The Apprentice

"Oh grasshopper, you have so much to learn. Stick with me and you'll be fine!"

Tea vs. The Tree

Today while playing outside in the "fort", which is really just a big pine tree they like to crawl under, Tea was scraped near the eye with a branch. It got her pretty good. She is giving this sad face for dramatic effect, but I am glad we don't have Christmas pictures scheduled antime soon!

Vacation

We have had such a wonderful little vacation from "real" life this last week. Thanksgiving was awesome. The meal was delicious and we had a lot of fun playing games and just hanging out. We spent the day Friday putting up all of our decorations both indoor and out. Today I went grocery shopping and we organized a bit more. We finally hung a curtain in front of the laundry room and put up a matching valance in the kitchen. Then tonight the King and I went to see Breaking Dawn. We both really liked it. It has been so nice to have all of this time together and we still have much to look forward to. Next weekend we are going to the parade and the Christmas season will officially begin. I even baked banana bread and more pumpkin roll for the King to take back to work.

First Holiday Season

It is exciting to be experiencing our first holiday season in the new house. I was a little nervous to decorate this year. I have been decorating the same house for years, so I just knew where everything should go. Surprisingly it went even more smooth than normal. I think it is because we have so much more room here, but I'm not sure. We have a few more things to put finishing touches on, but overall it looks great. I love the feeling of being done and able to just sit back and enjoy the month of December. I like the way the new fireplace looks with the stockings hung. It really makes it feel like home!

Scenes From the Day

Happy Thanksgiving!

God

Family

Happy, healthy kids

A new house

And so much more! I hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving!

Completion

The Before

Every single room in our new house needs painted. Badly. The kitchen isn't even the most needy, but it rose to the top of the priority list because we are in here the most. As you can see it is currently lovely, or not, lime green. Seriously, think sherbet lime green. Not cool. So today it is being painted a lovely sandbar color that matches the counter tops and ties in my Coca-Cola theme. I will post pics as the process continues!

Raking Part II

Today was another afternoon spent raking and raking and raking. The King also used the leaf vacuum, but it's not really fast enough for me. The kids even had leaf bagging contests. The leaves are off of the trees for the most part and the front now looks like this. I wish I would've thought to take a picture before, but imagine a thick mat of leaves.

We got everything done but the compost area on the side of the house where the trampoline will eventually go. Whew! 35 bags and counting. We have to be done by Wednesday if we want the leaves picked up by the city.

Fastest Day Ever

With the time change the days just seem to be getting shorter and shorter. We slept in a bit today after a very late night. Everybody was feeling good this morning so we decided to go swimming. We took my little sisters along and it was a great morning to go. It wasn't super crowded and the water was so warm. Buster even enjoyed himself and when it's chilly he doesn't. Afterwards we grabbed lunch and then headed home for naps and resting. Everyone who needed one took a nap and the others played quietly. I got some laundry and cleaning up done which is always a plus. Tomorrow will be very busy with more raking. Will it ever end? I think most of the leaves are at least off of the trees now!

Week in Review XI

What an interesting week this was. We enjoyed a day on the road, where surprisingly we accomplished everthing we need and then some. We were overscheduled this week, but we enjoyed all of the activies. I have a feeling this is going to be a very busy season for us and managing our time well will be a must.

In language arts it was a huge relief to be back to normal with Chiggie. She is starting a new writing book and works on that each morning while I am working with the little girls on calendar and handwriting. So far we love this book. It breaks the writing process down into very simple steps. She is also doing a literature study on the book Trumpet of the Swan which she is enjoying. She also got all of her spelling words correct with no trouble. Tea read a new story in her Forest Friends book and worked on adjectives and commas. We also worked in spelling with ea words which she grasped quickly. Midge's focus this week was on sharing and being thankful. She read several stories with this theme. Each week she is learning new sight words and while progress is slow at this point she is learning. Both Tea and Midge like working on handwriting and it is a great time filler when I am working with Chiggie.

In Bible we are talking about the Fall and how it effected the earth we live on. The girls have been acting out Bible stories on their own with their barbies as well. I like the book we are using, but might look for something more for Chiggie next year.

I am finally seeing why I feared math the most. It's not that it's really hard, it's just very time consuming at this point. They are all 3 learning new concepts and need one on one. I don't foresee this lasting very long though. Chiggie is learning to solve equations with +,-,/, and *. She is finally liking it I think. Tea is adding 3 digit numbers, money with decimals, and continuing to advance with telling time and fractions.

In history we learned about Marquette and Jolliet along with Peter Stuyvesant. I like that the curriculum we are using covers such a wide variety of topics. The girls enjoy it. We will be learning more about pirates soon and they're very excited for that. We also made pilgrim hat place settings for Thanksgiving. I think they turned out nicely.
We are still talking about planet Earth in science. This week we made advertisements selling the planet. They were very creative. Midge's had several drawings of things from other planets such as volcanoes, craters, and clouds of sulfuric acid with x's through them. It was very cute and shows me how much she is learning. They were all great. We also made edible Earth's. The Crust was chocolate, with a rice krispy treat mantel, and a fireball making the inner and outer core. Of course they loved this and they were pretty tasty.

As a family we are reading Stuart Little. It is much different than the movie and we're liking it a lot so far. Next week we are only doing school on Monday and Tuesday. We are excited for our 5 day vacation!

Testing

Today Boo and Midge had karate belt testing. They love testing day. Balloons and suckers are involved. Congrats girls. We now have a purple belt and a blue belt!

Raking and Staying Focused

Today I raked so many leaves it was unbelievable. This weekend's wind storm sped up the leaf dropping process. I wish I could say it's over, but 16 bags later and I would still guess we get at least 6-7 more. The kids were a huge help. They are working to earn money for little Christmas trees for their rooms. They rode their bikes while I raked and then helped me bag. It's nice that they are getting old enough to truly be helpful.

This week is proving to be insane. We have something going on every day and several things on some. From flu-shots to concerts to karate belt testing. I guess we're trying to fit it all in before our vacation next week. We are all very much looking forward to next week, but I'm trying to get the kids to understand that the more we get done now, the more we will be able to relax then.

One Down

Here is Boo, just before she got sick. One minute happily playing on her scooter, begging to have her picture taken, the next heaving and running a fever. Poor, poor, Boo. She is so very sweet and I hate to see her feel lousy. I can't help but wonder who might be next?

Self Portraits

Week in Review X

Only one more week left until Thanksgiving break! School is going great, but it will be nice to have some time off and the King will be home to enjoy it with us!

In Language Arts this week Midge and I read the book Caps For Sale and she loved it. Afterwards she made this neat puppet of herself wearing the caps. She had me draw the face, but she colored all the caps and glued them to "her" head. Tea started her new reader and enjoyed the first story. Chiggie finished up her unit on tall tales and I'm pretty sure we're equally relieved.

In Bible we started discussing the concept of an imperfect word created by a perfect God. I am surprised at how much they are grasping. I'm glad I decided to do a formal Bible study as I am realizing that they really are capable of understanding some of the more complex stories and ideas.

Math continued to be challenging but we made it through. Tea finished book 1 and will start book 2 on Monday. I am pretty sure I have decided to go ahead and start the 2nd grade book after Christmas. She doesn't even seem to find what she's doing challenging, but we can't skip the foundational steps. Midge is adding using the number line and it takes awhile, but she has the concept down. Chiggie is multiplying multiple digit numbers and dividing with remainders. Again, this takes time, but she gets it.

In History we finally finished up our unit on Indians. We made fry bread today to celebrate and it was a success. They loved it with honey. When I asked where they thought the Indians might have gotten honey Midge answered, "Whinnie the Pooh?" It was very cute. We cut our bread out with our gingerbread boy cutters which made it even more fun.


I would say that Science was the favorite this week. We have moved on to planet Earth and are learning all kinds of things. We read The Magic School Bus Inside the Solar System this week and even I learned a lot.

In their spare time the older girls have been working on their drawing with a site they found that gives step by step insructions. They both have a knack for it and came up with some pretty good ones. Here is Tea with her squirrel she drew entirely on her own.

We have several projects next week including finishing our Pilgrim hat place settings and making an edible Earth. Until then we plan to enjoy the relaxation the weekend promises....

School Buddies

Yikes!

This guy was kickin' it in our game closet. Chiggie was the unfortunate discoverer. Needless to say she won't be going back in there!

Riding

Midge has been patiently waiting for us to work with her on riding her bike without training wheels. She has a razor scooter that she rides so it really wasn't a big rush. Apparently she got tired of waiting and taught herself. This all happened very shortly after we moved into the new place. I went outside this afternoon and was surprised at how well she really rides. Just another example that kids will do things when they are ready!

Weekend Ramblings

I think we will call this, the weekend that go away. I had so many plans. I really did. There is just not enough time. Yesterday I attempted some housework and raked leaves. We have many trees now and there are still a lot of leaves that need to fall already. I did manage to get 6 bags though. I will probably end up doing twice that before it's over, but I don't want to let it get too overwhelming.

Today the kids and I went to church and then everyone just had a relaxing day afterwards. A bit too relaxing by the looks of the house. There is a roast with potatoes in the crock pot and rolls raising for dinner so that should be easy. Now I just have to get up the energy to clean up the kitchen. You'd think I would have more energy what with the whole "extra" hour and all...

Week in Review IX

Overall this was a very smooth week. If I could change anything it would be starting earlier. I know this is an ongoing theme. It is so hard to get up when my nights are so late. Plus, it has been very cold lately and that makes it even harder. We don't ever skip anything, we just end up going later. I like to have our afternoons freed up for other things.


In Language Arts Midge is coming along in her phonics. This week we worked heavily on phonetic sounds. I would lay out all the letter cards, say a word, and she would have to spell it with the letter cards. She does very well with this. We are also working on just plain reading for enjoyment more often. Tea finished up her All About the Farm unit and will move on to Forrest Fables next week. She is also reading at least one chapter book a week. We worked on contractions, pronouns, and apostrophes this week. Chiggie is continuing a unit on Tall Tales. I actually have found it to be confusing. We enjoyed reading Tall Tales, but writing one is a lot harder than it sounds. Separating it from a fairytale or fable is difficult. We will continue through next week. She's also reading a novel for history and starting a new writing curriculum that we both love so far. Whew, LA is heavy right now.

We are still learning about the Trinity in Bible. This was a bit longer of a section so we'll continue with that for the first part of next week.

Only Chiggie is working on typing right now. She is just trying to improve speed as she has mastered the keyboard. Tea was overwhelmed and it wasn't worth it.

Math is getting more difficult every day for all 3 girls. Midge is learning place value and measurements. I think it is easier for her to grasp it than it is for me to explain it. Tea took a test this week on unit 7 and didn't miss a single problem. She is adding and subtracting double digit numbers, working more complex word problems, and beginning to work with fractions. She is great with money problems as well. Chiggie is working with multiplication with carrying, division, prime numbers, factors, and place value in the 100 billions. She is starting to like math.

In history we have now covered the Algonquian, Cherokee, Deleware, and Abenaki Indian tribes. We should finish the section early next week.

Science was fun this week. We finished our chapter on Venus with an experiment with radar. I wasn't sure how well it would work but we forged on and it worked fantastic. Even Boo was able to help.
We made a terrain in abox and then covered it with a gridded paper towel. Using a color coded dowel the girls pushed through the grid and color coded their paper.

This is Tea's fake pout face. She was pretending to be mad about the color she got. Right after I took this picture she was laughing.

Here is Midge's almost finished grid. They were able to tell by their papers what parts of the were flat and where the "mountains" were. I think they all have a solid understanding of how we can sometimes find things out about planets that we can't get safely close enough to see.

Next week I have a few fun crafts planned for the season. I'm glad we are more settled here and things are feeling more organized. I need to get our calendar and seasons board up though, they miss that.

SNOW!

It's only early November and we have already had two pretty decent snowfalls. Yesterday was just as exciting for the kids as last week was. Luckily this time we didn't lose power at all. The only way we could get Buster to eat his cereal was to turn his highchair to face the window. He wanted to watch the snow falling. Tea helped him get situated. He loves her very much!

After school the girls went outside and built these snowmen. They love having a big yard to play in.

These two crack me up. They informed us the other night at dinner that they are BFF's. I'm happy that they are not only sisters but good friends. I can't imagine a life without siblings.

Chiggie was the engineer behind the project. She is a great leader that way. She is really loving to play outside here too. Hopefully we will have many more snowy days this winter!

Halloween

Wow, Happy November! It's nice and chilly here and we're expecting snow tomorrow. It feels very seasonal. I'm really looking forward to the holiday season this year even though I am still hopelessly overwhelmed with the whole moving thing.

We had a really fun Halloween, even though the King had to work. We went to a Halloween party on Friday and then trick or treating Monday night.
Midge was a vampire this year. She's not crazy about dressing up. She has sensory issues and doesn't like to wear any make-up. The cape bothered her, but she was a trooper.

Boo made an absolutely adorable Little Bo Peep. She carried her staff the whole time. She is all about the candy!

Tea was a bride this year. This is actually my veil. She looked beautiful! She wore little heels and they didn't slow her down a bit.

Buster was a gorrilla. He was very quiet but on a mission. Once he figured out what was going on he became focused on filling his bucket. He refused to let anyone hold it for him. When his legs got tired he happily hopped into his stroller but still had a death grip on the bucket. He went to bed very happy last night.

Chiggie went all out as a clown this year. We all loved how it turned out. I'm glad she is willing to be so creative.