Our fall handprint tree

I got this idea from a friend who also did this. All three girls did 12 hand prints each. Now...we have a beautiful tree in our hallway!

The week off...

We've been taking a week off of school this week. Hannah is on a feildtrip researching social studies with her Nana, Pappy, Aunt Misty, Uncle Marty and cousins. I am sure she will return from the field with lots of data...smile!

Mikayla, Autumn and I have been just hanging around doing our own thing. I've been able to really clean out their rooms and get rid of a lot of stuff since we didn't have school this week. We've also cleaned out our garage and that felt really great! I told Chad, "...we use every square inch of this house, don't we?!!!"

We are still doing quiet reading and Astronomy(this is over the telephone) this week. Monday we made homemade applesauce at Mikayla's request. That was yummy!!!

Yesterday, Chad and Mikayla went to Karate. I think it was pretty rough on them...haha...

Today we will be making Hannah welcome home sugar cookies. Mikayla has her first New Beginnings class at church tonight and she is super excited!

Tomorrow they have PE co-op so it's still been a busy week. I'll be doing laundry, grocery shopping, and getting ready for our visitors!!! So excited!!!

Next week we start off busy again with year book pictures Monday and Tuesday the pumpkin patch!!! Fun times!!!

In a rhythm

We are in school...the rhythm is set...and it's working for us.

Our typical day is Work boxes, Snack, Work boxes, Lunch, Astronomy or Galloping the Globe (alternating) two days per week, then quiet reading time. Normally we start about 9:30 break for lunch around 12:30 or 1. Then we have about an hour of free time and chore time. Then lay Autumn down for a nap and start back about 2ish. Work on Astronomy or GTG after lunch.

I've been struggling a bit with writing for the girls. I want to give them a good foundation. I've researched way too much, talked to way too many people and have figured out...I think we are doing okay. Mikayla is doing a lot of narration, copy work and dictation...which is fine. She is reading very well. She finished Mudge and Pudge today and really enjoyed it. Hannah has been doing some narration from books she is reading. We've been working on adding more detail to her paragraphs. They are patient with it even though it is a challenge for them both.

I still consider Mikayla a second grader even though she had a VERY early birthday and could still be considered a first grader if we wanted to. I guess that is why I am not pushing the writing as hard with her.

We read a lot...did I say we read a lot...we read a lot...so I hope that will begin to inspire them to write well.

This week we studied about Spain in Galloping the Globe. If fit perfectly with the American History Co-op from August and September where they studied about Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella. We read Ferdinande the Bull. I have been working with this curriculum a friend let me borrow called Teaching the Classics. It is SOOO good. It teaches how to even at their age now, to critically think about literature we read.


We just started Astronomy and are working on our notebooks in this as well. We have learned about the solar system, gravity, gravitational pull, what a constellation(a pattern of stars) is, about the stone henge and how it was used to by farmers to tell what season it was (which was very important for knowing when to grow and reap their crops), how birds know to fly south for the winter, and why God put all the planets and the stars in the sky the way He did.

We also learned about Copernicus and his theory that the planets did indeed revolve around the sun not everything revolving around the earth (LIFE LESSON here). We've learned about Galilio and how he proved Copernicus' theory with the telescope. We also touched on NASA and what they do and what the people that work there do.

Tomorrow, we are having our first co-op meeting. Every other Friday, we will be meeting to do our Astronomy projects, piano lessons, Art Appreciation, and Praise and Worship signing. I am looking forward to doing this with one of my best friends.

The days are busy. Autumn is running around and in to everything. She wants to "do school" with the girls, so she usually sits at the table with us and colors then gets down and insist on watching Baby signing time.

The girls have been using their Bible Bee curriculum to memorize Bible verses. They are doing really well. We recited them for Chad the other day and he couldn't believe what they knew. I am amazed at their ability to retain them. They ask me why we do this....I tell them these will be written on your heart forever. God will speak to you with these verses. He has a plan for hiding His words in our heart.

Tonight was our quarterly home school meeting. It was VERY organized. I was disappointed in the number of people that didn't come but we understand this is a very busy time of the year. I did enjoy getting to chat with new and old friends. We had missionaries come to speak to us. They were inspiring and will be prayed for by our family.

The beat goes on....raising them up to be warrior princesses for the King!

Pumpkin Fun!

Today we did all our usual school work. This afternoon since we haven't started Astronomy yet and finished up our Earth Science early this week...we made some fun 3D Art Pumpkins...now they will decorate our dining room until Thanksgiving!

Lots of good motor skills that we usually forget to work on...cutting, glueing, coloring, drawing, tracing....We had fun and it was good and messy with the glue. The middle of the pumpkin is a Kroger bag scrunched up to make it puffy.

Nothing better than handmade Art in our house!!!

Yesterday we did Line Art Leaves...

Hannah's Leaf

Mikayla's Leaf

I want to do more fun Fall things in the next few weeks!

Watercolor Relief

Fall Leaf Butterflies

Contour Fall Leaves

Books read from Summer Up til now

The girls have been reading a good bit this past summer. We instituted a 30 min a day quiet reading time. We do really well to do it about 4 times a week and sometimes even on the weekends.

There are SO MANY good books out there....I almost feel like there is not time to watch TV...although my girls may beg to differ!

Our recents books read:

Hannah:
Little Women Junior Classics- Currently reading
Anne of Green Gables-L.M. Montgomery
Betsy-TacyMaud Hart Lovelace
Charlotte's Web-E.B. White
Socks- Beverly Cleary

Mikayla:
Minnie and Moo-The Case of the Missing Jelly Donut
Father Bear Comes Home- else Holmelund Minarik
Nate the Great- Majorie Weinaman Sharmat
Mr. Putter and Tabby Make a Wish- Cynthia Rylant
The Outside Dog- Charlotte Pomerantz
Daniel's Duck
If you give a mouse a cookie-Numeroff
If you take a mouse to school- Numeroff
The Emperor's New Clothes
The Egg
The Magic Fish
A New Coat for Anna
One Fish, Two Fish
If you give a pig a pancake
Mr. Brown can Moo
Meatball- Patsy Clearmont

Chad's Been Reading to the girls:
Mr. Popper's Penguins
Encyclopedia Brown Boy Detective-Donald J. Sobol
Another Encyclopedia Brown book
The Black Stallion
Next- The Hobbit

Volcanoes

In our previous chapter of Earth Science, we studied in depth about earth quakes and volcanoes and how they came about. The girls learned about the magma under the earth and the lava that is when it comes out. They insisted on doing another volcano....so I folded under the educational teacher pressure...this will be good for them...

They have to measure out the flour and the oil and everything else for the homemade play dough...good math going on there.

They had to make sure the vinegar and baking soda were put in the bottle in the right order...there was some education happening there...smile!

Where oh Where have we been???

We've been prodding along...doing school. Is it possible to have burn out in August? I am so feeling that way. I do believe I've been putting too many irons in the fire so maybe that is why I am feeling so run down.

We have been very busy with our school days. We've kind of gotten into a bit of a rhythm with school so that part has been good. Our schedule looks like this on most days:

Get up (about 9 or so)
Breakfast
Get dressed and brush teeth (hopefully we don't zoom by this one)
Get our Work boxes and schedule strips out:
Scedule strip: 10 Min of quiet bible reading time
Scripture memory work (Charlotte Mason Style) and working on memorizing the books of the Bible. We do this together.
Start on File folder 1 (Normally Calender work-Christian Light Education-Each month we work on a different aspect of the weather. This month we are working on the 3 basic types of clouds in thy sky and recording them each day.
File Folder 2- Reading-CLE
Piano
File Folder 3- Language Arts workbooks (spelling, writing, phonics rules...ect...)
File Folder 4- Math workbooks, flashcards, speed drills
Typing
Snack
Writing (Hannah is using Writing Strands 3 (alternating with) Aeosp's fable's Rewrites. This has been interesting. Mikayla is still using Writing with Ease. I really like it and am concidering swtiching Hannah back to it.
Lunch
Break/chores (cleaning out the dishwasher)
Reading History 10 min
File Folder Game
Reading A child geography of the world (Earth Science) for about 10 min
Quiet Time Reading - 30 min

Clean up then free time.
Done by usually 3 or so...where does the day go...I guess we slept most of it away...but I LOVE not having to wake them up! They are rested and ungrumpy!

We are finishing up our last chapter in the geography book that we've been working on all summer. This last part has been about latitude and longitude....it has great explainations of it all.

We are soon to start Galloping the Globe back and Astronomy as well.

WE will be meeting weekly for co-ops with Astronomy, Art Appreciation, ASL, and Piano.
We are also in 2 other co-ops that meet monthly- American History and PE.

Busy...busy girls are we! Hannah and I started a 4-H sewing class too. This is once a month. We stay so very busy. The girls and Chad have been taking karate...we are so proud of them. They've been working hard to learn all the moves.