Gratitude Monday...

Here's some things I'm so grateful for today...

~Moving plans...

~Flexible homeschool schedule's when things get crazy

~Everything that Matt makes for dinner...

~A baby who 'rides a bike' with a passion...

 

~A little boy who loves to dress up and become things...

 

~A little girl who is planning her daughter's birthday party...

(she has put so much time into this party)

 

~A partner who has great ideas...

 

~A magical trip to the Arizona Renaissance Festival...

 

~Determination to get back into a rhythm...

 

~Late night baths.

 

 

Alright, this week no more messing around!

(maybe) 

Weekly Wrap Up #19

This week in first grade...

February 19- February 25
This week was the start of our 9 weeks of
 "throw everything out the window, accomplish what must be done"
 era of first grade.
With the exception of Art study, which I had already set up in a this pending post, I haven't the foggiest idea what we covered.  I know we did math, spelling and phonics.
 (Apparently we did art study also.)

For prosperity's sake I'd like to post at least the photos from this week. 

Please bare with me.

In Art Study..

"I like that this is a ballerina, because I love ballerinas.  Some parts are confusing.  I'd prefer if it was more looking like a picture.  I think she's getting ready for her recital and she is trying to hurry."

A little off...

To say things have been
crazy
here would be an
understatement.
Things are crazy
But
Things are also starting to come together.
We are moving.
About 800 miles.
in about
70
days.
This has been a move in the making.
Last August I thought we were staying Phoenix
Last October I thought we might be moving to Oregon
Last November I thought we were moving to Las Vegas
In December I thought we were moving to San Diego
Now
We are moving to The East Bay Area
I can't say which part, because it's still too soon.
But.
I can say that it's happening.
at least as much as anything ever happens.
I'll keep you posted.
The fact that I've even posted this much is an indication that things are really pretty final.
CRAZY.
This whole thing has been
so
Crazy.

February Preschool Update....

Here's How My Preschooler Took On February...

'

 ;

 

 

 He:

climbed 

sorted 

stacked

laughed

jumped

yelled

taught

told stories

became a coyboy

spent his last month being four years old

was very very silly.

~and he learned a math song.

Together, in Blue

 

Siblings are really so much fun to observe.  Brothers are so much fun to observe.  I've never had a brother, but when I watch these two I can see that what they experience isn't all that different than watching my girl with my boys, or even remembering my childhood with my sisters.

Every day is filled with thousands of tiny adventures.  Things to explore, things to try.  Places that have been visited with regularity are made new each time with the fresh perspective of growing eyes.

 And when one strikes out to explore on his own, he's still sharing the experience with his siblings.

Because when you are growing up with brothers or sisters, you aren't ever really alone.  They're there.  Even if you don't see them.

It's just a change in perspective.

Balloons, Glorious Balloons!

Or maybe it should be titled:  Air as a Substance (that was the title of the science lesson)
Or maybe it should be titled:  SCIENCE IS SO MUCH FUN! (that's what my 7 year old yelled)

This is what it looked like...

A few weeks ago we followed up our science lesson on states of matter with a lesson on air as a substance.  Solids and liquids are easier to grasp (literally), but gasses are trickier.  The fabulous Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding addresses this with balloons.
Blowing them up
Letting them fly
Transferring Air from one balloon to another
Weighing different amounts of air blown into same sized balloons
Running around like crazy people shouting and chasing balloons.
(that last one is of equal importance, if not strictly from the text)

Balloons, Glorious Balloons!

Gratitude Monday...

Here is what I am loving today....

Here's the deal...
I love my family
I love my life with my family
My family is facing some HUGE changes
I'd love to talk about them
and hopefully
I can
later this week.

I'm very grateful for
 a girl who is so very clever that she makes homeschooling seem easy
a boy who makes amazing contraptions out of paper and glue
a baby who is learning more words everyday, even if we don't know them  yet
a partner who works so hard, and cares so much for our family
a life that I care about, a lot.

I'm so very grateful.
I'm so very very excited.

Visit of Valentine's Past...

 Tonight we'll dine with candle light, receive small tokens,  exchange hand crafted Valentine's, write our declarations of love, and my children will also get some of these. 

 Soon I will post about all the work my little one's have been up to this year, just as soon as I get the batteries for my extra camera charged.  

I'd like to share today previous posts about Valentine's in our past. 

 ~A homeschool week dedicated to the lovely holiday.
~A look at how we celebrated last year, and how I used almost the exact words to describe it.  I'm so very original.
 ~And the year before, also with very similar descriptive words.  Super.
~Our first Valentine's Table Blessing
~Our Valentine's day placemats
 ~Valentine's day wreath
~Valentine's day love poems

Many blessings on a day full of love!

Gratitude Monday

Here's somethings I am loving today....

~A little baby who makes his needs known...
(No problem, I'll just cut the feet out of your pajamas)

~The Tucson Gem and Mineral Show...
(oh my goodness, it's one of my favorite things all year)

~A little girl who has turned into a silly seven year old comedian...

~A little boy with a brand new hair cut that makes him look years older...

~A partner who will drive around to all the best 'shows' in Tucson...
(because he knows it is only "once a year" and he knows how much I love it)

~Rereading favorite books....

~Chocolate dipped cones...

~Salty late night snacks...
(and the fact that I just types 'snakes', and then caught my error)



Here is to a new week! 
I accidentally left my camera in another city, so I may not be able to blog.  
So.
Here's to creative blogging ideas!

weekly wrap up #18

 This week in first grade...

In Poetry..
Poem of the week~  Um, I accidentally messed up the schedule, so we kinda skipped this.  We did however start reading this at lunch time!
Poem of the month~   We didn't spend much time with this poem this week, but as it's rather short, I'm not concerned.
Silly Poem~ Noses!  The silly poem talked about noses, and how the feel when it's hot or cold outside.  Ava chose to draw a picture with one half showing how her and her nose enjoy a hot sunny day (by having a water balloon fight with me) and how her and her nose enjoy a cold winter day (by snuggling in a blanket on the couch with cocoa and marshmallows).  Cyrus initially said he wanted to participate, but I think it's pretty clear he changed his mind somewhere in his artistic process.  He also chose to do a hot/cold drawing, he shows himself, and his dad tossing a water balloon on one side, and a very cold blue man under a moon on the other.  Oh my goodness he's silly.

In Social Studies/ and Art....

This week we talked about Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island.

I'm still not exactly sure where I want these lessons to lead us.  I know that covering 5-7 states a week won't leave a the children with exacting knowledge of each state. This year the goal is more to give them an impression.  50 is a lot of states.  What I'm leaning toward  in the long term is a large binder with folders for each state that each child will add to over the years.  This year will be our starting point. Maybe next year we can start a 'state a week' focus along with the world history?  Not sure.  Not sure.

In the Kitchen..

For various reasons "Kitchen Lesson" was skipped again.  It seems to be the one that gets cut when things get busy (or lazy).  I wont fret though, I've noticed I have a lot more eager helpers in the kitchen since we started this.  The time together may be subtle, and not always be structured, but isn't that why I homeschool?

In Music...

I ran out of time!  Again!  We are preparing for a weekend trip, and poor music get shoved aside so I can pack. 

In Art Study..

 We explored two paintings side by side.  Wheatstacks, Snow Effect, and Grainstack, Sun in the Mist both by Claude Monet.  Monet liked to paint objects, and scenes over and over in different situations (time of day, or year) to compare how environment changed the image.  Ava liked the idea of painting things in different times of year, but overall she wasn't fond of the subject matter.  " I don't really like the haystacks.  It's not really my kind of thing.  But, I do like the snowy hill.  It reminds me of pictures of Antarctica."   I think she's saving her positive praise for next week's painting.  We'll see.

In Science We..
Reviewed Solids, Liquids, and Gasses and started talking about Gravity, and Air as a Substance.  I checked out some books from the library to go along with our discussions and experiments.  Some of the books were more popular than others, and the balloon experiments were so well liked that I'm going to write a whole separate posts about them!

Solids, Liquids, and Gasses
What is the World Made of?  All about Solids, Liquids, and Gasses
Ice to Steam, Changing States of Matter
The Facts about Solids, Liquids, and Gasses

 Gravity
Forces Make Things Move
Up, Down, All Around, A Story of Gravity
Experiments with Gravity

 

 Air
Windy Weather Days
I Face the Wind
Let's Try it in the Air

In Math We... 
~Wrote equations represented on the math balance
~Continued practicing 'trading' on side 2 of the abacus
~Partition 15 on the abacus, and the math balance
~Add 1 to various numbers

~Now that Cyrus is officially 'doing math' we've added him to more math games!

This week we are officially half way done with our school year!  We made it to the park for a homeschool play date, and our curriculum for next year came in the mail. Working Cyrus into the Science lessons seems to be successful so far.  It's been an overall great week!