 will be reading an assortment of Christmas books.  I will be posting pics of our Christmas weekend later today.   It's going to be a busy week since we are going to be getting ready for our trip to Nina and Grandpa's house!

More later!

Bunny Update

Too many things have happened since I last posted about our bunnies!  Momma bunny was pregnant again, she weaned Piggy at 4 weeks and started to get a nest ready for the next litter. Piggy and Fuzzball were able to bond since Momma did not want Piggy anywhere near her of the new nest.  I was a bit worried about Piggy having been weaned so early so I took her to the vet and Fuzzball as well.  No worries, Momma gave Piggy all she needed!  BTW, Cocoa has been fixed, so no more babies!  It's been 4 weeks today, so I guess it's safe for them to be together again.

Remember them??

Look at them now! btw, we are keeping them! Fuzzball is my miracle bunny and I just can't let him go and Dh is absolutely in love with Piggy!!!  

Mom and Dad will be going back outside once it gets warm again, they always enjoyed being in their rabbit hutch, Piggy and Fuzzball are staying inside!  I do not want to have them all over my basement however because of our dogs so we started to do some research about how to take care of inside bunnies.

I purchased the book The House Rabbit handbook and in it, it mentions bunny condos.  I went to the website to find out more about it. It has a video showing you step by step how to build them.

So we did it! We bought the materials and went to it! here is a our new Rabbit Condo!

What we had after day 2, waiting for the two shelves to stick.

Condo complete! All we need now is a rabbit!

There he is, Cocoa in his new home.. for now. This condo is going to be for Piggy and Fuzzball, but for now it will be shared by Cocoa and Coconut.  Once the babies are all grown and gone she will be in there with him!  We had to put towels underneath so the babies will not go under it. 

Speaking of babies, here are some pics of the new litter of babies, she had 8 but the runt died early on, now there are 7 left and they are all deliciously cute!!  It is almost impossible to take pics of them since they are ALWAYS moving around, and beleive me, these pics do NOT do them justice, they are way cuter in person!

Momma and one of her clones!! ha ha!! there's 3 tan ones just like Mom.

The nest is on the left, ever since they opened their eyes they are everywhere BUT in there. They take their naps under the desk instead of inside the nest... I guess when it is chow time they all come out and she feeds them.

There they all are! Three tan ones, (the other tan one is with Momma) three black ones, and a white one!

Early Christmas

We always celebrate X-Mas early at our house since we normally travel to Nina and Grandpa's for the Holidays, so here are some pics of this past weekend!  The kids exchanged gifts they got for each other and they got to open their stocking gifts!

School Week 17 2011-2012

I'm a little late with this post but I was busy yesterday and today we got done with school early, so here I am!
This week we are working on the essentials... science, reading, math, phonics, and finishing spelling for the year. We are working on our last science lesson of Zoology 3, dinosaurs! A9 is done with The Witches and has started the book The BFG also by Roald Dahl... it seems like we are having a Roald Dahl book party over here,but the truth is I have been buying these books over the last few years from scholastic book club. Most of them I got for a dollar!

Now that I know A9 is enjoying them so much I want to get the rest of them! Thankfully I know families who have the rest of the books so I won't have to buy them all...

X7 is rowing the book The Clown of God, a Christmas favorite! We are almost done with The Stray.  This is our last week of Co op for the year. During lunch we will be having a great feast! Next week we'll do school for three days, math and reading only. 

I have so many pics to share but the camera is upstairs... so be on the lookout for another post very soon!

School Week 16 2011-2012

I made a mistake last week, I posted that we were rowing the book Amber on the Mountain, when in fact the book we ended up reading was In November. I don't know what I was thinking, got a week ahead of myself I guess.  Anyways, this is the week X7 is rowing Amber on the Mountain.  We are also still reading the coop book The Stray, we are reading one chapter a day, it will take us the next two weeks to finish it, which is not a problem!

A9 is reading The Witches by Roald Dahl, she is really enjoying books by Dalh, I also have The BFG(big friendly giant) I wonder if she'll choose that one next?! For our read aloud time we are doing the final book of the Meg's Prairie Diary series.  After this week we will be done with read a louds till next semester.

We have two more weeks of co op, and three more of school... I am going to be doing school on the 19th, 20th and 21st of Dec... mainly math and reading time, just like we did for Thanksgiving week

I am done with Christmas! All of the gifts have been bought and wrapped, stocking gifts and Dh's gifts! I am DONE! We have our tree, a real tree for the first time in Dampf Homeschool history! We love it!  it is 6' tall and it is perfect, I found it at Lowe's while I was looking for something completely different, it was just there waiting for me!

I will be posting a bunny update soon, Momma had another litter of bunnies, 8 of them!  One died on Wednesday, the runt but the other 7 are looking very healthy, all with full bellies! I will be posting pics very soon.  Amazing what a difference a week makes, they will be opening their eyes in a few days.. I can't wait!

School Week 15 2011-2012

This week we get back to a full schedule, even though we have a vet appointment for the baby bunnies and I need to go to Walmart.  Hopefully we will get everything done before we leave the house.  X7 is rowing the book Amber on the Mountain.  We are also reading The Stray for co op.

 A9 is reading Fantastic Mr. Fox for co op and for our read a loud time we are on Book 2 of My America Meg's Prairie Diary.


We had a great holiday weekend!  Thanksgiving was a great time spent with my family! The food was great, I didn't go anywhere near the mashed potatoes and gravy or the pork, but the turkey and red rice was more than satisfying!   Some shopping got done on Black Friday even though I already had most of the gifts since I've been doing most of my shopping online. 

This is the first year I took the kids out to get a gift for each other.  Funny thing X7 kept looking at stuff he liked all the while telling me how his sister really likes to play with that stuff as well... Suuuuure.. ha ha!!!  He picked something pretty good for her! We also got gifts for daddy and then daddy took them to get gifts for me as well!

Dh got a new toy as well, a new TV since ours died a week ago.  This one is nice!! its a bit smaller than out last one(42") but it has Wi-Fi, so now we have the internet on our TV which allows us to stream online movies from both Amazon Prime and Netflix!! Dh is very happy with his X-Mas gift!!!
Thanks Grandpa!!!

School Week 14 2011-2012

This was a short week because of the thanksgiving holiday.  We usually take the whole week off but I knew the kids would probably be bored out of their minds without some school,  so we did math, independent reading time and read a loud time.  A9 was able to do two math lessons in three days and she read three books independently! The Magic Finger, The White Stallion and The Family Under the Bridge.  Next week A9 will be reading Fantastic Mr. Fox for co op.

We also started the next My America series Meg's Prairie Diary Book 1. We read that book in three days!  X7 did math and reading as well.  We read three different thanksgiving books and the co op book for Nov/Dec, The Stray by Dick King-Smith. 

We will be spending Thanksgiving at my mom's this year! Tomorrow is going to be a long day since I'm planning on going to Walmart at midnight for their Black Friday sale!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

School Week 13 2011-2012

This week X7 is rowing the book Cranberry Thanksgiving! We love this book, I think it is safe to say we love all of our FIAR books!  We have been doing read a louds as well using the Mr. Putter and Tabby books for co op.

A9 is done with Matilda and has started reading Misty of Chincoteague.  She is to start Fantastic Mr. Fox for co op next week... hopefully she'll be done with Misty by then.

We are to start book 3 of My America: Oregon Trail Diary.  We've had a wonderful time reading these books aloud.  No matter how late school goes we always make time for My America books! I wish they would have made more of them...

Next week is Thanksgiving but we will be having school all three days... we'll have independent reading and read a loud time.... maybe math.

Bunnies update:  Piggy is doing great, he is gaining about 20 grams every day, which means mamma is feeding him/her.... the grey bunny which we've named Fuzzball is active and it's eating but her weight is not really increasing, is is staying between 88 and 90 grams.  I think a second visit to the vet is in order.  Papa bunny has an appointment Tuesday morning to get nurtured... no more babies from him I'm afraid.
Both bunnies are looking so cute in their own ways.. Piggy is chubby and delicious and Fuzzball is tiny and adorable!

School Week 12 2011-2012

This week X7 is rowing the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World....  another favorite! A9 is almost done with Matilda, she is really enjoying this book as well! The kids started their art basics class and they are going to be having homework for it! 

 Not much to say this morning... I am exhausted... trying to feed a baby bunny takes some work.  The light color one is doing very good,  mamma is feeding it just fine... the grey one... not so much.  It doesn't matter how many times I feed it, it does not gain any weight... he's not loosing weight either, he seems to be stuck and I'm not sure if I can do anything to help him continue forward.. I have a feeling only mamma can do that.

I just hope that she will continue to feed the other one.... still praying for baby bunnies. 

Baby Bunnies Update

We started with six baby bunnies, we are now down to two... I think the fact that the mom is still so young(six months), we think she did not have enough milk for all of them so only the strongest ones were able to get any... as of right now the light color bunny seems to be the strongest because he is well fed, the grey one is a bit weaker.  I took them to the vet and she was not very optimistic about their chances... She gave me some food and showed me how to feed them and I have been doing that... They are both hanging in there... let's just say we are praying these bunnies to health!  The male papa is getting fixed on the 11th, and the mom as soon as she is done nursing... which maybe be sooner that I want her to...
I don't think I can go through this again... but the babies are the cutest things I have ever seen!!

School Week 11 2011-2012

 This week X7 is rowing the book The Wild Horses of Sweetbrier.  He is also reading another Mr. Putter and Tabby book for Co op! A9 is reading the book Matilda for her 30 minute independent reading time and our read a loud book is Westward to Home, Book 1 of Joshua's Oregon Trail Diary.

We have started a new co op term, even though the kids will continue with science and language arts, they will no longer have geography.  This term they are starting an arts basics class.  There will be no homework for this class which means we will have a little more breathing room during our school day.  The kids loved geography and hopefully we will have this class again next year!

For science this week we are doing lesson 7 Rodentia and the Rest.  Rodents like squirrels, mice and the rest like platypuses, echidnas and bunnies!!  We are going to dissect an owl pellet at co op and see how many rodent bones we can find.  

Speaking of bunnies... our bunnies had babies!  Yes, we thought we had two males although we never did look under the tan one's "skirt".  We knew the black one, Coco was a boy.  It happened Halloween night or maybe the night before, we are not sure. I found them on Friday during co op's lunch time.  I left my phone at home that morning, since the church is behind my house I decided to walk home to get my phone.. on my way back I went over to say hello to the bunnies when I noticed something right in the middle of their cage...  it was a baby bunny and it was dead :( I guess it got separated from the rest of the babies and it was too cold... I have no idea how long it  laid there but I picked it up and panicked....

I called Dh and the first thing he told me to do was to get the male out so that he could not get her pregnant again... hopefully we got him out in time!!!!  She had six babies in all but the one died.  When Dh got home we got the laundry room ready and moved Mom and babies there.  We read online that bunnies form very deep bonds and if you separate them for too long they get depressed and trying to reunited them later could be difficult, so we have them in the same room but he is unable to get to her.. they can still nuzzle and stuff but no hanky panky.. ha ha!

 We can't wait till we have five baby bunnies running around!!!  Anyone want a bunny for Christmas?