Weekly Wrap-Up

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This could alternately be titled: The Post That Completely Dispels the Myth That I Am a Cool Homeschooling Mom Who Does Really Cool Things With Her Kids.

Now I’ll just be known as the homeschooling mom who sometimes has nifty ideas, but doesn’t always follow through. *sigh*

We took Monday off and had a wonderful time together. I don’t think I mentioned the “brain-teaser” we bought at the same time we bought the cute tic-tac-toe board. You know those things like horseshoes that are hooked together and you have to figure out how to get them apart? Well, we figured out the horseshoes and all the other brain-teasers except one. Since it was only $2.50, we bought it so we could bring it home and play around with it.

We still haven’t figured it out. Since Monday.

I should probably qualify that. “We” means me and Brian. Brianna figured it out. Twice. You know, Brianna…the thirteen-year-old.

I guess we’re getting old and our brains really are as feeble as I keep saying they are.

I really love, love, LOVE being mobile. I am so spoiled, already, with this laptop. I have, however, left a wake of typos and broken links in my wake this week as I struggle to get used to a smaller keyboard and a touchpad instead of a mouse. Luckily, there are people on the web who will point these things out to you. Two of them, anyway. And, I am grateful, though I have to ask, “Do you ladies also point out things stuck in the teeth or objects in the noses of strangers?” LOL (Yes, I’m kidding! I would have felt forever slighted by the Meal Plan Monday folks if someone hadn’t pointed out my broken link.)

Anyway, on to homeschooling stuff. We were going to do this really cute ant craft, but I couldn’t find Styrofoam eggs at Wal-mart and I forgot to look for them while I was at the hobby store. We’re studying insects for science and, while the craft was probably too “young” for Brianna, the other kids would have loved it. She probably would have, too. She’s the crafty sort. We may still do it next week. The kids probably won’t care that it’s a week behind schedule.

We were also going to do a craft from Story of the World using sand dough. It was supposed to be an aqueduct, but I was just going to have the kids make Roman arches, which sounded much less complicated to me. However, I forgot to get the sand from my sister. I could have gone over to her house and gotten it today, but, truth be known….I didn’t want to do it.

Yes, today has been one of those days where I’ve had to remind myself that it’s probably much more PMS and much less the kids. So, rather than doing fun, hands-on things, we got the basics done and I let the kids retire to the safety of the play room. That’s okay, though. Homeschool can be a forgiving place. Fun ideas can be done later, if they still sound fun, and much can still be learned just living life together.

On a positive note, we began Scaredy Cat Reading Level 3 this week and Josh and Megan are both doing well. I’ve decided that I don’t especially like the way that SCRS teaches the blends. Sing, Spell, Read and Write teaches them better, but that’s okay. In the words of Cathy (the cartoon), we’ll “bash on, regardless.” Josh and Megan are doing a wonderful job of blending CVCC words. Josh actually picked that up a few weeks ago, on his own, blending the first three sounds, then adding the last. It’s taken some training to get Megan to use that method. She wants to sound out each sound, but then, she has the tendency to forget one of them or mix them up when she tries to put them together. Both of them seemed to be doing really well today, though.

Brianna’s hang-up this week is punctuation. The paper that she turned in last week that was supposed to be five paragraphs (an introduction, a conclusion and three supporting paragraphs) was actually five long, run-on sentences. Punctuation is going to be the death of that child. I gave it back to her so that she could correct the spelling and punctuation. Still, the fact that she works so well, independently, is a feather in her cap. She’s learning great study skills and time management that will benefit her all through her life.

Nim is doing well, too. We’re still working on recognizing all the letters of the alphabet and learning one-to-one correspondence with numbers. The rice center has been a huge success…even allowing the kids to practice life skills as the sweep up all the spilled rice. 😉

All in all, it’s been a good week…but I’m glad the weekend is here! So, what about you? How has your week been?

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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