To Infinity and Beyond

I love this boy like crazy.  He is sweet, ornery, and just plain cute.  I can't imagine life without him.  He is exactly what we needed!

Highlights from weeks 5 and 6

 I think it's safe to say that we have found our groove!  Each day this week ended with a feeling of accomplishment.  Boo is doing amazing with phonics and will be reading very soon.  Midge is very close to her goal of 150 sight words and is reading more alone at night which makes me a happy mama. 

This week Chiggie made these amazing peanut butter, chocolate muffins.  They were every bit as yummy as they look.  She is getting much more comfortable in the kitchen and looks forward to making something each week.

 Art consisted of these fingerpainted floral arrangements.  I just can't get over how cute they look!  I really didn't know how they were turn out but the girls were pleased and it was a lot of fun.

 Who says the homeschool lunch table is a lonely one?  These are the three musketeers and keep each other pretty entertained all day.

Today (Friday) we took our first trip.  We went to the ice rink and the girls skated so well.  I think our practice last year really paid off.  They have a lot of stamina too, we skated the whole 2 hour session!  With fall officially here we have  a couple of other outings planned as well!

Go Buster!

Late breaking news at the Dauk house:  Buster is potty trained.  I really didn't want to rush things and mention anything too soon, but he has now been diaper free for a week and a half.  I am shocked at how easily he made the transition.  So many people were eager to tell me how much more difficult he would be to potty train just because he is a boy.  While I will agree that he is very different from my girls, I would not say he is "harder" in any particular way.  I am so proud of him and his "big boy" status!

Finally....

 

This weekend we were finally able to hold to our word and throw Boo her birthday celebration with friends. It was very sweet to see how excited she was!  All of her friends were able to make it which just made it that much better.  It may have been a little later than we had originally planned but it was very special for our very special girl!

 

 

 

Right Before my Eyes

The three little girls ready for "sports team night" at AWANA

 

 

It's true.  I never should have blinked.  Right before my very eyes my babies are growing up.  They are developing into their own at a rate I never could have imagined.  I like this place we're at though.  This growing up thing isn't so bad.

Week 4

 This week I have to say I am so thankful for our health so far this year.  So many families that we are close to have experienced some pretty nasty illnesses so far this season.  We are chugging right along so if it hits us at least we shouldn't be thrown too far off track.

The highlights this week include: Boo's reading and writing.  She is progressing much faster than I anticipated that she would.  I am excited to see what happens in the next two weeks as she will start learning consonant blends which will open her reading world up quite a bit.  Her handwriting just seems so good for her only being 5 as well.  I take this as a blessing because I am so busy this year I wouldn't have wanted her to slip through the cracks.

 We wrapped up our unit on bones and added skeletons to everyone's personal persons.  To help understand bones and how they work we dissected chicken bones.  That was interesting for all involved.

The girls were pretty grossed out by the red bone marrow.  I was impressed with how much Boo retained.  She cut herself on the arm later the same afternoon and asked me if her red bone marrow would replace the blood cells she lost.  It was a pretty happy teacher moment for me.

Both older girls have a math test on Monday.  Math is going well and they seem to be progressing nicely.  Chiggie's math is so long that sometimes both of us get a little frustrated by that.

In history we are reading a novel about the War of 1812 and another novel about Tecumseh.  We will finish those both up early next week and then do some notebooking activities. 

Next week will also wrap-up our study of Noah and the flood.  The little girls are working on a lapbook and Chiggie has some verses to read along with some questions to answer.

Now if we can just stay healthy I think we are doing just great!

Absolutely, positively, a Monday

After all of my raving about Buster last week, today he had no choice but to contradict everything I had said.  He woke up much too early after a late night of watching football and eating junk.  I figured he would just nap a bit earlier, which would work out well due to a lunch meeting I had.  He was whiny, whiny, whiny, all morning long.  Nothing seemed to make him happy.  At lunch he didn't seem hungry but just fussed.  Finally nap time came and I was relieved we made it.  Only to have him scream his way through much of the nap.  Now I am forced to wonder if he, along with everyone else I know right now, is getting sick....please no!

Week 3: A Short Week

Every week that goes by I get a little more confident about this year.  Buster is such a little helper, which is quite the difference from last year. 

He favorite time of the day is calendar time.  He knows our days of the week, months of the year, and seasons songs already and sings them throughout the day.  It will make things much simpler here in a few years that's for sure.

 He imitates the girls too.  Here I found him curled up on the couch with a phonics reader.  I'm sure he will be reading in no time with the amount of time he spends watching me teach the little girls.

 The girls are loving our science demonstrations this year.  They put an egg in a container and shook it up.  Then they put a new egg in a container with water and shook that up.  The 2nd egg stayed intact while the first cracked open.  Now they understand why our brains are surrounded with fluid. 

We finished up talking about Sacajawea, Lewis and Clark, Zebulon Pike and the Barbary pirates this week in history and all 4 girls completed another week of LA lessons.  Chiggie will be babysitting every other week for Christian organization so we took this week off baking.  They made glue drawings for art, but they took so long to dry we will have to paint them on Monday.  It was a short week but I really feel like we accomplished a lot!

Ready for Fall

I don't know about everybody else but we are definitely ready for fall.  The proof is probably in the fact that I have blogged about it twice is the last couple of weeks. The cooler temperatures we are already having are so nice.  I have hardly even been turning the air conditioner on the last week or so.  The kids can play outside any time of day without getting all hot and sweaty.  Fall is really one of my very favorite seasons.  I love Halloween, Thanksgiving, and surprisingly I even enjoy raking leaves.  Sipping hot apple cider and eating crock pot meals just makes me smile!

Week 2: Cruising Through

Another week down.  I have misplaced my memory card reader and was planning on waiting until I had the pictures, but I'd rather post now while the week is fresh in my mind and add the pictures when I have them. 

We had another very full week.  I am pleased to report that so far we are still loving most everything.  The little girls and Buster made another lap book in Bible and it was as cute or cuter than the first.  I am so glad I made the choice to do an actual Bible study this year.  Much of the material is review, but I like that.  I think we are reinforcing the building blocks that they will need to cover the more complex issues. 

We hit a bump in the road with Language Arts this week.  There appears to be a learning gap between the book Midge used last year and this years book.  The book we had planned to use this year is a 2nd grade book (she is 6 and in 1st) but the book she used last year was the 1st grade book.  The jump is too far for her though.  She is a great early reader but needs more phonetic instruction before jumping into the heavier reading material.  I still haven't decided exactly how I will handle this.  I am researching a couple of options though and for now we are reading, reading, reading, and doing copy work from multiple easy readers.

Chiggie is finishing up Carry on, Mr. Bowditch, which have both enjoyed immensely.  Her curriculum is very straight forward and she really doesn't need much assistance this year.  It's the same for Tea.  She is focusing on her handwriting right now and learning cursive but her reading is already very advanced.  She usually reads a Magic Tree House book a day during her free time.  She has also read the first two Harry Potter books.  I am loving the Horizons Phonics for Boo and so is she.  Right now she is continuing to review the letters and their sounds, but she is having fun and retaining well.

So far math isn't nearly as intimidating for any of the kids as it was last year.  It too is fairly straightforward and only new concepts need explanation.  Both older girls took their first test on Friday so I will know soon how much they are retaining throughout the lessons.

We finished up our first unit in science with the making and eating of a cell.  This activity was of course enjoyed by my candy loving students.  We played vocabulary trivia to help reinforce the parts of a cell and even Boo is really getting it.  This is a favorite for all us so far this year.

We finished up our tour of the White House and Washington D.C. and began exploring the Louisiana Territory with Lewis and Clark this week.  Chiggie and I are reading Streams to the River, River to the Sea, and it is hard to put down.  As a family we have read/are reading multiple short stories and journals about the expedition.  I think the kids are excited to see the settlers moving west, closer to home.

Chiggie made some amazing brownies from scratch including homemade frosting.  This unit is not good for my waist line.  She is having so much fun and gaining confidence in the kitchen.  It is nice for her to see the little kids get so excited that she is baking and eager to try our her creations.

Art was  a little more complicated this week but all ended well.  They drew flower pots with wax crayons and then crumpled up the pictures.  Afterwards they painted over them and then ran the paper under water.  They dried and look really neat.  Next week I hope to find something a little easier though, it made for quite a busy afternoon with so many paintings.

We took the holiday weekend off to get some much needed rest and rejuvenation , but I am already excited for our next week.. This year we have much more concrete evidence of progress than I felt like we had last year.  I think the main difference is that I know more what to look for.