Goodbye February, Hello March - Week in Review

It was already a full Monday on paper before it began. There were places to go, things to do, and people to see. The final three cleanings at the dentist happened today. A trip to WalMart. Phone calls to schedule appointments. A trip to the local high school to get papers for Makayla's sports physical because she runs on the local track team and the season begins next week. Vet class online for Makayla. Chores. Playing Sushi Go and Gubs (card games). Then the kids called down the stairs to tell me Samuel, the 3 year old, was asleep on his bed an hour before lunch time. That was my warning. A three hours later Samuel threw up, went back to sleep, and slept most of the day. Our visit to friends was cancelled. Not a great beginning to the week because in a large family you just have to wait and see how many other people are going to throw up. We can drag this out for weeks or have 11 people down at once. Which will it be?

Tuesday morning the sun rose and nobody had thrown up overnight. Samuel was feeling well enough to eat today. He didn't play much, but he was feeling better. I headed back to the dentist to get some fillings replaced that had broken or chipped. Not my favorite activity, but necessary. We listened to our book club title for 2 hours (Peter and the Starcatchers). Makayla worked on her veterinary medicine homework. We tried a new recipe for dinner with modifications to fit what we had in the house. 6 of the kids liked it, which is success in my book.

Wednesday we got down to the business of doing formal academics. By 8am I was knee deep in math with 6 children - mostly bouncing between them when they had questions, which were thankfully few today. It's quite a brain workout for me to go from teaching the 6 year old skip counting by 5 to figuring volume with the 9 year old to finding the surface area and volume of unusual solids with the 15 year old to factoring and converting decimals to fractions and percents with the 11 and 12 year olds and then to subtraction with borrowing with the 8 year old.

Makayla turned in another essay to me for writing. She's using The Power in Your Hands by Sharon Watson. This time she needed to write a persuasive essay that used compare and contrast. She pulled the imagery and experience of a prisoner in a medieval dungeon to that of a pet reptile cared for by someone uneducated in the habitat and feeding needs. (Too cold, not enough or right foods, wrong materials in habitat, wrong/poor lighting, etc).

The day just went along like normal with lots of books, lots of learning, and lots of laughs. Late in the afternoon Makayla and I went to the doctor for her sports physical. Much to my dismay she's quite enthusiastic about running track on the local public high school team again this year. I don't mind track but I really hate the busy days it brings with daily practice and 1-2 meets per week. Pretty much every Monday through Saturday until June Makayla will be running - and I will be driving her to and from. She enjoys it, so track is part of our springtime routine.

Wednesdays end with activities - youth group, scouts, and activity days. I love that our church has all the kid/youth activities on the same night!

Thursday I didn't even remember to write down any notes - which means I pretty much can't remember what happened beyond the usual - school, chores, playing games, and family time.

Friday we headed to a friend's home for our homeschool book club. We just finished reading Peter and the Starcatchers this week, in time for book club. Our next book will be A Wrinkle in Time. As I type this Tobias is napping, Mason and Samuel are building with Legos, Makayla, Joseph, and Emma are watching the Sound of Music, and Daniel, Oliver, and Caleb are playing chess. I'm going to join the movie watchers and sing along. Happy Friday all!

Oh, and by some miracle, nobody else has thrown up this week. Which is lovely because tomorrow Oliver is getting baptized! We're so excited for him!


Games this week - We try to pull out board and card games regularly. It's just one of our winter habits. This week we played the following games:

•  Gubs - A fun, imaginative card game we are learning.
• Sushi Go - This is a cute card game with some strategy involved, fast to play, and it is making my kids curious to try eating sushi.
• Journey Through Time: Eye Found It - My kids love this 6 foot long cooperative board game. The board is so detailed that we could play it for weeks and still not know where all the tiny items are.
• Chess - Most of my kids know how to play. This week it was mostly Daniel, Oliver, and Caleb.
• Checkers - A nice solid classic.
• Ticket to Ride: First Journey - We still love this one!
• The Oregon Trail card game - My kids can't seem to resist seeing who will make it to the Willamette Valley and who will die along the way from Dysentery.

Next week I'll be introducing the kids to a couple new games.

Linking to Weekly Wrap Up.

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