November!

Ok the days are absolutely flying by... I was in shock when my OB told me I needed to start coming in for check ups every 2 weeks since I am in my 3rd trimester.  What?!   Where did the 7 months go?  They booked me appts through December, at which time I need to start going coming in every week to the OB, and we'll have to discuss my C-section (and tubal ligation) date.  Wowzers.  This is really happening.  I've been so busy taking care of the 2 girls I haven't really begun to process having a third (and already super active) child in the house...oh BOY!!

In the meantime... we survived Hurricane Sandy (yay, we never lost power!)... Halloween came and went...and no one has been seriously ill yet (knock on wood).  School is going well.  I am really tired but we are plowing through to get as much done before baby arrives.  Then we'll take a break for a few months and pick up again for the end of Kindergarten for Emilie by May.  I plan on starting her in first grade around June and we'll keep going.  It is better for us to school year round, doing a little bit every day, then to take huge long breaks.  Learning retention is better and it keeps them busy when the weather's bad anyhow.   

I was super happy that Emilie's mid-year academic review by our Umbrella school was GREAT.  

"Her portfolio looks awesome!" she said.  YAY!  I probably overdid it, but I didn't know what to expect, since this was my first review.  I had pictures and work samples and art projects to document everything we've been doing.  At least I now know what to expect for the next review and I probably don't need to stress out as much over it as I did this time.  ;-)

Here are some pics in no particular order.  

We did a coral unit last month and made a diorama.

They girls had fun with the movable fish

(I strung them from fishing wire with toothpick holders).

 I made Em some blend cards with matching pics.

She's moved on from 3 letter words to sounding out 4 letter words with blends.

 Some of the coral we found from the Cayman Islands...

Oh it was so beautiful there!

 I love the Montessori method of teaching grammar in the 3-6 age group.

This is called the "Grammar Farm" but I've adapted it

to just be the noun farm for Kindy.  :-) 

We'll revisit this next year in 1st grade when we start talking about

articles and prepositions and such.

 Eliz doing some color sorting with planets.

 Em reviewing sight words.

 We also carved pumpkins and studied the pumpkin life cycle (not pictured).

 Eww for PULP!

 The kids went to our church's fall festival 

for Halloween and they had the "BEST TIME EVER!!".

Mom was a bee and Dad was a pirate (pic is on FB).

:-)

 We had a stretch of beautiful weather in early October

so we were outside a lot, at the playground,

going on nature walks, and making leaf window hangings.  

 Eliz working on her pencil grip!

 More sight word practice via a bingo game.

 Tally stick math, counting by 5s.

I made up some scrambled sentences for Em to unscramble and write.

Can't remember where I printed the ditto from, sorry.

It was a good month!

Homeschooling update

I can't believe it's almost October already!!  

We are loving this beautiful fall weather!

School is going well.  Kids are making great progress

with what seems like such little daily school time (max 2 hours/day).

But with one-on-one instruction, Em is able to make leaps and bounds.

Reading

She's reading short-vowel CVC readers (BOB books)

and sounding out new words.  We're working through new phonograms weekly.

She's almost done with book 1 of Explode the Code.  Sorry no pics of her bookwork.

Writing

She started writing sentences on her own, without me telling her what to write.

So proud of her!  Even though they are short sentences (and often misspelled),

I love that she is taking initiative to write -- which is one of the goals of Kindergarten writing.

She wrote a bunch of sentences while we were away on vacation (another post coming on that!!) but I don't have pics of that.

Math

We've been working on simple addition with the abacus, along with reviewing

place value, skip counting, time, and money.

She did this page today...a page I xeroxed from

a 1968 math book we used as kids!!  

Love vintage books.

Telling time to the hour.

She can also count by 5s, which will help in 

telling time more accurately later on.

Co-op

Our co-op started a few weeks ago... we are loving it!

Such great families there, and the girls love going to their 3 classes (cooking basics, literature, and games).

We met at playground for the first meeting, and the kids found a silk worm and made a home for it!

I am teaching a 1-2nd grade literature class there, which keeps me busy!

I have 6 sweet kids and every week we read a book and do several activities related to it.

This past week we read Madeline, a book about a little French girl who has her appendix removed.

So we talked about our GI tracts, learned about appendicitis, and about French culture.  

I had the kids made the Eiffel Tower out of sugar wafers and frosting (pinterest!)...and

they had a blast.

Here's one sweet girl and her tower.   :-)  I have pics of the other 5 but I'm too lazy to put them all up.   (All the moms have to teach a class to be a part of the co-op.)

Soccer

Here is a pic from their first soccer class...

Eliz decided the class was a little too much for her,

so I withdrew her from it.  :-)

But so far Em is keeping up with it and doing well.

Totschool: Elizabeth

She is having fun learning how to write and trying to keep up with big sis.  ;-)

 Still working on her fine motor skills!

 Playdough letter mat..

 Tracing...

 Sharpening every.single.pencil.in.the.house.  ;-)

 She put the correct days of the week in order - I was surprised!

She is able to recognize letters and sounds

much more adeptly than Em could at her age!

Eliz can already count to 30.  

So these days my main concern is figuring out if she is left or right handed!

She switches hands frequently while holding her pencil

and can actually use BOTH, almost equally well!

I suspect she is a lefty but she is trying to use her right hand

because she sees me doing it.

I keep telling her to just pick one hand and stick with it,

but she doesn't want to.

So we shall see!

Art/misc/Fun stuff

We've read so many books and done projects with them --

but I can't find the pics now.  So here are just a few.

 We made pastel pics from the Yellow Ball book...

 And acted out the story of Jonah with whales and paper

Jonahs!

 We also went apple picking at a local orchard 

with our co-op friends.

Too tired to put up more pics but they had fun!
So we made an apple pie today - my first ever!
I did not make the crust...
but the pie came out half decently for a first effort, haha.
(Sorry forgot to take a pic of the finished pie).

Poor Eliz was TIRED

after walking for 2 hours.

This pic just cracks me up!

Love her!!

It's been a productive month and

I know it's because God is carrying me

and giving me strength to keep going!!!

(Cuz  the Lord knows there are DAYS when 

I don't have it in me to do this!!

Some days are rough.

Some are better than others.

But we keep going!

 And I have no regrets

because I know this is what God is calling me to do.

So onwards we go!)  :-)

T-minus 3 months and counting before BABY #3 arrives!!!!

Damascus Community Fair

Took the kids to a local fair today.... 

one of the many "field trips" we've been on lately.  

(So behind on blogging!)

It was very small, but there were some neat finds.

 There was a trailer full of agricultural learning.

A display showing how the worm under the green onion eats the

onion and then in turn gets eaten by the mouse.

All this underground activity helps the soil stay fertile.

 Milking a fake cow

(a lot of water squirted out!)

 It was neat to see the soy beans 

from which Emilie gets her milk - 

and all the other uses for the soy bean.

 A horses' tail to brush.

 Measuring horses by "hands".

 In another building were science displays made by

local elementary kids.

Here, a butterfly collection.

 Insect collection.

 Puffer and starfish.

 A student made display of how corn is grown and harvested.

 All the local flowers grown and awarded.

Another nature table display.

 An egyptian mummy craft made by a student

(mommy is logging ideas for when we study ancient civilizations

in first or second grade).

 The farm animals were few,

but the girls still enjoyed seeing them.

 So many varieties of chickens!!

And no fair is complete without a John Deere tractor

converted into a slide for kids.  :-)

It was a fun morning.