How Pumpkin Pie is Made

Memorization list

I just realized that it will be November next week and I totally spaced out on the kids memorization lists this year.  I'm not quite sure what the problem was, but apparently, I totally forgot.  Thank goodness I read the post by Sergeant Major Mom about her memorization list.  If you get a moment, check out her blog.  She is a military spouse who uprooted from Alaska to Georgia this past year and made a cross country trip checking out everything she could with her kids.  It was quite a trip!

So, here goes my list for the year:

Pronouns
Helping Verbs
State of Being Verbs
Presidents
States and Capitals
Preamble to the Constitution
Lord's Prayer
New Testament books

Poems:  (the first one listed is TL's and the second is the two older girls)  I took the poems from the Random Book of Poetry for Children by Jack Prelutsky.

November:
Thanksgiving Magic by Rowen Bastin Bennett
Thanksgiving by Ivy O Eastwick

December:
From a Christmas Package by David McCord
Merry Christmas by Aileen Fisher

January
Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost
The Snowflake by Walter de la Mare

February
Maple Feast by Frances Frost
When by Dorothy Aides

March
Goodbye my Winter Suit by NM Bodecker
The March Wind by Anonymous

April
The Flattered Flying Fish by EV Riev
Ladybug by Joan Walsh Anglund

May
My tongue is Tasting Terrible by Jack Prelutsky
I'm ironing my Rhinocerus

June
Land of Nod by Robert Stevenson
The Swing by Robert Stevenson

I tried to make the poems interesting and fun.  There was something else I wanted them to memorize and for the life of me, I can't remember what it is right now.


I wanted to share this little tidbit.  Chunky Monkey has several words now-mommy, daddy, stop, and da-dow (which is for the dog, Shadow).  Tonight we went to my neighbor's Pampered Chef party and she chased the dog around calling, "da-dow".  I guess all dogs will be da-dows now!  How cute!

Little Miss Trouble's third birthday

Well, hubby is once again off for a few weeks.  He missed Little Miss Trouble's birthday, but more importantly, he's missing pumpkin carving with five kids and trick or treating.......hmmmmm.....once has to wonder why he planned the trip at this time?.......

Today was Little Miss Trouble's third birthday.  We went to story time at the library, Wendy's for lunch, and then unfortunately, had typical running around Tuesday night.  We are going to do cake and ice cream tomorrow night.....but of course we had to have cupcakes for breakfast this morning!

Weekly Wrap

We have had a crazy and busy week this week.  My best friend since grade school came to Seattle with her sister for an international chorus competition.  The kids and I drove up on Tuesday to meet them and their brother, who had arrive from CA.  We went to the zoo and had a blast.  It was so much fun!  We were absolutely exhausted though.  Two hour drive there and back and seven hours at the zoo was alot.  Wednesday we only did half a school day because we were all so exhausted.  We had several meltdowns and temper tantrums-mine included, sad to say.  Wednesday night Princess tried to high hurdle the dog and ended up landing on her foot on the ceramic tile.  We spent the day Thursday at medical-military medical is something less than desired when you want to be quick.  Four hours there....ugh.  We're waiting for the radiologist to read the xray and tell us if its broken.  I still can't figure out why the doctor, after years and years of school, can't read the xray.  Right now we have an ace bandage, crutches, ice, and motrin.

So, not much school done this week, but here we go.

History-Working on our Plains Indians study and free lapbook that I found.  We built an indian village using a book that I had found with punchouts.  Next week we'll be working on Woodland Indians and starting a few projects.

Science-We did a little about caves on Monday.  I was hoping to finish up this week, hopefully today unless we end up at medical again.

Language Arts-TL's having difficulties with the vocabulary program we've started.  I think most if it is laziness and he doesn't want to do it.  I've also noticed that he struggles when looking words up in the dictionary.  He had fifteen to do this week.  Towards the end of the list, I noticed improvement so I'm hoping it was just a struggle because he didn't want to do it.  Spelling is going well with him.  We moved to All About Spelling Level 2 and he seems to be doing better sounding out his words.  Learning to spell by syllable is helping alot.  He's doing okay with his writing, although it is an issue, mostly because of the spelling.  Princess and BugaBug are doing Level 1 spelling and are about halfway through the book.  They really enjoy the program.  They've been working on some fun Halloween stories this week. 

Math-TL is improving his math grade.  He was really lazy at the beginning because it was all review and he wasn't careful.  After a few bad grades and some new work, he seems to be improving.  Princess has finally memorized all her addition facts and can do double and triple digit addition with carrying.  We're through the zeros to twos with subtraction.  I hope to finally begin multiplication around Thanksgiving.  Bug a Bug knows almost all her addition facts-she needs to know the sevens through the nines.  She's working on triple digit addition with carrying.  Both girls are also doing money review.

Literature-TL is halfway through Twenty-One Balloons.  We're reading together.  I read a page then he does.  I'm trying to determine how his reading is.  He doesn't ask me for assistance with words that he doesn't know so I wasn't sure how he was doing.  Princess and Bug-a-bug are working on Explode the Code books and Sing Spell Read and Write.  Princess is just about done with the program and will move into her Bob Jones soon.  I'm toying with allowing Bug-a-bug to do hers at the same time.

Read Alouds-This is one area I've been doing really poorly at.  TL and I have one more chapter in a book we started months ago and then I think we will work on The Hobbit.    The girls and I are working on the Betsy books.  I will be starting Little House in the Big Woods hopefully this next week. 

PreK-Little Miss Trouble is learning her shapes.  She knows a circle and is learning squares.  She knows some of her colors too, thanks to Brown Bear, Brown Bear.  I think I read it almost everyday! 

Enjoy some photos of our zoo trip!

The giraffe and all exhibits were super animal friendly.

Little Miss Trouble climbed every single rock and wanted her picture taken

Red Panda

hanging out with the hippos

 TL hanging with the monkeys

Travis getting a lift from Little Miss Trouble

Chunky Monkey wasn't too impressed hanging out in the trees with the monkeys

All of us, minus Dawn who was taking the picture

Dawn and I-friends for about thirty years or so.  Give or take a few!

Good website

I just found this website while looking for lapbooking activities to go with our Plains Indians study.  I thought you would all enjoy!

http://homeschoolfreestuff.wordpress.com/social-studies-history/american-history/

They also have free math, english, and science links.

Inventions that save time?

Let me start off this by saying, I love all the inventions that have helped me during the day.  I'm thankful that I don't have to run to an outhouse in the pouring down rain with a toddler who's learning to potty train (or watch out for snakes).  I'm thankful that I do not have to split wood to build a fire for heat or cooking.  I'm thankful I don't have to haul water up from the creek or well to boil to do laundry or make bathwater  (and I'm very thankful for daily showers).  I'm thankful I don't have to scrub the laundry on a board, hang it to dry, and iron everything.  I'm thankful I don't have to make every single meal from scratch and the kids can have cereal sometimes.  I'm thankful for my dishwasher.  I'm thankful for electricity and the ability to keep current with friends and family so far away by telephone and computer.  I'm thankful I don't have to rise early to feed the chickens and milk the cow.  I'm really thankful I don't have to skin anything to cook it.

So, why is it that we never have time?  Our society is constantly rushing around -here or there.   We're always in a hurry.  By the end of the night I'm exhausted and have to force myself to do bedtime reading.  We haven't done any game nights in a while.  Movie night is about once a week, but whatever happened to the times where the family sat around the fire and played games, read, or talked to each other.  I long to just sit in a chair in the evening and do a little sewing or knitting while the kids play a game. 

Maybe its just me, but our inventions seem to have made us busier and less time for family.  We also don't appreciate the little things, and our society tries to "keep up with the Jones'".  I noticed lately how much of my time is "sucked" away by the computer.  Sometimes, I just sit there because I can-no reason whatsoever.  So, I'm limiting my computer time to fifteen minutes a day, unless its my schoolwork. I will then have time to post to my blog once or twice a week.   I don't watch alot of tv now so that's not an issue.  Maybe now, I'll have time to finish everything during the day and get some quality family time in. 

Or maybe I just watched too many Little House on the Prairie episodes while the kids were sick this week!

blog, what blog?

No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth.  I had finals last week and spent the better part of the week studying.  This was between eye doctor appts, dentist appts, and whatever else came up.  I ended up getting an A in my civil war class and a B in my Latin American history class.  Not too bad.  Onto the Vietnam war and a silly computer class.  Back in the dark ages, when I originally started college, we didn't have to take computer classes.  I decided to wait until this term to do it since its only a 100 level class and the holidays are coming up.  The only issue is that the book has been made up by the college and is $240.  I'm going to look on amazon and see if I can buy the three books that they used to build this book for less money.

The kids have been busy with school.  They're doing well and moving along.  Yesterday we went to an apple orchard and picked applies, watched the cider press in action, and learned how they sort the apples.  I know have thirty pounds of apples to can tomorrow.  Apple butter, applesauce, and apple pie filling.  Yum.

I've also planned some quilting, reading, adn genealogy work.  I'd better get working cause I only have a week left!

Oh, and my camera is dead and I didn't realize the other camera wasn't charged until when we were walking out the door so no photos from yesterday.  I'll make up for it next week when we go up to get macintosh apples, that's when they'll be in season.

Have a great weekend!