1st Week of Advent

This past weekend we celebrated the first week of Advent at our house. The kids got a couple of gifts, because it's so much more fun to get gifts throughout December instead of only on the 25th.
Here's pictures of the kids and their gifts!






After we ate and opened presents the kids went outside to play in the snow! They got all bundled up but the weather was not that cold...around 38 degrees.



Here is one last picture of A7 sitting on her new desk, now she gets to draw, read and write in her own desk!! She loves it, that is my old desk lamp. Nice to know it still works! I've been looking for a desk for her for a while now, her room is very small and the desk needed to be just the right dimensions. Luckily I found this one online at Walmart.com. Very inexpensive... great timing. Technically this is not a Xmas gift but it came on Friday so we made her wait one day to open it!!

School Week 16 & 17

This post is really late but I've been too busy to blog about anything..okay on Week 16 we rowed the book Tree of Cranes. We loved this book, it is set in Japan and gave us a look at how Christmas is celebrated there. Wonderful story!

Geography & Culture: Japan
Science: common cold
Language arts: copy work, Japanese writing, Japanese legends
Art: origami

Who knew KFC was so popular in Japan this time of year!!!!


Week 17! Christmas in the Big Woods. I found a lapbook for this book which is the only reason we are rowing it. It's a very simple book but the kids get to see how Christmas was celebrate long ago. I love the Little House series, it's a wonderful introduction to the chapter books, which we'll be reading next semester!

There are all sorts of lessons in this lapbook!
Geography: Wisconsin
Science: what is your house made out of?
Language arts: copy work
and many more....

Next week is our last week of school for the year. The kids are all caught up in math and handwriting! Next semester we are starting some new things and it was important to get everything else done that way we can start the new stuff right away!

A7 will be starting MUS Beta! as well as Spelling! X5 will continue doing the code primers and will be starting book C sometime in the coming semester!

Thanksgiving Weekend

What an incredible time we had over the weekend, the long weekend! First we went to Mom's for Thanksgiving. All that food! It was delicious, turkey, rice, mash potatoes, pork shoulder... desserts!
All my family was there including Francis and Jonathan, new additions to our family, or should I say old additions!! The kids had a great time with their Titis and Tios, cousins, Abuelo and Abuela and of course Grandma! We also got to see cousin Leo and Azzie's baby girl Isabel!!I got to hold her!!!










All in all we had a wonderful time visiting with family and old friends, we got home around 10. Then off to bed for me to get ready for black Friday. I got up at 3am, hoping to get to Walmart before 4am to grab one of those $198 laptops... no such luck, by the time I got there they were ALL gone. The tickets had been given out.... my sisters and Mom were going for the same laptop. They were in line since 12am.. ALL night. At least they all got them!!

Don't feel sorry for me, we did get our laptop, we just had to pay $30 more for it online, but we got it! Now we can give our old laptop to A7 for school, yes she already has a desktop computer, but she wanted a real laptop and now she has one, old and slow but she has one! I did get to buy everything else I wanted during black Friday, jump drives, sd card for the camera, lots of batteries and a new router, we had the G now we have the N!! didn't spend too much money which is always good, kinda the point... you know!!

We decorated the tree later that day, well the kids did, I was in la la land for a while :) on Saturday Dh decorated the front of the house, lights, little snowmen, all looks good!

Then on Advent Sunday we stayed up to watch the Steelers game, it went into over time just like last week ans just like last week we lost!!!! Stayed up for nothing!!!!!

The kids have no school today because ps kids are off today, we start school on Tuesday.

Adventures in Orthodontics

We had a dentist appointment last Wednesday, A7 and I. The dentist recommended that I take A7 to an orthodontist, she sucks her thumb, she's done it since she was a baby... so he set everything up, gave us a copy of her teeth x rays and made an appointment for today.

I wasn't sure what to expect because I've never been to the orthodontist, I guess I never need it to. A7 was a little nervous as well. Well... what an experience! When we got there the receptionist(she was very sweet) addressed her(A7) at all times, gave her instructions on how to sign in(touch computer) and told her that's how she is to do it from now on... hhhmmm... from now on?? Is she under the impression that we are coming back?? more than once?? Ha ha! I had no idea what I was getting into.

They took her away for about 10 minutes, the woman she was with had a digital camera with a huge lens. She told me "I'll call you when we are ready for you" oookay.... They were taking pictures of her face, her profile and her mouth, her teeth. When she was finally "ready for me" I went into the room and saw A7 filing out a paper, she was sitting very comfortably in this huge chair, she was answering questions like, what's you favorite sport, food, tells us about your family, favorite store etc. She had no problems writing down the answers. She was having a ball!!

It was so different from any doctor or dentist office I've ever been to. Another peculiar thing, they wanted her to become familiar with the place, they showed her around and told her were everything was. Everything in the place seemed so comfortable, they had Nintendo games, TV, books. They had a cart with lots of goodies, pencils, papers, stickers... you name it. Now I know why they go through all that trouble.

A7 is going to need braces, but not for a while. Right now she needs some type of "tongue crib". It's going to help her stop sucking her thumb and it's going to retrain her tongue.That means, we are going to be visiting this place a lot in the future. Three appointments in the month of December alone. They are going to be doing a lot to her mouth...x rays, impressions and more pics. She showed us the tongue crib, it's going to be cemented?? on her mouth for six months. They are going to check on the thing every six to ten weeks.

The best part??? Our dentist insurance does not cover orthodontist stuff. This is coming out of our own pockets, all I have to say is thank God we already bought the kids their X-Mas gifts... ha ha!! They do have have a payment plan(thank you again God!). But we have to pay 1/3 or 1/4 up front then the payment plan kicks in... of course!

She also told me it's around $6000 for braces...yyyaaaaayyyyy!!! they also have a payment plan for that!! Well, we don't have to worry about that till she's 11 or 12 yrs old.... Now, her thumb sucking has nothing to do with needing braces, even if she never sucked her thumb she would still need them. I just hope X5 is not going to need any of this!!!!

School Week 15

This week we are rowing the book The Thanksgiving Door. We read this book last year as part of our Thanksgiving unit, we only read it once and didn't do any lessons from it. I liked it so much I decided to to give the book a whole week! X5 will be doing different thanksgiving activities, we'll read In November and do a mini lapbook.

Social Studies: Russia, immigration
Language arts: copy work
Science: thanksgiving dinner
Art: Thanksgiving, Domes

This is our last week of school, next week is vacation week! I'm going to spend the time figuring out how to reintroduce Reading Made Easy to X5 or not. He has learned so much, we've been using Explode the Code Primer Books A, B, C, we are in the middle of book B. RME starts right away with the vowel sounds, the code books don't introduce them till Explode the Code 1(which is probably better for him).I hate to buy something new when I already have RME and the workbook, but he is doing incredible with these books and if it's working I don't want to switch books on him.

School Week 14

Another late post..sorry, We've been having fun with this book! This week we are rowing the book: Zarafa, the Giraffe who Walked to the King. This book is a sub for the book: The Giraffe that Walked to Paris. The kids and I love this book, this is our first time in Africa and Egypt. Plus we get to revisit Paris which is always good!

Geography: Egypt, Africa, Paris, France, Mediterranean Sea, Nile River
Language arts: vocabulary words, copy work
Art: drawing the unknown, pyramids

Science: giraffes, wind power, camels, animal care

X5 renamed his giraffe Zarafa! He is still working on his ABC mini lapbook.

Week 13 Art Project

We are back to our line unit! This week A7 was supposed to create a maze, a line that doesn't end!

X5's art project, everything that very hungry caterpillar ate!!!!

School Week 13

This post is a little late, but better late than never :) This week we are rowing the book Ox Cart Man. It is not a FIAR book but it is a Caldecott winner and I found a lapbook for it on Homeschoolshare.com, so I decided to added to our book list! I'm glad I did because the kids and I are really enjoying this book, so simple yet so many lessons!

Soc Stu: Geography:New England, Then & Now...
Language Arts: Comprehension & discussion...
Science: Farmers market, farm animals, maple sugaring...
There is so much in this book we could spend two weeks on it, we won't! However this is a book that I would not mind re rowing in the future, we could get so much more out of this book!!!

X5 is doing a The Very Hungry Caterpillar mini lapbook.

We've been starting school after 1 o'clock all this week. Normally this would not work, but for some reason this week it is. The kids are all feeling much better, however I'm still a little under the weather, I take some cold meds in the morning and after lunch I'm all ready to go and so are the kids! We had no piano lessons this week and that helped as well. I think Thursday will be our last day of doing it this way since Friday we have Coop at 1 o'clock.

It Was the Best Weekend, It Was the Worst Weekend

The title pretty much describes how our weekend went. First the good, Halloween! Nina and Grandpa coming over to visit the kids for Halloween. Cool costumes, lots of candy, light the night at the Church, hot chocolate, all good!!

Now the not so good. First X5 getting a fever two hours before trick o treating, had to drug him up(Tylenol & Motrin) so he would be good to go... we only trick o treated for an hour, 6 to 7.
The next day A7 got a fever, more meds! No Coop for them on Friday, I still had to go since I was teaching a class, which got canceled for something way better.

Now here is where is gets really not so good, on Saturday I got sick, no fever thank God, although my Dh thinks I did have a temperature... just a chest cold, lots of coughing, sinus, body hurting, no energy. This really sucks on a normal weekend, when you have company it double sucks!!!
I got to go to Church on Sunday to welcome our new interim pastor. They prayed for A7 & X5 although lots of Moms were panicky that the kids had the flu, the bad one!! I assured them they did not.

The kids are all feeling better, thank God! No more fever just cold and cough, been giving them cold and cough meds. As for me, feeling much better, been taking head and chest decongestant meds... as for school...

I thank God for the way He has lead me to plan our homeschool. One book a week, lessons from that book for the whole week, math the same way. Which means that we have a whole week to get things done, which means if we don't get a lot done on Monday we have the rest of the week to do it!!!

I decided to start school after lunch today, give our bodies time to feel better, let the meds do their job. We'll get done as much as we get done today, we have a whole week to do this, no worries!!

Let me leave you with some Halloween pics of the kids!!!

Asoka Tano and Captain Rex!

Dh is dressed as Legolas and I'm dressed as a Doctor!

Kids and a friend dressed as Wolverine!!!!

Week 12 Art Project

This week for art we just did a couple of pumpkin crafts and Halloween pics. We are getting the house clean and organized for when Nina and Gram pa come tomorrow!!!

I'll leave you with a scary picture!!!
You can see all of her eyes..... scary!!!

School Week 12

This week we are rowing the book, The Finest Horse in Town. I've never read this book before, it looks a little old, we'll see how the kids like it. Not too many lessons with this book.

Geography: Maine, turn of the century
Language arts: stories inside stories, reminiscing
Science: caring for horses, ice from ice house
Art: trees and fall colors(we've pretty much covered this already)

X5 will be doing a mini lapbook from the book Brown Bear, What do you See?. Here's what's inside the lapbook.
I need to give a shout out to Tot Book 1+1+1=1. She has perfect mini lapbooks for X5. He really enjoys doing them plus they are all ready to go, all you have to do is print them out. Makes life a little easier for homeschooling Moms!!

Week 10 Art Project

I just realized after I did the week 11 post for art, that I have no post for week 10 art. The reason for that is the kids didn't do a "project", instead they got to take pictures with my old camera since I got a new one last Wednesday. They took pics of everything!! I'll share a few of them.... there was too many ha ha!!!

Week 11 Art Project

This week both kids did a color by number art project. We are still doing fall art and this seemed really fun.

This is suppose to look like a mosaic... we still don't know what it is!!

This is X5's project, as you can see it is a squirrel with a nut!

For coop this Friday the kids have to bring something to share as part of show n tell. It doesn't matter what it is as long as you can share it with the other kids. X5 wants to make cookies for everybody but A7 has been on a Chinese writing kick and she wanted to give everybody a Chinese symbol that she herself wrote. So here is her show n tell for Friday!
We are going to laminate them and hand them out to all the kids on Friday. Yes, we know what symbols mean!

Here's a few freebies of the kids this morning!
A7's not fully awake yet while X5 is already dressed are ready to go!

School Week 11

This week we are rowing the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World. We rowed this book two years ago, before we were into lapbooks. We love this book and I really wanted to make a lapbook out of it so we are reading it again!

The truth is I forgot last week was Columbus day week, I had a Columbus unit study for us to do last week but I grabbed the Babar folder instead. It wasn't till I noticed the neighbor kids weren't at school that I realized my mix up. By then, it was too late!! The kids loved the Babar book and did not want to do Columbus.

Oh well, we can hit Columbus next year, I have extra lapbooks around for times such as these and Apple pie was one of them!

Geography: Vermont, England, Sri Lanka, France, Jamaica
Language arts: sequence, copy work, word search
Math: subtraction, fractions
Science: salt experiment, evaporation

X5 will be working on his own Apple pie lapbook, sorting apples game and the letters M & N mini lapbook.

Mother Daughter Sleepover

This past weekend we had our mother daughter sleepover. It was raining and cold and we did not have that many girls this year but we still had a great time. We had a pizza party, games, crafts and a movie with pop corn!! I was in charge of breakfast again. A7 had a great time and according to her, spending time with her friends was okay but she really enjoyed being there with me... aaawwww!!

New Camera

These pictures were taken with my new Kodak Z1485 IS HD camera that I got today, an early X-Mas gift from my Dh!!

My old camera is now A7's new camera, she is very happy about that!

School Week 10

This week we are rowing the book: Babar To Duet or Not to Duet. This book has to do with piano playing and since A7 plays the piano I know she is going to love it. We have other Babar books and the Babar movie. YouTube has the the Duet movie, part 1 and part 2.

Geography: India(we haven't done this country yet and even though this story is set in "Celestville" which is a fictional town, I decided to use India because there are lots of elephants there!)
Social Stu: Relationships, taking advice, making yourself vurnerable, telling the truth
Language arts: copy work, music vocab words, days of the week
Science: elephants: african vs asian

X5 is going to be working on a Thomas the Train mini lapbook that will look something like this when finished.

X5 has been doing a mini lapbook for the letters of the alphabet as well, we spend two days on each letter doing different activities for the lapbook, he is on letter K and L this week.