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!

American radio and Electricity Museum

I finally found the cord to upload photos from my camera!! I'll have to mail this into two posts, because there are alot of photos. The first ones here are from our trip to the American Radio and Electricity Museum. What an awesome place! I couldn't believe the amount of radios and televisions that they had on display. The static electricty displays and other interactive displays were fantastic.

I didn't realize how dark this photo turned out. The kids were actually able to record and listen to their recording. I didn't realize that the cylinder used was made of wax and could be used over and over again.


Here's Bug-a-Bug using the hands free instrument. Its actually used to make scary songs in movies and is very hard to control. You control the pitch and the volume with a wave of your hand and do not touch the instrument at all.


Here's a top of the line, space age, George Jetson tv.


The kids all enjoyed the static electricty displays. Here's Princess with her hair standing on end. She thought that was really cool.


This is a replica of Ben Franklin's workshop. I looked for his spectacles, but couldn't find any. They had a really nice display and information, but it was hard to check it out chasing after a toddler. They also had a replica of the radio room on the Titanic.


Here's Princess trying her hand at the hands free instrument.


And these aren't museum pictures, but an effort to get me caught up with my photos. Here's Chunky Munky. She's eating real food now and getting it all over and loving it! She smiles so much, I have a problem getting the spoon into her mouth so she'll eat.


And here's one of our school days. In jammies doing a geography game. Ten days in Africa. If you haven't checked out this series, you need to do so. Its an awesome way to teach geography to your kids and have fun at the same time.


And TL's been into making houses of cards lately. He took this picture one day while he was supposed to be doing his writing assignment. He tried to take another picture after he added another level, but it fell down.


And that's all for now. I'll post photos of our nature walk and the new addition curriculum that I found-which I love! Princess has finally memorized all her addition facts, thank goodness!

Tomorrow I start my next class. The funding for spouses came back up a week and a half ago. I was able to sign up for one class that I needed-History of Christianity. I thought it would be really interesting and then I got the textbook. Terrible font, no photos, and after page four, I finally had to whip out the dictionary because I couldn't figure out the definition of several words-and I'm usually pretty good at that. I'm excited though, it should be fun! If I can get past this horrible book that is!

Have a wonderful week!

Field Trip-Pioneer Cemetary

When Grandpa was here, I still tried to get a little school done in the way of field trips. We went down to Coupeville, which is about ten miles south of us, to check out the pioneer cemetery. It is loaded with old stones and it very beautiful to see. We really enjoyed walking around-well, dad and I did. The kids ran for cover in the car after about fifteen minutes. Something about 35mph wind gusts-they complained they were cold.

Just in case you doubted that the cemetery was for pioneers-see it says it here.


Dad and I found this one very interesting.


Here is a view down from a little hill. The cemetery is very large and was very interesting to see all those old graves. We may have to head back when its not so blustery.


This very old headstone was interesting. We wondered when they arrived to Whidbey Island and discussed the hardships they must have endured. After all, if they ran out of supplies, it wasn't likely that they ran to the store down the street. What about medicines? School? It made my kids really think about things.







If you click on this photo, you should be able to enlarge it enough to read some very interesting information about the blockhouse that is located on the grounds.


Here is TL standing in the fireplace area. We had a very interesting discussion about how they cooked food.


Princess wanted to know where they slept, because the inside is very small. We discussed the loft area (which was not in this blockhouse), how they had to store food, probably table and chairs and the possibility of a very large family (6-10 people) in this very small space. The kids said that they rather enjoyed their spacious house and would not have enjoyed those days at all.

My next post will show pictures from Seattle, on our many trips back and forth to the airport!

Have a blessed day!