This Just In

I love overhearing what my kids come up with. Evidently it's a version of pokemon. Except Mel is working with Chicky Kit and F's is named MonkeyPooper. Lots of dark magic, bomb attacks, blaster shields, star raiders, etc. Weird, yet imaginative.

Reading Favorites

Because I'm anxiously waiting for the next C.S. Harris novel in November


I'm reading old favorites. Summer of the Dragon is light and fluffy and has a heroine who is very like myself. Lots of fun if a teensy bit dated. I also reread Weep and Know Why. It has another actually believable heroine. In the they are nothing like me category I'm working my way through Will Thomas' Barker and Llewelyn mysteries.

This doesn't count that I've secretly reread F's Encylcopedia Brown books. I loved those as a kid. I can't believe how many I remember. Which says something about my trivial state of mind no doubt.

Fly By Post

The menus
Mon-beef veggie soup (raided the freezer leftover bucket), biscuits
Tue-cheeseburger macaroni, green beans, applesauce
Wed-baked chicken, corn, mashed potato & gravy, grapes from yard
Thu-cheese&bean quesadillas, salsa, canned oranges
Fri-breakfast for dinner~eggs/pancakes/hash browns, OJ
Sat-pizza breadsticks, relishes, ice cream
Sun-spaghetti&meatballs, broccoli, garlic breadsticks

Yep, it's the same old same old. I keep asking if they want something new. If I actually left it to them we would eat corn dogs, tacos and pizza in an endless cycle.

I spent most of last week and the weekend either attending soccer or working the parking lot with my boys for scouts. They hopefully earned enough to pay for summer camp. That's the goal anyway. This week is busy too. Soccer practice/scouts/cubs/girl scouts/Kid's Klub/5th grade cross country county meet/spanish and PE.

Last week was gray but pretty warm. Today is blustery (sounds very Pooh-ish) and downright chilly at 60 degrees. I'm not ready for summer to be over..... wah.........

Autumn

Autumn Fires

IN the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
The gray smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all!
Flowers in the summer,
Fires in the fall!

R.L. Stevenson
A Child's Garden of Verses

School Sunday

What we did last week? Um, let's test mom's recall. The end of the week got away from me but that happens sometimes.
Math-finished Rightstart B. It only took a month. He knew this stuff but not as well as I wanted. He took the end test and got 100% A+. That matters to him. We played math games on Thursday and Friday. Timezattack and cosmic math. We'll start C tomorrow
LA-We finished mind mapping, venn diagrams and book reports. He is reading Jake Drake, Class Clown on his own and we're reading Mr. Popper's Penguin's together. It'll be done mid week and I'm thinking of reading some Lois Lowry (Gooney Bird Greene or The Willoughby's). He also did a chapter of vocab on homographs and a couple pages of a spectrum workbook to practice bubble tests.
History-we worked through ancient India, China, Africa and some early western world stuff. He likes me to read while he's on the trampoline. I worried about his long term retention but he spent a long car trip on Saturday explaining Gilgamesh and early rice farming to his sisters so he's retaining something, lol. For the record, Gilgamesh is wicked cool. The labryinth and the minotaur are good too. Next week on to the Greeks. That should take some time.
Science-Still working on weather. Worked our way through atmosphere, clouds, storm formation, lighting, thunder, etc. I think we'll continue this week. I'd really like him to understand fronts and weather formation.

Funducational Friday

Funny for me. Education for Jon Stewart. !!!!Warning!!!!-a couple of bleeped obscenities and some use of body parts. Maybe you don't want to explain it to your pre-schooler.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Audacity of Hos
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Wedding Wednesday

So, it occurred to me last night that we have to go a wedding Saturday (Hi Shannon!). I have done nothing for this. I'm not sure my boys own anything but jeans and sneakers. I'm pretty sure a trip to K-Mart for polo shirts will be happening. Then there's me. Hmmm, I'm pretty much a jeans and sneakers girl too. I just don't have any reason to get 'all purdied up' so anything I do have is sorely out of date. Perhaps I can just hold Miss Ads and have the other girls stand in front of me and no one will notice?

Menu Monday and Plans for the Week

Ok, maybe I need to title this Mundane Monday, but here again are the menu plans for the week, because we have to eat for Pete's sake.

Mon-chicken&noodles, mashed potato, grapes (in thermos' at the soccer field)

Tue-spaghetti&meatballs, salad, strawberries

Wed-ham, rice&broccoli casserole, oranges

Thu-cheese quesadillas w/toppings, corn, kiwi

Fri-hamburgers, fries & s'mores (cooking out)

Sat-veggie soup, bread, leftover fruit w/chocolate dipping sauce

Sun-cube steaks, baked potatoes, carrots, pie?

On tap for this week:

soccer practice

library club

kids' club

homeschool spanish class

high school homecoming parade (some marching, some in the band, and the rest watching)

cross country practice

travel to MI Saturday for wedding

Hopefully we'll:

finish logical patterns this week (well not finish, since you use them daily, but you know what I mean)

do 5 Rightstart lessons

work on story mapping

continue weather study

finish an overview of ancient history up to the Greeks

read another Encylopedia Brown book

Miss Mel

fill in the 100 chart

letter of the week

read, read, read

field trip to Safety Village (referred to by older brothers as Be Careful Burg)

Not Like Other Families

Heard from the living room with dripping sarcasm. "Ooooh, herbivores, I'm sooo scared."

Saturday School Report

So, as we all know I'm the poster child for ADD so.... to keep me reminded of what we did get done and to satisfy all the family and friends who wonder just what are you teaching them:

The year up to now

all summer we reviewed math and language arts and studied some American history

Since beginning in earnest for the fall we've studied

LA-comprehension skills, reading cues, reference book use, alphabetizing and the dewey decimal system and sequencing skills, we've done vocabulary skills (synonyms, homonyms, etc), reading aloud processing skills and more work on reading comprehension

Math-number theory and systems (place value, expanded form), addition up to 5 digits and an extensive review of math facts using Rightstart, also story problems and patterns

History-ancient history from the nomads through mesopotamia, Egypt and Assyrians and Phoenicians

Science-in depth study of earth science, began weather this week

Vocabulary -lists done weekly

Cursive

Read Alouds-Detectives in Togas, Red Sails to Capri, Magic School Bus and Magic Tree House books , A Cricket in Times Square and numerous Greek Myths and Aesop's Fables

For my step-mom who worries they are being kept away from the world he has soccer on Monday and Saturday, Kid's Klub on Wed, homeschool Spanish class on Wed and homeschool PE on Thurs and of course every kid in the neighborhood is here to play with Mr. Popularity after school.

Miss Mel-

Letter of the Week ~A, M, S, F

Read Aloud~Dr. Suess, Amelia Bedelia, Beatrix Potter, Fairytales and anything else that catches her eye at the library

Science-Bearanstain Bears Big Book of Science, Usborne Beginner Science Books

Social Studies-Books about different people and places and children around the world

Her social schedule is the same as ds's.

Remember

Post Labor Day Haze

We had a good weekend here. Saturday had the best weather and luckily that day we went to the Toledo Zoo. Lots of fun. Sunday we went to a cookout and Monday we just kind of hung out. The kids are all feeling better. S quit his job so he can work on his Eagle project and attend some other clubs he's had to do without. It's clean out the freezer week so...

Menus this week:

Mon-stew (leftover meat and carrots) w/dumplings, leftover fruit tray

Tue-macaroni&cheese w/ham, broccoli, grapes

Wed-spaghetti &meatballs, salad, strawberries

Thu-baked chicken thighs, green beans, salad,pudding

Fri-rice/ham/cheese casserole, peas, fruit salad

Sat- hamburgers, relishes, ice cream w/raspberries (providing they're ripe)

Sun-leftover clean out or pbj

I Love Buzzkill

Yikes

Kinda creepy.

"When an opponent declares, 'I will not come over to your side,' I say calmly, 'Your child belongs to us already...Let me control the textbooks and I will control the state. The state will take youth and give to youth its own education and its own upbringing. Your child belongs to us already….What are you? You will pass on. Your descendants, however, now stand in the new camp. In a short time they will know nothing but this new community'." Adolf Hitler

And for the record, I don't trust any of them.