Everyday LIFE “Homeschooling Highlights” Week 6

 

I’m a tiny bit concerned what week 7 will hold considering there are already 2 days this week full of doctor appointments.  I’m thinking we will split week 6 into week 6 & 7 to relieve as much stress as possible. 

Everyday LIFE: “Homeschooling Highlights” Week 5

 

This week started off CrAzY!  After close-to 2 weeks fever free, Sunday night Truman spiked a 105 fever.  We were expecting bad weather Tuesday, so I knew Monday would be my only day available to take him to the doctor.  For some reason Monday always seem to set the pace for the week.  I was determined not to throw the towel in just yet; however, a sick baby + bad weather = VERY tempting.  The longer Truman stays “chronically ill”, the more I adapt to the unpleasant circumstances.  I loaded the boys lap-desks with their school work & we took school on the road.  It didn’t all get done, but it was a faithful attempt.  We made it home just in time to meet the rapidly dropping temperatures, thunder, lightening, & rain.  As the cold front approached the rain turned to ice & soon snow was falling.  Another week of school in the house – bundled in front of the fireplace.  YAY!  (Do you sense my sarcasm?)  Praise God Truman’s sick spell only lasted 2 days, which made things much easier.

3 R’s

I have been thinking a lot about reading & phonics with Tucker & Trevor.  They are such hands-on visual learners.  I’ve added quite a bit of manipulatives to our reading time & we will begin them soon.  For now, we continue to work through their Explode the Code books (they are almost done with book 1) & reading their little readers.  I haven’t introduced sight words formally yet, but plan to in the upcoming weeks.  My mustangs dictated their first story to me this week.  I made an idea box with word prompts (farm, ice-cream, dog, etc.) for them to choose from.  Tucker picked baseball & Trevor picked dinosaur.  I wrote their stories in their writing books & they illustrated it above.  Trevor’s dictation:

“There once was a dinosaur who lived in Texas.  He ate my parents.  I went on a dinosaur hunt.        I caught that mean dino & put him in jail.” 

Tyler is still focusing on writing mysteries & we have continued this genre in reading as well.  He finished his first Encyclopedia Brown book this week & will begin another one next week.  The additional work in the Drawn into Reading has complimented his writing well.  I cannot express enough how much we are enjoying our writing curriculum.   Reading his stories has been absolutely hilarious.  He totally cracks me up.  This week he wrote a story about Animal Tracks In The Snow.  To conclude this genre he had to solve a mystery:

History & Science

We didn’t get near done what I had planned; however, we still managed to have a great time on the days we were able to tackle these areas.  The Middle Ages are so fascinating to young boys.  Knights & Castles, Oh My!  Tucker & Trevor listened to the history of Robin Hood, discovered life as a knight, & were super excited about the Samurai.  Tyler learned the dangers of gunpowder on ships & the changes guns made to a sailor’s work. 

My mustangs learned about trees, plants, & flowers this week during science.  Tyler’s science was fully of activities.  He explored the affects pollution on coral reefs with 2 cups of water – we used a flashlight (as the sun) to witness how the sun reflects through to the ocean (the glass), but pollution (adding flour to the glass) prevents the sun from reaching below the surface.  His other experiment was a hands-on “oil spill” which proved to be harder than he anticipated.  We were both surprised after the experiment was over, at how much oil was not cleaned up that we thought was. 

Everyday LIFE “Homeschooling Highlights” Week 4

I almost didn’t make my updating deadline this week.  The weather here has been gorgeous the last few days & we have soaked up every.single.bit.of.it!!!  And to top it all off – Big Daddy only had to work 2 days this week.  He tends to keep me pretty busy when he is home.  It is so hard to stay on schedule & have a normal routine when he is home because the boys want to play with daddy.  We did so good sticking to our studies though.

3 R’s

Tyler is almost done with his first Encyclopedia Brown book.  He has really enjoyed the mystery genre in both reading & writing.  He wrote a short mystery story, “The Missing Dollar,”  & made it into a little mini book (with illustrated pages & everything).  I love his humor.  Mysteries suite him well.  My Mustangs are slowly beginning to read.  Tucker loves to read the I’m Reading Now books.  They both sound out words & spell words from sound, but it just hasn’t clicked completely yet.  They do great with their Explode the Code books.  The more we continue to work through them, the more independent they become.  They are still loving their writing time.  This week for writing they put on their own puppet shows to practice making up stories.  Their shows were both very cute!  For language lessons they have begun memorizing a new poem, “Work.”  I made up hand signs to help them memorize it & it seemed to help a lot.  They both have memorized the entire poem in just one week.  There isn’t a lot to report on the subject of math.  Math is all their favorite subject.  Tyler has another week & half of doubling up on his lesson plans (in order to aim at finishing by May).  I asked him this week if he enjoyed Teaching Textbooks more than Math U See . . .  when I expressed how much I loved Teaching Textbooks he replied, “Yeah, because your not the one doing 2 lessons every day!”  LOL  He has such a good attitude about things. 

History & Science

Tyler continued to study the importance of longitude.  He read about Magellan & how important tools & equipment are to sailors.  He also discovered just how dangerous life at sea is & how fisherman don’t exactly have the easiest job, despite how appealing it may sound.  I let the boys watch “Deadliest Catch” on Netflix this week.  Tyler was surprised at how difficult life at sea is, even still today.  It definitely gave him a deep appreciation for our occasional crab feasts.  Tucker & Trevor loved learning about the Vikings.  They have quite decided if they like them or not.  It is hard for them to understand that often the “bad guy” in history thought they were in the right.  They are such typical boys – totally fascinated with the fighting. 

 

In other news  .  .  .

This week was bitter-sweet for us as it marked the first time in 4 years that we did not join our homeschool group for enrichment classes.  I decided in the fall that it would be best to take a temporary break from our Friday meetings since we would be crunched for time this spring trying to finish a little early for our trip to Tennessee.  Truman’s continued illnesses was even more confirmation of my decision, but it is still sad for us to not be apart of something we all enjoy so much.  I’m still toying with the idea of Classical Conversations (especially since my boys love memory work so much), so I haven’t decided if we will return to our EC group in the fall.   

Everyday LIFE “Homeschooling Highlights” Week 3

Week 3 – Burrr!  Is the first thing that comes to mind.  I know I’ve mentioned it a time or two, but I am not a fan of cold weather!  At. All.  Big Daddy & I joke because he watches old western movies & dreams of living then.  I quickly explain God’s plan in choosing the current era of His-story for Big Daddy’s existence – I would have never survived back then!!!  Anyway, we schooled the first few days in our schoolbarn, but by Wednesday we were camped out in my bedroom in front of the fireplace.  My mother-in-law (aka. “Gammy”) came over twice this week to help me keep things going since Trevor wasn’t completely back to his normal self.  (Him & pain meds are not quite as pleasurable as I imagined.)  The extra help & distraction for Truman helped keep me on track; as well as, provided a great motivation for the other kids, as they were so eager to “perform” for their Gammy.

The 3 R’s

My mustangs are getting closer to finishing their MUS Primer workbook.  I was hoping to start Alpha at the beginning of the year, but considering our progress, it doesn’t look like we will be that far behind schedule.  I don’t usually have very much to report for Tyler’s math because he is using Teaching Textbooks & rarely needs me.  I check his grade-book on the computer & since he always passes with flying colors I don’t inquire too much of him.  BUT, this week, I am proud to say that he earned his first 100% on his quiz!  YAY!!  Then there is my lil’ buckaroo, who is now counting to 2.  Very cute!    Writing is wonderful.  I am so loving the hand-holding Writeshop provides for us.  It is not only the perfect writing curriculum for me to teach, but it is perfect for my boys as well.  Tucker & Trevor are busy adding sentences & pictures (daily) to their writing books (I’ll try to share soon!)  At the end of the week Tyler began preparing to write a mystery.  Tyler just finished his chapter book, No Talking, for reading so I decided to make this our reading genre as well.  The timing was perfect!  I will be using Heart of Dakota’s Drawn Into The Heart of Reading to explore the mystery genre.  His first mystery will be an Encyclopedia Brown book.  He is very excited.

Despite the cold weather, school days in the house, & Truman practicing for his terrible 2’s, we managed to keep up with our history & science work.  This adds so much fun to our days.  Tyler read about past explores of the sea – the Spanish, Portuguese, & English explores.  For science he learned about the water cycle & created his own little cycle with a mason jar & baggy of ice.  The mustangs had a busy week of history learning more about the Middle Ages.  Science was by far their favorite though . . .

Week 4 – Here we come!!

Everyday LIFE “Homeschooling Hightlights” Week 2

YAY ME!  I got Week 2 scrapped & post(ing) before Week 3 :)  Week 2 started off great!  It was very cold this week so we didn’t bother with even trying to keep the schoolbarn heated.  Besides, that would mean I’d have to go outside into the cold to get there.  I was very diligent with my planning a preparing for the week, which seemed to really help keep me motivated & not loose the kids while I was getting it together.  Anyway . . . The mustangs are doing great in their math & can both say & recognize numbers up to the hundreds spot.  They can both successfully count beyond twenty (we are working to 100), they are counting by 10’s & by 2’s, & they are adding!  They can add their 1’s & a several “doubles”.  They love using the MUS blocks & when they are stumped the blocks always seem to make it click. 

I was sooo happy that we were able to squeeze some history & science into our schedule!

Our week started off GREAT.  By Wednesday Truman was sick again & Trevor was scheduled for his tonsillectomy Friday but we still managed to get most of our school done on Thursday.  It feels so good to be back in the swing of things!

Cold Days. Warm Memories

LIFE captured

• Didn’t you know desks were not really made to be sat in?
• Sticking your tongue out while working really does make you smarter.
• I have no clue.
• All the cool kids wear raccoon skin hats to school!!

Every Day LIFE “Homeschooling Highlights” week 1

Our first week of 2011 was nice.  For the first time in months we actually had a normal week.  A week without a sick baby, doctor appointments, or interruptions.  The overwhelming feeling that has been haunting me was suddenly gone.  I got my groove back!
I’m totally easing my way back into LIFE.  Remembering the fable of the tortiose & the hare. . .  

Slow & steady wins the race.

This week we just focused on our morning routine – memory work, reading, writing, & math.
As we headed to the starting line this year, I did a quick assessment of where we are & where I’d like us to be in May.  My goals for Tyler are with his reading & writing.  I have a fabulous, wonderful, very funny, cheerful, fantastic 4th grade teacher friend who has agreed to access his reading.  She will help me set some goals for him.  I’m totally excited about this!!!  Writing isn’t an issue for any other reason than effort.  It just isn’t really in my comfort zone & with the reading being such an issue I dreaded writing.  Although in my ideal Type-A personality, I loved Winter Promises language program as it was super creative & correlated perfectly with our History/Science studies – BUT it was time consuming & doesn’t have a pretty little content page that I can check off our accomplishments.  So the curriculum hoarder that I am – I decided to make the switch to Write Shop (book C) & Analytical Grammar Jr.  Sad to see WP language arts sitting on the shelves, but WOW!  WS & AG are awesome!!  I love WP & may return to it in the future but for where we are in life the other meets our needs at this point. 
The Mustangs.  Oh these boys.  I should have put duct tape on my Christmas list!  My routine with these two are pretty much the same as before.  However, my goal setting for Tyler motivated me to make their language & writing studies more of a priority.  I am using First Language Lessons & Write Shop (book A).  Neither of them are writing sentences on their own.  For now we oral create the sentences, I write them on the board, then on their writing books with a highlighter for them to trace over.  This week we they learned that a sentences starts with a capital & ends with a period & they memorized the definition of a noun.
Our first week of 2011 was nice.  For the first time in months we actually had a normal week.  A week without a sick baby, doctor appointments, or interruptions.  The overwhelming feeling that has been haunting me was suddenly gone.  I got my groove back!
I’m totally easing my way back into LIFE.  Remembering the fable of the tortious & the hare. . .  

Slow & steady wins the race.

This week we just focused on our morning routine – memory work, reading, writing, & math.
As we headed to the starting line this year, I did a quick assessment of where we are & where I’d like us to be in May.  My goals for Tyler are with his reading & writing.  I have a fabulous, wonderful, very funny, cheerful, fantastic 4th grade teacher friend who has agreed to access his reading.  She will help me set some goals for him.  I’m totally excited about this!!!  Writing isn’t an issue for any other reason than effort.  It just isn’t really in my comfort zone & with the reading being such an issue I dreaded writing.  Although in my ideal Type-A personality, I loved Winter Promises language program as it was super creative & correlated perfectly with our History/Science studies – BUT it was time consuming & doesn’t have a pretty little content page that I can check off our accomplishments.  So the curriculum hoarder that I am – I decided to make the switch to Write Shop (book C) & Analytical Grammar Jr.  Sad to see WP language arts sitting on the shelves, but WOW!  WS & AG are awesome!!  I love WP & may return to it in the future but for where we are in life the other meets our needs at this point. 
The Mustangs.  Oh these boys.  I should have put duct tape on my Christmas list!  My routine with these two are pretty much the same as before.  However, my goal setting for Tyler motivated me to make their language & writing studies more of a priority.  I am using First Language Lessons & Write Shop (book A).  Neither of them are writing sentences on their own.  For now we oral create the sentences, I write them on the board, then on their writing books with a highlighter for them to trace over.  This week we they learned that a sentences starts with a capital & ends with a period & they memorized the definition of a noun.
We had a wonderful week back in “school”.  Next week I am hoping we can get to the history & science studies.

My Love: HATE relationship with PSE

One of my goals for 2011 was to stay on top of my digital photos & scrapbook more.  I use Creative Memories Memory Manager software to organize & store all my digital media.  I love it!  In addition to the program automatically storing them by date (down to the day taken), I  am also able to create personalized folders (I create). So I can either browse by date or person, event, topic, etc. If I have a picture of all the boys playing baseball I can store it in each of their folders & in the baseball folder.  The best part is that it only takes up the space for 1 picture on my computer memory.  I am very proud to say ALL my digital media is officially organized!  YAY!

For the past year I have been using a digital scrapbooking software, Storybook Creator (also by CM).  I love it!  But since I have began doing a little photography semiprofessionally, I decided to purchase Photoshop Elements 8 for editing purposes.  Then I found the LIFE 365, Sweet & Simple, & now Every Day Life templates at Weeds & Wildflower Designs.  They are PS files.  Seriously, how hard could this be?  I’ve heard great things about the program & consider myself rather up to speed with techie stuff.  Ummm, not so much!  Within a week I ordered Photoshop Elements 8 For Dummies.  It is torture!!!  I have such wonderful plans for the FREE Coffee shop Actions for my pictures.  I dream of the fabulous digi pages I can create.  I would love to be able to do all the great things I hear & see others creating with PSE.  And I HATE that I can’t do it.  It took me HOURS to create these two VERY simple “Every Day” pages . . .

           

I think I might just have the very basics down at this point.  Next is my weekly homeschool update!

Christmas Photo booth

Layouts By Weeds & Wildflowers Design

Welcome Lil’ Cowboy

My friend, Kate, is expecting her 4th baby, 3rd boy, & 1st TEXAN!

What a great opportunity to attempt my first diaper cake – COWBOY style of course!

I cheated just a little though. I saved my diaper cake from my shower for just the occasion, since I use cloth & all. I did however, add a tier & some major bling to it!

This project is sooo easy & super fun!

You will need:

• diapers
• round tray
• ribbon (I used 3 different sizes, 5 different colors/styles)
• 2 bandannas
• hot-glue gun
• 1 sheet of scrapbooking stickers or embellishments
• tin (from target $1 *optional)
• 2 onesies & 1 baby legs

I just rolled the diapers & secured them with a little bit of tape to keep them from unrolling. I used size 1 for the top & bottom layer & size nb for the middle layer. I rapped a string around 6-7 diapers & grouped them together to make each layer.

Then I wrapped ribbon around each layer & secured it with dabs of hot-glue (about every 3 diapers).

I wrapped a bandanna around the top layer, with a “Wanted” sticker on it & hot glued a bow to the top:

To top it off, I added a blue tin that I painted the baby’s name on:

With this rolled up inside:

I placed the cake on a round pizza type pan covered with a bandanna.

Now this is my kind of cake makin!

FaBuLoUs DiGi Sites . . .

Most of my digital creations are scrapped using Creative Memories StoryBook Creator or PSE, along with various digital kits from one of the following:

• Weeds & Wildflowers Design
• Krystal Hartley
• Sweet Shoppe Designs
• Studio Girls
• A Cherry On Top
• Funky Playground Designs
• Shabby Princess
• Faith Sisters
• Gotta Pixel Designs In Digital
• Digi Shop Talk

 

Baby Stimulation

My Lil' Buckaroo is 5 months old & is much more alert than ever before. He hangs out on the beds in our schoolroom, starring ever so contently at the bare white ceiling. His contentness still amazes me. He is such a good baby! Since he responds fabulously to bright colors & loves it when I wear black & white I decided to add a little stimulation to the ceiling for him . . .

I doodled on this side. (Please ignore the mess on the bed!)

In the center I added some peices of black & white scrapbook paper.

And did the same for the other side with some bright colors of dots & stripes.

He absolutely LOVES it!! I have a few other ideas up my sleave for this area, but I'll save that for another time. Until then I'd love to hear some ideas you have for homeschooling babies :)

Birth Announcement

Truman Lee Scott

Click the picture for larger view.


Details & more pictures coming soon!

Calendar Journal

Remember MyBook? I use a "planner/journal" to scrap & keep important notes on things my Outlaws do throughout the year. I'm running a little behind on my scrapping part, but here is the layouts I made for January. I accidently made the first ones in landscape & it didn't work out right so I made it into a portrait layout too. Oops!

Bloggy Fun

After doing Nicki's Blog, 400 Things, her 2 daughters asked for their own blogs. I was more than happy to bling it up for them. They aren't accessible by the general public & these layouts don't do them justice, but here is a peak at what I got to do for them:

I designed this blog using the Drama Queen kit by Danielle Young.



CUTE!! . . . Now Daddy's Girl wants her own blog :) Coming Soon!
I designed this blog using Sylvia Tijerina's Princess kit. Sylvia has fabulous kits & she is just wonderful. If you are a scrapper, you really should check out her store, Eclectic Scrap Style Designs. She ROCKS!