Day #40/175 Days

I spent a lot of time today getting ready for Christmas school so today was a "reading day."

Here are the books I read - we spent an hour on this....

• When Will It Snow? by Marty Crisp (for my oldest who is complaining about not having any snow on the ground yet)
• One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey
• Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey
• 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving by Dav Pilkey (I know! It's now way after Thanksgiving & we actually did get this before the day before Thanksgiving but we were all so sick no one felt up to reading or listening to it. It was kind of cute.)
• continued with Stories of the Pilgrims by Margaret B. Pumphrey (again - I know! but I started the book last year & never finished it. I am determined that we will finish it this year even if it takes until Christmas!)

Christmas School

I know we've done bits of school since the 18th, but sadly I can't for the life of me remember what we did! Sad I know. This is why I'm keeping this blog!

Tomorrow is December 1st so I'll be starting "Christmas School." This was something new I started last year after seeing it around the WWW & I'm going to continue with it this year.

We were all pretty ill around here this weekend & we also lost power most of Saturday so I'm scrambling today to put things together. So far this is what we'll be doing....

**Teaching Mom's Advent Calendar - I just noticed that this is still set up for last year (2008) in which Advent began on Sunday, November 30th. This year it began on Sunday, November 29th. I'm planning to just follow the dates rather than the days of the week. This puts everything together nicely with some fun stuff thrown in.

**Jesse Tree Devotional - using Ann Voskamp's The Glorious Coming ebook. I've been eying this book for a bit & was able to find it a few weeks ago on sale for only $5. I had some money sitting in my paypal account so I snagged it. I'm glad I did! I also have a book that I have used in the past. There are also many free ones on the 'net. Just search out "Jesse Tree Devotional." Here's one and here's another one.

**We'll be reading through Jotham's Journey as well. It's been at least a couple years since we've done this. Each day has a reading (so we'll need to get caught up since we'll be starting late) and all end on a "oh no" moment.

The boys will also continue with these basics throughout the month:

• AWANA verses
• MUS
• Spelling
• Writing Journal
• Independent Reading
• Anything we need to be reviewing for the TOS Crew

Plus we'll be adding in some fun things (I hope they see them as fun!)

**A Hands Of a Child Lapbook called the 12 Days of Christmas. This was a free download I received at one time or another. Only N8 will probably be doing this unless I can convince B13 that it's fun. When I asked them tonight who wanted to do a lapbook only N8 spoke up.

**Christmas crafts and activities as added on a daily basis. I also have a bunch of fun stuff printed off from ABCTeach. They have a ton of fun printables so be sure to check them out. Even if you are not a member, they have a lot of free ones.

I've even reverted back to my checklist from last year. Click here to see a Google Document of it. (I checked the link & it works, but the formatting is wrong. I have it set up in two columns & this didn't do that, but you'll still be able to see what I do for a checklist.)

Day #39/175 Days

Well, yesterday was "workboxes only" & today was "together school" only. Perhaps we'll hit on a nice mix of the two here soon.

While I read more from Stories of the Pilgrims, the boys colored. I found some nice color-by-number turkey & cornucopia coloring pages. (ABCTeach members only pages). I read another chapter from Story of the World Volume 2. Then I did some more reading.

I spent some time searching what I had on my computer the other night & discovered a gem. It was one of the Freebie of the Day offerings last year. It's a book published back in the 1800s called Grammar Land by M. L. Nesbitt. The Baldwin Project is currently working to digitize it (in progress). I couldn't seem to find it anywhere else doing a quick search. I read the intro & the first chapter. The boys enjoyed it (as did I). They make the parts of speech into real people. It's hard to explain but very cute & it held the boys attention. At the end - all three (including Happy) - were able to list five nouns. I'll be printing the next chapter in order to read it tomorrow.

They rounded out the morning by doing private devotions and math. Lego-Man asked to work on his blog as well as spend time on Tektoma so he did those as well.

An easy day but fun.

Day #38/175 Days

Today was a "workboxes only" day. Still trying to get back in to the groove of school.

Lego-Man's boxes:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. MUS
4. Private Devotions
5. Writing Journal
6. Photo taking - spent 15 mins outside snapping photos
7. Read two books to Happy & Miss H: Once Upon MacDonald's Farm... by Stephen Gammell and The Kids' Cat Book by Tomie de Paola
8. Worked on his blog for 30 minutes
9. Mad Libs
10. Did a glyph from ABC Teach. I love using these for following directions.
11. Tektoma - he uses this just about every day
12. Assigned Reading
13. Mathletics - he did this in the afternoon. It wasn't part of his boxes but he loved it. One neat feature is you can play on-line against other kids all over the world. He was competing against a kid in England and one in Australia.

Conductor's boxes:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. MUS
4. Private Devotions
5. Writing Journal
6. Thanksgiving Maze
7. A paper on common/proper nouns
8. Fall Glyph
9. Thank you note to Grammy (the boys are stamping/writing their own notes)
10. Mathletics
11. Assigned Reading
12. Read Sarah Morton's Day

Happy's boxes:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. MUS
4. Creating coloring pages - finished the A's
5. Calendar work
6. Falling leaves page (same/different)
7. Thanksgiving picture graph
8. Thanksgiving categories page
9. Hot/Cold FF game
10. Read to him: God Gave Us Christmas by Lisa Tawn Bergren and God Gave Us Love by Lisa Tawn Bergren (watch for an upcoming review on these two books in a couple weeks on my family blog)

Day #37/Day 175

After 10 days off because Conductor had his tonsils & adenoids out on the 4th of the month. He's finally feeling up to doing some school work (or at least I think he is) so we begin again today.

Together School

• We began a new read aloud for the month - Stories of the Pilgrims. If you want to read it to your own kiddos - click the link. It's a free public domain book. I have a bound copy I'm using though.
• Grapevine
• Story of the World (still trying to finish Volume 2. My goal is to start Volume 3 in January.)

Workboxes for Lego-Man:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. Math-U-See
4. Private Devotions
5. Writing Journal
6. Photo Reading (this is for the homeschool class I'm teaching in photography)
7. Mr. Q Science lesson (This absolutely thrilled Conductor to make.)
8. Tektoma (This is an amazing website we're reviewing for the TOS Crew. Lego-Man loves it & I've been impressed with what he's done with it. They are tutorials on how to make video games. Lego-Man is working on his 2nd one.)
9. Adverb page - I'm pretty sure this was from ABC Teach
10. Thank-you note for our new bunnies
11. Mad Libs
12. Assigned Reading (He's almost done with The Hobbit - being on vacation the last 10 days allowed me to read ahead of him & finish it already. I had forgotten how enjoyable it was to read!)

Conductor's Boxes:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. Math-U-See
4. Private Devotions
5. Writing Journal
6. Paper Bag Turkey (he asked to skip this on so I let him)
7. Shell Fact Family (ABCTeach)
8. Mr. Q Science - same link as above
9. A Dot-to-Dot that counted by 5's
10. Thank you note for the bunnies
11. Mathletics - again - a membership we were given to review to TOS
12. Assigned Reading

Happy's Boxes:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. Math-U-See
4. Creation coloring book - A pages
5. Calendar work
6. Paper Bag Turkey - skipped this with him as well - we'll try again next week
7. Thanksgiving Maze page
8. Thanksgiving Math counting page
9. Read to him:Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl by Kate Waters Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy in Pilgrim Times by Kate Waters

It was a good first day back - for the most part.

Day #36/175 Days

Together School

I have been pretty annoyed lately at all the nitpicking that goes on here between the three boys. It's just little things. I'm trying to foster and teach them how to be friends. But it's tough at times. Today I had them sit & think for three minutes to come up with three things each liked about the other. Sadly they couldn't do it. Here is what they did come up with:

Happy on...Lego-Man: His laugh and on Conductor: nothing (although these two typically get along the best)

Conductor on....Lego-Man:

1. You are older.
2. You can read long books.
3. You have a small room.

Happy....

1. He's cute.
2. He likes to play games with me.
3. He likes to play trains with me.

Lego-Man on....Conductor: I like to rough house with him. And on Happy: I can scare him easily.

Obviously this is something we'll continue to work on.

We continued with Together School by:

• read aloud
• Grapevine studies
• Story of the World volume 2 (We actually used this last year but didn't finish. I am simply trying to finish the reader this year before we start on the next volume.)

Then on to workboxes.

Lego-Man:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. Math-U-See
4. Private Devotions
5. Writing Journal
6. "Sweet" break (Skittles & Starbursts today)
7. Gummy Bear experiment Day #2 The small one is of course, an original size Gummy Bear. The large bloated one has been soaking in water for 24 hours. Today it was put back in salt water to sit for another 24 hours. It should shrink back.
8. Blog
9. Read to Happy - two books I chose (Green Eggs & Ham & Wacky Wednesday)
10. 15 minutes taking photos
11. Play Toss & Tally with Conductor
12. Assigned Reading (The Hobbit)

Conductor:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. Math-U-See
4. Private Devotions
5. Writing Journal
6. "Sweet" break (I need to make sure these don't become a habit! LOL)
7. Gummy Bear Experiment
8. Quarter Mile Math drill
9. Math dice (I gave him 3 dice & a sheet of graph paper. He was to roll all three dices & line up the three numbers on the graph paper. Then add together.)
10. 15 minutes taking photos
    
11. Animal magnet tangrams
12. Assigned reading (Amelia Earhart: Courage in the Sky by Mona Kerby)

Happy:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA
3. Math-U-See
4. ABC write on/wipe off book (Dollar Tree)
5. "Sweet" break
6. Scissor Skills/Fine Motor Skills workbook
7. Bible Dot-to-Dot book

Again - most of the school took place during Miss H's nap time. She did spend some time on her favorite activity this am though - coloring books!

Day #35/175 Days

Together School (aka Circle Time Revised)

• Read aloud (just started reading On the Banks of Plum Creek)
• Grapevine Studies (bible)
• Composers study (music)
• Over Our Heads in Wonder (science)

Lego-Man workboxes:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA verses
3. Math-U-See
4. Private Devotions
5. Writing
6. Break (You are a "smartie." Take a 15 min. break. A smartie candy is included - I think I got this from the workbox Yahoo group I am in.)
7. Gummy Bear Experiment (May 2009 in the archives)
8. Quarter Mile Math drill
9. Blog
10. Read to Happy - 2 books of Happy's choice
11. November Glyph from abcteach (member's only site - sorry!)
12. Assigned Reading (The Hobbit)

Conductor's worboxes:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA verses
3. Math-U-See
4. Private Devotions
5. Writing journal
6. You are a "smartie" break
7. Gummy Bear Experiment
8. Mitten (from Hearts & Trees Winter 2008 kit)
9. Quarter Mile Math drill
10. Fix Verb Puzzle Page (part of a literacy center -pages 5 & 6 - on abcteach - members only again - sorry)
11. Assigned Reading (working on a book about Amelia Earhart)

Happy's workboxes:

1. Handwriting
2. AWANA verses
3. Math-U-See
4. Creation minibook (I printed these & laminated each one. Happy put them in order. Then I gave him a dry erase marker & he traced over the letters & numbers. Then he cleaned them off. It was a hit.) This website has TONS of great printables on it.
5. Read three books to him: Little Blue Truck, Truck Stuck, Millie Waits for the Mail (a really cute book!)
6. Kindergarten Scholar workbook
7. Dog Bone Sorting File Folder game
8. Geometry box

Most of our school work was completed today after Miss H was down for her nap so no list for her today. It was so nice outside that we did our school work out on the porch. Lovely.