We are experiencing technical difficulties...

For some reason, I cannot upload pics to the blogs via Picasa. It's weird. I'll try to update later today or tomorrow, if I can figure out the problem.

In the meantime, we've changed up our schedule in order to be a little more productive with our day.

We have a million books from the library and I am trying to figure out the best way to cart around. My shoulder is killing me and I hate pushing around a stroller... in fact, I don't even know where our big stroller is.

How do you cart your library books around the library and to/from your car?

Weekly Wrap-up, 10/11- 10/15

Nature Journal: pumpkin in our backyard

Language Lessons...

Cursive

We had a pretty busy week. I was feeling pretty under the weather, run-down, etc. We got through the week and I think it went smoothly. The first 2 days, I let Half-Pint pick what she wanted to work on. The "picking" was an issue. While I know that this works for some children, it certainly doesn't work for HP. She needs structure at this point and likes to go by a "list". I still limited her time, so she wouldn't get bored on each subject. If she didn't finish her work in the allotted time, I let her finish it off later in the afternoon. School just seemed more enjoyable by the end of the week.

As I posted before, I've been reading Pocketful of Pinecones, and I just adore it. I've been more convicted about the kids' outside time. While I do see the importance of free time out of doors, I wanted them to be more intentional about looking around them as they are outside. There were a few days where I had to force them to stay outside for more than 5 minutes at a time. I wanted to lock the backdoor, but figured that'd be wrong... it would've been wrong, RIGHT?!?!?! ;) Either way, they spent some time out there and even sketched a little bit for their nature journals. :D!!

Half-Pint is moving along nicely with her work. She enjoys her Language Lessons from Queen's Homeschool Supplies. The lessons are long enough to keep the child engaged, and short enough that they won't get bored or frustrated with the work. HP also LOVES her cursive book and so do I. Although, with Farmer Boy, I may use Cursive first to go along with SWR, but we'll see. I still have a few years for that!

We just finished reading about Pocahontas, Jamestown, and Captain John Smith. I now love history. I hated it when I was in school... but wow... it's just so fun!

Sarcasm warning: THANK YOU, Disney... for completely screwing up the Pocahontas story! hahahaha

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Jigsaw Atlas

A few years back, I purchased a puzzle book. Half-Pint wasn't much into puzzles as a little-little one. She and I would work on some of the puzzles together, but it wasn't something she absolutely loved. Our Farmer Boy LOVES puzzles! He has good hand-eye coordination and a lot of patience when it comes to his work. So, I had him work on one puzzle. Next thing I knew (during math for Half-Pint), he had finished the whole book of puzzles!

We have a wooden puzzle United States. All the kids love that one, including Half-Pint (for some reason). They work on it together and we get a geography lesson at the same time. :D

First Paragraph

In Half-Pint's language lesson for today, she was to write a paragraph and practice Capitalization.

This just made me smile.

Nature for Today, and maybe I need to buy a book...

We found this beautiful moth just outside our front door on a sunny morning. Half-Pint recieved a "bug magnifier" for her birthday, so we were able to observe it for a few minutes before letting it go. I completely forgot to have her sketch it off the pictures we took, maybe we can do that on another day.

After talking to a friend and reading a bit from Pocketful of Pinecones, I am thinking about purchasing Anna Botsford Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study. I checked it out from the library once and thought, "eeesh... this is too huge. What woud I do with that?!" Well... now I know. The kids ask me about spiders, trees, and these other beautiful insects, and I have no clue of what their names are! ;)

So, I'll be checking out used copies of this book.

We're over a month into school and I am ALREADY thinking of buying more books for school.

Please tell me that I am NOT the only one!

lack of updates

sorry everyone. Don't worry!!! I didn't enroll the kids in the local public school!! We've just been so busy with school and life that I haven't been able to get to blogging. I hope to take some pics of school time next week.

Half-Pint has been plugging away. Her favorite subject: reading, of course.

Okay, that's it for now. My brain is fried.