Around the House :: We started school and then last week ended up taking the whole week off. Â Last Monday morning 5 of 6 kids needed well-child visits at the pediatrician. Â That took all morning! Â Then Wednesday we left for our Cincinnati Baseball trip. Â This week we got back into things with our first full week of school. Â So far so good. Â I’m liking our daily schedule.
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| Fine Motor/Sorting activity |
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| Levi has fun lining up/organizing dominoes |
Five in a Row :: Â This week we read The Bee Tree by Patricia Polacco
I wanted to read this before it got cold and we forgot what a Michigan summer felt like.
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| random summer photo |
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| random summer photo |
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| random summer photo |
We have a bit of family interest in bees, as we all love honey! so that’s what we talked about for most of the week.  We used these bee coloring pages, colored a map of Michigan, and read a go-along book called The Honeymakers
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. On Wednesday we made baking powder biscuits, and ate them with honey and fresh brewed (iced) tea.  We used the recipes from the FIAR cookbook.
Patricia Polacco almost always has characters from Eastern Europe in her books too, which make them especially fun to read for our family.
Our bible verse this week was 1 Peter 4:9. Â “Hospitable” can be a challenging word to say!
Paths of Exploration :: We have had a great week with Paths of Exploration. Â I’m really enjoying being able to work with the 3 older kids on the same things. Â This week we talked about syllables in words and how to recognize them.
Sarah and Jonah had a great time working together on the word search that was in their notebooks for the week. Â Shouts of joy and high fives every time a new word was found, fun stuff. Â Jacob and I worked on his together.
Later in the week I had to leave what we were working on to take care of an issue with the younger kids, when I came back the three of them were still pouring over the map and globe talking about the different routes Christopher Columbus might have taken.
I implemented a new little administrative item this week. Â Over the weekend I took out all the notebook pages from their large binders that we were going to need for the week and put them in a smaller, inexpensive paper folder. Â I can easily fit that small folder in their workboxes. Â The new notebook pages are on the left side of the folder and the completed work can be placed in the right hand side. Â At the end of the week I can take out the completed pages, put them back in the larger binder, and take out the new pages needed for the next week.
Housekeeping Note: I’ve decided to end my weekly linky. Â I’m planning to continue with my posts, just not have the link up here. Â I’m going to link up with Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Â Thanks to all who linked up, it was fun and I appreciate your participation!
Nice start to the school year 🙂 We start our new year on Monday!
Thanks Mary!
What a wonderful week. We love that book and really enjoyed it last year.
Blessings,
Dawn
It is a really sweet story. FIAR never disappoints! Thanks for your comment Dawn 🙂
Next Wed we “officially” start hs-ing Seth. I am so nervous. He and I spent the last two days just getting our area organized (we set up a space in the corner of our great room), but I don’t have my lesson plans ready. I haven’t even had time to really read through the curriculum to figure out how I am going to organize it. I am taking a “day off” tomorrow (Saturday) and spending the whole day at my favorite cafe surrounded by my teaching guides and my laptop. I at least need to get the next three weeks ready. Good news is that I have already checked our first two books for FIAR out of the library (we got them today). Yeah! I am excited.
Reading your updates always encourages me and offers me some great ideas!
You know, for how busy you are, you do an amazing job with your creativity. You are a great teacher and an even better mother!
Thanks Patty for those sweet words!
Good luck with your day off tomorrow! You will be just fine. In a couple of days you will have your groove and really enjoy it. I’m glad you are encouraged, I never do anything fancy, the FIAR books speak for themselves. Can’t wait to hear how your first day goes 🙂
It sounds like you had a great start to the year! 🙂
I just love your photos and how priceless is it that your kids were theorizing about the journey of Christopher Columbus! Wow! 🙂 Many kudos, mom! 🙂
God bless,
Lisa
Thanks Lisa! So far so good 🙂
I was so excited when I was reading your sidebar that I skipped the post. I’ll have to go back and read it! We just finished our first 2 adoptions of twins from America. It was a long and semi scary process but we will be forever grateful. May the Lord continue to bless you, your family & school. http://www.3psinatxpod.blogspot.com
Kyle 🙂
Looks like they were having fun in the water with that huge ball. We haven’t gotten outside in the water as much as I wanted this year. Thanks for linking up to the NOBH.
You pretty much said what i could not effectively communicate. +1
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