Well, my goal was to blog here every week about my home school accomplishments....but I haven't really had any in the past 2 weeks so I've avoided it. Both weeks have pretty much been epic failures.....guess that's life.

So, if I only hit the highlights (far and few between) they would be:
the butterflies (from our science experiment) finally came out of their cocoons...and of course they did it while we were in town all week so we technically missed it....but they are out and fluttering around their 'house'

our home school co-op officially started and it seemed to go well....all the kids left smiling so that is a good sign

That's about it.....hoping next week will be better.
Heard from some other home school moms that I'm doing it all wrong, so I'm going to try to find some free time this weekend and re-evaluate everything....should be fun.

It's been a hard couple of weeks.....
couple of tragedies, some personal failures, and lots of 'pondering'.....

I'm sure next week will be better

Home School Weekly

This week we were on a 1/2 day schedule.....I needed it....lots of outside stress along with the stress of homeschooling led to that decision. It was really nice and I would LOVE to keep that schedule, but just not possible. But I did get some rest and got lots of stuff on my huge "to do" list done, therefore my stress level is lower....praise the Lord! Even though we only schooled 3 hours a day, we still got quite a bit done. We took no breaks during those 3 hours and worked hard. So hopefully I am not too far behind because of it.

MATH:
Peter and Hannah took a test and did well.....YEAH!!!! There are starting a new unit more measures and how to add and subtract them. And I'm pretty sure you hardly EVER use a bushel and a peck in daily life! Abby is reviewing prime numbers and factors....she still struggles on word problems, but so did I so I can have sympathy. Marissa is still working on adding and subtracting, but we've moved to 3 digit numbers. I have not worked enough with flash card with her so that is on the schedule for this coming week. She is doing well with counting money :)

ENGLISH: We did not do much with English this week....lack of time and just got pushed aside. But we will get back on it this week.

READING: Marissa is doing a "little" better....it still takes us almost an hour to do 1 lesson, but I don't feel like poking my eyes out half way through now. I have to sit with her while she reads to help her with words and to ask her questions to make sure she knows what she is reading. But overall, there is a little improvement in the reading area. Abby did much better this week in reading....I went over the questions with her and she did better....made a 100 on her workbook section!

SPELLING: Marissa had a review so she had 60 words to study....she only missed 4 which was really good. Peter actually did really well, too (he struggles with spelling)....I find that the more 'study' time I give him and more review time, he does much better. Hannah did well....and Abby has to take hers on Monday.

PHONICS and HANDWRITING: This is mostly Marissa's subject, although the others do handwriting a couple times a week. Peter SHOULD do it more because his is terrible! Marissa still struggles with phonics but I am going to focus more on "teaching" it and doing every step in the teacher's manual. I do see a little improvement in this area, too. I"m not 'counting to 10" as often :)

SCIENCE: Abby is still studying the structure of a cell.....she did a great drawing of one....she is definitely my artistic one! She is taking her time with the study questions now and doing much better. Marissa did no history or science this week, but I have much planned for her this coming week so hopefully she will have fun with it. She really struggles with remembering what she read...therefore answering the questions at the end of each chapter is rough. The twins are still on arthropods....and loving it! Our caterpillars are starting to form their cocoons which is exciting. They just studied the section on caterpillars, moths, and butterflies. I find it all pretty fascinating :0 The exciting part of the week was our trip to the zoo, aquarium and botanical gardens. I was need to see them remember some of the things they had learned, even from years past. They remembered that a giraffe has 7 bones in their neck, just like us.....that a rhinos horn is made out of hair, and all 4 stages of the butterflies life.....it was a great field trip and we a new homeschool family joined us so they made new friends. It was a long day, but well worth it!

HISTORY: Abby is still taking a tour of Asia...interesting stuff. ANd she will start working on her speech this week. The twins will be doing the same, except their speeches are on First Americans. In Peter's book on Squanto, he found a recipe for cornbread...something that they possibly had on the first 'thanksgiving'....he loved making it and loved eating it even more!

And then there are all the "extra" stuff the kids do....soccer still takes up quite a bit of time....although they cant' attend awana right now because of soccer, they are still working on their books......they take a class at the library every week (they just finished up a 3 week course on how to use the library, and now they will start on a science experiment series).....the girls are still taking knitting lessons and Abby is almost done with her scarf and they both just finished up their heart-shaped wash cloths; next they will be starting on their hats.....and our Bible Quiz season is just starting up so we are studying for that. They are studying I Peter this time.

Overall, I guess we got quite a bit done this week....so hopefully, since we will be back to a full schedule this coming week, we should get TWICE as much done! RIIIIIIIGHT!!! :)

You can check out the other field trip pics on my facebook.....:)