Weekly Report - November 5-9

Science

We studied sea turtles this week. We learned that the leatherback turtle can get as big as 9 feet long. That just astounds me. For an activity, we drew a life-size model of this mammoth turtle on our driveway. Both of my kids fit inside it! (You may need to click on the picture to see the turtle. I had a hard time getting it to show up in a photo.)

Math

I had gotten behind in grading math papers. I caught up this week and discovered that Ruthie is really having problems with multiplication facts. So, she spent this week correcting math papers and drilling multiplication. She hates drill, so this was not a good math week for her.

Art

We did another project from our fall art pack that I bought. I (again) want to highly recommend this if you're craft challenged like me. She has sold out of fall packs, but is currently working on a winter one that will be available in January. Hmmm... I guess that means I'm on my own for Christmas crafts. Bummer.

Ruthie painted fall trees using warm watercolors. Robert was not interested in this, but he did make the origami dog.

Language Arts

We are not continuing our use of Bravewriter's Arrow. I discovered that it's just too unstructured for me. Grammar and writing do not come to me instinctively. I have to work at making sure my children get enough of this and are learning it correctly. The Arrow is just not enough for me to feel confident in this area.

So, we are back to BJU for writing. I did decide to try CLE for grammar (still trying to simplify this subject). I gave them the placement test and ordered the first couple of light units to try it out. Hopefully those will come this week.

Geography

I wanted to share a new notebook I made. This one is for our U.S. geography study. I had to divide it into separate notebooks because my comb binding machine doesn't allow for more than 60 or so pages in a notebook. (I want to upgrade to a better one before next school year.)

There are dividers for the different sections of states. Each state has a map (Uncle Josh's Outline maps) and a coloring page with state bird and flower (links for those found in this post).

I love our notebooks. They keep everything organized and help tame the paper monster.

Motivation

The threat of having to clean a toilet is very effective in getting a certain boy to do his math.

Google Notebook

I recently discovered Google Notebook. I'm still discovering the full functionality of this feature, but I figured out a use that is coming in very handy for me.

I use our online library catalog all the time to check if our library has books and request them. I often need books for our history studies and need them particular weeks. One feature I wish our online library had is an ability to save lists of books I will need to reserve at a future date. I am often misplacing my list of what the library has and then forget to request the book.

Enter Google Notebook! I made a notebook for library books. I copied the URL for the book search result and add it to the notebook. In the comment section of the entry I put the name of the book and the week I will need it. Ta-da!

This makes my life simpler and it's nifty neat-o, too. :)

Homeschool Blog Awards

I haven't mentioned it here, but I am part of the Homeschool Blog Awards team. I am posting there twice a month and will be assisting with all that's involved in making the whole process run smoothly.

I'm mentioning it now because nominations start TODAY! Make sure you head over there and nominate your favorite homeschool blog. There are a lot of different categories and there will be some great prizes.

Make sure your favorite blog gets the recognition it deserves!

Weekly Report: Oct. 29 - Nov. 2

We had an unusual week. We spent Monday getting back on schedule, then threw it out the window the rest of the week to work on scouting activities.

Why scouting activities? Well, Robert is at the Webelos level and is working to finish everything up by February. There are quite a lot of things that we are falling behind on, so I decided to take a few days and work on his requirements. Most of them are educational. It was a real hodge-podge of activities, but there was learning going on and it was really a lot of fun!

Ruth also worked on scouting badges. She joined a 5th grade Junior troop this year, even though she is in 4th grade. We are working at home on badges that the older girls earned last year.

Math

This was not a part of badge work, but we did do a lesson every day.

Science

Robert gave an example of producer, composer, and decomposer of a food chain. We got the worksheet from Enchanted Learning.


We did an expirement from our Zoology 2 (ocean creatures) study that involved latex gloves, vaseline, and ice water. Can you guess what this was representing?

Health

Ruth studied food labels for nutrition information.

We studied basic first aid information. We also met with a friend of mine who is an R.N. to go over "hurry cases". This covers badge work for both kids.

Writing

Robert wrote a letter to Lego asking why Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga will not be available on Gamecube. He also wrote an email to a friend.

Ruth wrote an advertisement for a healthy food (drawings also count as art).

Art

Robert used our computer to make 6 different designs. (click on this image to enlarge it and see if you can see what would be my favorite design. :) )


We used our watercolors (finally!) to make a color wheel. Pretty elementary principles of art, but the kids had fun. We did discover we need more practice with watercolors, though. :)

The kids made seals for their ocean boxes. Robert's seals (mother and baby) are going to go inside the box so that his killer whale can chase it. (he's such a boy!) Ruth made a sea lion that will be on top of her box (and out of danger).



This was a great week. We had gotten in a real rut and none of us were enjoying our school days. Frustration levels were high and tempers were short. This was a welcome break. I feel rejuvenated and ready to get back to our regular schedule next week.

The Antithesis of the Weekly Report

I think I should just list all the things that did NOT get done this week, rather than all the things that did. That list would be longer. Also, you could see all my good intentions, and that should count for something, right? Right?

Yeah, I didn't think so, either.

Please excuse me. I'm working through some things right now. I think I'm finally getting my head on straight, though, so next week should be much, much better.

I hope.

Temptation...

Thy name is Halloween Candy.

Fall is Here!

Finally, after weeks of 90 degree weather, we've had a cold front come through. Highs are in the low 70's (yes, that's a cold front here!) and lows are in the 40's. We've actually turned on the heater! It's such a nice, refreshing change.

With cooler weather, I'm back to drinking my morning coffee. I miss it during the warmer weather, but I just can't bring myself to drink a hot drink when it's hot and humid. Blech.

Here's my favorite mug, parked beside the computer, filled with coffee and all sugared and creamed up. Yum! (and yes, I do like quite a bit of cream in my coffee, thank you very much)

Sisters

This is dedicated to my sister, Liz, who moved to Nashville on Friday. I love you and will miss you!

Busy Days

Do you ever have a time in your life when you're so busy, you feel like you're meeting yourself coming? I am going through that right now. I feel that I am spending my days treading water, but never really getting my head above it.

Between school, church, orchestra (Griff's and the kids), cub scouts, girl scouts, and oh-yes-let's-not-forget-the-home, I am just about all done in. (Would somebody please remind me why the Arrow of Light is so important?)

I'm not complaining. Life is good. Busy, busy, but good. It does mean, however, that some things are going to have to slide. This blog is one of them. Oh, I'm not really going anywhere. I'll still be posting. But things, like this week's "weekly report", are not always going to happen. (believe me, you're not missing anything this week)

I am going to go to bed now. It's only 10:40. If I try very hard, I may actually get to bed before 11:00. Woo-hoo! :)

BTW, my back is better. I still get the occasional twinge, but it's greatly improved.

Free Mark Kistler Video Drawing Lessons

We are big Mark Kistler fans here. Ruthie took a week-long class with him this summer and had a blast. She had been wanting to learn how to draw 3-d and he was able to teach that to her. If you ever have the opportunity to send your children to one of his classes, I highly recommend it. He encourages parents to stay for the class, so you will get a free art lesson yourself. :)




The exciting news: Mark Kistler has put some drawing lessons on Youtube. There are 8 minutes long and FREE! He currently has 6 lessons available.

As we all know, Youtube can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a very scary place for children. Mark Kistler put these on Youtube for adults to have easy access to his drawing lessons. He strongly recommends (as do I) that you do not let your children have access to these without 100% parental supervision. So, can you take 8 minutes out of your day to have an art lesson with your child? I think so. :)

I'm Going to be MIA for a Few Days

I've done something to my back. I don't know what, but it's causing a pinched feeling in my back and pain down my right arm. Being on the computer aggravates it, so I'm going to be off until it gets better. I'll be checking my email, but that's it.

See you soon.

Weekly Report - October 8-12

(A slideshow with pictures is at the end of this post.)

Science

After having the kids work on a lapbook for the past few weeks, and listening to the grumbling, I have given them up. As much as I would love for my children to be interested in making those cute mini-books and assembling them into one overview of our science study, it's not going to happen. It was time for me to let go of the fantasy and return to what works - notebook pages. They actually like making these, so that's a good thing.

We made our first ocean animals for the ocean boxes. It was our first time using Sculpey clay and I helped them with shaping the animals. I plan on being more hands-off next time.

Robert made a killer whale and Ruth made a dolphin. Unfortunately, our dolphin had a tragic accident (AKA Robert dropping it) and lost its nose. We will be making a new dolphin soon.

Language Arts

I blogged in my previous post about switching to using the Arrow for our grammar, dictation, and writing. Grammar and dictation went well, but I'm not so sure about the writing. I may need something with more step-by-step instructions that I am getting with this. I'm going to stick with it through the month, so I'll have to see what the final result is.

History

We read about monks in history this week. For a project, we made illuminated letters. I have seen several versions of this project, but I liked the instructions in Hands-on History the best.

We also checked out the Leaves of Gold web-site. They have a lot of information about illuminated manuscripts and how they were made. When the kids made comments about how long it was taking to color their letters and borders, we talked about how their work compared to the work done in the middle ages. We also discussed that only the wealthy owned books, and even they only owned a few. Ruth mentioned that she can't imagine a home not filled with books. Nor can I, my dear.

Fine Arts

We listened to Polovtsian Dances by Borodin. This is a favorite piece of Griff's so we've heard it before, but I am trying to teach the kids the names of pieces and composers.

We have a new picture from our Cassatt study - Children Playing at the Beach. I've also seen it titled Two Children at the Seashore. Can I say again how much I love this artist?

Hymn and folk song didn't happen... again. I need to get all the music on one CD. I think that will make it easier.

Books Read

Robert

• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
• Viking Adventure by Clyde Robert Bulla

Ruth

• Matilda by Roald Dahl
• She's also about half-way through Heidi. I loved that book as a child.

(Can anybody tell me how to underline text in html?)

Latin

We are on lesson 3 of Prima Latina. Ruth is especially loving this. I'm not sure why, but she gets a real thrill out of it. They are also really picking up on the whole concept of Latin roots in our language. They are usually able to think of at least a couple of English words for each Latin word we learn. Since I want them to learn Latin for vocabulary purposes, I'm very happy about that.

A New Schedule

When we began this school year, we moved to a more Charlotte Mason approach. We are using a schedule combining Year 1 and 2 of Ambleside Online. However, even that schedule was not enough for me. I looked at the list of books we would be missing and started adding more to the schedule. Well, that has led to overload. So, I am letting go of my obsession with checking all the boxes and making some changes.

The biggest change (to me, at least) is dropping Rod and Staff English. It was taking too much time and I am not convinced we need to be hitting grammar that hard at this age. It was a difficult decision (I just love that program), but I finally decided to try something else for awhile. We will be using the sample lesson from Bravewriter's Arrow. It covers some grammar, literary elements, dictation, and a writing exercise. It is 4 weeks long. At the end of the lesson, I will decide what to do from there. We may stay with the Arrow or we may go back to Rod and Staff, but at a much more relaxed pace. We may try something else. I don't know yet.

I have also dropped Fifty Famous Stories Retold (an AO selection I added in) and Our Island Story (which is scheduled). Doing history 4 days a week (sometimes 5) was too much. We are enjoying both of these books, but I decided they weren't crucial to our school day. A Child's History of the World covers the parts of OIS that I don't want to miss (King Harald, William the Conqueror, etc.) at a much faster pace. Both of these books have been added to our book basket and I am pretty sure the kids will keep reading them on their own.

With everything that we dropped, I have been able to put aside a whole day each week for projects. Scheduling things in the morning makes it much more likely that it's going to be done. As much as I want the afternoons to be spent in projects and other enrichment activities, it doesn't usually happen. It always seems that we are either running behind, or something has come up (doctor appointments etc.).

Now that I have probably explained way too much about my thought processes, here's the unveiling. Ta-da!


(A big "thank you" to Tami for all her help and advice as I worked through this. She's a true gem.)

Mosaic Boxes

We finished our mosaic boxes this weekend and I wanted to show them off. I think the kids did a great job on them. (Please keep in mind that none of us have ever done any type of mosaic work before, unless you count construction paper.)

When I first showed the kids what we would be doing, Robert was not interested. However, when I mentioned he would get to break up the tiles into smaller pieces with a hammer, he was in.

We worked outside because the tile adhesive we were using said that we need to be in an area with cross-ventilation. I didn't want to take a chance, so we worked out on the back porch. This was definitely one of those times I wish we had some sort of table out there.

First, we divided up the tiles. I felt it would be best to decide on colors before beginning. (I'm smart that way.)


Then the hammering began. I think this was one of their favorite parts.


A practice run to get a feel for how many tiles would be needed...


Gluing... With all the warnings on the bottle, I was a little worried about this. No problems were encountered, however.

Both children lost patience with the small pieces after awhile, so we filled in the middle with whole tiles.


Gluing is finished. Now we just have to wait for them to dry before grouting.


I did the grouting. I think that's my own impatience coming through. :)

Here's a picture of the finished boxes. The kids were anxious for me to finish with the picture-taking so they could start using them. I think they are very proud of the work they did. I know I am.

Weekly Report - Oct. 1-5

Math

I just had to share these photos of my children doing their math assignments this week.

Ruthie decided she needed to work under the table one day.


Having a kitty join you makes a torturous subject go much more smoothly.

Grammar

Really, what can you say about grammar that is interesting? (no offense intended if it's the highlight of your day) However, I had to laugh at Ruthie's response to an assignment. She was to write 3 exclamatory sentences that would be said upon receiving a gift from a grandparent. (Don't you just love Rod & Staff?) Ever the quirky child, she wrote:

Grandmother, thank you for the lovely bucket of mud!

For the record, her grandmother has never given her a bucket of mud. She does, in fact, buy my children nice gifts, and too many of them.

History

We studied the Byzantine empire this week. This led very nicely into looking at Byzantine mosaics on the internet. This led to a natural choice of doing mosaics for art this week. I like for the children to do projects that are actually useful and/or decorative and not fodder for the trash can within a couple of weeks. So, I headed to Michael's and got the following supplies. This is still a work in progress, but I will post a picture when it's done. They are turning out great!

Reading

I bought this pretty basket yesterday and set up my book basket. I love how it looks. However, pretty is as pretty does, so let's see how useful it turns out to be. :)

In Other News

Ruthie found a good way to get out of cello practice and lesson this week. Have the fingerboard come off your instrument! It's currently in the shop.

Robert, after two weeks of his best viola lessons ever, was rewarded with 30 minutes of video game time (typically off limits during the school week). You will be happy to know that, after owning the game for 5 years, he has finally beaten Super Mario Sunshine. All is right with the world.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

(Okay, I had to stop and go look up the lyrics because I couldn't remember the next line. For the record, it's "Turn and face the stranger", whatever that means.)

I am in the process of overhauling our schedule. Some things are not working. Others, while they are working, are taking too much time. I'm going to be adding some things and removing others. I'll post the final schedule when it's done.

A Grand Canyon Cake

The day before we left on our trip was Robert's 11th birthday. We were very busy packing and making last minute preparations, but I didn't want the day to go by unnoticed, so I made a cake.

I kept it simple and made a round 2-layer cake - chocolate with cream cheese frosting. Robert picked out orange frosting for the decorations.

My first mistake was not leveling the layers. The second mistake was putting the least-flat layer on the bottom. However, I realized my mistakes too late and just crossed my fingers that it would turn out okay.

I hadn't even finished frosting it when the cracks began. I quickly finished the decorating and took a picture.


By the time we put candles on it and sang "Happy Birthday", it looked like this.


We laughed and called it his "Grand Canyon cake" in honor of our trip to the Grand Canyon. :)

The appearance of the cake in no way interfered with the birthday festivities or the eating of said cake. It was delicious.

Scrapbook Layout

Inspired by Tami at Ambleside Classical Academy, I have been looking into digital scrapbooking. My biggest problem was two-fold.

• I don't have Photoshop
• I'm on an iMac (which I love!) and most digital scrapping software does not run on this platform

We do, however, have GIMP. After looking around the internet, I found instructions for using it with digital scrapping here. Oh, happy day!

So, after an evening spent with the learning curve, I've created this.




I am very happy with it. Now I just need to print it, which is a whole other issue! LOL

(pages created with Shabby Princess Celebrating, which can be found for free here)

Weekly Report - Sept 24-28

This was our week to try to get back in the groove after a week off. It was hard (!), but we still got quite a bit done and we're back on track now.

Art

First, I want to share our art project for the week. We made these fall banners from a kit I got from Hearts and Trees (who is, by the way, the daughter of Barb at The Heart of Harmony). I tell you, this is a fantastic way of getting art done around here. I don't have to plan or collect supplies. I just pull it out of the bag and go. Easy-peasy and cute, fun (and educational!) projects.

Artist Study

Speaking of art, we have a new Mary Cassatt print - Woman and Child Driving. I read somewhere that the woman is her sister, but now I can't find the reference. I have fallen in love with the artwork of Cassatt. I was thrilled to find out that our local art museum has a couple of pieces of her artwork. I cannot wait for that field trip!

US Geography

As I've blogged before, we are keeping this very simple. We covered Oklahoma and Arizona this week. The coloring sheet with the state bird and flower can be found here.

Science

We continued working on our lapbooks for Apologia Elementary Zoology 2. This week, the kids studied whale moves and made this book. I bought the lapbook instructions from Knowledge Box Central. We also watched the video clips that I mentioned here.


We will be watching Whales: An Unforgettable Journey: IMAX later today.

Reading

Robert, the boy I have to force to read, has discovered Roald Dahl. He read James and the Giant Peach and declared it "the best book ever!" He wants to read Matilda next, so we'll be stopping by the library to get that soon.

Ruth is re-reading Redwall. I think she's read every book in the series. That girl will read anything she can get her hands on. She reminds me a lot of me when I was that age.

Oh, and we finished The Penderwicks while on vacation. What a wonderful, wonderful book. I highly recommend it.

History

Instead of drawing for their notebook this week, I let the kids print off a picture from the internet. For the story of Attila the Hun, we found a painting done by Raphael of the meeting between Pope Leo I and Attila. Perfect! History with a little bit of art appreciation thrown in.

Latin

We finally added this in this week. It's our last subject to make it into the schedule, which means we're finally at our full load. We're using Prima Latina and my children now know the following Latin words:

• ambulo - I walk
• toga - toga (they thought this was funny)
• Deus - God
• luna - moon
  
• via - road
• oremus - let us pray
• salve/salvete - hello
  

All in all, a good week.

Ocean Video Clips

As part of our Elementary Apologia Zoology 2 lesson today, the kids read about whale moves. I decided to see if I could some online video clips of them and found a really neat web-site.

It's called Ocean Footage and you can search for different, short clips to view, for free, on your computer. We were able to easily find videos of whales breaching, spyhopping, lobtailing, and logging.

If you register at their site, you can view the videos at a higher quality. Everything is still free, so I chose to do this.

I think we will be using this web-site quite a bit this year.

Enjoy!

Our Day

This seemed like a busy day, so I thought I would list the happenings to see if it was as much as I thought it was.

• School got off to a late start. I have GOT to stop staying up late watching Heroes on DVD.
• We got history, Latin (our first day!), memory work, and grammar done. Grammar was kind of a cheat. Ruthie made too many mistakes on yesterday's work, so I had her do a supplemental worksheet. Since I'm keeping them together on grammar, Robert pretty much got the day off.
• We headed for the orthodontist for 1:00 appointments. These were initial consultations, recommended by the dentist. Robert needs more work done than Ruthie, but she's ahead of him dentally (fewer baby teeth), so she'll get started in about 6 months. Robert has at least a year before we start with him. I'm glad. He can use the time to learn to sit still in the chair. Sigh.... Kids did math in the car.
• After leaving the orthodontist, we popped into a toy store right next door. I love small toy stores. They seem to have the best stuff. We found Papo figures for the first time and we all fell in love with them. They mainly had medieval figures, which is perfect for us. I caved and let the kids get one each. Robert chose an archer and Ruth got a horse. I see Christmas gift ideas for the grandparents.
  
• We got home and I let the kids have 30 minutes each on the computer while I semi-napped (remember the Heroes DVDs?).
• The kids played with some neighbor kids while I made dinner (baked ziti- requested by Ruth). Not long after it came out of the oven, Robert came home and told me Ruth lost her glasses. Another sigh... I went out and we looked everywhere she had been and couldn't find them. The other kids said they would let us know if they find them. I hope, I hope.
• After dinner, I headed to the store because we were out of dishwasher detergent. I bought myself a York peppermint patty while there. I deserved it. :)
• It is now 10:00 pm. Everyone is in bed. The house is quiet. And I, not having learned my lesson, am going to watch another episode or 2 of Heroes.
  

Another Piece in the Narration Puzzle

I blogged here about my daughter's struggle with oral narrations. We've had some successes, but her skills are still not where I feel they could be.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked her if she wanted to try writing her narrations, rather than doing them orally. She readily agreed, but I didn't pursue it. Today, when she was balking at narrating the chapter she read from Our Island Story, I asked her if she wanted to type it on the computer. She eagerly agreed and got to it.

Here is the result. (click on image if you want to see it larger)



!!!!! Unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. The same child who can't remember basic facts when giving an oral narration gives me this as a written one.

I don't really understand it, but I'll take it. If anyone has any insight on this, I would appreciate it.

If It's Monday, This Must Be Albuquerque

I'm back! Actually, we're back. We all went on a week-long road trip and had a fantastic time. We've never traveled so far, or done so much at one time, as a family, before. In fact, the last long vacation we went on was a trip to Disney World back in 2000!

Here's what we did:

Saturday - drove to Carlsbad, New Mexico

This was a long day and through a part of Texas none of us had ever seen. We had expected desolation, but found it has its own beauty.

Sunday - went to Carlsbad Caverns, then drove to Ruidoso

Carlsbad Caverns are incredible! We went on a guided tour through what is called the "Left Hand Tunnel". We only had candle lanterns for our lighting. Fun! I took a lot of pictures, but often had no idea what I was taking a picture of until after the flash went off. It was very dark in there.

After our guided tour, we went to the Big Room, which is lit and has a paved trail with hand rails. There were some amazing formations.

The drive to Ruidoso was gorgeous. Griff is ready to move there. :)

Monday - a lazy morning in Ruidoso, then off to Albuquerque

Tuesday - dropped Griff's double bass off at Robertson's Violin Ship for work to be done to it (the impetus behind this whole trip), then on to Flagstaff, AZ

Wednesday - drove to Williams to ride the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon.

We had a few hours at the Grand Canyon, which was not enough. What can you say about the Grand Canyon? Beautiful, amazing, awe-inspiring... Words just cannot express it.

The train trip was fantastic. We all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thursday - left Flagstaff for a quick trip down to Sedona.

Those red rock formations are just beautiful. In some ways, just as beautiful as the Grand Canyon. The city of Sedona is very tourist-y, but beautiful, as well.

After leaving Sedona, we headed up to Meteor Crater, which was a highlight for Robert.

We then headed back to Albuquerque.

Friday - Griff picked up his bass and we left for home. 17 hours later (including stopping in Amarillo to see a family friend), we arrived. Home, sweet home. It's good to be here again.

We are already talking about a longer trip next summer. I think that's a sign that this trip went well.

I'll be Back

I'm going to be without internet access for about a week, so I won't be posting. I'll miss everyone! Enjoy your week.

Beginning the Day the Right Way

We have always done Bible as part of our school day. However, it has been treated as "just another subject". This isn't altogether bad. My focus for for that particular subject is for my children to learn the stories in the Bible thoroughly. A curriculum (Rod and Staff for us) helps do this.

However, I have realized recently that it's not giving us the spiritual emphasis that I want. We are not beginning our days centered on God. Prayers are haphazard. We hit the ground running and never stop to really focus on our Creator.

So today I began something new. Before our morning read-aloud, we had a short devotional. I read a chapter from Proverbs, we sang the hymn we're learning, and we had a prayer. It was very simple, but a great way to start the day.

If you are struggling to find the time to spend together every day, centered on our Lord, give this a try.

Writing Styles

I was grading papers the other night. Robert and Ruth had the same grammar assignment that day - write 2 sentences, using pronouns as the subject. Both gave me correct answers, but the sentences are quite different.

Robert's sentences:

I am leaving.
They are gone.

Ruth's sentences:

She leapt into the air, her blue eyes shining.
We whispered secrets into each other's ears, giggling.

Do you see why picking a writing program that will work for both of them is very difficult for me? :)

A Weekend in Review

I apologize for not posting for a couple of days. To be honest, nothing very exciting has happened. Don't believe me? Well, this is what I did this weekend.

Friday night:

Dinner was catch-as-catch-can. Griff stopped off at his parents' to help his dad with his computer. After he got home, we just kind of hung out. Bo-ring.

Saturday:

My dad is selling his house, so I went over to help get it ready. I spent most of time cleaning and going through stacks of books and just stuff. 38 years worth of stuff. It made me want to come home and throw out at least half of my possessions.

I then went and met a couple of friends for dinner and a movie. We saw Becoming Jane. I liked it, but I did feel that it tried a little too hard.

I then came home and watched one episode of Heroes before heading to bed.

Sunday:

We went to church this morning, then out to lunch with friends. We came home and Griff and I slept for almost 3 hours!! This, of course, meant the kids spent too much time on the computer and playing video games. Ah, well.

Sunday evening church and dinner out rounded out the evening.

Like I said, not much going on. There are a few changes I want to make to our school day, but those really need to wait a couple of weeks. More about why later.

Hopefully my next post will be more substantial.

Weekly Report

This was a short week (Labor Day), and I spent a lot of time planning a vacation we're going on soon, so we didn't get as much done this week as I would have liked.

My personal accomplishment this week was getting copywork notebooks made. I had originally planned to have the kids pick out copywork phrases and use my Educational Fontware fonts to make up copywork sheets for them. Operating on the fly like that doesn't work for me, though. And, since handwriting is a big problem here, it cannot be skipped. So, I used copywork selections from the Ambleside Online copywork yahoo group and made up the notebooks. The kids will spend 5 minutes each day on copywork, just working through the book. I'm also going to make one for literature eventually. There's a picture of the notebooks down below.

Robert finished the book Follow My Leader. He resists longer chapter books, even though he's perfectly capable of reading them, so this is a big deal. I took the advice of someone on the Well-Trained message boards and set up some "rules" for reading time. He must read for 20 minutes, but can choose any book from our book basket. If he doesn't like a book, he can choose a different one, but that one then has to be finished. (Thanks, Tami! It seems to be working.)

We got our ocean boxes made for science. They're not much to look at now, but they will eventually be filled with clay creations of different ocean animals. I can't wait!

Check out Trivium Academy's list of Weekly Reporters for more show-and-tell.

My Latest Trip to Wal-Mart

I have a love-hate relationship with Super Wal-Mart. I love the prices. I hate the fact that I cannot get out of that store in less than an hour. And lately, the love of the prices is being drowned out by the other side.

I did venture to Wal-Mart on Tuesday evening. This is a recap of my experience.

Griff wanted Listerine - original flavor. The only bottles they had of that were the small ones, on the top shelf, pushed all the way to the back. There is no way my 5'3" self was going to be able to reach them. So, I asked the employee at the pharmacy for some help (bwa! ha! ha! - oh, I crack myself up). She paged for customer assistance. I waited patiently for almost 15 minutes and saw 2 employees 3 or 4 aisles away that made absolutely never effort to help me. I finally asked a different pharmacy employee for help. She actually came out, found a small ladder, and got it down for me. She was actually very nice and cheerful about it, even, so that was good.

After a couple of other items on that side of the store, I traipsed all the way over to the grocery section. First stop - milk. I have recently started buying organic milk. I don't know if you've ever looked at organic milk, but it typically has expiration dates that are weeks away. Weird, but there you go. First of all, they did not have skim milk. And the milk would expire in less than a week. Okay, so I got a gallon of 2% and headed off for the rest of my shopping.

I needed bread flour. Nope. They apparently don't believe in bread flour.

Griff eats oatmeal for breakfast most days. He likes the old-fashioned oats, not the 1-minute variety. Since he eats them so often, I always buy the 42 oz. container. They only had the 18 oz. container. What's up with that?! I bought it, but I wasn't happy.

After a few more items (and an unsuccessful attempt to find ham of all things!), I headed to the checkout. When I got in line, I noticed an employee cleaning up one lane over. Apparently a glass bottle of something like grape juice had broken on the floor. I know it was glass because I could see big pieces of it on the floor. The lane was blocked off and he was cleaning the whole thing up with paper towels!! I stood in line for at least 10 minutes and never saw anybody show up with a mop.

You know, I think could excuse the empty shelves part of my experience if it had been on a Sunday night. But this was a Tuesday night! They should have been restocked by then.

I think I'm pretty much done with Wal-Mart. It's just not worth it anymore.

NOTE: I wrote this post months ago and forgot to post it. After a couple more bad experiences at WM (including being basically accused of lying when I tried to return something without a receipt), I no longer shop there. My budget is sad, but the rest of me is rejoicing. :)

On My Bookshelf

I love bookstores. I especially love used bookstores. And a SALE at a used bookstore is just more temptation than I can handle. So... when I found out that Half-Price Books was having a 20% off sale this past weekend, I just had to go. I got some good stuff and my to-read pile has just really grown.

Want to see what I bought? Of course you do!



Messie No More by Sandra Felton - I actually read this years ago, but it's very inspiring and I need to be inspired. :)







Answers to Distraction by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey - part of the endless quest to help my child with his ADD (not to mention me with mine)






Raising a Thinking Child by Myrna Shure - This is a book on how to teach your child how to resolve conflicts and get along with other people. It's actually written for younger children but Robert still struggles in this area, so I think it will be of benefit.




The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman - This has been around a long time, but I've never read it. Pure impulse purchase.





Whew! This should keep me busy for quite awhile.

Geography via YouTube

I was looking for a YouTube video of the song "Fifty Nifty United States" and found that plus a couple of other things.

Here's the Fifty Nifty song. (lyrics)



Then I found a couple of Animaniacs videos. They are fast and kind of frantic, but fun, and I thought they might still be helpful.

The first is a song of all the states and capitols. (lyrics)



This one is all the nations of the world. (I know this is from several years ago and I haven't checked the accuracy.) (lyrics)



They also had one of the US Presidents, but I found a few things that I felt are objectionable, so we won't be watching that one. (call me old-fashioned, but I don't let my kids use the word "butt")