Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Cards

I blocked out our last name, that's why the coloring is funny.

The card is a template from Sam's and I love it.  A set of 50 was only $15!

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Go Graham Go
Mom Spotted
Mama to 4 Blessings
Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

Homeschool Weekly Review: November 21-25

We had a great Thanksgiving!  We went to my Mom and Dad's house for Thanksgiving lunch.  I took my camera, but never did take any pics.  This year's turkey was really good!  We also had my Dad's dressing, corn casserole, green bean bake, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls and I'm sure there's more I can't remember right now.  It was so yummy!

Now to the school stuff.  We only did school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Math

Abby continued with lesson 20 in Math U See.

Social Studies

We did a Thanksgiving supplement lesson in Heritage Studies.  We reviewed the first Thanksgiving.  We also did an alphabetical order Thanksgiving worksheet from Apples 4 The Teacher.

Science

I decided not to start a lesson, since we only had 3 days.  The Apologia lessons seem to go smoothly when we do them 5 days a week.

Language Arts

Abby did lesson 19 in A Reason for Handwriting:

She also did grammar worksheets covering:  capitalizing proper nouns and initials.

Reading

Last week, Abby finished Explode The Code, book 4.  We will begin book 5 today.

Misc.

Monday, we went to the library and to our favorite pizza place and took my sister Holly along.  We love their pizza and have to go at least once a week.  LOL!  Wednesday, we meet up with Heather and her boys to head to the mall.

Thursday evening, my Mom and I headed out to Toys R Us.  They opened at 9 p.m., so we figured by getting there at 9:50, we wouldn't need to wait in line.  We figured wrong!  They were only letting in about  25 people at a time, so we waited in line at least an hour.  We met the nicest couple behind us though, they were so funny.

We found what we needed and then waited in line to check out.  It was a massive line.  Last year, we said we wouldn't go back to Toys R Us, but Matthew wanted some Star Wars stuff that was on sale.  The people in line and the workers were much nicer this year.  We got out of Toys R Us at 12:38.  We headed to Target next.  Target opened at midnight, so there was no line.  As usual, Target was very organized and we were in and out of there in one hour.  We were starving, since we had eaten dinner at 1:30 p.m. and it had been 12 hours.

We went through the McDonald's drive through to share a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit.  It took at least 35 minutest to get through there.  The van in front of us must have been ordering for the entire neighborhood or someting!

Next up was Kohl's.  We had fun roaming around there and picked up what was on our list.  I dropped my Mom off around 4 a.m. and headed home for a shower and to bed!

I got 5 hours of sleep and then it was time to meet Dave's sister and family for lunch.  We then ran some errands and went to my parent's to celebrate Andy's 3rd birthday and also for leftovers.  Heather, Bill and I played Scrabble and I won!  I love Scrabble!

All together, it was a great extended weekend.  Saturday, we put up all of the Christmas decorations and Abby watched Rudolph, The Grinch, Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas AND Charlie Brown's Christmas.   Sunday, was Church and errands as usual.

This week, it's back to work/school.  I'm sure we'll be out eventually this week to get to our pizza place.  LOL!

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and a nice extended weekend.

Oh and it's 12:08 a.m. and I've done my first Black Friday shopping.  LOL!  Kohl's has their BF sales online now and they had everything that was on my list for Friday.  I figured with free shipping, why not?

Wordless Wednesday: Andy's 3rd Birthday Party

My nephew Andy turns 3 on Friday, but his party was last weekend.  It was Mickey Mouse themed, so I used a freebie from Britt-ish Designs.

For more Wordless Wednesday posts, head to:

Go Graham Go
Mom Spotted
Mama to 4 Blessings
Two of A Kind Working on a Full House

Homeschool Weekly Review

Last week was week 18 of homeschooling this year.  Abby's 100 day poster is almost full.  We still haven't decided how we will celebrate.  Most likely, it will be our usual fun thing to do:  head to our favorite pizza place.

Math

Abby continued with Math U See lesson 19 and began lesson 20.  She is doing pretty well with subtraction.

We also BOTH learned something new. In a subtraction problem, such as 10-2=8.  I already knew that 8 is the difference, but did you  know 10 would be called the minuend and 2 is the subtrahend?  Seriously, I've never heard of these words before.

Social Studies

This week, Abby did lesson 33:  Fredrick the Great and Lesson 34:  Maria Theresa in Heritage Studies.  These both had crown activities like last week's with Louis XV.

She learned that Fredrick the Great ruled Prussia, liked books and music and also took land from Austria.  Maria Theresa ruled Austria, the people called her "mother" and she was kind and honest.  These are so colorful, that I decided to hang them on our bulletin board.  You can see I've already changed out the border to winter penguins.  I was getting tired of the leaves border.

Abby also did a notebook activity on encyclopedias.

Science

We both are still enjoying Apologia Anatomy and Physiology.  This past week, we continued with lesson 9 on the nervous and endocrine systems.  Topics were:  hormones, thyroid, pituitary, adrenal and thymus glands.  Abby also labeled the parts of the brain, made Nervous System & Endocrine System hangers and did a cut and fold book.

This is in the Apologia Junior Notebook.  Each piece flips over to show a picture of the part.

She did a really good job copying a picture of a neuron!  I labeled it for her, since there wasn't much writing room on this mini book.

Language Arts

Abby did lesson 18 in A Reason For Handwriting.

She also completed several grammar worksheets covering:  pronoun usage, a vs. an and capitalizing the first word in a sentence.

Reading

We are almost finished with Explode The Code, book 4.

Misc.  

I have no idea what we did last week other than schoolwork.  I didn't write anything down, however I know we were out and about.  I do recall Heather, me and the kids meeting Dave and Bill at our pizza place for dinner.  We usually go for lunch and the boys are at work.  I think we'll stick to lunch, since it's way cheaper with the lunch specials and less mouths to feed.  LOL!

We also went to my nephew, Andy's 3rd birthday party on Saturday.  I'll be sure to post pics soon.

This week will surely be a fast one.  I'm looking forward to the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend!

Links I Like: Thanksgiving

Yikes, Thanksgiving is less than a week away.  Do you make pies for Thanksgiving?  I don't make them, but I sure like to eat them!  If you like to make and/or eat pies, check out Tidy Mom's Love The Pie Party.

 Here's a few that caught my eye:

Tidy Mom's Chocolate Covered Pretzel Pie

Peanut Butter Buckeye Pie from In Katrina's Kitchen

Pumpkin Bomb Pie by Something Swanky

I've also found a few fun Thanksgiving related ideas.  First up is this adorable Hand Print Mayflower craft from Little Page Turners:

I like this idea of a Thankful Turkey by Crafts For All Seasons.

These Pinecone Turkeys from A Pumpkin And A Princess are cute:

So this time next week, I'll be out doing my Black Friday Shopping.  Does anyone else do Black Friday?  Check out the store ad previews on BFads.net.  It's my favorite site every year. 

Tonight, Dave and I are going to see Chris Tomlin in concert.  We're pretty excited!

Wordless Wednesday

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Go Graham Go
Mom Spotted
Mama to 4 Blessings
Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

Homeschool Weekly Review

Last week was week 17 of our homeschooling this year.  It was another busy, but fun week.

Math

Abby continued with subtraction in lessons 18 and 19 of Math U See.

Social Studies

Heritage Studies was really fun last week.  Abby did lessons 31 and 32 about kings and queens and also learned about King Louis XV.  She had a notebook page on roman numerals and facts about King Louis XV. She was to cut and paste the facts on the lines.  There were 3 strips that weren't true and not included:

The next notebook activity was to complete a crown project about Louis XV.  All of these worksheets are included in the Heritage Studies kit.

Abby wrote facts about Louis XV on the 3 "jewels".  He ruled France, lived at Versailles and was 5 when he became king.

Science

We began lesson 9:  Nervous & Endocrine System in Apologia Anatomy and Physiology.  Topics were:  brain, spinal cord, cerebellum, brain stem, cerebral cortex, neurons, PNS, CNS, SNS, ANS, dendrite, axon, myelin sheath, neurotransmitters, snapse, sensory and motor neurons.

We made a clay model of the brain and another of a neuron:

The clay brain never dried, so I tried play dough for the neuron.  It ended up drying too well and cracking apart.  Oh well, she got the lesson and was able to point out the parts of the brain:  cerebrum, cerebellum and brainstem to her Dad.  She also remembered most of the parts of the neuron:  cell body, nucleus, axon, dendrites and terminals.

We both really enjoy Apologia.  Are all of their books this well written?  I love the way it is broken down and the activities that are included!  Abby is already looking forward to when we start Land Animals of the 6th Day.

Language Arts

Abby did A Reason for Handwriting, lesson 17.  I forgot to get a picture of her copy page this week.  Oops!  

She also did grammar worksheets covering:  subject and object pronouns.

Reading

We continued reading The Boxcar Children:  Mystery Ranch.  This is book 4 of the boxcar children series.  I own books 5-8, so that will be nice to not have to wait for them at the library.

Abby also did Explode The Code pages:

I was very proud of her handwriting on this page.  She seems to do the best when she is trying to surprise me.  She'll tell me to go do the laundry or something and that she's not going to do school work.  She'll pretend to whine and act like she's going to sit and do nothing.  Then, I'll come back and she'll have it done. 

I wish I could say it was always that easy, but it's not.   Many times it is real whining and nothing gets done without me sitting right there helping her along the way.

Misc.

Heather and I took Abby and Matthew for haircuts on Tuesday and then all 3 kids for pictures on Wednesday.  I HATE having pictures taken.  It is nearly impossible to get 3 kids to look at the camera and smile all at the same time.  We were there for over 2 hours and it was so stressful.  This was an early Christmas present to our parents, who have been wanting a pic of their grandkids for the desk at work.

We did end up with one decent pic of the kids together.  We gave them to Mom and Dad on Sunday and they loved it!

Friday, Dave was off work for Veteran's Day and we ran some errands. The weather this weekend was gorgeous!  It was windy, but in the 60's.  I'm thinking any time now it's going to drop at least 30 degrees and start snowing.

How was your week?  Is anyone ready for Thanksgiving yet?  I'm still in denial about it already being November.

Links I Like

First, I want to say thank you to everyone who has served our country! 

Do you have any Veteran's Day activities planned?  I found a Veteran's Day Freebie at Lory's Page.

There are 2 activity pages to download.  I just printed them off for Abby.

I've also started printing off some Thanksgiving activities.  Superheroes and Princesses shared a fun Roll A Turkey game. 

Apples 4 The Teacher has several worksheets.  I printed Alphabetical Order Thanksgiving.

This Handprint Turkey craft from Meet The Dubiens is so cute:

Abby loves to paint, but sadly I don't get the paint out that much.  I need to be better about that!

Another thing Abby enjoys is playvdough.  Check out this Pumpkin Pie Play Dough from Dinosaurs and Octopuses:

I can almost smell it!

Finally, this idea of a Chalkboard Table Runner from Finding Home is so cool:

Does it feel like Thanksgiving is less than 2 weeks away to you?  I just can't believe it.  And Christmas is 43 days away!  Have you started your shopping?

Oh wait, I'm not done.  I've got to include some sweets for Christy and Susana!

I love my Aunt Elaine's pecan pie that she brings on Thanksgiving.  I've never made a homemade pie, but bars I can do.  What about these?

Pecan Pie Bars from The Girl Who Ate Everything

Another holiday favorite of mine is my Dad's fudge.  Of course, that is usually saved for Christmas.  This Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Fudge from Bake at 350 looks awesome:

And now I must be finished with this post, before I have to go make myself something sweet.  LOL!

Have a great weekend.

Wordless Wednesday: Looking Back

I posted pics of our trip to the Best Of MO last month.  However, I had to put a collage together of Abby over the last 7 years:



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Mom Spotted
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Two of a Kind Working on a Full House

Thank You!

I was voting for my favorite blogs in the Homeschool Blog Awards and saw that I was nominated for 2 categories!

Best Crafts, Plans & Projects Blog

Best Homeschool Variety Blog

Wow, thanks!

There are over 1,000 blogs to vote for this year, so head over and have a fun time!

Homeschool Weekly Review: October 31 to November 4

Last week was another fast one!

Math

Abby started lesson 18 in Math U See on subtraction.  So far, so good!

Social Studies

Abby did lesson 29:  Making shoes, in which she learned about shoemakers and the process of making shoes.  We discussed parts of a shoe and we also made a shoe:

Or should I say I made a shoe.   The directions were kind of difficult to understand.  It said use cloth, but then after I cut it out and was reading the rest of the directions it mentioned felt.  I'm thinking felt would have been much easier to work with!  Anyway, it still resembles a shoe.  LOL!

Abby also did lesson 30:  Learning a Trade.  This explained trade schools, finding something you like to do, etc.  She also learned about a man who painted on barrels.  He would paint portraits of the people who purchased the barrels.  The notebook page for that day was for Abby to decorate her own barrel:

She drew all of her favorite animals and then included her and Matthew at the bottom.  She wanted  me to write their names.  This turned out so cute, that I laminated it, so it would keep better.

Science

Last week, we continued with lesson 8 on the cardiovascular system in Apologia Anatomy and Physiology.  She added the heart to the personal person page, did a vocabulary lift the flap and also did a cut & fold mini book.

Language Arts

Abby continued with A Reason For Handwriting.

She also completed grammar worksheets covering past & present tense verb usage, irregular verbs and change of tense.

Reading

Abby did Explode The Code pages:

and read library books.  We started The Boxcar Children, Mystery Ranch this weekend.  Abby loves the Boxcar Children series.

Misc.

Abby had a great time trick or treating Monday night.  She was a vet for Halloween, but everyone kept asking her what she was.  I think she was getting annoyed with that.  LOL!  On Wednesday, we went out with my sisters Holly and Heather and her boys.  We had our favorite pizza and ran some errands. 

Thursday was Heather's birthday and she was so exhausted that I just watched her boys for the afternoon, so she could catch up  on some sleep.  The kids had fun playing.  We ran some errands Friday as well and then headed to my parents house to have dinner and cake for Heather's birthday.

How has school been going for you?  I need to do more planning.  I am only planned up to Thanksgiving.  How is it November already?

Links I Like

It sure doesn't seem right, but Christmas is only 50 days away!  For us, we have lots going on in November and December.  I might have to print this December calendar from Anything But Perfect to keep us organized:

I also love her Holiday Penguins Label Set: 

January is pretty boring around here, but this calendar is adorable:

Ok, back to November. I loved my Halloween subway art from eighteen25 and I'm so excited to see eighteen25 now has a Fall Subway Art.

We haven't done any Fall crafts yet, but here's a few fun ones:

Corn Wreath from real life, one day at a time.

Fall Button Branches by Meet the Dubiens.

Perfect Fall Leaves using Mess Free Fingerpainting from Moments of Mommyhood.

I just love Fall!  Be sure to check out our list of favorite Fall books in the right column>>>>>

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  Does anyone have any plans?