Week in Review 2015: #50

Life

We did a couple of fun things last Friday night. We drove to Raleigh to attend a Nativity Celebration and to watch Disney on Ice. We had a blast at both events. You can read about them in more detail by clicking on the links.

On Saturday, my husband took the boys to his parents house while Bridget and I spent the day together and watched a performance of The Nutcracker Ballet. It is an annual tradition of ours and we enjoyed it just as much this year as we have in the past. 

This week was also the last week of the year for all of our extracurricular activities. No gymnastics or dance until January! I'm a little excited about that. I really do not mind taking them to their classes, but it does feel nice that the only place we need to be for the next two weeks is church on Sunday.

In other news, we are getting closer to going under contract with our new house. There are a few more details to iron out and with my husband being an accountant, it makes the process take longer because he wants to know where all of the money is going, did we get a credit back for not including something, why does this cost this much when Lowes sells it for this much, it should not cost $1000 to install an oven... I could go on but I will stop there.

I was also forced to get a new phone this week. So far, I have been able to avoid having a smart phone. A few months ago, my dumb phone completely died. The battery would not hold a charge for even 5 minutes. My husband changed my phone to one of his old phones. This worked out for the first month, but the longest phone call I could have was 10 minutes before the phone shut off without warning. I had had enough of not having a reliable phone, so my husband ordered a brand new phone and phone plan and now I am rocking a smart phone with a pink case. I would still prefer not to have a smart phone, but technology will not let me stay behind. So far, my new phone is still being used only for phone calls and an occasional text message, so don't get too excited. I might decide to take a selfie one day, but don't hold your breath.

Homeschool 

We did a lot of math drill sheets at the beginning of the week and Bridget has gotten so much better at her +9 problems. She is also wanting to read more. No more nagging at her to get a boo kto practice reading. Instead, she grabs the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading off of the bookshelf and sits at the homeschool table and reads whatever words she can. This is done during her free time, might I add.

We are still trying to get back on track but I am learning now not to stress it. We will be doing school next week to make up for the days we missed due to sickness. 

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Week in Review 2015: #49

Life

Last Friday night we attended our church's annual Christmas party. During the party, the primary children got up to perform a few songs while dressed in costumes related to the Nativity. Bridget is always shy during this, and she had herself almost completely covered by her costume (she was a woman shepherd). George decided not to go up and that is okay since he is technically not a part of the primary yet (he's still in the nursery).

We also made a couple of Christmas ornaments out of perler beads this week. I brought them out while Liam was taking his nap. Bridget had a blast and could not decide what to make. George thought it was neat for awhile. He made the outer blue border around his star, but then wanted me to finish it while he picked the colors. Neither of the ornaments are very Christmas-y, but it is what the children wanted to make. They were very proud of their creations.

George and his blue star ornament

Bridget and her rainbow heart ornament

On Friday, Liam did not feel too good. He did not wake up until after 9 o'clock and by 10:30, he was asleep again in my arms. He didn't feel like he had a high fever or anything but was just very sleepy. He fell asleep again after lunch, this time in daddy's arms. That night, we had made plans to go to Raleigh for a couple of things (which I will blog about later) and my parents watched Liam at their house. He fell asleep there around 7:30 in the evening, which is rather early even for him. He is however, back to his normal self again.

I also took a break from blogging this week because I have been working on a homeschool-related project. My computer time is very limited, so I can either blog and/or browse Facebook, or I can get some actual work done. I opted for the latter this week and was able to get a good amount of work done, considering the interruptions I get every two minutes.

Homeschool 

As I had mentioned last week, we had gotten behind on our history notebook pages because I had only been making them a few at a time, but I am now working on just getting it all done for the year (and getting ahead for next year). In addition to that, I've made my own timeline cards. Nothing I found online was exactly what I wanted (I also need things to be very uniform). Because history is my favorite subject ever, my thoughts fly all over the place when I am teaching and I just need to stop and breathe and pick just a few additional topics to add to the curriculum (I could probably spend an entire year on ancient Greece). It is so easy to get lost in the study of the ancient world. Now that I've got it figured out, hopefully things will run more smoothly. 

I did manage to put together our Reading List for Story of the World, Volume 1 (Ancient Times) which will be an ongoing project, as we are barely halfway through the school year. 

Family Movie Night

With it being Christmas, we have been watching all of our Christmas movies almost daily. It has been nice and a real treat for the kids. 

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Week in Review 2015: #47 and #48

Life

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house and both sets of grandparents were able to join us. We ate our dinner in the homeschool room, which is really our formal dining area. It is the only place that would accommodate two tables and enough chairs for all of us. This is where you can read about our Thanksgiving in more detail.

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we bought our Christmas tree and I let the older two children decorate it themselves. My youngest has done a great job at showing us how destructive he is. Thankfully, he has calmed down a bit and is used to the tree by now. He loves the colorful lights and admires them often.

 
Bridget often sets up the little chairs in the homeschool room to play "church" with her dolls. She sets it up as the primary room at church and has singing time and a lesson. Sometimes she is able to convince George to play with her. George was busy with other toys so this time, Liam became her live student. He was so proud to be included and he sat very nicely in the chair with all of the other students.

Bridget was absolutely tickled with Liam's cooperation. They were both being so very sweet.

After Thanksgiving, Amazon had some really great deals on some toys (I prefer to do all of my Christmas shopping this way... isn't online shopping just great?!?). Along with the more "fun" toys to be saved for Christmas, I also got a few "educational" toys and gave these to the kids early. One of them is this marble run. They had a blast! I put Liam down for his nap and set it up for them in their room so that they could see what it's all about. This occupied them for THREE HOURS, until Liam woke up and I made them put it away.

They just love seeing how things work and building things. I couldn't believe they played so well together for that long. It was a blessing because I have had a cold for the past couple of days. I really needed that break from the children where I can rest my voice and try to get better.

Homeschool 

We started off the week very strong but because of my cold and inability to read aloud without having a coughing fit, Bridget has had to do most of her work independently. This is where I love math drill sheets and writing copywork.

In an attempt to still be productive while I am sick, I spent my alone time at the computer working on notebook pages for history. I had gotten behind on that. I'm also revamping the lessons, adding lessons that are not part of SOTW and changing the SOTW lesson order around a bit. It's our first year of a full curriculum and I knew things would need to be tweaked after we got started.

Family Movie Night

With it being Christmas, we have been watching all of our Christmas movies almost daily. It has been nice and a real treat for the kids. 

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