Homeschool Notes Week 27ish

Mommy and Rebekah

I have lost track of what homeschool notes week this should count for. Things got wacky over the last month or so of my pregnancy. We'll call this week 27. 

Saturday started off with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa, always a good way to start the day. The kids did their weekly 30 minutes of game time, pulling the xbox and wii out of the basement to hook up and play after they did their chores. Makayla and I stopped in at the local library book sale at noon. I worked on preparations for the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet that is next Wednesday. Some of the kids played with Cosmo, a robot they were given by another set of grandparents recently. I'll be honest, I do my best not to learn how to use these technology toys. I love that my kids can figure things out together without me and I just don't have time or energy to use on keeping up with all their interests. I'm the same way with crafty skills, I often hand a child the materials they've asked for and turn them loose. Some of my kids have learned to sew, do stop motion animation, wool felt animals, create with sculpey clay, quilt, and so on. My other secret is that sometimes I do the opposite - I spend time trying out something new without inviting the kids. They get curious and take it out of my hands, then go much further than I.

By early afternoon Saturday took a crazy turn - the power went out and stayed out for hours on end. It was a gray and rainy day so it wasn't very bright in the house. The kids thought it was so much fun as the house got darker and darker (yes, we have lanterns and candles, but we were waiting around for them to request light). We gathered in a circle for one of the group games Makayla taught us last year - Mafia. We played and laughed and had a great time. The power came back on just a bit before bedtime and then went out again for a couple hours overnight.

Sunday I sent Daddy and eight of the kids off to church. I'm just not ready to take Rebekah, who isn't even 3 weeks old. I also kept Tobias home as he's in the nursery class and it's just a cesspool of germs. Toddlers! I did need to be there after church for the "It's Great to Be Eight" celebration of kids who are turning eight this year. It is an opportunity for the 7 year olds to learn about important things they will be able to choose to do this year, including baptism, participating in Cub Scouts or Activity Days, and so on. Caleb turns 8 this year and is so excited he can finally get baptized! I got myself, Rebekah, and Tobias ready and to the church at 1pm when church ends and we had lunch and enjoyed the activity with other families of soon to be 8 year olds. Then it was home and family time until Daddy and Joseph headed back to the church for the Boy Scout Court of Honor. I got the rest of the kids to bed before they returned home.

Rebekah was up until about 11pm and then slept until 5am Monday morning. Yes, she's not quite 3 weeks old and just slept 6 hours at night. It felt pretty great to get a solid night's sleep. I was up at 5am and finishing preparation for school because I still needed to prepare and print assignment sheets, something I had not been able to do during the power outage.

The kids started trickling downstairs at 5:30am because I have some early risers. Others slept in closer to 6:30am, 7:00am, or even 8:00am. I don't plan to wake kids on school days until 9am, not that generally there will be anyone left to wake by then. It also happened to be Oliver's birthday, so he happily opened gifts. Daddy and Makayla dropped the car off to get a tire repaired. It's really nice to have a teen with a license - she was happy to follow Daddy and give him a ride home instead of watching siblings - and I was happy to stay home.

I reminded kids that they had assignment sheets ready and were welcome to start school any time, but that no electronics would happen this afternoon (Kindle time) unless their work was complete before then. I also made myself available all morning for teaching new math lessons, grammar lessons, beginning reading lessons, and so on.

It was so nice to get back to the learning routine! Kids worked on school on and off all morning. I got to be the chocolate fairy and drop mini reese cups on children's laps as they did school work. Makayla was a bit slower to start (perk of homeschooling) we were doing a math lesson in her new book - Consumer Mathematics by Abeka at noon after eating some pizza. That was the last lesson of the day. Here are some of today's lessons:

Oliver doing All About Reading 3

• Makayla: Latin Alive 1 vocab review and dvd lesson review, Consumer Mathematics, finish reading Fahrenheit 451, Discovering Design with Chemistry lesson. 
• Joseph: Math U See PreAlgebra lesson 17, Fix It Grammar week 25, read a chapter in 100 Cupboards, watch an episode of Liberty's Kids (Second Continental Convention).
• Emma: Math U See PreAlgebra lesson 17, Fix It Grammar week 25, read a chapter in Harriet the Spy, watch an episode of Liberty's Kids. 
• Daniel: Math U See Epsilon lesson 17, Fix It Grammar week 17, read a chapter in The Indian in the Cupboard, watch an episode of Liberty's Kids. 
• Oliver: Math U See Gamma lesson 17, All About Reading level 3 lesson, read 3 pages in Winter of the Ice Wizard, watch an episode of Liberty's Kids. 
• Caleb: Math U See Beta lesson 1, All About Reading level 1 lesson, watch an episode of Liberty's Kids.
• Mason: Do a puzzle, All About Reading level 1 lesson, Handwriting without Tears, Cutting page in Kumon book, watch an episode of Liberty's Kids. 

All About Reading Level 3

from Oliver's lesson this week.

I went with a favorite for dinner - tacos. Daddy spent a lot of the day working on school -- he just fits it in around the kids as much as he can during the day on Mondays and continues clear into the evening. The rest of the week he has to juggle school with work, so Monday it is important for him to get a lot of school done.

We also did Family Home Evening tonight. It was so much fun I wanted to share what we did. We started by reading 40 Years of Funny. We gave our own tips we would share with someone who wants to be an artist before reading the tips Val Bagley gave in the article. One of his tips was to always be on the lookout for new ideas and to even ask family and friends what they think is funny. Then we did the 'dad jokes water challenge'. Have you watched one of those videos yet? We sat around the table, which we had covered with towels. Each person got a glass of water. We put a mouthful of water in our mouths. Daddy told jokes and we tried not to laugh and spew water everywhere. Daddy had three minutes... it was hysterical!

Tuesday Daddy was off to work before dawn as usual. I was up at 5am with Rebekah and Makayla was up then for Seminary. Rebekah went back to sleep at 6am. The kids and I spent our morning solidly in our routine: wake up, eat breakfast, get ready for the day, homeschool. I am being purposeful about staying available to the kids (keeping all electronics off for everyone) and cheerfully working with them as needed. Rebekah currently is in a habit of waking once a night and then sleeping in until at least 8:30am, often until nearly 10am. That gives me a nice chunk of time to work with kids before I have a baby in arms. I sit at the table for that block of time. Once Rebekah wakes up I move to the couch and kids join me there if they need help.

After our morning school work we had lunch and did our usual afternoon medical care. Then our teacher arrived for piano lessons and music filled the house for a while. When that was finished it was time to make dinner (monkey bread tonight with Joseph cooking). Daniel and Oliver baked cakes for tomorrow's Blue and Gold Banquet so they will be cooled for decorating.

Wednesday was homeschool in the morning and final preparations for the Blue and Gold Banquet in the afternoon. Oliver and Daniel decorated their cakes to fit the space theme.

Oliver made the earth and Daniel put the big dipper constellation on his cake. Mason, Samuel, and Tobias worked together to decorate an extra cake we made for at home.

Thursday started with homeschooling, of course. I sometimes feel these posts get repetitive but that is just the reality of our week, morning hours are for learning. I plopped myself down at the table as usual and helped kids as needed. That meant reading lessons with 3, math with 7, overseeing playdoh for three younger boys, puzzles, checking grammar with two, answering one teen's Latin questions, and writing with 5. Plus whatever they did completely independent of me like reading a chapter in their current literature book. It may sound crazy, and sometimes it is, but when we are on our game things go smoothly.

I had an unexpected trip out mid-morning to pick up my mom from work and drive her home, she was feeling too sick to drive. Makayla drove Joseph to the orthodontist when I got home, he had a bracket come off a tooth.

Everyone's school work was finished by lunch. It is amazing how much you can get done when you aren't waiting around for 29 other students in your class to be ready to move to the next subject. Really, homeschooling is so much more efficient and leaves hours for the kids to pursue their individual interests. For example during the afternoon there were kids practicing piano, drawing, writing out complicated research and theories for a show series we are watching on Netflix, more drawing, building cars out of Legos, pet care for three reptiles, a roach colony, two hermit crabs, and a cat, reading more books, history that trickled over into their play (American revolution and the surrounding events), preparations for a campout by the Boy Scout. You get the idea.

Friday we finished up the homeschool week. Everyone was proud of their work and I was proud of their willingness to get right back into our familiar routines. So far Makayla likes her new math curriculum. She wanted something practical so she's doing Consumer Mathematics from Abeka. It is laid out very differently than Math U See, which is all she has used since 3rd grade, but anything is better than doing more Algebra 2.

We had a surprise visit from grandma at lunchtime and enjoyed our time with her. Then it was afternoon medical care and convincing Rebekah to nap after being awake for several hours. She was getting a week bit grumpy and every time she settled down to nap someone would shriek or make an unusually loud noise, waking her up again. I finally took her upstairs and she was able to settle quickly and sleep.

That's the highlights for the week. Dinner is almost finished (spaghetti and meatballs), Joseph is ready to head out on his campout with the scouts, and Daddy is on his way home from work. I'm going to hit publish on this post. Happy Friday everyone!