Homeschool Weekly Review

Whew, we just came up from the basement.  It's 12 a.m. and a major storm blew through here.  The warnings went off and the news people said to head for cover immediately.  I hated waking Abby up, as she is so scared of storms.  Luckily, it only lasted about 15 minutes.  The winds were very strong and I was a bit nervous, but it's over for now.  We do have a tornado watch until 4 a.m. though.  

I hope everyone in the storm's path is safe!

Anyway, on to our week...I don't have pics of Abby's work to post.  I usually take pics on Sunday, but we were gone all day.

Math

The worksheets last week covered:  using a table, reading a calendar, time and counting coins.  Abby did very well counting the coins.  Right now, we are on pennies, dimes and nickels.

Reading

I focused mostly on sight words this past week.  Abby did a few worksheets, I used flash cards and I we played Erudition again.  I think she'll be reading more independently very soon!

Science
I let Abby pick which topic she wants to work on for the week.  She chose one of our How and Why books:

We both learned something.  I had no idea weasels have white fur in the winter!  Abby then answered questions in her science journal about how each of the animals in the book prepare for winter.

Social Studies

I had some worksheets printed out about President's day, but Abby really wasn't interested.  I did read a few facts about each president from this book:


Abby asked why there weren't any lady presidents.  She also asked why Dave was off work and people celebrate President's day.  Dave explained to her that we honor the past presidents (some of them, hee hee).  Abby asked what the president does and he said that he makes the rules.  She said, "I thought that was God."  LOL, good point!

For Heritage Studies, last week was Lesson 29 about Plymouth Plantation.  We compared Plymouth with Jamestown.  They were set up quite differently.

Misc.

I am feeling much better!  By Thursday, my chest pain was down to just soreness.  Today, I can barely feel it.  My plan is to start exercising this week.  I mean it!  I am hoping to do at least 3 days of exercise this week.  I'm also going to set up my first boot camp class.  You may remember I got a good deal on a 30 day boot camp class on a local deals site.  I can't wait to try it!

Our library had a book sale this past week and on Saturday, everything was 50% off.  I just love book sales.  Really, we don't need anymore books, but I can't help myself.  Here's a few Abby, Dave and I picked out:



I'm sure this week will go by just as fast as the last several weeks seem to be going by. Can you believe tomorrow is March already?


Disclaimer: These are Amazon Affiliate links.

Links I Like: Digital Scrapbooking

This week I came across an insanely informative post at Persnickety's Blog.  This was new to me, but apparently you can use Picasa to make digital scrapbooks.  I have been using Picasa for years and it's so easy.  I had no idea making a scrapbook page was as easy as downloading the paper!

To understand what I'm talking about, see Persnickety's Blog:  Step 1, Step 2 and Step 3.

For even more information, check out Clover Lane's post:  I Caught Up!  6 Years in 3 Weeks...Scrapbooking With Picasa.

So here's a few things I created in the last two nights:



This is seriously fun and so much more convenient than actual scrapbooking.  I've downloaded about 400 papers so far.  Here are a few sites I've used:

Persnickerty's Prints
Shabby Princess
Oscraps
Free Digital Scrapbooking
Computer Scrapbook

What do you think?  Did you already know about this?  I am 18 months behind on scrapbooking and this is going to save me tons of time!

I'm linking up to Tidy Mom's I'm Lovin' It Fridays.

Wordless Wednesday: My Nephew

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Mom Spotted
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Homeschool: Weekly Review

The weather this past week was so pleasant!  I just love to open the sliding doors and let in fresh air!  Plus, nice weather makes running errands so much more enjoyable!

We even went to the park on Friday.  I didn't have my camera, but I doubt I would have gotten any great pics anyway.  It was packed there and Abby was all over the place.  Plus, my chest still hurts from the costochondritis.  The cough I had is gone, but the pain is still present.  Every time I start to feel better, I sneeze and the stabbing pain comes back.  Not fun at all.

Math

Abby's worksheets included topics such as:  choosing operation for story problems, money problems, picture graphs, bar graphs and tally tables.

Reading
Abby continued with the workpages in 100 Words Kids Need To Read By First Grade. Also, LOL that I just realized the book says BY first grade and not IN first grade.  Oh well.  These pages included:  comprehension, rhyming words, matching, past/present tense and this/that actions.

We played Erudition too!

Abby loved it.  She did really well with the words.  There are 4 different color card "levels".  The blue cards are upper/lower case and beginning sounds.  Green cards are beginning level sight words, yellow cards are intermediate level sight words.  The red cards are the advanced level sight words.

Abby started with the green cards on the first round and got almost all of them right.  On the next round, she did the yellow level and did very well.  Probably about 75% accuracy.  The red ones are still pretty hard for her though.

The only thing about this game I don't care for is it's hard to play along.  Dave and I already know all of the words.  So, it's kind of boring to play.  However, I read somewhere that a parent used Trivial Pursuit cards for their turn.  Good idea!

I also remembered that I had made Paint Chip Phonics cards.  The last time I got them out, Abby was not interested.  This time she loved them.  Even Kitty and Rosie had a turn using them.

Dave built a computer to hook up to our living room TV and Abby played Starfall on it.  She was so excited to see it on the big screen.

Science

Since last Monday was Valentine's Day, we learned about the cardiovascular system.  First she watched the Heart & Blood videos at A to Z Home's Cool Homeschooling.  We then did Lesson Plan 1 from the Texas Heart Institute (.pdf link)  This was an introduction to the cardiovascular system and discussed the heart, lungs, arteries and veins.  Abby did this worksheet:


















I also printed The Mighty Pump worksheet and a Heart Vocabulary page from Slim Goodbody.  After reviewing the parts of the cardiovascular system and the parts of the heart, I printed a handwriting practice worksheet:

This was from Amazing Handwriting Worksheet Maker.  She started out doing really well, but she doesn't have patience to sit for very long.

I forgot where I found the following activity:

I printed the page, then cut out the holes.  The blue and red represents the blood flow from the body to the lungs and from the lungs to the body.

On Friday, we went to a homeschooling event at the library.  It was called How Things Work.  There were tables filled with electric items to take apart, charts, books and posters on how things are made and also several activities for making things.  We both enjoyed this.

That pretty much sums up the week.  I didn't start exercising, but at least I ate well.  HA...not really.  We ate out 5 times this week.  That's insane.  Burger King twice, Taco Bell, Chick-Fil-A and Sam's pizza on Sunday.  We'd better try to eat at home some this coming week or I'll be broke and fat.  LOL!

Today, I'm calling the dentist for Abby.  When I went to brush her teeth yesterday morning, I saw a tooth growing in behind her baby teeth.  I did some research and this is called Shark Teeth.

(Not Abby's teeth)

Apparently the baby tooth root is not absorbing like it should and there is no room for the adult tooth.  Abby's bottom tooth has been loose for quite some time and I'm worried she'll need it removed, to make room for this one coming in.  Does anyone have experience with this?  I remember this happening to Helene's daughter at I'm Living Proof that God Has a Sense of Humor.  Luckily, their dentist told them to wait it out and her baby teeth fell out and everything was fine!  I hope that's what the dentist tells me...

Links I Like: Edition 33

I am hungry right now, so I'm starting off this post with a yummy looking recipe I found on UCreate Foods: 
 

These are Peanut Butter Caramel Shorties from Inside BruCrew Life. Um, I need these right now!

Ok with that craving out of the way, I can move on to some school stuff I found this week.   I think these Squiggle Stories from What The Teacher Wants are a great idea:

I just downloaded the pages and am looking forward to seeing what Abby creates.

Monday is President's Day and I found a good President's Day Unit Study over at Sarah's First Grade Snippets.

Last weekend we ordered a sofa, chair and ottoman and I've been having so much fun looking at decorating ideas online.  I am loving going though the Blogroll at Completely Coastal.  So fun!

Hmm, this may be my shortest Links I Like post ever.  I better start finding some stuff to share for next week.  Please share any great finds that you've had, in the comments.

Have a great weekend!

Wordless Wednesday: I Wish I Were A Cat

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Mom Spotted 
Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

Homeschool Weekly Review

Happy Valentine's Day!

This past week the weather finally warmed up a bit!  There was still too much ice to go out and play, but it sure made running errands a lot easier.  Also, our driveway is almost completely melted now!

Math

Abby worked on subtraction number sentences, story problems, and choosing an operation to complete the problem.  While Dave and I were working on dinner one night, she surprised us with this:

She says she hates math, but if we act like we aren't paying attention, she likes to do the worksheets on her on and surprise us.  She's been doing this with most of her workbook pages.  She'd rather do it on her own then have me ask her, I guess.  Fine with me!

Reading

Abby did several  pages from this book:


These included a mystery letter page, read & spell page and a match-it activity page.  We also played Sight Words Bingo, Level 2.

Abby loves to play games and is very competitive.  It's great for me to pull out these kind of games to access her reading.  She did really well with these and only got a few wrong.  I just bought the Erudition Board Gameand can't wait for it to arrive this week!

Science
Last week's topic was the life cycle of the lady bug.  We are still using the Creative Teaching Press Life Cycles books and resource guide.  We read the corresponding Lady Bug life cycle book and then Abby did a color, cut and paste activity.  She put the cards in sequential order:

She insisted her lady bug be yellow with red dots!  Next we did an activity from the resource guide.  She colored the wings, made a set of tracing paper wings and used a brad to connect them:

Social Studies

We covered Heritage Studies Lesson 27 on Indian towns and Lesson 28 about Old Town Jamestown.  These were text discussions about their houses, land, food source etc.

Handwriting

I have continued Abby with Funnix, but am mostly using it for handwriting instruction.  She likes to watch the demonstration and then do the worksheet to practice.  Now, if I show her how to make a letter...well it's doesn't go well.  LOL!

Misc.

Abby wanted to sew Matthew a blanket, so she made her own sewing machine:

It's not the best picture, but you can see that she has rigged up her own machine. Abby's imagination and creativity are so fun!  She's always planning something.  I think I said this before, but my sister calls her a cruise ship director!  LOL!

Here we are working on the real blanket, with an actual sewing machine:

In other exciting news (at least to me), I found the PERFECT sofa fabric:

I'm not sure how it looks on your screen, but we brought the sample home and it looks amazing in the house!  It is from Flexsteel and we purchased a sofa, chair and ottoman on Sunday.  I can't wait to get them in 8 to 10 weeks!  Can you even believe that will be April?  I know it will go by so fast. 

Exercise

No updates on this.  I had planned to exercise, but then I started having chest pain when I coughed.  It turns out that I have Costochondritis.  It's an inflammation of the cartilage that connects a rib bone to the sternum.  I've had this before.  It's quite painful.  It hurts to sneeze, cough, breathe deeply and even burp.  I did go to the doctor on Friday and got Robitussin with Codeine to help the cough and pain.  The Robitussin is helping me cough less, but the Codeine doesn't seem to make much of a difference.  However, I feel like it's slowly getting better and I can start exercising soon.  This is so upsetting to say, but I have gained 20 pounds since I did Weight Watchers 4 years ago.  128 pounds was too thin, so I'd like to lose at least 15 pounds.  I know I can do it, I just need to be able to get up and get motivated!

URGENT: Illinois Homeschoolers Under Attack

2/12 Update:  HSLDA is asking for only Illinois homeschoolers to attend the meeting, so we will no longer be attending. I will keep them in my prayers!

Update:  Illinois Review has a great, in-depth article on what consequences this bill would have.

Even if you are don't live in Illinois or do not homeschool, this is a very serious threat to parental rights.

Illinois Senator Maloney is on a mission to make homeschoolers register with the government.  This bill (SB 136) will require homeschoolers to be under the direct authority of the Illinois educational system.  The bill gives the Illinois Department of Education UNLIMITED power to mandate what families submit when the register their children.

Senator Maloney has even been quoted as saying he is specifically after homeschoolers and has amended this bill so that private schools are exempt from registering.

Please do anything you can to help support Illinois homeschoolers.

1.  Pray!  Pray this bill will be killed before it can pass.

2.  Attend the hearing on Tuesday, February 15th at 10:45 a.m. at the state Capitol in Springfield, Ill.

Springfield, Illinois is a little under 3 hours from us, but my plan is to get up and leave by 7 a.m. on Tuesday.  I'm in Missouri and am very concerned about this bill passing.  I am pretty angry that this man feels he can do this.  Has he not looked at the public school system in Illinois?  They need tons of help.  Why waste your time on homeschoolers, when you could be making legislation to help the public schools?!

3. Call your Senator, if he or she is on the committee.  For a list of phone numbers and for more information about this bill, go to ICHE.

Thanks for any help you can offer.  I know the Illinois homeschoolers would sure appreciate it!

Links I Like: Edition 32

There's just a few more days until Valentine's Day!  The last thing I need to do is make sweets, but these Brookie Bites from Inside BruCrew Life are so cute!

Maybe if I just ate one, it wouldn't hurt?  Seriously, would it be possible to eat one?

These next treats from How Does She are hilarious! 

Lingerie Cookies

Very creative and so funny!  I'd love to make them for Dave, but I don't want to hear the questions from Abby.  LOL!

To wrap up the Valentine's stuff, this Love Mantle from Craftberry Bush is so amazingly gorgeous!  

She took such simple items and made them into a masterpiece!  I wouldn't want to take that down after Monday.  

All of those glass jars and bottles made me think I might need some.  My mantle is pretty narrow, so I couldn't layer like the above pic.  However, I found this Glass Bottle Wood Rack from Timeless Settings and it would be perfect:

It's only $12 too.  I think I need to buy that for my Summer mantle.  :)

These next few links are unrelated, but were fun finds.  I hung out at Mrs. Bond's Fantastic First Grade for the longest time, enjoying her school room.  She seems like such an organized and thoughtful teacher.  I sometimes wonder if I had a homeschooling room, it would be easier for Abby to concentrate on her work.  Right now, we use the kitchen table which is in full sight of all of her toys and she constantly is getting distracted. 

I really enjoyed Burying the Big Yellow Bus from Simple Homeschool.  I'll admit, I have threatened it.  It didn't make any difference.  LOL!  It was great to hear the perspective of a "veteran" homeschooling Mom. 

Homeschool Creations filled me in one something new to me.

 

The Great Backyard Bird Count

I have never heard of it, but Abby would love this.  I would too.  We get lots of birds in our backyard! 

Have your heard of it before?  I'm printing the tally sheets now!

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  It's going to warm up to the 40's here on Saturday and 52 on Sunday!  I can't even believe it.  Finally the 3" of ice will melt.

Book Review: The Case of the Missing Mountain

New Leaf Publishing Group recently sent me, The Case of the Missing Mountain by Kim Jones.  As with all of our previous books from New Leaf Publishing Group, the book quality was excellent.

Upon receiving the book, I read the description:

A mountain is missing and it’s your job to find out how it disappeared!

Kids, grab your caps and team up with rangers Jack and Jen to solve The Case of the Missing Mountain. Complete the puzzles, master the mazes, and secure the secret codes. Solve all eight mysteries to become an official Mystery Ranger. Your personalized badge & certificate are waiting!

This 80-page activity book for children teaches young earth creation concepts. Author Kim Jones formerly served as a guide at Mount St. Helen’s Seven Wonders Museum. She worked with many other experts to compile the facts for this title.

I opened the book and was confused at first.  I didn't know where to start.  I think I have a little bit of reading ADD.  The pages are laid out with lots of captions, side notes, text and pictures.  It was overwhelming to me at first.  Don't make fun!  LOL!


However, I decided to just start reading it and The Case of the Missing Mountain is really a fun and education book.  There are tons of puzzles, such as mystery codes, decoders, crossword puzzles, word searches, mazes and more.  I also like how the book shows some awesome evidence for Creation. 


This book is too advanced for Abby, but I know it would be prefect for my 8 year old nephew, Matthew.  He loves puzzles like this and would really enjoy learning about the missing mountain.


Here's an inside look at the book:



Altogether, I think this is a great book for kids who are reading independently and are good at comprehending and working out puzzles.  

If you watched the video, what did you think?

Disclaimer:  New Leaf Publishing Group sent me this book in exchange for my honest review.  

Wordless Wednesday: Abby's Art

Alice from Angelina Ballerina

Priscilla from Angelina Ballerina


A bunny jumping

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head to:

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Mom Spotted
Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

Homeschool Weekly Review

So, who got hit with Snowmageddon this past week?  We were supposed to get "10-14 inches" of snow last Tuesday and ended up with 3 inches of ice and 2-3 inches of snow.  Now, I would have liked to see that much snow, but I could do without the ice.  Our driveway is still covered with it.

Being since we couldn't get out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, we got quite a bit done!

Math
Monday we played Pizza Fractions.  This is great practice for Abby.  I had her sort all of the pieces by fraction, before we started also.


Abby also did a few math worksheets this past week.  These covered addition sentences, picture problems and addition and subtraction word problems.  Here's a worksheet:

Reading/Handwriting

Abby did lessons 5 and 6 in the Funnix program.  She is doing really good with her handwriting practice on these.  She's really getting bored with the simple phonics though.  For the very easy things, I skip ahead so she can still finish the lesson without running off.  She also did two pages from ETC, and 2 pages from 100 Words Kids Need to Read by 1st Grade: Sight Word Practice to Build Strong Readers. These are short little lessons that Abby enjoys.

The other night, Abby brought this to me:

 

She had taken the time to do this herself!  She has a tablet with the handwriting paper and in the back is an example of how to write the letters and numbers.  She said she copied it for me.  Great practice!

Speaking of reading, Abby actually read all of her math problems!  She only needed help with some of the names.

Social Studies

We finished Maps, Charts and Graphs level A!  The last few lessons were on comparing distance, pictographs and bar graphs.  I will for sure be buying Maps, Charts and Graphs, level B.  These lessons are short, fun and educational.  Here's an example:

Click the picture to make it bigger.  Can you tell that Abby HAD to use a different color marker on every problem?  That really tried my patience!

Abby also did Lessons 21, 22 and 26 in Heritage Studies.  I told you we were stuck in the house with nothing to do!  LOL!

Lesson 21 was about the Separatists and what they believed.  Lesson 22 was about what they faced in their journey to the New World.  I skipped 23-25 and then started up with Lesson 26.  This was about towns and cities.  The Heritage Studies Notebook journal had a worksheet of a town.  Abby was to color it and then write a story about it.  Her story was too funny.

Science
We only have a few lessons left in the life cycle books.  This past week was about horses:

Are you a horse person?  I'm really not.  I actually find them creepy.  LOL!  Anyway, Abby answered the questions about the horse life cycle in her journal and also learned a few new words:  foal, mare and stallion.  She was cracking me up, because I reviewed it with her and asked, "What's a baby horse called?"  She said, "a fry".  Nope sorry dear, that was the betta fish from last week.

Arts/Crafts

Sunday, we had my family over for the Superbowl.  I had seen a book over at Superheroes and Princesses called My Heart Is Like A Zoo and immediately found it at my library.  I cut out the pieces and Abby made the Seal first:

Then my sister Heather and I helped our younger sister Holly make the Blue Jay:

Matthew wanted the penguin and Heather made him one:

His head's a little small, Heather.  LOL! Seriously, Heather, Holly and I had way too much fun with this book.  I made a bunny, owl and crab too!

The most Abby did was color a little bit on them, LOL!  You have to go find this book.  Abby said we needed to buy it.  She doesn't say that often.

Another book you have to buy is:


Wow, that's a good deal!  We knew the book was coming out and are going to an event at Border's next weekend.  However, I saw it at Walmart for $17 and thought that was way too expansive.  We went to Sam's for some things and we found it for only $11.36 for the hardback.  I got it!  Seriously, this is the best one out of all of them.  The message it sends is perfect too!  Abby and I loved it.  She even "read" it to our cat, Kako yesterday.  LOL!

Have you read Silverlicious yet?  Let me know what you thought.  I really didn't care for Purplicious.

I'm linking this up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers's Weekly Wrap Up.

Links I Like: Edition 31

Wow, it's February already!  I am so looking forward to Spring.  Yesterday the sun was shining outside and it looked nice.  However, it was just fooling us.  The windchill was only 22!  We've been stuck in the house since Monday evening, because of all of the ice and cold.  We are out today though.  Nothing like finally getting out, even if it's just taking the kids to the library, mall and lunch.

The Superbowl is Sunday and we are having my family over to watch.  Actually, just Dad and Dave really watch it.  The rest of us come in if they see a cute commercial.  LOL!  However, we are going to enjoy some yummy ribs!  Dave's ribs are the best!

I'm trying to decide which dessert to make.  There's a few I've posted before that I still want to try, but I just came across these Caramel Brownies on Heidi's Recipes:

They look so good!

Also for Sunday, I printed this Superbowl Word Search.  Heather (my sister) and I enjoy doing these.  Yeah, we're geeks :)

This past week, I found some more fun Valentine's ideas.  Like this Valentine Pizza at One Charming Party.

Isn't that the cutest and simplest idea?  How about Baking A Heart In A Cake?

I know for a fact that mine would never turn out like these from Bake It In A Cake, but they are so adorable!

I have this next idea on my list of must do projects with Abby:

"Bee" My Valentines over at Frugal Family Fun Blog.  Abby and I both enjoy making thumbprint critters.

Superheroes and Princesses made some yummy looking Chocolate Play Dough and I really want to eat make it.

I printed a few Valentine's activities for Abby.  The first are these Cupcake Contractions from Once Upon a Time in 1st Grade.

This will be Abby's first introduction to contractions, but she'll love the cupcakes, so I think she'll enjoy this. 

Another hit will be these Alphabetical Order Cookies from First Grade Best.

Of course right after Valentine's is President's Day.  I came across this George Washington Lapbook awhile back at Lapbook Lessons and it has lots of great information, from book titles, printables, games, facts and more!

Last year, Abby wasn't interested in President's Day at all.  I'm going to try to get some fun stuff together to see if she'll enjoy it more this year.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!  Stay warm!

Wordless Wednesday: A Day In The Life of Kitty

Last week, we sat down to paint and Abby decided Kitty and Aunt Amy (the cat on the left) needed to do some painting as well:



She even covered their table with a napkin, so the kitties wouldn't get paint on it.  She cut small papers and used markers to "paint" their pictures.  Kitty made an angel and Aunt Amy made a fish. 

Kitty later did some sun bathing:



Kitty's got such a hard life.

Sorry that wasn't wordless.  For actual Wordless Wednesday posts, head to:

Go Graham Go
Mom Spotted
Two of a Kind Working on a Full House