Week #11~Pumpkin Fever

The week started off with my dad's 83rd birthday party on Sunday. That's a high point right there. I hope I'm as full of p*ss and vinegar as the old man is when I'm that age.Monday was our 24th anniversary. Phil's sister sent us these beautiful flowers.Monday and Tuesday were normal days. We did school, starting new light units for math and LA. Monday before the weather turned ugly we visited a local pond.

We continued through the week with our science unit on pond habitats and studied pond plants, the life cycle of dragon flys and mosquitoes and how beavers change an environment.

We also had Daisy and Cub Scouts and went swimming Monday night. Tuesday we had some kind of weird gale force winds (tornados in the area) and rain and so I was glad we went Monday.

When planning last week I totally forgot we had a field trip planned for Wednesday. We went to a pumpkin patch with a group of local homeschoolers. It was a very good trip. We had an explanation of how pumpkins are planted and grow along with some cute poems and finger plays for the littles along, a hay ride,
time to pet the donkeys and goats,

several games, a hay maze,

a corn maze, a pumpkin bounce house and oh yes, we got a pumpkin.

As much fun as that was it put us a day behind and then Thursday dawned with the dead. The tummy bug dead and that shot down Thursday. The only thing that got done was them listening listlessly to this

We are going to continue our study of Jamestown next week because we just didn't get it done this week.

Luckily today everyone felt better. We did our regular work (two days behind but oh well) along with some special Halloween/pumpkin activities.

They tested whether pumpkins, apples, lemons and grapes sunk or floated. They estimated circumference and length of pumpkin vines and then figured out how to measure those items with curves using yarn. They listed all the things they could think of that pumpkins can be used for and completed a Venn Diagram comparing apples and pumpkins. We also played Halloween matching game, wrote about our trip and created some paper mosaic art.

Tonight is our town's local Scarecrow Festival and we have three friends coming to spend the night. Saturday dh and I are going out with friends and we've also been invited to a Halloween party and Sunday is church, youth and trick-or-treats of course. I'm thinking I will need next Monday to recover.

Week #10~Birthday Fun

Last Saturday my kids participated in a homeschool science fair. There were 10 entries which isn't bad for the first year trying it. At least I exposed my kids to the scientific method.
Wednesday the big news was that Mel turned 7. SEVEN! Eeek! Here we are having her chosen supper of frozen pizza.

We also had cupcakes with our friends at Kid's Klub at church. We didn't have a real party because we'll be going to celebrate a combo grandpa/Mel birthday Sunday. Her big present is we are going to go see Cinderella on stage Saturday.
In school

Fman~

Math~He worked with graphs and division and aced his math quiz.

LA~He did lots of sentence conventions, quotations and paragraph writing involving transition words and describing a process. He wrote on making a peanut butter sandwich and taking a shower.

History~We discussed LaSalle and Sir Walter Raleigh and Roanoke Island

Science~We did pond habitats. We studied cattails, dragonflys and beavers and did a dragonfly lapbook.

We worked on the world's ugliest Halloween House. The icing was too runny so

We ended up with something like this.

Miss Mel ~

Math~She took a LU 104 test and got a 94%. She missed two she knew. Not sure if she wasn't paying attention or what.

LA~She began primer 3 in LTR and worked on sentence ending punctuation

Science&History~She does the same thing as F-man

She also did a blue million crafts and played train with Miss Ads

Not to mention worked on her engineering skills.

The older four continue to be busy. E is working three jobs and keeping up A's as of her college mid-term. The high school boys each had all A's for the 9 weeks. L had one B+. She sure got kidded about being the 'dumb' one in the family. She is going to a middle school dance tonight. Luckily she's in student council so will have to spend time taking tickets, thus cutting into possible boy time.

I Am This Crotchety Guy

Week 9~Break

After last week this week seems, well , anticlimactic. A tummy bug went through the house one at a time so that slowed us down. We finished up LU, took tests and are taking Friday off for 'Fall Break'. We completed our science fair project for tomorrow's science fair. Halleluja! We read tons. We finished Justin Morgan Had A Horse and read through some Ambleside Online selections. I think we've finally finished conquistadores and can move on to Roanoke and Jamestown next week. We did some picture study on this

The kids also did Spanish, PE and art class along with a boatload of crafts at home this week. That's it. A sort of slow, simple week but it left lot of time for being outside

Week #8~Memory Rich, Picture Poor

A busy week this week but I couldn't seem to remember to bring a camera anywhere.

Fman~ He worked on division which he felt like made perfect sense along with some geometry. We finished his second Light Unit (workbook) in Reading and he got a 95% on his test. He had a LA test too. He got a 93% and was darn happy with that. Grammar is not his friend.

Miss Mel~ Math was just more facts and reading graphs. She looked at me like I was stupid when I explained them. I could hear the mental "Well duh, mom" Reading moved on and she is really doing quite well. She still thinks phonics is boring though.

History~We continued to study the conquistadores and added in John Cabot. There's a lot to cover there.

Science~Not a very sciency (is that a word) week. Our mold is not growing well. We did a lot with hibernation/migration and why we have Fall and leaves.

In the afternoons we did a unit study on

We talked about the life cycle of a pumpkin, Fall, Indiana crops, who James Whitcomb Riley was, dialect, meter and all sorts of other things. We don't do many lapbooks but we did this time.

We worked with pastels and drew pumpkin patches too but they are too heavily pasteled to scan.

We spent today here


We crawled in wigwams and lean-tos, watched people skin animals, re-enact the battle, talked to trappers and pirates and used a two person saw. I just didn't think I could keep the three of them out of a fire or hatchet range and take pictures too.

L finished her cross country season. Sorry for the poor picture quality, I'm not sure what happened there.

C finished his high school soccer season. Suddenly it seems like we have loads

of time. It won't stay that way for long.

Week #7

What happened to week #6 you ask? Life. Lots and lots of life. But on to the past week.

LA~

Fman worked through diagramming sentences and paragraph writing. Make that good paragraph writing.

Miss Mel doesn't like it much but we continued with phonics. She thinks that the fact she can read well means she doesn't need it but I think she does. And I win!

Math~

Fman worked more with decimals. He is doing really well with CLE but we added in some MEP logic type problems and worked in RS too though D is seeming mostly like review.

Miss Mel catches on really fast to math so far. I'm thinking of adding some MEP stuff for her too just for fun.

History~We have been studying all of the early explorers, conquistadors and the people they found here. Here they are grinding corn ala the Aztecs.

If the Aztecs hunkered down in the shade with rocks that formerly lined the driveway. It gave us a chance to talk about grit and our teeth too when I refused to make said cornmeal into muffins.

Science~

We continued looking at cells and also worked hard on learning the scientific method. We began tentative work on our science fair projects. For fun we did nature walks since who knows when it will turn cold and ugly. Might be next week, might be in 8 weeks. Who knows? I say why miss a nice day.

Miss Ads kept arguing these aren't cat tails because there are no cats. Three year olds are very concrete. Or she's channeling Elton John.

This is the outfit she insisted on wearing everywhere. Spanish, PE, the grocery, Cub Scouts. Evidently this is her version of the little black dress.

A good week overall. Much quieter than last week when I spent all my time working at the Boy Scout Parking Lot during Street Fair. They better really like camp.