Saturday, September 26, 2015

Week in Review 2015: #36, #37, #38

Life

We recently enjoyed a family vacation to Washington, DC. My in-laws joined us and we were able to go to a few museums, the zoo, and the monuments. This was our last big vacation for the year. Washington, DC was especially excited for their upcoming visit by Pope Francis (oh how I love this pope!) and were already beginning to block off roads and other areas and to clean up the city. While I wish we were staying long enough to catch a glimpse of him (that would be a once-in-a-lifetime treat for this American), I'm glad we left just before the big crowds arrived.

I've published a couple of posts about our trip in more details and pictures, which can be viewed here:

Washington, DC (Part 1)
Washington, DC (Part 2)

On our way out of DC, we took a detour and drive up to Maryland to see my cousin and his family. It was so nice to see them after 9 years. More about that visit in my Washington, DC posts.



Recovery after our trip has been difficult. The kids have gotten back to a good routine, but I've been suffering from a stiff body. My husband and I shared two double beds with all three children. We're used to a king-sized bed. I shared my double bed with Liam and Bridget. I feel like I slept on less than a foot of space for all 3 nights. Six nights later and I'm still not recovered.

Homeschool 

History

We studied some of the kid's favorite characters from the Old Testament: Abraham and Joseph. We reviewed the stories (the kid's know them very well already) and watched a cartoon movie about Joseph for one of our Family Movie Nights. We then ventured deeper into Mesopotamia and studied Sargon of Mesopotamia, Hammurabi of Babylon (and Hammurabi's Code), and the Assyrians. We read one of the oldest stories in the world, The Epic of Gilgamesh. To say the kids loved it is an understatement. I had purchased the children's version which comes in three separate books. My intention was to read one each day. Instead, I read them in one sitting. Bridget kept wanting more and more. It's a fascinating tale and I am glad we took the time to read it together.
 

A Few Books We've Read...

Gilgamesh the King (The Gilgamesh Trilogy) by Ludmila Zeman
The Revenge of Ishtar (The Gilgamesh Trilogy) by Ludmila Zeman
The Last Quest of Gilgamesh (The Gilgamesh Trilogy) by Ludmila Zeman 
 

Family Movie Night

I am a little behind, so I have a couple of movies to report. For week #36, we had studied the story of Joseph from the Old Testament. For our movie, I picked Joseph, King of Dreams. The kids enjoyed it so much they ended up watching it again the next day.
 
We did not watch a movie for week #37 because we were on vacation in Washington, DC.
 
No movie this week either.
 
Next Week's Movie: African Cats 
 

Linking up to:

 
http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/weekly-wrap-up-the-one-with-a-bunch-of-random-stuff/ 

Monday, September 21, 2015

We're back!

It has been an extremely busy couple of weeks for us. We've gone through a few big events like getting ready to move, but then not moving (at least for a little while). I also thought I needed to have a minor surgery but ended up not needing it (huge relief for me, especially since I went in for it the day before we left on our trip). I also had to report to jury duty the same week we were going on vacation, with no chance of getting deferred or excused. It has been a whirlwind for sure.

It feels good to be home with no major plans going on now, other than a very special little girl about to turn 6 years old in just over a week.

I'm taking this day to recover and hopefully clean my messy house. I usually clean the house really well before our vacations so that I can come home and not worry about housework but because of everything else going on, that didn't happen.

We're all pretty tired still. We got home just before 10 o'clock last night. My poor husband headed into work this morning, although I am not sure he will be of much use today. The kids are rather ornery this morning, which might have to do with the huge slurpee from 7-Eleven we got them on the drive home, and the fries which served as their dinner so that we could keep the van moving while they didn't make too big of a mess in the backseat.

I took over 300 pictures during our vacation and have a lot of blogging/journaling to do to document it all, so stay tuned!

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Week in Review 2015: #35

Life

While most weeks seem to be uneventful, this week sure wasn't! On Monday morning (August 31st), we discovered that Bridget had her very first loose tooth! She's been waiting for one and I assumed it would not happen until after her sixth birthday. Once we found out she had a loose tooth, my husband and I figured it be in there for at least a week hanging on by a thread before it finally came out. Oh boy were we wrong! The tooth came out just two days later, on the evening of  September 1st. She was tumbling in the living room and playing with Liam and my husband thinks that Liam may have kicked her mouth, but either way, out popped the tooth! She came running to me saying "I think my tooth just came out!", as she digs around in her mouth for her tooth. And there it was. A huge milestone for her. She's growing up too fast. The Tooth Fairy left her a little message with two dollars.

Bridget and her tooth!
 
Another milestone was hit in our family about the same time of  Bridget's major milestone. Liam walked! On August 31st, he took a few steps to follow his daddy. After this, he wouldn't even stand for us. But then on September 1st, he walked across the living room. I don't have any pictures to share of it but I do have a video. While I thought that was it for him, that he would now be walking everywhere, I was wrong. He still mostly crawls. He's an extremely cautious baby and I'm perfectly okay with that.
 
In other news, Liam broke my computer one morning this week. I left the doors to my computer hutch open while helping Bridget with her math lesson. Liam wandered over and pushed the button to my CD drive. Once it came out, he tried to pull it out even more. When he screamed at it for not coming out (he screams at whatever frustrates him) was when I noticed him. It was crooked and I managed to pop it back straight, but then it would not close. It felt as if something was blocking it from going in. It ended up being a long day, as I was now unable to close the doors to the hutch even if I wanted to, and it was nearly impossible to keep him away from it.
 
Liam, right after breaking my disc drive.
 
When my husband got home, he was able to take apart the disc drive (or whatever it is called) and repair it. My husband is good at all things computer-related (even though this is not his field of training... he's an accountant). I am so glad he got it to work again, because we use the disc drive to watch the Math-U-See instructor's lessons. Bridget thinks the instructor is a hoot!

George assisting daddy with fixing the computer.

 

Homeschool

 

Math

Bridget is back on schedule for math, and has even got ahead. She took her test for lesson 5 (and got all correct) and we began lesson 6. She HATES lesson 6. It involves writing numbers 0-100 over and over again. While her writing is quite neat for a first grader, she still hates all writing assignments. I've told her she just needs to get it done and as soon as she is done with lesson 6, we can move on to the next lesson and not worry about all that number writing again (although her numbers have improved even since beginning the lesson... no more backwards numbers!).    

 

History

We had to play a bit of catch up for history. History and science are our subjects we do after the most important one's (like reading, writing, and math). It's easy to fall behind, but it's just as easy to catch back up. We began the week reading about King Narmer and the uniting of the upper and lower kingdoms of Egypt. This was a review for Bridget as we learned this at the beginning of Kindergarten last year (before I decided to stop and wait until this year). She remembered everything and so we did not re-do of the projects.
 
Then we moved on to cuneiform and hieroglyphs. Bridget already knew a lot about hieroglyphs so we were able to breeze through this lesson as well.
 
I then went back to a previous lesson and read her a few Egyptian myths. She loved these! I'll probably end up reading them to her again before returning them to the library.
 
Next, we moved on to mummies! If you had asked me at the age of 12 what I was going to be when I grew up, I would have told you that I was going to be an Egyptologist. I loved all things Egypt, especially the mummies! After we read about making mummies, we made one using something I had from when I was a young girl learning about Egypt. We took the body apart, removed the organs and placed them in the appropriate canopic jar, then wrapped our mummy for burial.
 
Putting the lungs into the canopic jar.
 
Wrapping the mummy.
Adding the burial mask.
Our mummy ready for burial with all four canopic jars.

 

A Few Books We've Read...

The Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt by Leonard Everett Fisher
The Voyage of Osiris by Gerald McDermott 

 

Family Movie Night

The newest addition to my week in review is our family movie night. I choose a movie based on what we studied in history or science. This week, we watched The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Movie night is actually dinner and a movie ,as we spread out a blanket on the living room floor and eat our dinner while watching the movie. This week, I made "mummies" for dinner. We also had brains (tater tots) and blood (ketchup) to keep with the gory topic. Bridget did not like me calling the ketchup "blood" and refused to dip her mummy in it. She also left the brains alone but she did enjoy her mummy! George ate everything without any issue. We carried Liam's high chair into the living room (to prevent him from crawling over the kid's dinner on the floor) and he had brains and eyeballs (grapes, cut into pieces).
 
"Mummies" for dinner!
 
The movie went over well with George but Bridget kept yelling "Turn off the movie! I want it off!", anytime anything scary was happening. Minutes later she was laughing at whatever funny thing was happening, then she was back to being scared. She wouldn't let daddy cover her eyes and ears during the scary parts---she still wanted to see. It was pretty funny. We had to talk to her for about 20 minutes before bedtime to let her know that the movie was all pretend and she ended up sleeping through the night with no problems.
 
Next Week's Movie: Joseph, King of Dreams

 

Weekly Meal Plan

 

Linking up to:

 
http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/weekly-wrap-up-the-one-with-the-sign-language-and-the-driving-lesson/ 

Friday, September 4, 2015

Week 36 Meal Plan

This week's plan is fairly simple, but we do have a holiday this week to look forward to! I like to do something a little special on holidays, and I also like to include a more heavy dessert than usual. Friday is also our family movie night in which we watch a movie related to what we learned in history or science. I prepare finger foods that can be enjoyed while watching the movie (I spread a blanket on the floor for the kid's and do things "picnic style"). This week's movie is Joseph, King of Dreams because we'll be learning about Joseph in Egypt this coming week.

This week's meal plan:

Sunday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Pancakes (made by daddy)
Snack: Apple or Banana with Peanut Butter
 
Monday (LABOR DAY)
Breakfast: Oatmeal, fresh strawberries
Lunch: Veggie Burgers, Baked Beans, Potato Salad
Dessert: Banana Split Cake
Snack: none (late lunch)
Dinner: Leftovers
 
Tuesday
Breakfast: Toast w/ Peanut Butter, Banana
Lunch: Eggroll in a Bowl, Orange Slices
Snack: Banana Split Cake
Dinner: Eggplant Parmesan Casserole
 
Wednesday
Breakfast: Granola, Yogurt
Lunch: Grilled Cheese Sandwich, Tomato Soup, & Apple Slices
Snack: Banana Split Cake
Dinner: Leftovers
 
Thursday
Breakfast: Mixed Nuts, Fresh Fruit
Lunch: Peanut Butter & Agave Sandwich, Apple Slices, Raisins
Snack: Chocolate Chip Cookies & Milk
Dinner: Chili Macaroni
 
Friday
Breakfast: Cinnamon Toast
Lunch: Chick'n Fingers, Sweet Potato Fries, Grapes
Snack: Chocolate Chip Cookies & Milk
FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT: Joseph, King of Dreams
Dinner: Falafel w/ Tahini Sauce, Pita Bread, Salad Greens
 
Saturday
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: (Kid's Choice)
Snack: Chocolate Chip Cookies & Milk
Dinner: Hawaiian-Style Tofu w/ Brown Rice
 
You might be a bit shocked to see that I give my children sweets for their afternoon snack. I do this for a few reasons. First, I do not like giving my children sweets after dinner because it gives them a sugar high right before bed. Second, it's a little boost of energy before I send them off to their afternoon extracurricular activities (gymnastics, dance, etc.). I have a few rules about snack time (the sweet snack is what is planned but sometimes they don't always get it) that I'll explain in a future post.
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