October '09 - Week 3

Switching it UP! - I have a new plan of together lessons during our "littles" nap time. The "bigs" get to have all my attention during nap time.

:: Daily Lessons ::

• Devotional: "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.
• Read A-Loud Book: "On the Shores of Silver Lake" book 4 of Little House on the Prairie series.
• Core Phase "Littles": Sharing, learning the rules, waiting patiently for food, Right and Wrong, Good and Bad, and True and False. We also weened the "littles" from their bottles. I don't know why people think bottles are good for a 3 year old child. Not to mention rotting their teeth.
• Math: Chris - Math-U-See: Delta - Marly - Math-U-See: Zeta - Celeste - Math-U-See: Algebra (review for mom...again!)
• Daily Journal Writing
• Daily Guitar Practice
  

:: Weekly Lessons ::

• Monday: Grammar Lesson - "Winston Grammar" - Chris: Reviewed Helping Verbs - Marly: Modification by Adverbs and Adjectives.
• Tuesday: Guitar Lessons and Government Lesson - "The 5,000 Year Leap" - Principle 3 (part 2) - Virtuous and Moral Leaders.
  
• Wednesday: Mutual/Scouts and History Lesson - "Story of the World", Vol. 2 - Chris: - Marly:
• Thursday: PE at the Park
• Friday: Science Lesson - "Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science" Chapter 2.6 - "Usborne Science Encyclopedia" Pages
  

:: Individual Readings ::

• Chris (Love of Learner) - "Book of Mormon Stories", "Midnight in Sanctaphrax"
• Marly (Project Scholar) - "Bloodhound", "The Picture of Dorian Grey"
• Celeste (Mentored Scholar) - "Jo's Boys"

:: Projects ::

• Chris - Finished several merit badges over the past few months - First Aide, Emergency Preparedness, Citizenship in the Community, - Also worked more on splitting fire wood.
  
• Marly - Working on her Young Women's goals -
  
• Celeste - Still has an injured finger and did not get all of the apples canned or any of her Halloween sewing done yet. Bummer!
  

Monster Mash

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Lumberjacks

With my recent accident in log splitting, I was very skeptical about Christian chopping wood. He convinced me that he had sufficient knowledge of safety precautions and that he would be careful. He also pointed out that Almonso in "Farmer Boy" was allowed to do a lot of things that are considered dangerous as part of his regular chores. (So much for using classic books as examples...he had me there!)


Of course, I was being careful too when I fell onto the log splitter and injured my hand! But, a mother has to put some trust in her children and allow them to learn and grow at some point. He is a careful boy and so I felt the need to cut him some slack and not smother him in his desire to WORK for the family.

He did a great job getting the wood started on Friday! Over the weekend Mike and Christian chopped a lot of wood. Our garage is extended by 6 feet and has an area for storing wood. They filled that area and we still have more to split. Too bad the rest of us are too sick to help right now. We could at least stack for them. Maybe next weekend.

October '09 - Week 2

Schedule Changes

With the addition of foster children, our lives have changed quite a bit. Our current extra kiddos are both toddlers and we found it necessary to move some of our Scholar Phase lessons to be in the afternoon during quiet time (which is not so quiet). Our Core Phase lessons of Right and Wrong, True and False, and Good and Bad are taking precedence in the mornings in addition to our family readings. These core phasers need a LOT of teaching in these lessons.

Together Lessons

Devotional - "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.

Government/History - "The 5,000 Year Leap" by Cleon Skousen :: Principle #3 - "Story of the World" -Volume 2

Science - Friction - Usborne Science Encyclopedia - pages 124-125 - Concepts and Challenges in Physical Science - Chapter 2.5

Family Projects -

• Reading: "On the Shores of Silver Lake"
• Watching: "Little House on the Prairie" TV series
• Log Splitting: We are using an axe or wedge and hammer now to split wood.
  

Individual Phases and Studies

Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Guitar practice, loom knitting. - Reading: "Bloodhound" - Math: Math-U-See: Zeta.

Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Guitar practice, Harmonica, Roping. - Reading: "Midnight Over Sanctaphrax" and "Book of Mormon Stories" - Math: Math-U-See: Delta

Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Still Reading: "Jo's Boys" by Louisa May Alcott - Math: Math-U-See: Algebra - Projects: Taking care of a sick family and praying my hand finishes healing soon.

6 Months Since We Moved!

Somehow I thought I could avoid it...but I couldn't. I'm getting sick! What...did I think was special or something? My hand is much better. I'm just a little concerned about not having enough feeling at the tip of my middle finger.

I realized during General Conference that we have been here for 6 months! Where has the time gone? In some ways we still feel new and in others we feel comfortable and like we are "home".

Our lives have become incredibly busier. Having sickness in our house has only postponed a ton of things we need to do. I am having to reschedule two dentist appointments, the repair man for the garage door, the repair man for the chimney, home visits from CPS, home visits from in-home therapists, home visits from our Foster Care Licensing worker, and a dermatologist visit. All this COULD have been accomplished in the last two weeks, but now we have to cram it into the last two weeks of the month since it will most likely take me a week to get better. Add in that we have three kids with birthday's coming up, and my regular life homeschooling, chauffeuring kids to lessons (see the photo here of the kids waiting for guitar lessons) and mutual, teaching in church and visiting teaching...well you get the idea.

I do love my life and enjoy being at home. It just makes me wonder how I accomplished all the things I did when I worked. It seems like such a long time ago, but it really was only 6 months ago.

October '09 - Week 1

Sorry this is so late...we had a bad 1st week of October.

Together Lessons

Devotional - "Let Him Ask of God" daily inspirational readings.

Government/History - "The 5,000 Year Leap" by Cleon Skousen :: Principle #2 - "Story of the World" -Volume 2 - Studying Emporer's of Rome

Family Projects -

• Reading: "On the Shores of Silver Lake"

Individual Phases and Studies

Marlayna (Project Scholar) - Projects: Guitar practice, loom knitting. - Reading: "The Secret Garden", "Predator's Gold", and "Bloodhound" - Math: Math-U-See: Epsilon and Zeta. - WHOO HOO! She finished Epsilon and is moving onto Zeta.

Christian (Love of Learner) - Projects: Guitar practice, Harmonica, Roping. - Reading: "Midnight Over Santaphrax" - Math: Math-U-See: Delta

Marlayna & Christian's Business: Their chickens are laying really great eggs every day and they are working on advertising for selling the extra eggs that we do not eat. We are still working on the advertising. We ran out of paper and ink.

Mom (Ready to be a Mentored Scholar - but, still looking for a Mentor) - Reading: "Jo's Boys" by Louisa May Alcott - Math: Math-U-See: Algebra - Projects: Taking care of a sick family and praying my hand finishes healing soon.

Mom Notes: Don't have anything this week.

Snot, Phlegm, and Fevers

I guess by the title of this post it is kind of obvious what this post is about. We have two new children living with us, "J" is 3 years old and "B" is 1 1/2 years old. They both arrived sick and have had temperatures up to 103.9. Marly and Chris are sick as well with severe colds and chest congestion. Mucinex and Motrin are now the #1 expense in our home this week. We were tested for swine flu but all came back negative. So we just have the regular flu as if it would be much different!

My injured hand is only half operational (thumb and forefinger only-I'm very grateful for thumbs) and the help I was depending on from Marly and Chris flew out the window when they came down sick. I am the ONLY ONE not sick right now....knock on wood! Mike is still hacking up a lung and between his coughing and feverish kids I'm running on very little sleep. Typically I don't get sick until I've run myself down taking care of everyone else. I guess I'm going to look at that as a blessing. At least I'm not sick while having to care for my family.

Sorry this post is such a downer...I know every mom goes through these kinds of weeks. It is nice to know that others go through it too, which is why I decided to post this. Not to mention that I needed to vent my week from heck!