Dec 17-21 Recap

After a light week last week, I really thought I'd let this week be a "Christmas break wash" and not do any formal lessons.  However, the kids really seem to thrive on some kind of purpose and structure so I wrote a few lessons down for the week.

For math I had the big kids work on multiplication wrap-ups.  They have a goal to do each one in under a minute to earn a donut when they've done all the wrap ups successfully (wink).  Natalee finished hers up on Wednesday to earn her donut and Xavier finished his on Friday. 

They also played Mobi on Wednesday and I let them do a money math duel with the iPad on Friday.

They each completed a week of spelling in their Rod and Staff workbooks, at their request (they love spelling), but I just planned Free Reading over formal reading lessons.  It's a joy to see them curled up on the daybed or couch, lost in a book.
For writing we pulled out their First Writing Journals and they completed a couple of pages a day.  These journals are great sparks for creativity and the kids love them because they are in color and inviting!

Natalee:

Xavier:

Xavier still struggles a great deal with spelling, handwriting, and b/d reversals.  When I make him slow down, he is much more successful, but if he just writes independently it's quite inventive.  I'll take any kind suggestions anyone wants to send. ;)

We also began listening to The Chronicles of Narnia this week.  These dramatic audios can all be found on YouTube for free from Focus on the Family.

For science, Chelsie and I planned Gingerbread STEM activities on Monday while we were having mommy Bible study.  The children had to create a boat, a bridge, and a structure for the gingerbread man to hide in.  The structures were my favorite - something about bright, pretty gumdrops that scream Christmas fun!

While I was lesson planning Sunday night, I messaged Chelsie and asked if she'd be down for a nature walk on Tuesday.  The weather was forecasted to be unseasonably warm, and we needed to soak it up.  She said sure and we made a plan Monday night to go to her in-laws to tromp around a pond and lake.  It's a joy and a blessing to have a family that we've so easily fallen into schooling beside this year!  Our children love having friends who will participate in activities with them (so does this sometimes lonely mommy).
Chelsie's in-laws also let us borrow their ranger to get to the lake.  They were such gracious hosts.

Egg cartons to collect the treasures.  I made this guy sit with me because I trust him zero.  Ha.

Chelsie showing them the seeds in a lily pod.

Chelsie was a very careful and cautious driver, even when this daredevil tried to take over.  Ha.

The kids loved looking at the beaver homes...no beavers showed themselves will all our hubbub, though.

Xavier got in the water over his boot trying to retrieve another lily pod for the group and had a squishy remainder of the adventure.  We also found a deer carcass over a hill and a den that we *think* was a fox den.  Berries and cattails, milkweeds and more were all treasures the kids collected in their cartons.
After our couple of hours romping around, we went to the park for a quick and easy picnic and the kids ran off the remainder of their energy.  We arrived home muddy and happy.
We've committed to going back to the lake in the spring when the lilies are blooming!

We've paused our formal history lessons until after Christmas, but are still learning.  We are diving deeper into Lewis and Clark and their adventures this week.  We used this resource from Scholastic and this YouTube video.  We were a bit behind in our reading of Calico Bush so we caught it up this week and will shelve it until we start our history back up.

Our non-core subjects kept us busy this week, also.
The older children watercolor painted in art journaling class this week.

The little ones water color painted for a bit, too.  Ameliya tries hard to follow the directions of the teacher and create what the others are.  She has a bit of an artsy brain.

When they were done painting, we gave them these darling gingerbread house ABC matching pages I printed off of totschooling and let them get to business with some glue!

Children love liquid glue, and it's so good for hand muscles.  In retrospect, giving them glue sticks would have been much less messy - ha - but they had fun with the liquid glue.

Zayden, who LOVES ABCs, had a hard time staying focused towards the end of his matching.  A reminder to me that he's *just* three.

Natalee continued working on her piano, but no lessons this week.
The girls also both had ballet on Monday and learned something new that I cannot recall (ha!) but Mia's been trying to practice it this week!

Bible this week was a study from Luke 2 titled "Preparing Our Children For Christmas."  I belong to a subscription Bible study group that focuses on teaching me how to study the Bible myself and then gives me tools, ideas, and accountability for studying.  One of the options for seasonal study was this set of 8 lessons focused on our children's hearts at the holidays.  The kids LOVED this.  I made easy flip books for them to keep their drawings and notes in during the lessons so they can reflect upon them later.

We have also continued our nightly Jesse tree study.

We are *just about* Christmas crafted out, which is a good sign that the season is coming to a peak and then a close.  The weather was 45-55* for more than one day this week so we made sure to cash in on filling up our Vitamin D tanks while we could!

I love how he says "backyard."

Natalee has been having some increase in pain these last weeks, which is what prompted the neurology appt in the first place, so she's been resting/napping many afternoons during the week.  Please pray for us as we navigate finding the appropriate resources and tools for her to help manage her pain and be as successful as she can!

Thursday we got to visit with our cousins who are in town from Vegas!  Look at these little boys...

Natalee got the Apples to Apples game for her birthday so we've played quite a bit this week.  We were also given the gift of Zooreka from our friends and all stayed up absolutely too late Thursday night playing it.  It's easy to pick up and such fun!  A little bit of strategy, enough moving to keep everyone interested!

I think our first couple of weeks back to school after Christmas break will be "game schooling" weeks!