Christmas Countdown 2010

CHRISTMAS IS 25 DAYS AWAY!!!!!!!!! Tomorrow the countdown will begin for The Adamant Academy, YAY!!!!! OK OK, I am almost as excited as they are. I just like to plan stuff I think I get way too into it lol. I started the whole stocking filled with an idea last year but it never quite took off so to speak. Well I found this blog, and the idea really got me going. I used some of the books and added an awful lot and changed up some of the crafts so I am not a total copy cat and WALA Christmas stories and crafts for each day. We will fill in an ornament on the paper tree for each day that I got off of childcareland.com and each stocking will have a slip of paper stating the book and the craft for that day.  Thought I would post my list of plans in case anyone is looking for something to do possibly and God willing I will be making a daily post of our Christmas countdown activities. I had really hoped to include The ADVENTures of Christmas in this but sadly the ebay seller has yet to send it :( If I get it I may decide to change things around a bit but as of now here is my list.
1. Christmas Is.... Gail Gibbons
DECORATE TODAY!!!!
2. Bear Stays Up For Christmas by Karma Wilson
Make presents for daddy
3. The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett
Make foam gingerbread houses
4. The Polar Express
Lowe's Build and Grow (they will have 3 this month each time they will build a piece of a train by Christmas they will have all 3 pieces)
5. The Mitten by Jan Brett
make felt mitten ornaments
6. The Family Christmas Tree Book by Tomie De Paola
paint ceramic ornaments
7. Christmas Hat by AJ Wood
Make peppermint spoons and hot chocolate
8. Mr Willowby's Christmas Tree by Robert Barry
make paper stacking trees
9. The Christmas Angel by Pirkko Vainio
Make angel ornaments
10. The Christmas Star by Marcus Pfister
make popsicle stick stars
11. Wild Christmas Reindeer by Jan Brett
Build and Grow
12. Christmas Mouse by Elisabeth Wenning
make little clay mice
13. Santa Mouse by Michael Brown
make little trees and decorate them for our clay mice
14. The Shortest Day by Wendy Pfeffer
make mini wreaths
15. Night Tree by Eve Bunting
make wild animal treats
16. What it takes To Make A Snowman
we are gonna make little snowmen
17. Snowflake Bentley  by Jaqueline Briggs Martin
Make paper snowflakes and decorate with them
18. Silver Packages by Cynthia Rylant
last day of build and grow!!!! Our train will be complete.
19. Jolly Old Santa Claus by Alice Leedy Mason
foil icicles
20. Legend of the Candy Cane
make little foam Christmas critters
21. A Wish To Be A Christmas Tree by Colleen Monroe
candle/potpurri holders
22. Gingrerbread Land Published by Intervisual Books
various gingerbread crafts
23. Christmas In The Manger by Nola Buck
foam nativity and other possible nativity type crafts
24. The Night Before Christmas by Jan Brett
get new PJ's from gramma and put out cookies
25 MERRY CHRISTMAS

Week 7

This week has been pretty full I would say. It has kinda been a catch up week to say the least though. I bought the boys Sea and Sky by Winterpromise to use this year and it has gotten such a rocky start. A few weeks back I decided that I bought this I paid alot of money (as most of you know Winterpromise is expensive) and it was gonna get used. A week into our schooling a tree feel on the house and caused some damage. Yes that was well over a month ago but it seemed as if it took forever to recover. The kids just could not concentrate on school with people working in the house, the rearanging of things after we had worked so hard getting it perfect from moving in and then there was the mom factor. Yes me I admit it. I took forever because frankly the tree falling just summed up the whole moving, extra work type woes and I was just plain worn out. But we are finding our place back and so far so good. The kids are loving the Nature Studies and crafts we have added in our schooling so that has been awesome. I am loving it myself I must say. If you get a chance go see the Nature Blog I set up cause I am pretty proud of it! OK back to our week now.
The boys have worked on Lesson 8 in Learning Language Arts Through Literature.
Copywork of a poem was done. For grammer they did contractions, apostrophes, syllables and alphabetical order of names.
Phonics was learning the sound of le at the end of words as well as working in their Into Reading books. Fox is working on the first book that starts with basic sounds, rhymes, beginning middle, ending sound and letter practice. Yes I agree this should be below him but for some reason he likes to tell people he can't read so I decided to use this book basically to remind him with extra work. Damian is using book 2 which concentrates more or consanant blends such as sh, ch, and th that sort of thing. There is also stories he reads and has to answer the questions. I believe this will help him learn more reading on his own type thing and of course comprehension.
Handwriting this week is the cursive letters m and n both lower case. Neither boy likes cursive but I think it is important.
Spelling was the different sounds of ou with words like through. group, mouth and count. You get the point. Damian is catching on so wonderfully his reading is really getting there, Fox fights it so hard it makes me sad because I know what a smart little guy he is. They did their daily work in teaching textbooks for math and this week I added some RightStart card games. They need some reminding of their facts.
History and geography was catch up with placing figures in their timeline books, and notebook pages on parts of a ship and making some signal flags. The also made a map of Ancient Rome for early sea travel  and started workbooks on maps from their Sea and Sky set. As far as science well that was mostly outside nature work that is on the other blog so I won't post it all over. But it was fun.
As for Skyler
She started math drills this week and had her very first test and aced it!!!! YIPEEE I am not proud, not at all!! She is also starting less than and greater than and doing well. She worked in her Explode the Code book 1 quite a bit this week. She is really taking off there.
For Learning Language Arts Through Literature Part 2 Lesson 3
She made a book and drew pictures to go along with the story and talked more about the illustrator. Her sight words this week were-here, is, big, little, I and are. We practiced writing those as well. She istracing 3 word sentences and copying them. We retold stories she liked by looking at pictures and I am thinking of a possible word wall for her sight word cards. As far as her science besides the nature stuff she wanted to study plants from her Our Fathers World science so we did more of that this week and yep you guessed, it is over on the nature blog LOL. I think the highlight of the week is Fox discovering audio books at the library. I hated the things as a child so I have never really had any. Well he has a new habit that he loves, especially in the car.  Well here are some highlights in pictures to see more pics you can go here as everyone knows how much I love my camera lol, and I hope everyone else had a wonderful week!!!!

I truly love when they can all be at the table peaceful lol

Damian and his timeline book. Yes it is Winterpromise

Fox making his map

Skyler finished Light unit 1 and took her test!!

she aced her first test I am so proud

Wordless Wednesday

My Parents Drugged Me

My Parents Drugged Me.

Some of you folks with a little age on you will apprecitate this. The author is unknown:

GOD BLESS THE PARENTS WHO DRUGGED US..
The other day, someone at a store in our town read that a Methamphetamine lab had been found in an old farmhouse in the adjoining county and he asked me a rhetorical question.
"Why didn't we have a drug problem when you and I were growing up?"
I replied I had a drug problem when I was young: I was drug to church on Sunday morning. I was drug to church for weddings and funerals. I was drug to family reunions and community socials no matter the weather.
I was drug by my ears when I was disrespectful to adults. I was also drug to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie, brought home a bad report card, did not speak with respect, spoke ill of the teacher or the preacher, or if I didn't put forth my best effort in everything that was asked of me.
I was drug to the kitchen sink to have my mouth washed out with soap if I uttered a profanity.
I was drug out to pull weeds in mom's garden and flower beds and cocklebur's out of dad's fields.
I was drug to the homes of family, friends and neighbors to help out some poor soul who had no one to mow the yard, repair the clothesline, or chop some firewood; and, if my mother had ever known that I took a single dime as a tip for this kindness, she would have drug me back to the woodshed.
Those drugs are still in my veins and they affect my behavior in everything I do, say, or think. They are stronger than cocaine, crack, or heroin; and, if today's children had this kind of drug problem, America would be a better place.
God bless the parents who drugged us.

There was a point in my life I pretty much forgot these drugs but as I get older I am thinking my kids may need some of this "stuff"!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Skyler is changing

While this is shocking to most we are dropping Animal And Their Worlds by Winterpromise. While we are not using the newer updated 2010 set we are using the older set and it is not working. The majority of the activity resources are alphabet based and well she is passed that. She cannot stand the Animal Encyclopedia and to be honest I can't either because well, it reads like an encyclopedia and really who wants to read that?? Not us. I have the resources for the pre k-gr 1 and I will have to say that it is really pre-kish is the activities. I also realize I do not like reading Beverly Cleary out loud. I loved her as a child but as a read aloud not so much and my daughter has to struggle to pay attention so that is no good. I have no idea about the newer updated program for Animals and Their Worlds but I know I am not buying it. We had an Our Father's World Science for 1st grade and we are going on with that at this time. We are not doing the book in order exactly but picking topics as she is interested in them and adding experimants and most likely lapbooks as she really enjoys them. The topic she has picked first is Plants so we started on that by reading some of the chapter and a Magic School Bus book and starting a little plant. If you would like to see more on that topic please visit our nature stuff blog.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

My 9 year old son is hangin up there. First words when he got off Can I go again?? No I did not ride with him my mom did LOL