Week 10!

I decided this week that I will be more organized with the workboxes. The days we use them are much better for all. I hate setting them up every night though. It seems the last thing I remember to do and it don't get done. So starting Monday instead of them being emptied they were refilled as they went along. Everytime they handed me something done I gave them the next days stuff to put back in the drawer. That has saved me alot of time in the evening. I also decided no more loose papers. I usually let all their work that goes into binders set in a pile that I put away on the weekend. I hate this too and stuff gets lost so from now on as soon as it is done it goes right where it is suppose to be.  I have also been working harder using my Master Planner. I like keeping track of what they do.

I have also decided to read through science and history every weekend to see if there is anything I need that I may not have as well as have all the stuff for the week printed out. When my kiddos are in the groove to do school they don't do too well with having to stop and print stuff. We finally wrapped up the Winterpromise All American Explorers section and will be starting The Colonial Period this next week. The Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers are so neat. A bit much on the printing but still neat!

I have drank the pinterest Kool-aid and now have a pin thing so that has become my newest addiction. I like my boards! Fox started double digit multiplication and he is not liking it so this may be the part he slows down on. He had been behind but then began to pick up speed so hopefully this won't be so bad. Both boys still hate cursive and writing in general so that will never change. Skyler is happily moving along with her cursive letters still calling it pretty letters! I still make that effort to have lunch ready the night before so there is no thinking about whats for lunch or wasted time doing it!

They did a fieldtrip to the library this week. A science fair workshop. I am thinking of having them do a little science fair of their own! I also found another pizza themed lunch food for them! Yes it was from the pinterest  of course! We also started using Xtra Math again to help them speed up a bit and for memory.

One of the last few projects was making pieces of eight and doubloons for history. They really enjoyed this. Sadly I was out of gold spray paint and we wound up having to use plain yellow for the gold but we had silver for the pieces of eight. Yes this day was big on talking about Pirates especially Captain Jack Sparrow! They had fun learning about Blackbeard. This has always been a favorite for the boys.

Here are some of the pieces of eight while they are drying.

 

Here is Skyler filling in her map for Connecticut. We just so happened to get our travelers home a week or so ago from Connecticut!

 

Fox doing some Xtra math on the computer. Not a bad little program especially since it is free! That makes it all the better!

 

 

 

 

Here are the new pizza items we added! Crossaints filled with string mozzarella and pepperoni. They dipped them in pizza sauce. We used the garlic butter flavored crossaints and they were major yummy! My kids would eat anything pizza every day if possible.

 

Skyler learned cursive h and did really well.

 

 

They all three dressed up a pirate this week. This is Damians pirate. Pretty colorful!

They each made a little treasure chest for their coins and it has a value chart inside. These were meant to hold the coins they made but our coins were way too big so we made some paper ones for this project. They just put the bigger ones in the seamans chests they made before.

Both of the boys were thrilled to chop up red cabbage for Skylers science experiments this week. I do not like the smell of boiled cabbage by the way and I am grateful my mom never made me eat this EWWWWWWWWWWW!

We did a taste test of sour and not sour the faces she made were so funny! The suprising thing was she managed to swallow all of them except grapefruit juice!

After the tasting we mixed things with cabbage juice to see the reaction.

She recorded everything in her lab book. She is not liking the questions before the experiment too much. The what do you think is going to happen? She does not wanna do those.

The boys basically did the same thing with the mixing of different things to see the reactions. They didn't taste anything though. Skyler was only too happy to help out of course. She really loves science. I am liking the Real Science 4 Kids program.

All in all it was a very full but good week! They also attended the library workshop on science fair projects which they liked the mentos and soda experiments!

She also enjoyed looking at all the displays that were there for ideas.

Of course we had a full Magic School week too.  I also have tons of extra pics as well.

Our first day back!!

Today was our first day back at school! YAY!! I have come to the conclusion I hate breaks. There is too much time for nothing and they wind up driving me insane. I really truly wonder how I used to deal with summer vacations when they went to school. Oh, I just remembered, they went to daycare and I was at work or school. I miss those days sometimes. I miss college. I did well there and actual adults cared what I had to say. I do love being with my kids though so I know I got the better part but at times I do miss adult interaction. Anyway today started off a bit rough for Fox. He is my"difficult" child. We all have one of those, right?

We strted our day off with the new morning board I have put together. Calendar, weather our phone number and address as it seems I had neglected to make points of those since we moved! What basic stuff we overlook when worried about everything else! They liked the morning board and especially the temp. chart. We have a clock in the house that tells the temp and a gauge outside so it was fun for them to compare the difference. We also made it the first day using our workboxes and schedule strips. I am in love with this by the way.

It was so wonderful to not hear, "Mom how much more work?" I hate hearing that all day. This way they can just see exactly what is going on each day and they have it all figured out! They liked having everything in their baskets to as far as pencils, crayons and such. They did their work, asked for help when needed and it went pretty good for a first day. As a special little treay they had fun boxes at the end of their schedule.

The boys had airplanes to build and paint and Skyler Bay got a mini glass tea set. It was a fun little extra for their first day and they really enjoyed it. Now if I can get Fox to keep his glasses on tomorrow then it will be even better!! We also decided that this year we want to have a 100 day party to celebrate 100 days. If you would like to see any more pics of our first day please go here.

Workbox idea!!

Christie Robello over at R Homeschool Hale had a very cute idea with her son. He really enjoys seeing that he is DONE so he gets a check card to place on his drawer. I think this would be a wonderful idea for kids who are very visual and it would eliminate the need for a schedule strip as well. Which could overwhelm a kid having all these different things to do. He puts his check card on the box and he knows he is done.  

Our first day with workboxes

I still love posting on my new blog! I once again thank Kyla for all her hard work and if anyone gets a chance please go check out her new design blog. (Why yes, that is a shameless plug for a great and talented friend) :)

Today, our first day using our workboxes. Take a breath a deep one, I said silently ALLLLLL day long I believe. I started simple. This is our first week back so we are just doing math and language arts so we don't get overwhelmed. I am trying to kill the Mom, what do I do now? question. They have an assignment folder with cards that I write the assignments on and then they have file boxes where their work is. They seemed to do OK with this sorta... They are not liking doing it on their own and well, what do I expect I have always hand held them and it has become a real problem. I just can't sit there anymore. I guess the issues I had were normal though coming back from break. No one was in the mood to get to work. No one wanted to try anything new. I will have to keep at it, have patience and be consistent. Skyler did not start using her boxes today as she is acting like she is getting sick. She managed through her math and language arts but I pretty much sat  there with her. It was an OK day it will get better and after all this I know the outcome will be good.

One major goal for the day was to keep the glasses on their faces!!! I succeeded in that one. As soon as school was over though they were wasting no time taking them off.

The inside of one of the boys assignment folder

We did some school this week... WEEK 5

  We started our week off with math. I try to get that done first thing every morning. The boys started this week with lesson 16 in their teaching textbook. I am really loving this program and the boys seem better with it. Skyler is on lesson 13 with her math and not grasping place value very well. We are working on it. I got her a set of place value blocks off ebay that we have been trying to use as a visual but she is still kinda lost. The boys are on lesson 5 in their Learning Language Arts Through Literature so they are plugging along. This week is review for spelling so hopefully they do well with that. It generally takes a week to complete each lesson. Skyler has just finished lesson 2 in her Learning Language Arts Through Literature and she got her first patch on her reading sheet for reading a little book all by herself. YAY Skyler. Tomorrow she will begin Lesson 3. Skyler started her Artistic Pursuits today and seemed to really enjoy that. I am thinking of adding an artist notebooking page for each artist they mention each week. I hopefully will get the boys art started this week as well. As far as science goes for today that is all on my nature blog. The boys started their study of Africa with a Download and Go from The Old Schoolhouse Magizine. I like it so far I am not sure if Skyler will do this I think she would get more out of that in maybe another year.

Skyler with her first little I can read by myself book! Yay Skyler.

Skyler and her picture for art

Fox and Damian working on their Download and Go Africa study

close up of Damian defining a continent

Well that is all for Monday hopefully I get this done each day so I can post my weekly report on Friday !!! Well sadly it didn't get done each day lol. That is all right our week was pretty normal for the rest. Math, language arts that sort of thing. We did do alot on the nature side so I am pretty sure that can be considered science. I am still trying to figure out how I can make the whole workbox method work I just can't wrap my brain around it. I made some workboxes and now I really just can't figure out what to do with them. I also don't think I like the cards I had decided to use because they seem like alot of work constantly writing the assignments on them. While my set-up is not like Sue Patricks it seemed more space saving then hers with having three kids. My set up is file boxes and assignment folders. I will just have to think some more on it I suppose. We had alot of fun though with the nature stuff! I would say that was the highlight of the week. Skyler found a giant pine cone and leaf. Fox had fun doing what he loves the most, being outside and being free. Damian is learning to like outside all over again so that has been great to get him away from the computer and video games. So it's been good. Next week we will start over with Sea and Sky and Animals and Their Worlds from Winterpromise. Life has just been hectic and that got thrown to the side and now that it is all getting calmer and a bit more organized I am hoping it works out cause I really love Winterpromise!

Each child has a file box with 12 folders. Their pictures are check in check out cards.

These are the assignment folders inside there is 12 pockets for assignments

Assignment cards that I am rethinking writing all this out every day is going to be a big time consumer.