Disclaimer: I wrote this draft months ago with grand expectations of importing pictures and of course following up with more posts. Needless to say life kept right on going while this blog stayed in draft mode! I really want to share these things with my family that is so far away. So I am just adding the photos altogether and we can only hope I will be able to keep this up in the future! Enjoy…
We made it through week 1 of second grade and preschool! And I am worn out feeling good about another week approaching. We finished most of what was planned and still managed to keep up with a few of our weekly chores and even added in a few extra curricular activities. Oh and mom had a real good cry on Friday afternoon, but we’ll get to that in a moment. For now I would like to share a review of our week in pictures (and apparently words, too. Turns out I can’t shut-up!)
Monday ~ Day 1. I went to the library on Sunday to pick up a few selections for the week just to find out that the library is opened on Sundays between Oct and April. OOPS! Though it would have been nice to have gotten everything I needed, we survived. We discussed creation and attentiveness. Learned a new way to count in math. Started learning our ABCs in sign language and started our study on Legos. Sister worked hard on her Chicka Chicka ABC lapbook. She asked for glue and tape ALL day.
Tuesday ~ Day 2. Went for a nice walk with all the kids and discovered 3 different trees in a clump in the field. We investigated each one and brought home a ton of treasures to study further.
Wednesday ~ Day 3. Bubba continued to read a chapter to me from the book of Matthew. His reading is really coming along. I was a bit nervous because we have not been consistent with our reading this summer. We finally added in our Spanish lessons and started our hymn studies. We still need to start our Lego mosaic. Bubba, Sister and I played Candyland. Sister won, Bubba tried to quit! He is so much like his daddy. 🙂
Thursday ~ Day 4. I let Bubba sleep in and at 10 I finally went up to check on him and found him playing quietly. He said he had been up for a while he just didn’t want to do school. Poor kid has a way to go. I went back and forth about doing the Lego multiplication assignments. I am so glad we tried it. Bubba did GREAT. We are not here yet in math, but I think it was a great intro. And the fact that he got to use his Legos I think really helped hype his interest. Sister finally got to use glue on this day. We finished her lapbook and she had fun showing daddy how everything worked. Sister asked for scissors all day.
Friday ~ Day 5. We wrote a letter in code to G-Ma. Bubba spent the bulk of his morning coming up with symbols for each letter. We also spent a lot of time on Lego Digital Designer. Bubba REALLY liked this program. I think I will try to add it to the schedule weekly or even using it as a reading incentive along with his DS. We also went on a really fun tangent while listening to our folk song for the term. We are learning Elle Rhea and discovered that Elvis used the tune for his hit Love Me Tender. This lead us on an Elvis YouTube adventure. While in the middle of rocking out to Blue Suede Shoes we were asked by Sister to, “look at Yaya’s hair.” After glancing at Yaya my heart sank. I remember grabbing my chest and exclaiming, “I can’t breath, I can’t breath!” Her hair was GONE! I was trying so hard to keep it together and not strangle lash out in anger at Sister. I took the girls back upstairs and found the trash can and toilet full of Yaya’s beautiful hair. When I asked Sister why she cut her sisters hair she responded, ” I was trying to get it out of her face.” While trying to cut the few strands that were left I found myself sobbing. Yaya was so patient. Each time I started to cry she would stand up and give me a big hug and then sit back down real still waiting for more of her hair to be cut. This was her very first haircut. I have to say that Sister did a fairly descent job. If you can over look the hole front and center!
What I have learned ~ I need to prepare our music selections ahead of time so we can listen to them each day. We should also start our weekly letters at the beginning of the week so that we stay in our 15 min per subject time frame. I have also started making a visual schedule for the kids so they know exactly how much more they have. We are going to try a modified version of the workbox system for Sister’s work….more about that next week. Finally, I have learned the hard way that Sister cannot be within 5oo feet of a pair of scissors!
All in all, I think we had a really great week. Oh and I still have not gotten to the library!
