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!!

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

Week in review

Ok so this week was a little better. :) Maybe we'll get back into a routine by, oh Jan or Feb. hehe It is hard enough getting back into a routine after "taking a break for the summer" but after taking a break from sit-down-book-learning for a few years, it is REALLY hard to get back into things.

I had hoped to do some geocaching this past week, but the weather was not all that great for being outside. The temps were low but the humidity was just ridiculous! I felt miserable just going out to get the mail. Our upcoming move (no clue as to where yet, but we are staying in the same town just really need to get out of this apartment!) is looking like it will be Nov or later. We're going to have stay here at least another month. The places we've been looking at just aren't nice on the inside. And while we hate living here, moving into a new shitty place just to get out of another one isn't going to work. So the search continues!

On the school front, here's what we did:

We have everything (or will after I go shopping for the last few items this weekend) for chemistry, so Mon will start on that finally. My Home Science Tools order came in on Thursday right before I had to head out for my weekly MNO. (A bunch of us went to see The Help, great movie! We were all crying, and a group of 8 ladies crying together is quite a scene! We all looked like Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer coming out of the theater. hehe) So anyways, back to chemistry... I should have lots of fun reports next week on our experiments. We're looking forward to getting started.

Math - Jake finished book 1 of the Key to Algebra. He breezes right through most of it and actually went ahead and finished this coming weeks work as well. As for the geometry, he only did the minimal amount he had too. LOL There are 8 books in the set but we only have the first 3. Not sure if I'll have him do them all or not. I just wanted him to have a little bit of geometry, so if we do more it might be next year.

Writing - This weeks lesson was on Parts of Speech. He had to copy out the sentences and label the parts of speech. Not the boys most favorite way to spend his time. LOL But he got through it ok and didn't do too bad.

Grammar - Not much to say here, he finished up his 5 lessons for the week.

Economics - Same here, Chapter 3 read and questions answered. These chapters and questions are usually pretty short, so he gets them finished up quickly.

Art - He finished up his chapter reading, but didn't get the Artist Bio pages started. So he can either do them over the weekend, or first thing Mon.

He also finished up a "small" amount of his geography work. Why he is dragging his feet on this is beyond me. *sigh*

Another thing I wanted to note is the reason I do not mention Amanda in my posts is because she has basically "finished" homeschooling. But she isn't quite ready for taking classes at the community college yet either. So she is actually doing some things at home as well. She needs some math review so we are working on that. But she also wanted other work so she is doing the art lesson along with Jake. Plus she is doing a Shakespeare unit study and some other Language Arts "classes" (vocabulary and writing). And of course reading history books. We have to go digging through the boxes of books I've already packed up because apparently one of her fathers military dictionary type books was packed away by mistake. And she needs it out.

So that's out week. Hopefully I'll have picture to add in next week. :) Of chemistry and hopefully some nice Fall scenes.

Waiting on Spring

March is quietly (& coldly) leaving us soon. The few days of warm temps we had this month seem like they were years away. Its been quite cold and icky, I've debated turning the heat back on. lol We did venture out on one fairly nice day and took the short hike/walk up to the Washington Monument. It was a chilly, breezy day so we didn't stay long.

 

The closer we get to Summer, the more work it seems the kids have to finish. Of course, they haven't been doing much at all.. which is normal and they have to bust their asses to finish it up before our final review of the year. They've both still been doing a good bit of reading. So they aren't JUST playing on the computer or Xbox. hehe But I've redone their schedules and I am *hoping* they stick to it a little better in April.

We've changed the dates a bit on the boys game days we were doing. It was becoming to much *work* for Jake since 2 of the boys were bickering a lot between them. So instead of every week, we are now hosting it once a month. So with the once a month Family Game Nights at the game store, that should be plenty of non-family game time. Which we've been doing a lot of. Jake won't always play, so mostly it is Amanda, Randy and I. We have all the Settlers of Catan expansions now. (We'll eventually get all the 5-6 player expansion sets so we can have friends join us.) We took a break from Settlers this past weekend though. On Saturday I showed Amanda how to play Uno Rummy Up. I hadn't played it in years. So Sunday, with dad with played that and Life. I think she's getting burned out on Settlers and needed a break (after all, it was usually her wanting to play Settlers so much!)

April brings so many activities I have on the calendar. Whether we'll get to them all, I have no clue but there are a few I *really* want to do. On the 2nd we a bake sale to raise money for our MS Walk team. So I'll help out a bit then, not sure if the kids will. The 9th is an open house at the Earth & Space Science Lab. The 16th is the MS Walk. Amanda and I will be doing this, not sure if I can talk Jake into it yet.  And then on the 17th is the Brookside Gardens Earth Day Festival. This is the things I am most looking forward to this month. On the 23rd, there is an Earth Day Festival at Morgans Grove park. Not sure yet if we are doing this. And sometime in April we are hoping to spend a Friday in DC.

What can I say?

I just keep forgetting to update here. I'll keep at it, but I really don't think I'm cut out to be a blogger. LOL

So what's been going on with us? April went by really freaking fast! We had a lot of colder, yucky days with a few really nice ones and then a few ridiculously hot ones.

We had 2 Earth Scout meetings, 2 book club meetings and 2 co-op days. They all went well.

With Earth Scouts, I'll be changing the schedule a bit for the summer months. We usually have a hard time getting enough kids there to make the meeting worth it, so we're going to cut back to once a month. And those will be outdoors. So this weeks meeting will be the last indoor meeting until Fall. If the weather is too nasty we'll come up with something else.

Book club is going very well. This weeks meeting, we'll be discussing the 4th Percy Jackson book, The Battle of the Labyrinth. I must say, these books are really good! The 5th book is released today, The Last Olympian. So we are heading to Border's this evening to grab it up. I really wish Amanda would read these, I think she'd enjoy them also. So, with the kids reading the Percy books, we'll be holding a Mythology Bee. This will be on May 15th, not our usual book club day. Some of the kids will either be on vacation or moving, so we bumped it up a few days so they can participate.

Co-op has ended for this school year. May 1st was the last meeting, which the kids and I missed due to some UPS deliveries I needed to be here for. :( I'll miss co-op, but also thankful for the break. I am not sure what we'll do come fall. I might just rejoin for Jake and I, and Amanda can come along if she wishes. Jake really likes it, and so does Amanda... but for her, its just so terrible to have to wake up so early. I think starting at 11am would be a good idea though. LOL Hint hint Marti if you read this. ;)

So we have some fun stuff coming up in May with Earth Scouts and Book club. Plus we'll be continuing with the Geo-Club, once a month.

Today is Cinco de Mayo, so we're having a potluck picnic at the park with friends. I really, really, really hope the weather cooperates with us today!

So that's what's going on in a nutshell (or a nuthouse?) with us lately. :)

Week in review

So I'm trying to get back into the habit of blogging more about our school life. :) So here's what we were doing this past week.

Math - Not as much math work was done as I had hoped, but they both did get a decent amount finished. Amazingly I think Amanda finished more than Jake. She's at the mindset now where the more she does, the sooner she'll be done (thankfully!!).

Geography - Geo-club is going well. We did miss the last meeting though. :( My kids are not super into it, but they do learn (and remember) some interesting things as we go along.

Reading - Jake has jumped ahead and finished reading the first 4 Percy Jackson books. He really got into them more than I thought he would. So I went ahead and ordered The Demigod Files for him also. The 5th book will be out sometime in the beginning of May. But I don't think we'll use that for the Mythology Bee for the book club. We might still read that but not sure if everyone will have it before. We'll have to wait and see.

We had another Earth Scouts meeting this week. We've been working on the Peace and nonviolence principle. So we talked about signs & symbols of peace. I showed the kids the symbols and we talked a little about them. Then one of the boys showed the group a bit about meditation, they did some yoga and got all stretched out. :) For the final activity they each colored in a peace Dove (of Picasso's) and wrote some words on their paper that they think of as peaceful.

After ES was the book group. We only have 7 kids reading the Percy Jackson books, and the group was small this week. 4 kids were there. But we still had a great meeting. It's interesting hearing what the kids think about the books. We did have a bit of an issue though. Some of them have read all through the first 4 books (my son included) and they are getting the books mixed up. Which I had a feeling was going to happen. (Mental note to myself: I need to email the group and have them re-read for next meeting.) So I had to keep them straight on things so they didn't give too much away for those of us who haven't read that far.

And on Friday, we had another co-op meeting. Co-op day is always fun, but as I've said, I come home with a terrible headache. LOL The things we go through for our kids. ;) First class is Wizardology. I have Jake (& Amanda but she just reads something else) in the class. We had a small group this week, just 3 out of 6 boys. So it was MUCH calmer and quieter. lol We actually finished the last 3 lessons in the handbook, which completes the Spring lessons. So now the boys can do the Summer lessons at home and they'll have completed the entire "course" on Wizardology. :) So for our next class, I think we'll view a movie. So I need to find a good one to show.

Then in the 2nd class, Jake had dissection. They did the starfish. That was pretty cool. I'll upload some pictures later. Jake had a medium sized starfish, so you could see things fairly nicely. Lots of digestive yuck. lol Amanda was in photography during 2nd period. Not sure exactly what she did. I know she needs to get some pictures printed up.

And that was our week. We have nothing NOTHING!! planned for next week. But I do need to figure out a day to have some kids over for a going away party for one of Jake & Amanda's friends. His family is moving to Australia soon for 2-3 years. But that's about it. Let's hope the week is a calm and quiet one. :D

Catching Up!!

I haven't posted anything homeschooling wise here in awhile. This is after all a homeschooling blog, not a Lost blog which it would seem it has become. hehe So here is a bit of what we've been up to recently.

Jake had decided to join the dissection class at co-op. Of course this was after the 3rd class, so I had to get his kit ordered. A group of us went together and placed a large order of various items through the Home Science Tools website. Very cool stuff by the way. I order his dissection kit, complete with tool kit, 7 specimens and dissection guides. Then I also picked up a mini chemistry kit, I think there are about 30 different experiments. Several us then went together to get a bulk discount on owl pellets & cow eyeballs.

Jake and I did one of our owl pellets last week. Very cool! Here are some pics:



We did our eyeballs yesterday with a group of friends. That was still cool, just a tad bit gross. It certainly wasn't as bad as I was expecting though, and I did have fun. (I'm one of the kids that refused dissecting anything in middle school.) Here's a few pics:



The beginning of March went went on a mini vacation. We headed off to Williamsbug, VA for 3 days, staying 2 nights at Great Wolf Lodge. It was great, the kids had a fabulous time at the Lodge and can't wait to go back again. We had some issues with our meals, and Amanda ended up getting sick the last day there (not sure if it was a stomach virus or from the food). So next time we go, we'll certainly be taking more of our own food to make. hehe



Jake and I are still reading the Percy Jackson books, Amanda has decided to not join the group. So she will be reading a series of books on Colonial Williamsburg children. Jake is on Book 3, I'm just getting started on Book 2.

And we're enjoying using the Trail Guide to US Geography and sharing with our group. We have our next meeting this coming Thursday. So here are our plans for the week -

Math: Both kids need to get caught up with their math.

Reading: We'll continue to make time during the day for all 3 of us to be able to read in peace. :) So this means, we'll have a designated reading time.

Geography: We have a bit more to finished by Thursday in our 2nd region for geo-club.

And I'm not sure what else we'll get into. We have some science work in our Story of Science books, plus I think we might do a chemistry experiment or 2. We have some history work to do. I Ave a paper model of the Jamestown Settlement we never got around to doing, so I think we might do this as well.

So that's a bit of what we've been up to. I'll try harder to update more regularly. :D

A printing we shall go

hehe I am printing like a mad-woman today. I've been slacking (nothing new there right?) with our Geography work. Our first club/group meeting is this Thursday. So I need to get my arse on the ball. So I am printing out the pages for the first 2 regions: New England States & Mid-Atlantic States. This way, next week I have no excuses and we can get started right into the next region.

So for the upcoming week, here's what we have planned.

Math - The kids will be finished with the Key to Decimals books by the end of the week. (Well *supposed* to be finished anyways.) Then we're going to move into Algebra and I think some beginning Geometry.

Reading - We didn't get to have our last book group. A lot was going on last week, many were sick. So some didn't get the book finished, us included. So we'll be finishing The Lighting Thief up this week also.

Science - I think this week we are just going to watch some Planet Earth DVDs. We also have a lot of the Food Detective shows DVR'ed that I think we'll watch. Just have an easy week science-wise.

History - The kids are bored with what we've been doing (explorers) so I think we might jump into something else. I need to sit down with them and see what they want to do.

And of course, Geography we'll be working on the New England States region for our Geo-club meeting on Thursday.

And thankfully Thursday is the only day we have anything planned out of the house! YAY!! it is supposed to be an icky week weather-wise, so I'm glad we get to stay home most of it. :)

This weeks schedule

I know it seems as if this has become a blog for Lost. LOL But with everyone being sick so much lately, there hasn't been a ton to post school-wise.

So for this week we have to do the following:

Math - Get caught up through at least book 3. Amanda has a lot more to do than Jake does.

Reading - Finish reading The Lighting Thief (Book group on Wed.)

Science - we're going to skip science this week so we can focus on math mainly.

Geography - Finish up Region 1 work in Trail Guide to US Geography notebook.

Then I need to get materials gather for Earth Scouts on Wed. We make peace flags on paper, and this week we are transferring these onto material for a hanging flag. The kids will then be able to use a metal clothes hanger to display their flags on.

Jake has some work to finish up for Wizardology for Friday's co-op. Amanda has some photography homework to do.

Thursday the kids are having some of the homeschool teens over for a game day. I think they'll mainly be playing Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

So we have lots of things to do this week, not much time spent at home, or at least home alone. LOL

Plans for the week

We have some assignments to do this week for our book club and co-op. So with our regular work, we'll be keeping quite busy.

I am going to just list by subject. I'm not doing so well with the daily schedules. if something comes up, then we get behind and I feel like a slacker. *sigh* So anyways, here's what will be keeping us busy this:

Math - Both kids have their books and what pages need done by Friday. They've been slacking a bit on this, so this is the week they need to get caught up. By Friday, they'll be finished book 2.

History - We have some more worksheets to finish up for the explorers/Lewis & Clark. Then we'll be starting in with the Pioneers.

Reading - We have the first 11 chapters of The Lighting Thief to read. Plus work in their reading journals for that.

Science - I want to get at least 5 lessons completed by Friday.

The kids both have a research paper on Orca's for our co-op's Wizardology class. So they need to get their data sheets filled out and prepare to get those typed up.

Things I have to do: Get Pioneer pages printed up; Read over the instructions for the Trail Guide to the US manual and get a date schedule for our Geo-Club meeting; Read over the instructions for the Journey North Mystery Class project.

Tuesday both kids have dental check-ups. And then that evening is Game night at the local game store. So we'll be heading there in the evening to meet with some friends. I'm making a big pan of brownies to take along. Mmmm

Dot Dot Dot

Ok, so I didn't feel like coming up with a title. :D

We've been keeping busy with Math and reading the past few weeks. Finished up George's Secret Key to the Universe, had out last book club meeting for that. We are now beginning the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series with The Lightning Thief. All of the kids seem to be really into it.

We've had 2 back-to-back Earth Scouts meetings as well. Last week was our badge ceremony. And we discussed a bit about the next principle we'll be doing, Peace and Non-violence. So the kids acted out some situations where they had to come up with a peaceful solution. This had them quite rowdy so we moved into doing some yoga. lol

Yesterday's Earth Scout meeting they all made mini books for Peace Journals. Some of them went ahead and wrote/drew in what they do to find peace. Others will fill it out later. I am looking forward to seeing what each kid puts into their journal.

We've had our first SALT Co-op meeting of the semester. I am only teaching one class this time around, but I helped out in the younger kids science class. Then I hang out with the teens that are doing the videos. So I don't get to sit and chat with the moms very much, but at least I can leave most of the thinking and planning to others. hehe

We finished reading the Lewis and Clark book. The kids just weren't into this book. I don't think they got much at all from it. So we'll continue on with something else.

So that's about it. I am looking foward to the weekend. I'll post our schedule for next week sometime soon. :)

Back to school

Wow.. that break was WAY too short. LOL I've had to look at my planner twice now to be sure it was time to get back to work. *sigh* Wonder if anyone will notice if I take January off too? hehe

Ok all kidding aside, here is what we have going on this week coming:
I am doing something new with math for the month. Sort of a trial period. I am not assigning any certain page or lesson #'s each day, but am leaving it up tot eh kids how much to do every day. But they have to have a certain # finished by Friday evening, or they'll be doing math on Saturday before anything else.

Mon Jan 5: Read Ch 4 in Lewis & Clark book (no we didn't finish this before Christmas); Lesson 4 in Science.

Tues Jan 6: Ch 5 in Lewis & Clark; Lesson 5 in Science.

Wed Jan 7: Earth Scouts & Book club meetings, all afternoon. Earth Scouts we'll be having a badge ceremony and discussing the new principle we'll be working on:

*Peace and Nonviolence*
· Respecting cultural differences, and recognizing commonalities in the
global human family
· Resolving conflict creatively and without the use of violence
· Valuing and practicing cooperation
· Developing inner peace

Our Book group will be discussing the most of the George's Secret Key to the Universe book. We decided to go ahead and finish this off since it has been since before Thanksgiving that we last met for the group. Then we'll discuss a bit about the next book, Percy Jackson. I think the kids will really enjoy these books. I am looking forward to it.

Thurs Jan 8: Ch 6 in history; Lesson 6 in science.

Fri Jan 9: Ch 7 in history; Lesson 7 in science.

They are to have 25 pages finished in Key to Decimals book 1. We'll be finished all 4 books by the end of Feb. Then I am hoping the newest version of the MUS books are out and we'll start Mar with pre-algebra.

Reading - we'll be finished with George's Secret Key to the Universe by Tues for our meeting on Wed. Then we're starting the Percy Jackson series with The Lighting Thief. We'll be doing the first 4 books (a new one is due out in May) and then having a Mythology Bee. I have the materials put out by Disney Media. They look really cool and I think the kids will have a lot of fun.

This week went by quickly

Even though we didn't do too much (outside of the house), but it just seems like it went fast. We did get a good bit of work done this week though.

Both kids have finished up the first Key to Decimals book. They'll start #2 next week. They've been breezing through the Daily Grams nicely. They want to finish these up so they don't have to work in this book the rest of the year (well for half of it anyways, since they only have the last half of the book to do). But at the pace they are going, they'll be finished about the middle of Nov. We started our Explorers/Lewis & Clark study this week. We read up on some of the explorers in the Americas and did a worksheet on Columbus regarding facts & myths.

And then we started with our Science program. So far I am really liking it. We're using Joy Hakim's Story of Science Aristotle Leads the Way and the Teacher & Student Quest guides. We've read through the first 2 chapters of the book and did the first 2 lessons. The kids are really asking a lot of questions and paying attention. They do like science, so I am hoping this will keep them interested.

We also had another Earth Scouts meeting this week. I was reading on another blog about a group that went on a lantern walk to celebrate the Autumnal Equinox, and I really liked the idea. So we used recycled jars to make out lanterns and we'll be planning a lantern walk soon. The kids really had a fun time of pasting tissue paper on the jars, and they all turned out very nice.

I was told about about called Runemarks by Joanne Harris that sounded good. So I picked it up from the library and then downloaded the audio book from our library as well. We read through the first "book" and my kids really did not like it. They complained every time I would tell them we'd be listening. So I'll just take that back to the library. We're going to start reading George's Secret Key to the Universe by Lucy and Stephen Hawking. Hopefully they'll enjoy this more. If not then too damn bad. LOL

Not too much going on next week aside from a Halloween party and of course Trick-or-Treat night. We need to get to the store this weekend and pick up a few items.

Weekly schedule

Here's what we have planned for this week:

Mon Oct 20th: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Science - (We didn't get started last week on this) Unit 1 Lesson 1 & 2:Preview & Introduction - Start timeline; discuss Epictetus; discuss what B.C. and A.D. mean & why this system may cause problems; discuss C.E and B.C.E.; Vocab; Begin reading ch. 1 & 2; History: Read Explorers books; Internet Scavenger hunt - Columbus The Myth Behind the Man; Reading - begin Runemarks.

Tues Oct 21: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Earth Scouts Meeting; Read Runemarks

Wed Oct 22: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Science - Continue reading; History - Internet Scavenger hunts ( Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark); Read Runemarks.

Thurs Oct 23: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Science - using vocab in workbook, find places on map in textbook; Compare Myths and Science chart; Discuss Persephone; Read Runemarks.

Fri Oct 24: 4 lessons Daily Grams; 4 pgs math; Watch Planet Earth DVD; Read Runemarks.

I am so bad about posting often!

I don't mean to neglect my blog, I just an VERY absentminded at times. And the past few weeks with everyone being sick, then the cats with their issues (1 being hospitalized for a week, then coming home with a cold & giving it to the other cat), and going away for a few days.. things just got away from me.

We are *trying* hard to get back on schedule. I wanted to be finished the MUS Epsilon and working on Zeta to be finished by the beginning of June.. but its not looking like that's what will happen. But I am hoping we'll be able to finish Epsilon the first week of April, then start on Zeta next and finish it up by the first week or so of June.. just a week or 2 later than I planned. I think the kids will fly through Zeta with no problems.

We'll be finishing up this week with our History (Ancient Egypt) and next week we are starting Ancient Greece. Jake is happy as he's been waiting for this study to come up. Our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book study was put on hold, so we'll be picking that up soon as well. It is just hard to get back into the rhythm.. *sigh*

Jake and I are on Book 2 of Harry Potter (Chamber of Secrets). Our plan is to read/listen to the book, then watch the movie. We are looking & listening hard for ANY clues to the final book.. but I am not picking up on anything. Supposedly there were several clues in book 1 as to what will happen in book 7. Amanda says she doesn't want to listen or watch the movies, but for the most part she does. LOL Dh thinks we are goofy for listening to the books on Cd's but that's just mainly because he can't here that well to listen along.

We are SO ready for Spring here. The past 2 days were such beautiful days, although a little windy. But anything is better than single digits. Tomorrow and Wed. are *supposed* to be in the 70's so I think we might head out and go hike on one of the nearby mountain trails. That is if DH's knee is better. Then we are to have some rain, so when the rain comes, I will start my spring cleaning indoors.. that way when it turns nice again, I can spring clean outside. :)

Today's accomplishments

We took off yesterday from any school work. A girl I babysit was supposed to come over (but of course never did) and when she is here it is hard to get the kids to finish up any work. So today was the start of our week.

We started Lesson 15 in math, will finish tomorrow. (We usually do 2 lessons a week. We are working through MUS Epsilon.) Finally got started on our book study of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. We read a bit about Roald Dahl, and an intro of the book. Of course the kids have seen both movies, so know what it is about. The copied the vocabulary words and looked up the definitions. They worked on the 50 States book. And finished up a science journal on Environments. Oh and also worked in their Critical Thing books - Reading Detectives. Not sure how far we are going to get with these.. both kids HATE their book. So.. we'll see in another week. Might just drop these.