Week 5 in Review

Madeline has made great strides this week! And we've determined that apparently Duncan does not need sleep. Seriously, I don't know how that kid can be so happy all of the time with a maximum of 12 hours of sleep total in a day.

I do have 1 or 2 pictures to add this week but I still have to upload them so will do that later.

This week Madeline:
Learned to count by 5's, fill in and read a bar graph, perfected 10's and 1's place value.
Learned several more ways to add (number line, counting on, in columns ect.)
Learned the difference between two, to, and too.
Learned soft and hard G and C.
Perfected long vowel/silent E.
Learned about Honesty and recited Ephesians 4:25.
Is much better at neatness with writing letters.
Learned about the phases of the moon and the life cycle of the caterpillar.
Completed the seasons science study.
Went on a nature walk and found a dead frog and some acorns.
Started library music class.
Started the read aloud The Horse and His Boy and continued The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

This week Duncan:
Started story time and music class at the library.
Played in the park.
Learned to climb DOWN the stairs and how to get off of furniture! :)
Played a lot with his shape sorter. He still needs matching help but he's getting much better.
No longer takes a morning nap.
Made lots and lots of messes.

This week I:
Made a bunch of delicious meals that the kids actually ate without complaining!
Booked our condo for our April vacation!!
Did a little organizing ( a VERY little).

Friday Already?

This week flew by! It was our last week before the fall activities start back up. Next week the library things start. The kids will both be in music there and we'll go to story time once a week hopefully. Pretty soon the Coop we are planning to go to will start and the same week dance starts.

This week Madeline:
learned about counting on in Singapore. This greatly simplified adding for her and made things go much faster!
learned the parts of an ant in science class
made great strides with handwriting
greatly improved her reading speed
finished The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe read aloud and watched the movie
cut our school time down from 2 hours to between 60 and 90 minutes by focusing better. :)

Duncan:
learned to climb onto the couch using one of his toys as a step stool
learned to get off said couch by rolling onto his belly and sliding down
started really trying to say words. We still can't understand them but he's getting closer
drank from Terro ant baits causing us to call poison control (all was fine)
pretty much gave up his morning nap

I:
called poison control for the first time
finalized all of our Disney plans for next month
added teaching story hour at church to all of the other things I do (starting to think I'm crazy)
completed all of the lesson plans for children's church through December
decided on a Sunday School Christmas program and started planning that

Bribery works!

Madeline is capable of a lot of things. She is also perfectionist. She tends to not want to do/try things unless she is certain she will be able to do them correctly and perfectly the first time. We have resorted to bribery. We set up a points system. Every time she completes her handwriting without complaining she gets a stamp. She also gets a stamp every time she completes her reading without fighting us. This week she earned enough stamps for a trip to the children's museum. We took this field trip on Thursday. Before we get there lets review what we did this week!

Last Saturday we took the kids to a little fair at a church. Madeline got to ride a horse and get her face painted(and a bunch of other things) and Duncan got to play in the playground.





This week Madeline:
Math- counted dimes, pennies, and dimes and pennies together, added using number line and linking cubes, counted by 1's, 10's and "in between".

Reading- continued silent e long vowel words in OPG, and got some Bob books from Costco

Handwriting and readiness- Ll-Pp and worked on our memory skills

Bible- read about the Tower of Babel, Abraham, and Lot, memorized 2Corintheans 9:7

Science- learned about the wind, tornadoes, and the months of summer

Read-alouds- more from Uncle Wiggily, and started the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Wizard of Oz.

This week Duncan:
Worked on his peg board. He has amazing fine motor skills.
Started favoring his right hand more then his left.
FINALLY broke his 8th tooth.
Loved playing with the Play silk.
Was introduced to the training potty and swiftly peed on the floor after getting off said potty.
Turned 13 months old (today!).
Played outside every chance he got.
Enjoyed a Popsicle during read aloud time.


We enjoyed our song of the week also, Father Abraham.


We also took a nature walk and discovered Cat Tails by the pond and how corn grows.

I'll leave you with pictures from the kids favorite thing we did this week, the children's museum.

Father Abraham

In full swing... almost

We started school last week. The first couple of days were rough. We worked out a few kinks and are happily going along now. Madeline is cooperative for the most part. She loves listening to the read aloud books. Handwriting has become less of a battle even in the short 2 weeks since we've started. Duncan is cooperating pretty well. He keeps himself occupied for the most part. We try to do some crafts while he takes his morning nap. Some days he skips his morning nap and we don't do crafts. Our fall activities haven't started yet so we're getting a good idea how this will work before they do.

This week Madeline:
started reading long vowel/silent e words.
learned the 1's addition family and worked with number bonds
memorized Hebrews 11:1 and learned what Faith is
flew a kite and finger painted
learned the value of a dime, counted by 10's
learned to write letters Gg through Kk properly.
started reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at bedtime
AND got a new bed!

This week Duncan:
learned to climb on his mail cart (that got put away)
started imitating animal noises
picked up his own toys
started really sitting for books and bringing them to us to read to him
colored using both his right hand AND his left hand, slightly preferring his left

This week I:
totally slacked on the housework
made some yummy turkey burgers on the grill and a yummy quiche
reconnected with an old friend

Next weeks goals:
take some pictures of school, do more crafts, and loose 2 pounds (started weight watchers again today)

In search of a schedule.

I need accountability for tasks. I need a schedule written down so that I can check things off as I do them. I love me a good list. Now that Duncan is just about a year old I think it's time to get back on track. I can't use the excuse "my house is messy/dirty because I have a newborn" any longer. ;) My schedule needs to include: cleaning, meals, exercise, internet time, kids activities, and schooling. I need to basically fit 5 out of the 6 of those in when Duncan is sleeping. Have I mentioned lately that Duncan is not a fan of naps? That combined with the sun coming up, and consequently my son waking up, at 5am makes it difficult to fit all of that in. I am determined though!

For meals I have discovered a fantastic website called www.plantoeat.com . It allows you to enter all of your recipes into it's database and then you can just click and drag them into a calendar. It even generates a shopping list for you from the menu you plan. A feature that I love is that you can have friends on the site and share recipes with them. I have meals planned out for the whole month of July because of this site! I also bought a cookbook for freezer meals. It has a step by step plan on how to cook/prepare food this way. I'm excited to try it.

My cleaning battle is evolving. I now do a lot of it when Eric is home. I try to keep things picked up throughout the day and spot clean when I get a chance. Also, Madeline is now old enough to play in the bathtub by herself. So I can clean upstairs while I keep an eye on her in there.

Homeschooling happens throughout the day. Ideally I'd do this for about an hour in the morning. Usually we can get most of this done during Duncan's first nap. We read our books after Eric gets home so he can occupy Duncan. This will work well until Duncan can sit and listen too.

Exercise.... well this is not happening. haha I still need a treadmill for the house. I would really like to do couch to 5K but I can't do it during the day at all.

Activities is the easy thing on the list. I am looking forward to getting the park district schedule so I can get our fall planned out. We need to sign up for ballet and possibly tap. We also have music class at the library and story time for Duncan. We will also be joining a coop and have Coffee Break on Thursdays.

Sounds like we'll have a busy fall. I hope I can stick to my schedules. I bet I'll have a very elaborate one written out by the end of August. I'll be sure to share it when that happens.

30 days

There are 30 days until we leave for our Disney trip. That also means there are 30 days left of Madeline's school year. Yes we're counting the days. For a while there was no complaining about going to school, lately however it's occurring every morning. I'm getting really tired of it. I'm also anxious to get Duncan on a nap schedule instead of him just taking short naps in the car to and from school.

We have all of our materials for Madeline's kindergarten year. We decided to call it kindergarten even though she's only 4 because that's what work she'll be doing. We'll be using Sonlight P4/5 along with Horizons K math mixed with some Singapore K book B. Our language arts consits of Original Parents Guide to Teaching Reading with Abeka and Horizons handwriting. I'm sure we'll stick with one but have both for now. We'll also be going to the library for Fun with Music for both kids and story time for Duncan. The librarian told Madeline to bring her doll and she could join us. Madeline will also be taking Ballet again and possibly Tap. She's also excited to be going back to Story Hour at church while I'm in Coffee Break. Hopefully we'll find some time for a homeschool coop too. When I type it all it seems very busy! We plan to star no later then August 1st.

Madeline got tubes in her ears 1 month ago. Her attitude is improving! She is doing very well with reading, although we're taking a little break. She was getting too overwhelmed with us trying to add that in to her already busy school day. In a couple of days we'll have her parent/teacher conference and we'll tell her teacher that she won't be returning next year. I think I'll let Eric handle that part of the conversation!

Duncan is still battling the C.dif. We brought another sample in today to see if it's gone. I really don't think it is. We already have an appointment with a specialist for the 20th. He needs to start gaining weight. Poor kid eats a ton but it doesn't stay in him long enough to do much good. He is such a happy baby though. He'll be walking very soon!