Wrinkled Weekly Wrap-Up

My weekly wrap-ups usually show just how much we got accomplished in any given week. Even those weeks where I feel like we haven't done much when I'm writing out the wrap-up I discover just how much we actually did. I'm not sure exactly if the same thing can be said for this week, but I know that considering everything else we've had a busy and productive week.

Monday was a scheduled school day for us. However, 4 out of 5 of us woke up with a stomach virus that had manifested itself since the family Christmas get together. Sunday only two of us had been ill. Checking fevers, passing out Tylenol, and cleaning toilets suddenly filled the day. Instead of lessons we relaxed and watched DVD's. There is no use attempting to teach a child arithmetic whilst they have a fever, tears are almost always the outcome.

Tuesday and Wednesday were scheduled off and while I was tempted, on both days, to do school we kept to the original plan. Tuesday some of us were still ill and ECJ had a quick bout of it overnight from Monday. Amazingly enough all three campers were able to stay up until midnight and drink their couple of ounces of sparkling cider to toast the new year. Daddy and I toasted with ginger ale. Wednesday being a new day, month, and year everyone was more interested in trying new things. And although we school year round I didn't think it worth tempting the old saying that whatever you do on new year's day will be what you do the rest of the year. Children would soon be running for the hills if lessons were the only thing we did.


Thursday, ah Thursday! How I love thee Thursday! Equipped with lesson plans I'd written out before Christmas we began with what were originally Monday's lessons. I'd written this week to have only 2 1/2 days worth of lessons and those days LIGHT. We managed to get almost everything in the lesson planner completed before 4pm! (For those of you who missed why 4pm is so important all of a sudden please read more about it here .) There were no tears or hissy fits. Everyone just dug in and did what they were supposed to be doing! Well, Peanut did have a few minutes of pouting before starting.

Friday dawns another new day in the new year. There's really very little scheduled for today. Not only is it a "half" day but it's also our monthly errand running day. If we don't finish before we leave for our errand running we may or may not do it over the weekend. Most likely I'll break it up over the weekend for an hour here and an hour there until it's finished. This week was mainly to be a review week anyways since we'd taken Christmas week off. I know that doesn't sound like a lot but given more than four days off of school (including weekends) makes our children reluctant to get back to it. Why was Thursday different then? Our new homework policy!

PreK/K - Peanut learned more about the letter L this week and worked more on her phonics. She's been going crazy with her giant box of play dough stuff that she got for Christmas (different things from different family members all collected into one box for storage purposes) and hasn't complained at all about her hands hurting. Her head's been hurting a lot this week, though whether this is from her illness earlier in the week or her medication of the last six months not working as well has yet to be determined. She has a doctor appointment next Tuesday for evaluation and check up. Having not gotten migraines myself until my teen years I worry if there might not be more to it. Such as a giant problem like something putting pressure on her brain, her eyes straining and causing the migraines in which case we need a new prescription again (last one was in the fall), or if it's something else entirely. In any case I'll be ordering her a high powered magnifier to help with her vision during lessons within the up coming months.

She's really concentrating! You can tell because her tongue is sticking out! ;-)

Third grade - Review, review, and cursive?!? I finally gave in and began teaching YCJ cursive (just a bit) over Christmas break. We're approaching this just like I teach the alphabet: one letter at a time through the entire alphabet. I've printed many worksheets out on my new printer (!) and she's finishing up with the letter A this week. I'm hoping that cursive will improve her handwriting as she likes to "draw" rather than "write" her words. Her reading is still progressing, I find it amazing how she now wants to read everything she sees. Our little slips of green paper are still being used any time there's more than one line of writing. I'm beginning to really love the sea green color.

Yes, ECJ really needs to clean his work area.

Sixth grade - ECJ is finishing re-reading The Hobbit. He'd been almost finished when we quickly quizzed him and found out he'd retained none of it. I've also printed off a rather extensive packet of copy work for him that's all quotes from The Hobbit, he began working on those on Thursday. All of his work this week was review and so he flew through it, which is not surprising. Now, if we could only get him to pay more attention to doing his chores correctly. He now makes a list that is hung on the refrigerator and he must check each thing off as he completes them each day. When we see something checked off we go inspect it and give it either a passing or failing grade. If it's not done correctly he must redo it.

In dealing with household matters I've spent some time each day trying to organize and stream line things. Over the course of the next several months I'm hoping that we'll be able to keep things far neater. My desk still needs to be cleaned and organized (again!) as I keep knocking my hand into my coffee cup and spilling that precious nectar all over the place. Organizing my desk is one of my least favorite things to do because within moments, or so it seems, it becomes a tangled mess again.

Reading is going wonderfully right now. I'm working my way through the People of the... series again. ECJ is going to re-read The Hobbit and then he has a free choice book he gets to pick out for his lessons. He's still diving into all of his other favorites like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Harry Potter most of which he'll read over and over again. Peanut is of course still having me read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom almost daily to her. We found her a new phonics book set featuring Fancy Nancy which goes along nicely with our Level 1 Fancy Nancy  readers that YCJ is reading.

Sometime within the next two weeks I'll be updating everyone on how our new homework policy is going. We've only used it once so far that first week and it really hit home with the campers. I want to give it another week or two before I say if it's working or not.

Peanut wearing a finger crocheted headband YCJ made for her.

And just a couple shots of some chilly doggies trying to warm up!








This week we're linking up to:
Homegrown Learners
Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
Faithful Mom of 9
and
Great Peace Academy

Posts you may have missed this week:
Our Week Off Christmas
Menu Plan for Last Week of Dec. 2013
Winter Bucket List Link Up (LIVE)
Our Winter Bucket List (also found on my link up)
5 Public New Years Goals
2013 Year In Review
What Works

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