Weekly Update

Since we started school in July, we are almost half way through our required days for the year. I am transitioning to a year round school so it is a little difficult to divide our year out.  while keeping with the required time set by the state.
We are just a bit behind from where I was hoping we would be due to illness  and a couple of weeks of specialty unit studies that were related to field trips. To help make up ground, we did something a little different for school last week.  We did one subject a day, in order to review and catch up to where I was hoping we would be.  I wasn’t sure how it would work; I was afraid Kiddo would get bored spending so much time on one thing but it went amazingly well.  I let him pick which subject we were going to work on each day.  The only day that was hard was math and I have to agree, hours on math is enough to give anyone a headache.  I will definitely try this again.
Since we are almost at the half way point and only have a few weeks to go before our holiday break, I have been reviewing our curriculum to see if I want to make any changes over the break.  I am happy for the most part with everything except Language Arts.  We are using First Language Lessons and it is just not a good fit for us, he does not like repetitive work and FLL is nothing but. I have read some good reviews for Shurley English and I am looking into switching to that after the holidays.  I will be looking at some other programs also. If there are any great English programs that you have used, please let me know.
I did want to comment on Singapore math: this is our 2nd year with Singapore and while I like the fast pace nature, I have been concerned about Kiddo not learning his math facts to memorization.  What do I know, the Singapore program is working. We are working on addition and subtraction with renaming and he knows his facts.  He has no trouble adding single digits together.  I was surprised. We are using the textbook, workbook and the word problem book. 
So far we have had an excellent year and are making great progress. Kiddo (and I) can’t wait until we get the first half of the year wrapped up. We are looking forward to our Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks. Hopefully, we will fit a vacation in there somewhere. 


Bonus – He learned to tie his shoes this week!

Wordless Wednesday - Work with Dad

At Family Day,  LittleBit got to check out were Dad works.  

Field Trip to visit the Nina, Pinta and Tennessee Aquarium

We had a great field trip this week.  We took a trip to Chattanooga, TN to see the Nina and Pinta ships plus make a stop at the Tennessee Aquarium. 
It was a sunny day and a great way to see the start of the changing of all the colors on the leaves.  I love fall, such a beautiful time. Yes, I am the crazy lady taking photos while travelling down the interstate.


The Nina and Pinta are docked at the Riverfront in Chattanooga on the Tennessee River until Nov. 2nd.  There is a paid parking lot just across the street from the ships.  Parking cost $5.00 and the tour of both ships is $7.00 for adults and $5.00 for children.  We spent around an hour and half there, which is about all the attention span my 6 year old can handle, even if they, “were way cool ships”.   The crew was very informative about the ships and the history.  They also showed some great knot tying skills.   I was most surprised how small the ships were and the thought of 30 to 40 men being stuck in that small space for months at a time, makes me very glad I did not live in that time.   It was well worth the trip and you can not beat living history to really understand the time period.
Since we using Story of the World for history, we have not reached this time period yet.  I just skipped ahead and we read the chapters about the Christopher Columbus. We did some map work for the voyage and the path from Spain to India, etc. 
 

The Pinta                                   The Nina

After touring the ships we went across the street to visit the Tennessee Aquarium.  It was great as always, it is expensive, $25 for adults and $15 for children, not including Imax.  They have freshwater and saltwater fish, plus they also have a butterfly area, reptiles, and birds.   You could spend hours  here easily.  We were there about 2.5 hours before kiddo got tired.  I warn you, to exit you have to go through the gift shop.  My husband is a sucker with the gift shop thing, I am sure we have never gone past one where he hasn’t bought something. We are now the proud owners of a book all about sharks. 
Here are a few pictures from the aquarium.

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Wordless Wednesday - Math in PJs

Post It Note Tuesday - Field Trip

Wordless Wednesday - Pumpkin Farm

Dad Attempted School

 

 

We have been a sick household this week.  First Dad got sick last weekend, then LittleBit had a really bad day on Monday and has spent the rest of this week recovering and being congested.  Monday night I started feeling bad and Tuesday night I pulled a muscle in my back coughing, yippee for me. 

My husband stayed home from work on Wednesday to hopefully get better himself and give me a day to get better.  I spent most of the day in bed with a heating pad.  Dad announced he and LittleBit were going to do some school,  so I told him where we were in math, science and mentioned the Viking boat we were going to build.  It seemed like enough for them to try, I overestimated.

A little later I heard Dad and LittleBit working on math. Dad was getting a little frustrated with LittleBit’s lack of effort.  I admit it I got tickled just a little, I have spent many a day where he is too tired, bored, etc to put in a complete effort and I know how Dad was feeling, I have been there.  I think is great Dad wanted to help out with school though and I have since been told by LittleBit, that he just not the same as I am, I am better at it.  GO MOM!

So for school time, Dad managed to do 2 pages of math, question my honesty on whether or not LittleBit can actually add with renaming(he can) plus they built the Viking ship, and read about Ugly Bugs.  They also did some “testing”  using different weight papers for paper airplanes.  Not a full school day by any means but a learning experience for all.  COOL DAD!

Post It Note Tuesday

Blogger Award!

 

Thanks to Amy from Complete Knowledge 4 me and Melissa at Just Starting Out, I received my first blogger award.  Talk about making my day!  Thank you to Melissa and Amy for thinking of me.

 

To accept the Versatile Blogger Award the rules are:
•Thank and link back to who gave you the award.
•Share 7 things about yourself.
•Pass it along to 15 blogs you've recently discovered and enjoy
•Leave your recipients a note, telling them about the award

 

7 things about me (I am so bad at this)

1. I have been married almost 20 years to my best friend and best husband in the world.

2. I am the mom to one boy who is a heart baby, he has Tetralogy of Fallot.

3.  I really like all my tech gadgets, laptop, Droid X, Zune, etc.  I am more of a techie than my electrical engineer geeky husband. 

4. I used to have a wedding business where I made custom decorations.  I have given it up for more time with my son and homeschooling.

5. I am in the process of starting a Etsy store selling handmade crafts

6. I have discovered Knock off Wood and making my own furniture, I may be a little obsessed with woodworking. 

7. My guilty pleasure is reading romance novels. 

 

I am passing this award to the following friends and bloggers.

1. Little Sparrow Academy

2. A Work in Progress

3. Forever For Always No Matter What

4. Magical Mouse Schoolhouse

5. Stories From the Shoebox

6. Adventures of Arbor Creek

7. Accidentally Homeschooling

8. Giggles Wiggles and Wonder

9. Live Learn and Love Together

10.My Home in the Smokies

11.School in the Kitchen

12.The Homeschool Chick

13.The Tuckers Take Tennessee

14.Teachable Moments

15.The Disorganized Mom Homeschools

 

Have a great week everyone!