A (Cold) Week in Review

Schoolwise we had a much more productive week this week than last. We accomplished most of our school-work huddled in my bed under comforters, and wearing robes, jackets, and in the case of my daughters, multiple layers of socks. The reason for all the layers of clothing is that it has been extremely cold all week, and we have yet to turn the heat on. We live in a 70 year old house, with the original boiler and radiator heat. I detest turning the boiler on for 3 reasons:
*I'm terrified of it, and am so afraid we will one day be the victims of a boiler explosion
*Once it is on, the heat in here is atrocious, and the humidity levels drop to near zero. This results in several months of the girls and I being miserable with dry, itchy, painful skin. My hands become bloody nubs, from doing dishes, laundry, and all the other assorted household tasks that involve me putting my hands in water. This doesn't bother my husband in the least, and he lives by the "warmer is better" theory. It is often 75° in our home. The first thing I do when he leaves for work is shut the heat completely off, and by 6 or 7 hours later it cools down to a more survivable temperature...just in time to finallly stop sweating, and have hubby arrive back home from work. and crank the heat back up.
*The main reason our heat isn't on yet, is that our power bill goes from a managable $150-$200/month to well over $500/month, and in the REALLY cold months of January and February it has been known to be over $600 for one month. That's 2 full weeks of pay from my husband, and we obviously can't afford to spend literally half his monthly earnings on a mere luxury such as heat.

So, with a little extra clothing on, we made it just fine through school this week. We had such a boring weekend last week that we did 2 full days of first grade, and caught up on what I neglected to do for fifth grade the week prior. We continued on every weekday this week.

C began her literature last Saturday, and she LOVES it! I intentionally chose a book she would like for her first book study, "Laura Ingalls Wilder", a biography of the author of the Little House books. I had to read the book first, before assigning it, and I felt it was dry, and poorly written, and probably a little above my daughters reading level due simply to the dryness of it. Much to my surprise, she is an avid "Laura" fan, and begs for more and more pages to be assigned. She doesn't like being limited to certain pages/chapters. She is doing very well with the written assignments, and only has one minor difficulty applying the difference between describing someone's PHYSICAL traits as compared to describing what makes the person unique.

C finished chapter 4 of her BJU English. Her final assignment was to write a persuasive business letter...not an easy task for a 5th grader. Not really an easy task for ME...I can't think of a single time in 37 years I've ever had to write a persuasive business letter, but I do think for someone hoping to eventually run her own no-kill animal shelter it's a skill she will use over and over. If you're going to run a non-profit business, you'd better be good at writing letters asking people to give you money. On her own she came up with an idea for writing her own letter. She chose to write to the local pet stores and ask them to donate any expired or damaged goods and supplies from their inventory that she could then donate to our own local no-kill shelter. We actually mailed the letters, so I'm praying at least one of the pet stores contacts her.

She then moved on to Chapter 5 in English....VERBS. Oh, how she and I hate verbs. If it was simply a matter of recognizing a verb we'd be fine. It's all this other nonsense....linking verbs, state-of-being verbs (which are both the same thing), helping verbs, participles, predicate adjectives, predicate nouns, objects of the verbs. ACK! Who cares?!?! I never learned this stuff. Not once. I think I am able to write fairly well. I've never gotten anything lower than an A in anything English related. This is the point C and I were both in tears last December, and finally gave up on Abeka's English. I still see absolutely NO use for all this in-depth study of a verb. But I am remaining calm. We patiently did day 1 of this chapter. She did much better than I expected, but not as well as I'd hoped. I ran off copies of extra-practice worksheets, and we worked yesterday on the extra practice for the first days lesson. (Thank you, M, for letting me use your printer!)She did better, but still not 100% on the extra worksheet. It'd be nice if there was more than 1 extra worksheet per lesson. I've never needed them before, but with this chapter I need 10 or 12 per lesson. Please pray for C and I to make it successfully through this chapter.

C also did 4 or 5 lessons in math, and took 2 math tests yesterday. She only needed to take 1 math test, but she wasn't paying attention, and did test #12, which she had already done the week before, so she had to then take test #13, which is what she was supposed to take. LOL She got an A on it. She is really flying through her math this year.

We're finishing up with chapter 5 (I think...it's too dark to go double check) in science, and in history we read about Islam. Her history book devoted a mere 22 pages to Islam, most of it a fictional story about Sinbad. Unlike many Christians, I feel it is imperative to learn about other religions, and other beliefs, so we are now taking a break from her history book, and spending a good month or two studying in-depth the middle east, Islam, and the Muslim culture in general. I have 3 AWESOME books for her age on this, and conveniently, have a Muslim neighbor who adores the girls, and isn't offended by any questions we come to him with. He has even been so kind as to loan us his Q'raan to see and compare it to our Bible, and Christianity's teachings.

C bagan her 2nd light unit in Bible, and this one is MUCH better than the first one. Each lesson is one of the parable's of Jesus, and she and I are both LOVING the lessons.

We had a review week in spelling, and next week is week 7 of our official school year, which means we get to skip spelling. C is also still working on one page a day of Daily Grams.

As far as first grade is going...E is currently flying through her math, too. Danny hasn't done math with her for a good 4 or 5 weeks, but she's been working almost daily in it with me, in addition to timing her on her flash cards. I would like to take this moment to say to my husband, "I TOLD YOU SO!!!!!" Yes, I know that is not a proper, humble Christian attitude, but I really did tell him so. LOL The way I see it, I had 2 options. I could have nagged him every day, and angered him, or I could have just quietly noticed he was not doing math like he promised, and done it myself. E's handwriting has also improved by leaps and bounds. It is so pretty (if she has lined paper) I wanted to actually scan some of her work to post here, but my printer/copier/scanner has died, and I no longer have a way to get photos on here. Oh, wait...I have a digital camera, so I guess I could. We'll see if I actually get around to it. LOL

Anyway, E has had a wonderful week. She has worked VERY hard, and done tons in all her books. It's hard to break it down, but I am definitely seeing a big improvement in her attention-span, and her willingness to sit still and write. Thank you, God!

Still going through some personal strife and issues, but I'm used to that, and my main priority is the girls' education, happiness, and well-being. We had an excellent week. Blessings to you all!

Week in Review

This has been a horrible week for school. C had such a busy weekend last week with her best friend. She had fun, but virtually no sleep, and tons of sugar. By the time Sunday night rolled around the poor thing could barely hold her eyes open, so I let her sleep in Monday till 10:00! That gave me time to really do a good cleaning on the house, but because it was such a late start I skipped science and history. We're also having finanical and family issues here at our house, and I've not been in much of a mood to be cheerful and do much school. E only did 2 days this week, and C slid by with just math, spelling, grammar, english, and Bible. Both girls finished a light unit in CLE Bible. C finished the 1st one of the year, E finished #4 for 1st grade, so only has one left for the whole year. We only did 1 day of science, and 2 days of history. I did finally begin C's lit program. I intended to only do 4 book studies this year, and this is an extra class, so we aren't behind. She is loving it, as I knew she would.

Not much else to blog about. I'll return to my normal, cheerful, overly-wordy self soon. Blessings to all!

Week 4 Review

Both girls did very well this week.

In first grade E completed 2 more lessons (in addition to the 2 posted below), and got an A+ on test #11 in Saxon. Her dad also did a few pages one night in her Abeka 1 math, and I might have done 1 page in there yesterday, but I won't admit that.

She also did 3 lessons in her Queens Language Lessons, and 2 pages in Abeka Language 1.

She read me 3 stories aloud. E also completed a chapter in her Reading Comprehension workbook.

She did 2 pages in geography, which she loves, and is up to lesson 9 in CLE Bible LU 104, which she also loves. I, however, and getting tired of stories written to 6 year olds about all the evil kings, and torturous punishments going on in the Old Testament. I'm hoping they soon move to the more peaceful, and pertinent to Modern-day Christianity, New Testament soon.

We did not do any spelling this week, although I hope to get back to that over the weekend.

As usual, E also hung around listening to her sister's science lessons. We are all still loving the Zoology, which is good, since we are in book 1 out of 3. This week we completed chapter 4, which centered on migratory birds. *I* even learned a ton, and it was fascinating. We went out in our backyard one day, and pretended to "migrate", which all 3 of us enjoyed.

In 5th grade C completed 1 test (A+), and 2 lessons in math. It's hard for me to get used to doing math only 3 days/week. C won't admit it, but she ASKED to do math Thursday, so maybe it seems strange to her, too.

We flew through English 5. C did the review of Chapter 2, got an A on the test (only missed 1 this time), and has completed 6 lessons of Chapter 3. She also did a daily gram each day, and is up to #50 in the book.

She also completed chapter 14 in spelling, getting an A+ as always. She doesn't really NEED spelling, but it's good vocabulary practice.

In history we learned about "Illumination" writing, and mosaics. I have intended for the past 3 days to make our own mosaics using paper, but haven't gotten around to cutting up millions of tiny pieces of paper for the "tiles". This week has been a good one to be able to have internet for, as we found some gorgeous examples of both the illumination writing, and mosaics online. C also did 1 page in her weekly geography book.

We haven't begun Literature yet. I still have to read the first book I plan to assign, and I've been reading a series of books my brother sent me, and can't get motivated to read a biography of Laura Ingalls Wilder at the moment. Not a big deal, as I only plan to study 4 books in depth this year.

C also completed 3 lessons in her Bible, not to mention daily reminders on how God wants us to treat others....especially little sisters. LOL

I am missing a subject, but can't for the life of me remember which one at the moment. Anyway, it's been a very productive week, and I hope to tie up loose ends over this weekend. (Reading that biography, and making the mosaics.)

In non-school life we have been watching the kittens grow and falling more in love with them every day. They are now a month old. We took our pool down, as the nights have been so cold we haven't swam for 4 weeks now. We have been dealing with more spiders than I've ever seen in years past, including one at 11:00 last night that ran under E's bed. (Thank you, hubby!!!!!)

This week has also been full of step-daughter-15 issues. I don't want to say too much here, but I've been in frequent e-mail contact with her caseworkers, frequent phone contact with her biological mother, (always a joy) and dealt with B running away and missing for 3 nights in a row last weekend, a court hearing Wednesday, another one scheduled for Oct., a probation appointment next week, and a very important meeting scheduled for the 29th, at which something might actually get done to get help for this wayward child. I think I spent more time on this child's issues this week, than school, and she doesn't even live here anymore!

~May God bless you all~

Week 3 Review

We had a very productive week, even though it was shortened by Labor Day.

In Math, C completed Lessons 52, 53, and 54. She missed one problem each day, and every time it was a problem on using the distributive property of multiplication. She obviously isn't getting it, but since she can multiply those numbers in her head, I don't really care. Yesterday she was so tired of missing the same type of problem she actually voluntarily took notes on my explanation to refer to.

E did 3 pages of math with her dad. He's not being very consistent, so I've started orally drilling her on facts and skip counting, so she doesn't forget. She does fine; it's just that they will never get through the book at this rate, even though I had her 1/3 of the way through it before he took over.

C completed the next 4 pages of Daily Grams, and wrote a compare/contrast essay all by herself. She earned an A. This is a huge accomplishment for her...an A on writing, with no help from me. She has completed 19 lessons in her 5th grade English book now. E did 7 lessons in her Queens Language Lessons, and 2 pages in her Abeka Language.

Both girls finished lesson 3 in Zoology 1. I hadn't intended for E to participate in C's science, but she loves it, and is having no trouble retaining the information, so we've been doing science together. C is notebooking through this course, and writing lab reports on all experiments. E just listens, and helps out with the experiments.

Both girls also completed a few pages in their respective mapwork books.

C did Chapter 13 in BJU Spelling 5. She got A+ on it, as always. E completed Step 4, and half of Step 5 in her All About Spelling.

Both girls completed 4 lessons in their Bible workbooks.

C and I began the first 2 chapters in history. They are all still pretty much review of the fall of the Roman Empire, which we just finished studying a few weeks ago. She did get to read an abbreviated version of "Beowolf", which was pretty cool. She liked the poetry style of story writing.

We have not started literature yet. I will next week. It has a ton of time-consuming work, so thought it better to hold off until she wasn't on a writing chpater in English.

E read me 3 stories. She actually asked to. She doesn't like the stories in her graded reader, but she begs to read to me from real books.

Both girls have sinus infections, but not severe ones. They've been well enough to play outside with friends every day this week. I think it is interesting that this is the first time either one of them has gotten sick since I pulled them out of public school a year and a half ago. I'm almost positive they caught their bugs from a little boy they play with who was over here, and didn't mention he'd been out sick from school until my girls had been playing with him for over an hour.

This week was a very good week school-wise for all of us. It has also been a very busy week with step-daughter, B. She is having more issues, and has a court hearing next Wednesday. This was an unscheduled hearing, but due to her extreme problems, it was requested.

Week 1 Review

C began her first official week of 5th grade this week. We are only doing half days, until after Labor Day.

She finished her 3rd grade Bible program. The curriculum we use runs one year behind in publishing their new, revised versions, so she will do 4th grade for her 5th grade year. I'm not concerned about grade levels for Bible, as it's not something like English or Math.

C completed 6 more lessons in Math, and got a 90% on test #9. I wasn't too thrilled with the 90%, because her mistakes were, as always, careless ones that should have been caught by checking her work before turning it in.

She has done the first 9 lessons in her 5th grade English. We were able to do 2 lessons each day thanks to Easy Grammar last year. It was all review, although she and I are both learning a new technique for grammar...diagramming. I don't see the point of diagramming sentences, but others swear by it, and BJU English uses it, so we're seeing how it goes. She got A+'s on every assignment.

For Science, C completed unit 2 in her Zoology 1 book, and began unit 3.

I hadn't intended to start History for 2 more weeks, as we JUST finished a summer of reviewing Ancient History, but C asked if we could please start it, so we've done the first chapter of the Middle Ages. I have an entire box of "living" books to go along with our History, but if anyone has any really good recommendations for books pertinent to the Middle ages, please post them in my comments. C and I are both voracious readers, and we can never have too many books.

E is continuing on with her 1st grade work. We completed 2 lessons in her spelling/phonics program. She finished LU 103 in Bible. We began a new geography book, and she completed 2 pages. She has been reading aloud to both her Daddy and I, and particiapting in C's Zoology lessons for science.

The big news with E is that Daddy has agreed to finish teaching her math this year. She is already 1/3 through her book. He managed to do 3 pages in her book 1 evening this week. I was looking foward to getting a break from at least one class, freeing up a little more time each day, but Daddy isn't too consistent, and I'm not sure how long this arrangement will last. LOL

Week in Review

C is almost finished with 4th grade. She completed her math book 2 weeks ago, so our school days are shorter. I feel like we should be doing math. Then I try to remember how often I ever completed a whole textbook when I was growing up. Never. I can not recall one year, or even one subject, that we made it through an entire book. I didn't consider that when we began our year, and it's never been an issue here. I bought the books; we will finish the books. We are even finishing a month before public schools end their year, so we have a month of lovely weather to enjoy before softball season starts. : )

This week C finished all but the final test for her 3rd "Light Unit" in Bible. We are about 1/2-way through the last unit of science. She is on Lesson 121 of 180 in Language, and should easily finish the book by the end of May. The lessons are short, simple, review for her. We are around page 80 in Grammar, and will continue working on that next year. This coming week she will complete Unit 12 (out of 36) in her 5th grade spelling, and that was my goal for this year. We may or may not complete the book when 5th grade resumes. She doesn't really need spelling help, but I can tell she is learning some valuable skills from the book. (Dictionary skills, figuring out word problems skills.) We possibly have one unit left of U.S. History. I say, "possibly" because the unit skims over WWI and WWII, and I don't like skimming. I'm not sure how I could begin to cover not one, but both World Wars in roughly 20 pages.

Anyone who knows me knows I love History, and my "specialty" is WWII. I am fascinated by anything in that era, the people here at home, the soldiers, the European theater, the Pacific theater, but above all the Holocaust. I began my interest working with elderly in my pre-mom days. My step-father, and others I was close friends with fought in WWII. I've spent hours looking at pictures, reading letters, listening to stories, and as interesting as I find it all, it all boils down to the years 1933-1945. Hitler's years. And what our men and women went through serving our country pales in comparison to the Jewish people in Europe. How can I begin to teach my daughters about this in half of one chapter of a 4th grade History text? I had planned to spend a minimum of 1 semester, maybe at least one full year, on the World Wars when my daughter reach 8th or 9th grade. A friend of mine lives an hour from here. She was ten years old when her entire family was taken to Auschwitz. Only she, and her twin sister survived the war, out of a family of 6. They survived only by being twins. The infamous Dr. Mengele intentionally sought out twins for his "medical" human experimentation in the camps. I can assure you, virtually any other 10 year old would not have survived a concentration camp, because only the strongest, healthiest, adults were kept alive for their work value. What saved her life was Dr. Mengele's obscene fascination with twins. This lady now lives in the U.S., not far from me, and has a Holocaust museum. I hope one day to take my daughters there to meet her first hand. I have the book she authored, and hope to let them read it, along with at least 50 other books I own on the Holocaust. And even though my C is the same age as Eva was when she was taken, I'm not sure I'm ready for C to know the full extent of WWII. I've studied it extensively for 14 years now, and even I am still deeply affected by new information, new biographies. Conversely, I don't want to just skim an overview of dates, either. I don't want WWII, or any other war, to be "just another power/land struggle" between selfish rulers. So...while we have this one chapter left in C's history book, I'm still undecided as to how we will go about doing this chapter, or even IF we will do this chapter. My family knows my passion with WWII, and C probably already knows more than I give her credit for by living in the same house as me.

Back to the Week in Review. E had a productive week. She hasn't had much interest in school since about the beginning of March, so I was pleasantly surprised when she bagan asking for it again this week. She did quite a bit over 4 days. 12 pages of Math, her second-to-the-last unit in phonics. (ETC 2), 5 or 6 lessons in her Bible book, 2 pages in her other phonics book, 4 lessons in her language book, and reading practice. She worked on 3 stories in her Reading Primer. She is becoming quite fluent. I STILL can't get over the fact that I've taught a child to read. In fact, having never been to public school, I can take credit, or accept blame, (whichever may be applicable) for all my youngest knows.

E and C also made me some spring artwork. They cut and pasted their own designs to make me some beautiful, (and in E's case, very colorful) flowers. A few weeks ago we planted apple seeds, from apples they ate, and saved the seeds from in the fall. Somehow, out of 20 seeds, all but 3 disappeared by planting time. I wasn't expecting much in the way of results. However...all 3 seeds have sprouted, and we are eagerly hoping we can keep them alive. We haven't had much luck with things we've grown in the past, but I'm hoping apple trees will be hardy enough to survive our "brown thumbs".

The last major happening here has been that my husband has returned to work. Finally, after 5 months, he worked Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. We are so blessed that he has this job. So many in the country are being laid off, and losing not only jobs, but homes. It actually felt kind of weird this week without him here.

B called us last weekend twice. It was hard to find things to make "small talk" about, and no one here really wants to talk to her. Well, the 6 and 10 year old do, but none of us that understands what's going on. Hubby has to go to court again Thursday. I won't be going. No one wishes to hear what a step-mother who raised her for 11 years has to say, and frankly, I have better things to do than waste time sitting in a court room trying to refrain from opening my big mouth. Step-parents in my state have no legal rights what-so-ever. Hubby plans to officially tell the judge he gives up, and B can have her way. I'm sure they'll say that after fifteen years he is a horrible father for giving up. They don't take into consideration the other 5 people this well benefit and protect.

Have a great week, anyone who reads this! Since my posts are fairly sporadic, I'll be back in a day, or a week, or a month....

How about a Week in Review?

I've had this blog almost a year, and never done a Week in Review.I see them all the time on other hs blogs; I'm just too inconsistant to do our own.

E, grade 1, actually did 5 full days of school this week. Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

In Math she worked through Lesson 52 of Saxon 1, and had a test. She also completed 4 pages in Abeka's grade 1 math. She got A+ on all of it, with the exception of side 1 of a worksheet yesterday. She wrote in colored pencil, so sloppily that I couldn't tell what she wrote. She decided she couldn't count by 10's anymore (after having been able to do so for over a year.)and counted by 5's instead. Apparently she can't even count to 10 anymore, as directions dictated she color 10 of an item, and in one picture she colored 11, and the other she colored 13. After me blowing my top she completed the other side with no problem.

E also did 4 lessons in her Language Lessons book. She completed a unit (chapter 6) in ETC 2. I believe that's 10 pages.

In Bible she finished Light Unit 102, and learning about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, (Israel), and was introduced to Joseph.

She read aloud 2 stories in her CLE Primer.

We didn't do any formal science or social studies this week for E. We did some, just not formal, out of a book, and it was a family venture, so I'll get to that in a moment.

E's most memorable moment this week was yesterday. E FINALLY HAS A FRIEND!!!!

We noticed a little girl about E's age had moved in 2 houses down from ours. We decided to let E walk down to introduce herself, but before she could, the little girl came over here. This little girl was very polite, and invited E to her house. They played together there for an hour and a half, playing dress up and enjoying a "tea" party that the girls mother set up for them. This was all on their front porch, so she was within sight of us the entire time. They then moved playtime to our house, as it was getting dark. What well behaved children! They were so quiet, so polite, and so well-behaved. The new girl moved here because her family had a house fire. C and E picked 2 books to give her, as she lost most of hers in the fire. I offered clothing (with 4 girls we have plenty), but the mother assured me between her family, and the Red Cross they were fine. The only issue was when it was time for her to go home. The little girl sat quietly playing in my girls' room, and said, "I like it here. I don't want to go home, thank you." She was fine after I assured her we loved having her, and she could come back again. : )

I have been praying for someone E's age. She loves to be with other children, but all the ones we know or have over are older than her by 4 or 5 years. E has tons of friends, but no one her own age. She's always been the little tag-along. Finally, another child just her age, who doesn't boss her around, or leave her out of "big-girl" things.

As for C's week: In math she completed 4 lessons. She is now up to Lesson 105. A+ all week!

She completed 10 pages in Easy Grammar.

She did Unit 5 in Spelling.

We completed our chapter on the Civil War, and checked out 2 more books at the library pertaining to that war.

In Science we began our unit on Weather. I never knew clouds, humidity, and winds were so technical. We did an experiment, making our own wind with heat.

In English she did several lessons. I'm not sure how many. She does 2 or 3 per day to finish the book this year, so 10-15. We are on Lesson 65, I think.

C read 4 books on her own, and we finished reading, "These Happy Golden Years" in the "Little House on the Prairie" series aloud.

C finished light unit 302 in Bible Monday, and we took the rest of the week off in that subject, other than some reading the actual Bible aloud and discussing.

For both girls: We took a drive Thursday to enjoy our lovely weather after 3 months of below freezing temps. We ended up at one of our county parks. I hadn't been there for years, and last time we went to this particular one they had nothing of interest. This time we were able to visit a replica of a pioneer homestead. We also, by chance, got a lesson in the making of maple syrup. There was no one at the park during a weekday. We noticed they had trees tapped for sap everywhere. Asking a ranger about this, he directed us to an out-of-the-way syrup making building. The ranger there was so sweet and helpful. Not only did he take a half hour to completely explain and demonstrate to the girls (and us) how it comes from the trees, and ends up in jars to pour on pancakes, he let the girls taste samples from each step. Free, unplanned field trip! And what timing...after 8 years of not bothering with this park we end up there on one of only a few days out of the year the sap runs to make syrup. We then asked another ranger if they might have any informational pamplets for us. He led us to the ranger station, and gave us a ton! The girls'favorite is a 3 page worksheet to fill in about animals native to our area.

Both girls also accomplished some art. E painted several pictures, and both girls made their own purse out of nothing other than 2 bandanas and some scissors. I have intended to post pictures since they made these last Sunday, but peruse through my blog and see how I am about actually posting pictures. E also cut and pasted a beautiful picture of a wetland habitat...which I, again, did not photograph yet, although I can see it hanging on my wall right now. : )

There's our week. It was a fairly average one, with the exception of the field trip, and E's new friend. I hope yours was just as great!

: )