Weekly Update

I think instead of weekly updates, I should do monthly updates, at least it seems like that is about how often I end up posting. I guess I really don't have as much to say as I originally thought. ;) But anyways, here a bit of what we've been doing -

Math: Jake is FINALLY finished his geometry. Now again, he didn't do ALL of the books in the set, just a few. If he feels later he wants more we'll either get the rest of the set or a different curriculum. But I am pretty sure he'll never, ever want more Geometry.

English/Writing: He's getting a little further into his book and finding the exercises getting a little harder. He is not enjoying "finding such & such clauses" and all that sort of stuff. hehe His writing is still horrible, and I hate trying to read anything. He insists on writing so tiny.. *sigh*

Geography: I am REALLY hoping that by the end of April we will finally be finished with this. It was started forever ago. We did great when first starting, because we were doing this as a group with some others. Then that fizzled out and, well, it just got pushed to the bottom of our pile. Here and there I've tried to get it going again, but it fizzled out every time. But no more, it needs to be finished. So he is almost halfway through it. So if we keep at this pace, then it should be finished by the end of April if not sooner.

History: We've been jumping all over the place here. I was going to start with Ancient History using Susan Wise Bauer's The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome. But instead I think we are going to do a US study first using America The Story of Us book & DVD first.That won't take us long. Basically I'll have them (Amanda is doing this as well) read a Chapter sometime M-Th and on Fri we'll watch the DVD chapter and do any lessons from the Teacher's Guide. I think there are like 9 Chapters or so in the book. If they end up reading the chapter early enough in the week, we can go ahead and do 2 per week instead.

Science: We are changing this, yet again. Not sure what I am going to pull of the shelf, but something Biology. And I think we'll do Chemistry at the same time, using The Joy of Chemistry: The Amazing Science of Familiar Things

Amanda's been really into artsy stuff lately; working in her sketchbook, crafts of one sort or another, etc. We've made pom-flowers:

Notebook paper t-shirt:

Crayon art:

And we had a failed attempt at an altered t-shirt, which then become a cleaning rag. LOL So no picture of that one. ;) Oh, and I finally finished my tiles I made the beginning of Feb.

Menu Plan Monday

I have decided I NEED to get back into menu planning. I only do a week at a time, on Sunday morning when I am looking through the sale paper and making my grocery list. But just doing a weekly plan saves me SO much time trying to figure out what I want. lol

So here is the menu for this week:

Monday - Crispy Cheddar Chicken (This is in the oven as I type!) with Slow Cooker Scalloped Potatoes and green beans

Tuesday - Taco Stuffed Shells and corn

Wednesday - Lazy Lasagna with garlic bread and a veggie

Thursday -Wild Rice and Chicken Soup with cheddar garlic biscuits

Friday - Pizza or leftovers

:)

Week in Review

Yeah, I know a little late on the posting. But it was a good week. We did get a fair amount of work finished.

I let him slack a bit on math so he could get caught back up with some other subjects: writing, grammar & geography. So really there isn't much to report. Next week we'll get back into ALL subjects, including science. We're doing some biology work and we'll get into our chemistry work soon. I finally got my order placed and should have all the materials needed by Wednesday. I think this week we'll get our solutions made up that we'll be needing for the first few chapters. The weather is supposed to be decent, so we can head outside to mix our noxious chemicals up without worrying about ventilation. lol Should be fun. :)

I've been finding some fun things on Pinterest lately. I've been doing good about not getting too sucked into it, but I can spend WAY too much time looking around.

I had a Mom's Night Out (MNO) craft party last week. Several friends from our homeschool group came over and we made tile coasters. It was a fun evening. I didn't get pictures of everyone's tiles (bad me), sadly. They all looked wonderful though. Here are the set I made.

I want to make some more, plus have a few ideas for other things to do with the tiles. It was fun and easy.

So anyways, short update. Hope to have more to tell next week. :)

Week in review

We are trying to get into a better routine here. Well, at least I am still *hoping* we can get into a better routine. I am being met with much resistance though from the boy. But this week we've gotten a fair amount of work done. No where near what I had hoped for, but...

Jake's doing pretty decent at getting caught up on his math. He in finally on book 3 of the Key to Geometry. He HATES Geometry. He HATES using the compass. But I wanted him to do a little bit of the work, which is why I didn't order ALL of the Geometry books and just the first 3. If the time comes and he needs or wants (HAHA) more, we can get the rest or find something else. He has no problem with the Algebra, so I shortened his work on that. Basically he just has to do half of the problems on each page. As long as he isn't struggling, we'll continue this way for now. He does make careless mistakes, but when I say "hey fix this answer" he knows exactly what he did wrong as soon as he double checks it.

He is WAY behind on Grammar and his writing. So I need to get him moving there. I know he hates the grammar as well (must be something with G's.. grammar, geometry and geography, he hates 'em all) but seriously it takes 5-10 minutes for each day.

We still haven't started our chemistry. That's my fault though. I still need a few supplies and I've been dragging my feet on getting things in order. We WILL get started on it in Feb. though, I swear! I had expected to do some simple & fun biology work this month. I ordered one of Janice VanCleave's biology books from Paperback swap earlier this month. It, of course, has not shown up yet. I have 1 more day before I can, hopefully, cancel it and order from someone else. I just wanted it to do some simple, quick experiments.

Friday Freebies

I think I'll do a weekly post of things I find around the web. I've been wasting way too much time on Pinterest lately and finding all kinds of really cool stuff. The age range will vary and I am too lazy to organize these in any way, but I'll try to mention a general age range.

Mrs. Mitchell's Virtual School I haven't looked around this site much yet, but it seems there are links for most grades.

Life Hacker U Free, online university level courses.

Periodic Table Printables of the elements in words or pictures.

Human Body coloring pages From Crayola.

Biology coloring pages Printable pages.

Biographies and activities On a site called Teachers pay Teachers. This is a free download, you just have to make an account.

Famous Musicians Pages For notebooking.

Enjoy!!

Teen Room

Lapbooking Resources

I love Pinterest. I swore I would not get sucked into something else, since Facebook is such a time hog. But I said what the hell and joined anyways. I am not on there a ton, but do find some really awesome stuff.

Recently, a lot of lapbooking pins have been popping up. We've never done much along the lapbooking lines, but I wanted to share these resources anyways. So here ya go!

Lewis and Clark- - http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/lewisandclark.htm

Vikings - http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/vikings.htm

Renaissance 1400-1600 - http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/renaissance.htm

Westward Ho! - http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/westwardhooooo.htm

Ancient Civilizations - http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/ancientcivilizations.htm

American Revolution 1775-1783 - http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/americanrevolution.htm

War Between the States 1861-1865 - http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/warbetweenthestates.htm

Enjoy!

100 Things to do in 2012

This took me a little longer to compile than I thought it would! But it is done, and now I can concentrate on doing as many as possible. :)
1. Blog more
2. Geocache more
3. Use the crock pot more often
4. Walk more often
5. Knit & craft more often
6. Go on more field trips/day trips
7. Organize craft stuff
8. Organize kitchen cabinets
9. Learn to bake bread
10. Garden (it was a small garden, just some zucchini, but it was still a garden)
11. Read more (by visiting my book shelves more often)
12. Visit NYC (completed on 4/25/12)
13. Play on the big piano in FAO Schwarz (completed on 4/25/12, well technically my daughter did for me)
14. Get together with friends on a regular basis
15. Do the local walking tours (from newspaper a year or 2 ago)
16. Walking tour of Philly
17. Visit DC (preferably near apple blossom time) (6/16/12)
18. Go to a stargazing event at Antietam
19. Visit the planetarium at least once
20. Go to the Baltimore Aquarium
21. Rewatch Lost :)
22. Knit Jake's Slytherin scarf
23. Facebook less
24. Do more science-y things
25. Go to the beach (9/13-9/16/12)
26. Eat more local foods
27. Visit more local places (shops, restaurants, historical places, etc)
28. Make my recycled newspaper tree
29. Help Amanda with her craft list
30. Update home décor
31. Buy better sneakers that don't make my feet ache
32. Use my cookbooks more often
33. Use our fire pit
34. Do some non-vandalizing street art, such as http://isaacgracelily.blogspot.com/2011/03/rock-on.html
35. Have a harry Potter party
36. Lose weight (boring I know.. But whatever)
37. Go to a comedy club/show
38. See a play (completed 3/10/12)

39. Visit the Hager House
40. Go to the farmer's market more
41. Make a new friend (Made a few new friends YAY!)
42. Take a carriage ride
43. Go to a drive-in theater
44. Send a message in a bottle
45. Release a helium-filled balloon with a message in it
46. Visit the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore
47. Go to Brookside Gardens in the Spring or Summer
48. Visit the DC Zoo
49. Go yardsaling
50. Organize photos
51. Hike up to Cunningham Falls
52. Picnic at more MD State Parks
53. Hike on the AT
54. See all the Bridges of Washington County
55. Make a late night run to Krumpe's Donuts
56. Host a Murder Mystery Party
57. Visit a winery
58. Go to maple Syrup making demo at Cunningham Falls
59. Eat Fastnachts
60. Go tubing
61. Play croquet
62. Pick strawberries
63. Watch fireworks
64. Play disc golf
65. Go on a ghost tour (no matter how lame it may be lol)
66. Find a better pizza dough recipe (technically the same recipe, just bought fresh yeast lol)
67. Watch a Quidditch game
68. Learn to cook some Greek foods
69. Visit College Park Aviation Museum (use CertifiKid coupon)
70. Visit State Museum of Pennsylvania (Use Groupon coupon)
71. Take more pictures
72. Organize recipe binders
73. Have a yard sale
74. Buy a new couch
75. Celebrate Christmas in July (just for something different)
76. Wordless Wednesday (on my blog)
77. Menu plan every week
78. Some sort of community service/volunteer work (hopefully not court-ordered hehe)
79. Play a game of pinball at the arcade
80. Go to the Great Frederick Fair this year
81. Eat something deep-fried at above mentioned fair (Not from the fair, but we had deep fried Oreos at teh beach)
82. Have a water balloon fight
83. See a movie in 3D (just to confirm that I do in fact hate 3D movies)
84. Buy a new board game
85. Go to a concert
86. Make candy
87. Go putt-putting
88. Get my passport
89. Watch all of John Hughes movies
90. Go on a scavenger hunt
91. Have a swap party
92. Eat at an Indian restaurant
93. Have dessert for supper
94. Grill pizza
95. Visit the Goddard Space center
96. Go to Dinosaur Land
97. Visit the Poe Museum and Poe's gravesite
98. Go on a train ride
99. Visit the MD Theater
100. Visit the Rural Heritage Museum