This week I am again linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Homegrown Learners for the Weekly Wrap-Up and Collage Friday. 
This week during class we had an odd week for us. Monday we had planned only a partial half day, which meant no book work on Monday but that the kiddos still needed to do their lessons on the computers and read. Thursday we didn't have "school" because Peanut had kept us up most of the night with a low grade fever and she was achy. We will be finishing up Friday's book work on Saturday, that's the only day that they still have to finish up with. All of their computer work has been finished at this point for the week and boy is Mom glad for that!
As you can see from the pictures some days we were dressed and some days we were in our pajamas. With Peanut not feeling well and all of us still suffering from sinus issues and allergies I was not being a stickler for getting dressed. Tuesday half the day most of us were in our pajamas, Younger Cracker Jack was the first to change her clothing because she had to go with Daddy to get her glasses fixed. Of course we were all dressed in time for catechism by that afternoon.
Thursday we weren't officially "doing" school. However all three kiddos still learned. They were just allowed to do what they wanted to do all day and I was pleasantly surprised at what happened. Elder Cracker Jack spent 90% of his day reading; he was able to read over 200 pages of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, read one of the Avatar books from cover to cover, and quote a few prayers during a random pop quiz. Peanut and YCJ played together with Peanut's LeapPad Ultra for a long time without arguing and then they "taught" the babies how to say their bedtime prayers.
For our extra curricular this week we had both catechism and swim class. Peanut is still enjoying her time alone with Mom and Dad during the Cracker Jack's catechism time. All three of them are progressing wonderfully with their swim classes. This week I was able to find some swim goggles on clearance at the local dollar store and this helped Peanut a lot because she was able to keep her eyes open. The Cracker Jack's will be wearing their goggles next Wednesday at class for the same reason, this week we couldn't get them adjusted in time because we had forgotten about them until the last minute.
In our kitchen this week we made cookies for YCJ's catechism class, which she had volunteered for us to make. Boy, am I glad that there's only ten kiddos in her class! I also made some spaghetti squash to go with one of our dinner's this week ... the taste was fine but we did not enjoy the texture and so we will not be eating this veggie again. We were also given over 50 tomatoes and because I do not have any jars to can these tomatoes we're eating them with dinner almost every night, as snacks when someone has the munchies, and with any other meal I can sneak them into.
Yes, that entire plate of tomatoes was eaten mainly by the children with their meal. Both the spaghetti squash and giant plate of tomatoes was served on our "something beef" night this week. Where Mom and Dad had a steak each (bought for reduced price) and the kiddos had all beef franks. We also ate roasted potatoes, carrots, onions, and mushrooms that night. Just a side note: Peanut, when asked about the spaghetti squash, said, "It tasted OK but it was a little off the track." Her nice way of telling me that she didn't like it at all.
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| Peanut doesn't eat cooked carrots so her's were raw. |
Younger Cracker Jack has been doing so wonderfully this week, even with the schedule being "off" from our regular schedule. She is really liking her new placematts for the kitchen table. I found two with math problems on each side and now she'll occasionally go to the table and grab a dry erase marker, within minutes she's showing off that she finished a whole side by herself! (Math frustrates her when you put too many numbers in front of her, but she finds the place matt fun to work with.) She finished reading Green Eggs and Ham and has asked me to help her work through Junie B. Jones, First Grader Dumb Bunny, a book that she got from the library. So we'll be spending about half an hour each night in her room reading the book together and discussing it so that I know where her mind set is on some of the actions in the book. I should mention that this is a book that she's read before, we decided to go back to non chapter books when she kept getting frustrated and we're slowly putting them back into her reading lists.
Elder Cracker Jack discovered that he actually likes The Lord of the Rings trilogy, it just took him a little over 150 pages of the first book to start getting into the story. I haven't let him watch the movies yet (this is something he has to do with us and while his sisters are otherwise occupied) and he's excited that he'll be able to watch them after he finishes the book. He's like me in the fact that he likes to compare the books to the movies and he usually finds that the movies leave out a lot of what the books include. He also caught a daddy long legs this week and was keeping it in his room, without telling me until yesterday. When questioned about it he said that he'd wanted to study it and named it Frodo. He's also getting really tired of the camera. Books he finished this week include: one of the Avatar books and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rodrick Rules. 
Peanut is still on the track to move on to Kindergarten sometime around Christmas. This makes me very proud of her. She only did "school" three days this week and out of those three she only felt good for one and she still managed to finish five days worth of work. She asked for me to read a book to her each night this week coming up so we'll be reading Pinkalicious and the Pinktastic Zoo Day which is one of the books she'd picked out from the library. She LOVES the color pink and LOVES this book series! She also LOVES *smh* having mom read the same book over and over every night for weeks in a row. Yup, that's normal but my poor brain doesn't like it. She's also very adamant about getting her computer time with Elmo every day.Books Mommy's reading include Fundamentals of Home-schooling: Notes on Successful Family Living by Ann Lahrson-Fisher and Rediscovering Catholicism by Matthew Kelly. Both of these are non-fiction books and I am indeed reading them both at the same time. Some days my brain wants one thing and some days it wants another. I finished reading Meet the Amish by Fred L. Israel this week as well. Meet the Amish is a good read (and quick) that is appropriate for almost everyone from about fourth grade and up in my opinion. ECJ will be reading this before I return it to the library in a few weeks. One interesting fact from the book is that many Amish communities still use the McGruffy Primer! I loved this fact because that's one of the books that we use in our home!
I will be doing a review of Fundamentals of Home-schooling sometime in the next two weeks.
My tip of the week. I found my tip of the week in YCJ lessons today and it really hit home. One of the sentences that she had to correct was:
"I complained about not having any shoes,
until I met a man who had no feet."
It reminded me that even though I have many small complaints that I should be thankful for what I do have, for there are many out there who are less fortunate. Yes, this did turn into a quick lesson for all of the children which will be expanded upon in the next two months as we approach Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Sometime this weekend we'll be working on a couple of our Fall Bucket List items. Leaf rubbings are at the top of the list, followed quickly by carving our pumpkins and making pumpkin seeds. If I can find a rake to borrow we'll also be jumping into a leaf pile or two.
Our outside time this week did not happen at all. None of us were feeling very well and I made the decision to keep us indoors this week. The temperatures here in Michigan right now are below freezing at night and never higher than the low 60's all week! With the sinus issues and Peanut being slightly under the weather it just seemed like a better idea to stay indoors. That means that our year to date total for outdoor time this week remained the same as last week's: 90.5 hours.
How did your week go this week? I would love to hear about it! If you're a fellow blogger why not join either of the link-ups that I have been joining? I'd love to see you there!!
My other posts this week:
School Zone or Not? my review on School Zone workbooks for Pre-schoolers
You can like us on Facebook here.
So sorry that people are not feeling up to par in the family 8(. Makes for a tough week on you! That is awesome though that so much learning happened despite of the "non officially learning". Enjoy the Fall (we are cool here in NY)! Looking forward to snow here!
ReplyDeleteMost of us are feeling better now, even though my sinuses are still going haywire. I miss KY during the winter-time ... but the snow means that my allergies will go away until spring! lol
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