Thursday, April 18, 2013

I had an appointment mid morning today and stopped at the library on my way home. When I got back we ate, then Alexa had to choose a pirate to read and write about and draw a picture of for social studies while I worked with Ben. She ended up writing about Mary Read and Anne Bonny.



Ben read me a story from Frog and Toad Are Friends then copied a narrated sentence into his main lesson book and drew a picture to go with it. He did a math worksheet, a couple pages in his Big First Grade Workbook, and did some handwriting practice.

When Alexa finished her report she practiced guitar and had silent reading time for Story of the World, reading from East of the Sun and West of the Moon and from Vikings at Sunrise.

Ben did Reading Eggs. I read to Alexa from Number The Stars.

We had free time and then dinner. After dinner, I finished reading Medieval Paris: Journey to the Past to Alexa. She did a Life of Fred Decimals and Percents lesson and used her spelling and vocab words in sentences, then she was done.

We had more free time, Ben took a bath, and I enjoyed feeling lots of baby movements.

I watched Wild Kratts with Ben, learning about the yeti crab, and that was it for today.

More later!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

This morning I took Alexa to her guitar lesson. She came with me to the driver license center afterward to retake my photo for my license renewal. In the car she read me a chapter of Number The Stars.

We had lunch, then Ben did some handwriting practice, a couple of pages in his Big First Grade Workbook, and a couple of math worksheets.

For science, he drew a bird nest with a mommy bird and some eggs in it.



He read me the last story in Frog and Toad Together, copied a narrated sentence into his main lesson book and drew a picture to go with it. We did Reading Eggs.

Meanwhile Alexa read two stories from East of the Sun and West of the Moon for Story of the World supplemental reading.

She did grammar, using some antonyms in sentences. She did spelling/vocab review, studying her words.

I read her Chapter 14, The Arrival of the Norsemen, from Story of the World Middle Ages. We did the review questions and narration exercises orally and read the relevant pages in the Usborne Book of World History. She did the map work and coloring page for the chapter.

I read to her from Medieval Paris: Journey to the Past, then I had a meeting with Melissa's services coordinator.

We relaxed a bit, Alexa did her nails, we did a Life of Fred Decimals and Percents lesson, then I took Ben to baseball practice.

At home, with my supervision, Alexa grilled us some hot dogs for dinner. She did great! We ate, the kids played some, and Alexa read from Vikings at Sunrise for supplemental Story of the World reading. Ben and I watched a Wild Kratts episode, learning about orangutans.

We did our own thing until bedtime, but surprised the kids later with an almost midnight pizza party after ordering Dominos. They thought we were the best parents ever after that!

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

This morning, we got ready, packed lunches, and went to Locust Lake for a walk and scavenger hunt with our homeschool group. I gave the kids lists of approximately 30 items each, we split them into two teams, and we walked around looking for the objects on the list. It drizzled at one point and was overcast, but fortunately, it never rained all that much and we were able to complete our walk/scavenger hunt, spend some time by the playground, and eat our lunches before heading back.



At home, Ben did a couple of pages in his Big First Grade Workbook, some handwriting practice, and a math worksheet. He read me a story from Frog and Toad Are Friends, copied a narrated sentence into his main lesson book and drew a picture to go with it.

He did Reading Eggs, we went over odd, even, and ordinal numbers, and we talked about a librarian's job.

Alexa practiced guitar and read two stories from East of the Sun and West of the Moon for supplemental Story of the World reading while I worked with Ben. Then she did Life of Fred Decimals and Percents. She did spelling/vocab, writing her words five times each.

I read to her from Number The Stars. We took turns reading from Medieval Paris. For Oak Meadow social studies, we read Days 2&3 in the lesson on Explorers.

At that point we stopped, made and ate dinner, Alexa worked on her girl scouts journey a bit, and I took her to scouts.

At home, we relaxed and did our own thing. Alexa helped Melissa with a poster for school chorus. The kids had dessert, spent time with their dad, and it was time for bed.

More later!

Monday, April 15, 2013

This morning I watched Wild Kratts with Ben, learning about the caracal. We had breakfast and I read Brave Irene to him while we ate.

I had Alexa sit at the computer and make up a "modern day legend" for social studies while I continued to work with Ben. He read me a story from Frog and Toad Together, copied a narrated sentence from the story into his main lesson book, and drew a picture to go with it.

He did a couple of math worksheets, some handwriting practice, and a page in his Big First Grade Workbook. We talked about sounds of spring for science, and he practiced counting piles of change and telling me how much there was in each pile for math. Then he had free time and decided to watch another Wild Kratts, learning about cheetahs.

Alexa did spelling/vocab, alphabetizing and defining her words. She practiced guitar, then we wrapped up last week's science. She had to think of ways she moves her body on a daily basis and come up with a list of ten voluntary and ten involuntary ways that she moves her body regularly.

Ben and I did Reading Eggs, Alexa had silent reading time, reading to herself from The Nancy Drew Files, Death by Design. Then I read aloud to her from Number The Stars.

For social studies, she read me Day 1 in the Oak Meadow lesson on Explorers, looked at pictures of various ships used at the time, and chose one (the pirate sloop) to draw a picture of.



I read to her from Ancient Paris and had her read to herself from East of the Sun and West of the Moon for supplemental Story of the World reading.

She did a Life of Fred Decimals and Percents lesson, and that was it for today. I picked up Melissa from Special Olympics basketball practice, relaxed a bit, then went to a mom's night out dinner with some girlfriends.

More later!

Friday, April 12, 2013 – Sunday, April 14, 2013

Friday was Shawn's 39th birthday. We went to McDonald's to get breakfast and we gave him his presents and cards. This teeshirt was my present to him as he finds the popular YouTube video clip hilarious:



We hung out and watched some TV and relaxed a bit, then Shawn got ready for work and the kids and I did school.

Alexa did map work and a coloring page for Story of the World. Ben did handwriting practice, a couple of math worksheets, a page in his Big First Grade Workbook, and read to me from Frog and Toad Together. He copied a narration sentence from the story into his main lesson book and drew a picture to go with it.



Alexa did Life of Fred Decimals and Percents and practiced guitar. For science she had to write about someone who is good at using their muscles in some way, what they do, whether it makes them healthier overall, and how they prevent or recover from injuries. She chose to write about a UFC fighter and she and Shawn enjoy watching UFC together.

After lunch, we went to our homeschool bowling league. We stopped at the store to pick up stuff for dinner and a birthday cake for Shawn.

At home, I read to Ben from A Chair For My Mother, Heckedy Peg, and The Cut Ups At Camp Custer. Alexa started reading Nancy Drew Files, Death By Design.

We ate dinner with Shawn, who came home a bit early, and had birthday cake.



We relaxed until bedtime (and before bed, Ben lost a tooth)!

On Saturday, it turned out Alexa was now not feeling well. She came down with the cough and sore throat that's been going around my house. She stayed home from judo and I took her to the doctor instead. They think it's mostly allergy and post nasal drip type stuff, and prescribed Claritin, ibuprofen, and a humidifier at night.

We relaxed most of the day. The kids watched TV and played on the computer. Later in afternoon they played outside for a few hours. I read The Cut Ups Crack Up and Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures With the Family Lazardo to Ben.

We had a late dinner and stayed up late trying to look at the aurora we'd kept hearing about, but no luck. We finally went to bed after midnight.

Sunday was just a relaxing day at home mostly. We slept in and had a late breakfast. I drove Melissa to a friend's house around 12:30.

Ben and Alexa did their own thing and played outside.

At almost 5, I went to get Melissa with Ben, and Shawn and Alexa went to the store. At home, we made and ate dinner. The kids watched a movie downstairs and Shawn and I watched one upstairs, and then it was time for bed.

More later!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 – Thursday, April 11, 2013

Wednesday morning, Ben finished reading Mouse Soup to me.

I read the story of Lady Murasaki Shikibu to Alexa from a book called Heroines, which came in belatedly for a previous chapter of Story of the World. We also read about half of The Duke and The Peasant, Life In The Middle Ages. At that point we had to stop and quick fold laundry and head over to Alexa's guitar lesson. Afterward, we stopped at the library to return books.

We had lunch, then finished reading The Duke and the Peasant, Life In The Middle Ages. Ben did a couple pages in his math workbook, did some handwriting practice, and we finished the Life of Fred Apples book. He also did a page in his Big First Grade Workbook.

Alexa did Sentence Composing for Middle School, finishing the book, and then we read a chapter of Number The Stars. It's nice to see some of our curricula for the year coming to a close!

Next, Alexa did a Life of Fred Decimals and Percents bridge while I did Reading Eggs with Ben, and then I took the kids to McDonald's for a treat- a cherry-berry chiller or frozen strawberry lemonade, etc.

The kids had free time to play outside, take turns on the computer, etc. Ben and I watched Wild Kratts, learning about giraffes. He had to skip baseball practice because of his cough (though at least he had no more fever today)!

We walked to the local Chinese takeout place for dinner, and that was about it.

On Thursday, we went to a couple of stores- produce and supermarket- and to lunch. Shawn had to go to work after.

Alexa practice guitar, Ben did handwriting practice, a couple of math worksheets, and a page or two from his Big First Grade Workbook, then read to me from Frog and Toad Together. He's reading books like these easily now:



The kids made birthday cards for Shawn, whose birthday is tomorrow, and I read The Life and Times of Charlemagne to Alexa for Story of the World supplemental reading.

I had her do a Life of Fred Decimals and Percents bridge. For science she had to answer a few questions in writing about the muscular system. We read a chapter of Number The Stars aloud, had dinner, and the kids played outside a bit.

In the evening, we made cookies, relaxed, and did our own thing, and that was about it.

More later!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Rough night last night! Ben woke me three times because he was not feeling well! He still had fever, cough, etc.

I got out of bed for the day at 8:30, showered and got ready, got Alexa up and ready, and took her to her 9:40 orthodontist appointment to put a brace back on that had fallen off.

At home, we ate, Alexa practiced guitar and played her song for me, and then, as it was such a nice day and we'd set our patio up yesterday, we sat outside to do school.

Alexa did a Life of Fred Decimals and Percents bridge. Ben seemed to be doing better and did some handwriting practice, a couple of math worksheets, and read to me from Mouse Soup.



Alexa did Sentence Composing for Middle School and we read aloud from Number The Stars, then I gave her a break to play outside with Ben, riding scooters, drawing with chalk, etc. After a while she went to the park with a friend and came home in time for dinner. While she was gone, Ben and I finished reading The Dragons of Blueland.

After dinner, I had Alexa do science. We read about the muscular system and she had to list the three types of muscles with examples of each and then walk around the room, paying attention to which joints moved as she walked.

While she did that, Ben did a Life of Fred Apples lesson, a page in the Big First Grade Workbook, and talked with me about thunder and lightning and rainbows for science. He drew a rainbow in his main lesson book.

Alexa and I did Story of the World, reading about Charlemagne mostly. We did the review questions and narration exercises orally, read the relevant pages from Usborne Book of World History and read the chapter on Charlemagne from the book Famous Men of the Middle Ages.

The kids then went back outside for a while longer and did their own thing the rest of the evening.

More later!

Saturday, April 6, 2013 – Monday, April 8, 2013

On Saturday, I took Alexa to judo class. Today, she was asked to open and close the class for the first time ever. She also finally got another stripe and now has 3 green stripes.



We brought her friend Dawn home with us after class. We had lunch, the kids hung out and played outside and so on.

Later in the day, we took Ben to his baseball practice. The girls played basketball nearby, climbed a tree by the field, and did their own thing.

We had pizza for dinner and Dawn slept over.

On Sunday, we took the kids to the park for a while. Dawn went home around 1 PM. We dropped Shawn's car off at the mechanic so it was already there and ready to be inspected tomorrow and went to Walmart for a few things, including a baseball helmet for Ben, though it turned out they didn't have what he needed. He needs one with a face guard and the only ones they had there with face guards were pink.

At home, the kids played outside a bit with scooters, chalk and so on. After dinner, we relaxed a bit and all watched The Amazing Spiderman before bed.

Monday morning, I called the doctor because Sunday night Ben got sick again. He was coughing, felt warm, threw up, and said his head hurt. They said he could come in at 10:15, so I took a quick shower, got ready and got him ready, and we went to the doctor, stopping at the bank on the way to deposit money for this month's bills.

At home we had breakfast and Ben took some meds and relaxed while Alexa and I did some school.

For social studies we continued working on our chapter on the Incas. She made a quipu (a piece of colored string with other string of different colors tied to it, each color representing specific information, with knots tied in each string to represent specific numbers. In this way she could indicate how much money she has, how much food, how many duties she had to do today, etc).

She also looked at pictures of Inca ruins and art and drew a picture of Inca art.



She did a Life of Fred Decimals and Percents bridge, and with that she was caught up on last week's work. We didn't get to any of today's. Instead we took advantage of this beautiful weather (mid to high 70's and sunny!) to be outside and get some work done around the house. We cleaned out our shed thoroughly. We set up the gazebo on the patio. We washed all the patio furniture and set that out. We hosed off the patio, trimmed the two bushes by the shed and so on.

In the middle of all this, my OB office finally called back with the results of my MaterniT21- normal! And they had the results of my bloodwork for neural tube defects- also normal!

Afterward, I dropped Shawn off to pick up his car from its inspection, went to the store to pick up Ben's prescription, and picked up Melissa from her Special Olympics basketball practice. By the time I got home Shawn had lasagna mostly underway. We finished preparing and cooking that, ate dinner by 7, PM and relaxed.

Before bed, we all watched Rise of the Guardians, and that was about it.

More later!

Thursday, April 4, 2013 – Friday, April 5, 2013

Thursday morning, I took Melissa to a lawyer to have her sign papers giving me power of attorney. Now that she's 21 and still living with me and under my care (special needs) I thought it would be a good idea in case anything comes up!

At home, we ate, and Ben did a bit of school. He did a couple of math worksheets, a couple of pages in his Big First Grade Workbook, and a bit of handwriting practice.

Alexa just did social studies, reading Day 4 in the Oak Meadow lesson we're on pertaining to the Incas and wrote a paragraph about skills she's learning in and out of school to prepare for her life. She also took a spelling quiz, and Ben and I did Reading Eggs.

I spent quite a bit of time making phone calls to various oral surgeons and my insurance company trying to find someone in my network to pull a tooth Alexa needs extracted (I finally found one although the appointment isn't until the end of May).

And then it was time to take Melissa to a doctor appointment since she'd started complaining yesterday of her ear hurting. Turns out she has an ear infection, so we stopped at the store afterward for antibiotics and a few groceries.

She and I relaxed and Ben and Alexa played in the backyard for quite a long time with the little girl next door. While dinner cooked, Ben read to me from Mouse Soup. We ate, and after dinner I read to Alexa from Number The Stars.

We watched a bit of TV and did own thing until bedtime. I read Ben a chapter of The Dragons of Blueland, and that was about it.

On Friday, we started our day with breakfast and read alouds- Number The Stars with Alexa and The Dragons of Blueland with Ben.

We relaxed a bit. then I did school with Ben. We did a Life of Fred Apples lesson. He did some handwriting practice and a math worksheet. He read me a story from Mouse Soup, then narrated a sentence from the story and copied it into his main lesson book, drawing a picture to go with it.



We did a bit of work with arranging objects from shortest to longest and estimating heavier and lightest. We did Reading Eggs. He did a page in his Big First Grade Workbook. And I read him a story called The Maple Leaf for science.

We had lunch, Shawn left for work, I showered, and we headed to our homeschool bowling league. After bowling we stopped for Rita's and got home with just enough time to get ready to head to baseball practice.

After practice we had dinner and relaxed.

More later!

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Ben wanted to get some school done as soon as he woke up today, so he did some handwriting practice, a math worksheet, a page in his Big First Grade Workbook, and had me read him a chapter of The Dragons of Blueland.

We had breakfast, Alexa got ready, and I took her to her guitar lesson, asking Ben to clean his room while I was gone.

When I got home, we did some laundry, Ben read aloud to me from Mouse Tales, finishing the book, and the kids had lunch.

Next we did some cleaning up around the house, which I decided was taking precedence before schoolwork today.

After the living room, computer room, kitchen, and Ben's room were reasonably clean and more laundry had been done, Alexa used her spelling and vocab words in sentences. Ben did a Life of Fred Apples lesson, and for Oak Meadow he narrated a sentence from the Mouse Tales story we'd read today and copied it into his main lesson book, drawing a picture to go with it. We also read about forest life for science, including a story called Forest Beauties.

At that point, it was almost 1:30 and time to leave- we dropped Ben off at Grandma's and I took Alexa to the orthodontist to get her new braces put on!



When we left there we stopped by Shawn's shop to show him the new braces, picked up Ben from Grandma's, and had just enough time to use the bathroom, grab quick snacks and drinks, grab Ben's stuff, and head out to his baseball practice.

After baseball, I relaxed till Shawn came home then had a late dinner before bed. Alexa was pretty miserable from her braces at this point, so I gave her some Ibuprofen and a Benadryl to help her sleep. Melissa started complaining her ear hurt, so I told her I'd call her doctor tomorrow. And I was still very congested myself... fun night!