Sunday, February 28, 2016

Done with School? {Last Week's Review}

(Recap of February 22-26)

When you start school in July like we did, you start finishing up by March!  On Monday, Xavier finished his kindergarten reading curriculum!  Congratulations, Xavier!  I want to work on fluency with him a little bit, so he's going to be taking the next couple of months to read for fun, and to work his way through the Usborne Very First Reading and First Reading sets.
We are really enjoying the Very First Reading set.  The books have great story lines, and on the website they have coordinating worksheets and activities.

Natalee got excited to see she was nearing the end of unit 1 of her Rod and Staff reading series at the beginning of the week. (Her baby joined her for school.)  
Xavier also noticed that he was at the end of his Math-U-See Primer book.  Can you catch exciting theme of "finishing" at our house??
 Natalee doing math facts practice on the iPad.
Mia put her foot through Xavier's box that he totes things around in so he unscrewed it all to remove the torn plastic...life skills!
 Tuesday also called for some Science Quiz Buzzers!!!
Wednesday Zayden had an appointment and then we ate lunch with Grandma Num so school was kind of a wash.  Natalee was up and at it bright and early Thursday to get the double heavy workload done!
She was also spurred in knowing that she would complete Unit 1 of Rod and Staff Reading!  Congratulations, Natalee!!
Xavier set up a great little system for adding and subtracting with the math blocks.  He lined them all up by staircases and then was able to quickly grab what he needed and put them together without needing to dig or count much.  Smartie!
AND, he completed his Primer!!
 Our littlest scholar..."reading" with her reading finger.
As I was doing a little rearranging in our school hutch I found a packet of printed items to make solar system lapbooks!  I had intended to do them a couple of weeks ago when we were learning about the solar system.  I let the kids decide and they chose to go ahead with them.  It was a nice review.  I'm so pleased with how much they learned from that unit!  They loved it!
Because our unexpected lapbooking took up about two hours, some of our other school was pushed to post supper.  I would have put off Xavier's reading until Friday but he was insistent!
Natalee is reading the Little House series!  Love, love, love...

We usually take Fridays off from school, but we didn't because we basically took Wednesday off.  Friday was our modge podge finish up day with a little art thrown in!
Akebu to Zapotec
It seems that the space theme is following us, even though the unit is done!  Hodge Podge posted a Space Shuttle Lift-Off chalk art so, of course, we had to give it a try!
Natalee had a mini melt down during her art and did it twice.
That wraps up another school week for us!  Never fear, mom has some mini units tucked away to keep little minds busy.  We'll be doing a unit on money and a "big mini" unit on presidential elections...not to mention anything else that strikes our fancies.  The learning never ends!

Sunday, February 21, 2016

A Ride on Mother's Back...

You never know when it'll be their last - growing up seems to happen so quickly once it's begun.  I thought she was done hitching rides with mom, but tonight she wanted up-up-up.  She wanted me to hold her but I needed to make supper...
All day everyday she shows me she is a big girl and wants to be independent.  Sometimes it's nice when she still wants to be my baby.

{23 months, 28 pounds in a standard organic Ergo}

February 15-20 Review

Last week was better than the one before by far!  Monday we made our solar system model. 

Tuesday we hit the books!  It felt good to fall back into our routine.
 Little builders...
 Xavier was introduced to subtraction this week!
Zayden has enjoyed sitting in his high chair at the table with us while we do lessons for small periods of time.
 I tried everything to get him to take good naps this week!  It was a struggle.
Tuesday night we had a "movie in mommy's bed" night since Daddy was working.  Little things like this help the weeks from getting too long.  Peter Pan was the movie of choice.

Wednesday was more of the same.  Reading, math, history...baby dolls, blocks, and the like.



Thursday we did our schooling and then we got OUTSIDE.  The sun was shining and, compared to the beginning of the week, it was gorgeous.  Then Nannie invited us for a walk and, after Zayden and I came back to the house, she took the older three for another round!

Friday we had a co-op Valentine's party.  Kudos to my hubby who threw together a Valentine's box Thursday night while I was at a meeting.  I was not prepared and he had my back!
Thank you to Shelly, our party planner, and to Jo and Shela for helping run the activities.  I managed to feed my baby and take my toddler potty and that about summed up my contributions to the gathering!
 Mia liked getting all dolled up to go out.
 This hunk celebrated the day by having an explosive diaper - all the way up to his armpits. 
 Exactly one month apart in age...
 Ameliya and Xavier looking through the Valentine's.
Friday evening we took another walk and soaked up more sunshine. 

Saturday it was 65 degrees!  We played outside all day!  Laundry on the line, water in the sand box, dirty feet, and happy kids were themes of the day. 
I started the day with this ornery loudmouth...
 My little front porch swingers.
Saturday night we celebrated Papa George's birthday and I got to smooch this cutie...
While we were out walking this weekend we saw the geese flying north in big flocks.  We hope that means the sunshine and nicer weather are here to stay!