I took no notes for the weekend, but basically it was work (Makayla), going to a birthday party for a 6 year old boy we know and love (with my 6 youngest boys), then a family birthday party hosted at my house (for Mason, Rebekah, and Uncle Justin). The only picture I have is from our Sunday dinner. We made a snack board. Apparently, this is a thing! People make these fancy-schmancy boards with beautiful foods and post them on Pinterest. They are a descendant of Charcuterie boards (cheese and meat boards). Some of them are true works of art. A few of my boys helped me make ours and everyone loved having it right on the table to pick from for dinner.
Monday Notes
We got snow Sunday evening and icy rain overnight. Then it started warming up and everything turned to a slushy, slippery mess. We had a good bit of school work to do. I felt like I was bouncing between kids all morning because I pretty much was. I love it and it makes me crazy some days. I sat with Caleb for his new math lesson, making bar and line graphs. He thought I was so funny because I love reaching this lesson in Math U See Beta. It means he has FINISHED his year's math curriculum and it is a fun lesson to end on. Our plan is to use the extra pages in the workbook that he didn't need to do the first time around for the rest of the school year, make sure he really has the addition and subtraction facts mastered, and then wander our way into multiplication.
We set ourselves a challenge to do two writing pieces for history topics from the last few weeks of lessons to round out each child's history study for the year. I put topics and doodles on the white board and people used those as a springboard/reminder of possibilities. Then they did some research if needed for specific details like dates and places in our history books and got writing. For younger kids I was their secretary and they dictated what I was to type. A few kids also chose to illustrate their writing. Topics chosen included:
- Florence Nightingale
- The Space Race from beginning to end
- Space stations
- The first lunar landing
- The Wright Brothers
- The history of flight
- Amelia Earhart
- The race to the moon
- The Hindenburg Explosion
We also got tickets to a circus that will be in our area next month for most of the family. We are fans of The Greatest Showman and ever since seeing it some of our children have wanted to go to a circus. They have checked out library books about circus performers, circus acts, circuses in history, and the science behind different circus performance. This is the first opportunity to go see a real, live, circus. They are excited!
Tuesday Notes
Monday evening Rebekah developed a fever, which is probably the second fever she has had in her entire life. Poor girl! By 2am she was unable to sleep peacefully anywhere but in mama's arms, so I held her for the next 3 hours until she was finally deeply asleep and stayed that way in her crib. Needless to say, when my wake-up alarm rang an hour later I was a bit tired. We soldiered on with our morning and I decided it was the perfect morning to put out an invitation to creativity on the table before the kids came down for breakfast. I put out scratch art paper and extra wooden stylus (aff) with a note on one paper that simply said, "Try me!" Most of the family spent time off and on doodling on these papers all day.
School work was accomplished in the usual manner. The biggest excitement was that Mason finished All About Reading level 2 today. He'll start level 3 tomorrow. I really need to skim through it with him and get to the lessons he needs. Reading has clicked pretty well for him, so why waste time on lessons he doesn't need?
Today was piano lesson day. We also had cousins stop in for a quick visit in the afternoon. Other than that it was a quiet afternoon waiting to see how many kids would join Rebekah in being sick. (My husband is also sick, coughing up a storm.) Rebekah also threw up once in the late evening.
Wednesday Notes
Tuesday night was another hard night for Rebekah. She was up from 1am-4:30am with me, not feeling well, and grumpy. The hardest part of this is simply that my husband can't pick up and hold Rebekah because of his shoulder surgery, so there is no taking turns with her so we can each get some rest. It's all me, all the time. I am also up in the middle of every night to do some medical care for Mason. Such is mom life!
Morning came all too soon and with it the needs of the rest of my family. Breakfast, laundry, and another sick child. We wandered our way through school work, much of the time with Rebekah back in my arms, content and cuddly. Her fever broke - just in time for Tobias to get sick. He pretty much laid on the couch all day, snacked a little, drank water a little, and snuggled under a blanket while I read books to him or he watched cartoons.
After lunch and the 1 1/2 hour medical care for Mason in the afternoon I was finally able to go back to bed for a nap while Rebekah napped. Two glorious hours of rest! We made pancakes and bacon for dinner and Tobias got off the couch and went upstairs to lay on the floor and play with Legos for a while. Makayla drove the oldest four kids to Wednesday night activities while Daddy and I got the rest of the kids settled in for the evening. The boys are listening to Fablehaven 4: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary.
Thursday Notes
Our Valentines Day was low-key with the sick kids in varying stages. We did a morning of school work, then Mason and I went to physical therapy.
In the later afternoon Emma and I did some errands that needed done and discovered strawberries on sale super cheap. We picked up 5 lbs of strawberries and some chocolate as a surprise. Several of the middle and older kids made it all into chocolate covered strawberries. Delicious!
Friday Notes
Rebekah finally had a solid night of sleep, only up once. She's feeling better today while some kids are feeling worse. This is the hard part of a large family - we can drag out illness over a month or more, or we can all come down with it in the same couple of days (only especially bad when the illness involves vomit).
School was swiftly dispatched and the rest of the chocolate covered strawberries were eaten along the way. Makayla and I spent some time dealing with college related emails. She has officially heard back from half of the schools she applied to about acceptance/rejection. Until the final few let us know what is going on I'll have to leave things pretty vague, but I can say she won't be staying home in the fall.
I put up a quick post earlier today sharing our thoughts on some of the different curricula we have been using this year. You can read that right here.
I think that is it for this week. I need to get caught up on a few things but a book for me is calling my name, so maybe I'll just go read one more chapter...
Tuesday Notes
Monday evening Rebekah developed a fever, which is probably the second fever she has had in her entire life. Poor girl! By 2am she was unable to sleep peacefully anywhere but in mama's arms, so I held her for the next 3 hours until she was finally deeply asleep and stayed that way in her crib. Needless to say, when my wake-up alarm rang an hour later I was a bit tired. We soldiered on with our morning and I decided it was the perfect morning to put out an invitation to creativity on the table before the kids came down for breakfast. I put out scratch art paper and extra wooden stylus (aff) with a note on one paper that simply said, "Try me!" Most of the family spent time off and on doodling on these papers all day.
School work was accomplished in the usual manner. The biggest excitement was that Mason finished All About Reading level 2 today. He'll start level 3 tomorrow. I really need to skim through it with him and get to the lessons he needs. Reading has clicked pretty well for him, so why waste time on lessons he doesn't need?
Today was piano lesson day. We also had cousins stop in for a quick visit in the afternoon. Other than that it was a quiet afternoon waiting to see how many kids would join Rebekah in being sick. (My husband is also sick, coughing up a storm.) Rebekah also threw up once in the late evening.
Wednesday Notes
Tuesday night was another hard night for Rebekah. She was up from 1am-4:30am with me, not feeling well, and grumpy. The hardest part of this is simply that my husband can't pick up and hold Rebekah because of his shoulder surgery, so there is no taking turns with her so we can each get some rest. It's all me, all the time. I am also up in the middle of every night to do some medical care for Mason. Such is mom life!
Morning came all too soon and with it the needs of the rest of my family. Breakfast, laundry, and another sick child. We wandered our way through school work, much of the time with Rebekah back in my arms, content and cuddly. Her fever broke - just in time for Tobias to get sick. He pretty much laid on the couch all day, snacked a little, drank water a little, and snuggled under a blanket while I read books to him or he watched cartoons.
After lunch and the 1 1/2 hour medical care for Mason in the afternoon I was finally able to go back to bed for a nap while Rebekah napped. Two glorious hours of rest! We made pancakes and bacon for dinner and Tobias got off the couch and went upstairs to lay on the floor and play with Legos for a while. Makayla drove the oldest four kids to Wednesday night activities while Daddy and I got the rest of the kids settled in for the evening. The boys are listening to Fablehaven 4: Secrets of the Dragon Sanctuary.
Thursday Notes
Our Valentines Day was low-key with the sick kids in varying stages. We did a morning of school work, then Mason and I went to physical therapy.
In the later afternoon Emma and I did some errands that needed done and discovered strawberries on sale super cheap. We picked up 5 lbs of strawberries and some chocolate as a surprise. Several of the middle and older kids made it all into chocolate covered strawberries. Delicious!
Friday Notes
Rebekah finally had a solid night of sleep, only up once. She's feeling better today while some kids are feeling worse. This is the hard part of a large family - we can drag out illness over a month or more, or we can all come down with it in the same couple of days (only especially bad when the illness involves vomit).
School was swiftly dispatched and the rest of the chocolate covered strawberries were eaten along the way. Makayla and I spent some time dealing with college related emails. She has officially heard back from half of the schools she applied to about acceptance/rejection. Until the final few let us know what is going on I'll have to leave things pretty vague, but I can say she won't be staying home in the fall.
I put up a quick post earlier today sharing our thoughts on some of the different curricula we have been using this year. You can read that right here.
I think that is it for this week. I need to get caught up on a few things but a book for me is calling my name, so maybe I'll just go read one more chapter...
That is a beautiful snack board! And a couple of my kids are reading over my shoulder about the scratch art . . . and liking it. :) I truly wish you good healthy days and nights ahead!!!! I hope Makayla gets into her number 1 choice school!
ReplyDeleteI love the snack board. That looks so delicious. The strawberries are lovely too. I am so sorry you all are having a round of illness and lack of sleep. I love all of the scratch art. That is marvelous. Good luck to Makayla in picking the best college for her.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Dawn
Awww, sorry you've got some sick littles in your house. I do hope they don't just keep passing it around. The snack board looks great, I'll have to give that a try sometime! Praying everyone feels better and you get some extra rest this weekend!
ReplyDelete