Counting by 5's and Reading!

This week we have been working on counting by 5's in order for Shelby to count nickels. We spent three days working on 5's, playing games, doing worksheets and then introducing the nickel. We then spent two days counting nickels.

So far in Money we have studied the penny, dime and now nickel. In a couple weeks we will introduce the quarter and then start making change!

We also continued to review our place value work, addition and basic clock work. Shelby seems to have a clear understanding of all of the above. I am loving our Horizons Math books. They really are helping her review weekly concepts that we have learned. We also are continuing to use Singapore math for the mastery part. It is working well (FINALLY a math system that works) so I plan on continuing it next year.

Shelby also has exploded in reading this past week. She started struggling and seemed like she had hit a wall a month ago. This week though she has been picking out her own book to read each night. Some of them are much harder than what I would have given her but she has done well with them. I think now that she is further along in her phonics and spelling work that that is helping her.

We did not really do a science topic or history this past week but we did work on her geography and map work.

On a side note ... the kids need swimming lessons and I am struggling with where to take them and the amount it costs. We have tried the YMCA and community center in the past and it really set Shelby back more than helped her. There is a swim school that a lot of my friends are taking their kids to and they have had incredible results. My goal is for the kids to be able to swim, know how to hold their breath and not be scared. I think distance will come with practice. This swim school costs about $90 a month PER child!!! I just don't know if I can squeeze that out of anywhere right now ... so we are still trying to figure out what to do. Schiliterbahn is building a water park (will open in 2012) literally around the corner from us (not sure how I feel about that). I know they need to learn how to swim before then.

We also will probably start Awanas in the next two weeks. One of Matthews friends is in it and there are some kids Shelby knows in it as well. I think it would be great for them.

Matthew note- his speech is going well. He is getting his "s" and "k" sounds down. We are now starting on "l" sounds. I hope he progresses enough to be able to end it in July or August.

Abigail-poor sweet baby has been sick all week. We have gone to the doctor and have no answers. Just high fever, coughing and stuffed up head.

85 in January!

This week we had several good days. So we took our learning outside. Shelby read books outside, we went on nature walks and checked out the ducks at the ponds. We also just got OUTSIDE to play. It felt so good to not be cooped up all week.

Shelby is getting much stronger at some physical skills that she has had trouble with in the past. She is swinging on her own now and can go pretty high. She also was able to push the petals on her Big Wheel bike. Now if I can just get her to ride her regular bike.

We are paying for it this week considering the "Cedar Fever" going on but we still had fun.

Shelby did great on her spelling list last week. She got one out of 16 wrong. After her list this week we will review 40 words for next week.

Our attitude last week was selfishness. Not sure how much sunk in but Shelby did read a few books to me about it and we discussed solutions when she is feeling selfish.

We also continued on our Math journey of Place Value and entered the thousands. Another topic we touched is measurement in inches. She really enjoyed measuring things with her ruler.

We have finished our Geography unit on directions (compass Rose) and started City/State and National Maps.

Haiti and Earthquakes

Her Models so far in our Human Body study (above)

Skin Model (above)

Learning about Decimal Street and adding Hundreds (plus some spelling rule work)

Shelby's Decimal Street that she plays with her blocks on. (above)

This week for school we worked on our normal handwriting, spelling, phonics etc.

For Science we started off the week with Skin and the layers. Shelby informed me that I must have a lot of fat cells when we got to that part of our model. THANKS!

On Tuesday the Earthquake hit Haiti. We then shifted our attention to Earthquakes and where Haiti is on the globe. We have since been talking a lot about Haiti and natural disasters. Our skin unit is still going on but got pushed aside a little bit.

Math this past week we moved onto Hundreds in our Decimal Street. She really is starting to understand place value a lot more.

School is still going strong. I can't wait until after MDO ends in May though. At that point we really can focus more on school. I do not plan on returning next year to Mothers Day Out so that I can focus more on Matthew and Shelby's school work. Shelby asked me today when I will get to be with her everyday. She really enjoys sitting and learning about different things. On the days I do Mothers Day Out we do not have as much "class" time. Mainly she does work book pages or handwriting practice.

Staples are to hold the brain in

I can't believe I forgot to post this educational experience.

Last Tuesday night Matthew was jumping around the house like he normally does. I swear they shaved him as a baby and handed him to me (he really is a monkey). He was trying to give Abigail a kiss goodnight and climbed on the arm chair by the fireplace. He slipped and hit his head right on the corner. I thought I had this fireplace blocked with Abigails play yard and the chair but Matthew still managed to get hurt.

Matthew passed out for about 2 minutes and was bleeding. I went to him and thought he was just stunned (like his breath got knocked out). I grabbed a towel for the blood and had Shelby get the phone. I dialed my parents to have them come over to watch Shelby and Abigail. By that time Matthew was awake and screaming. The blood freaked him out.

I carried him to the bathroom and we cleaned up his head and my hands. I finally saw that the wound was not that big but probably would need a staple or two. When my parents got there we got Matthew to walk (he was not wanting to up until then). My dad and I drove to the hospital and my mom stayed with the girls.

At the hospital they got him back pretty quickly. The doctor looked at him and said he would need a CAT scan and one staple. He came back and cleaned Matthew's wound with a "squirt gun" (what I called the syringe with water) and then quickly stapled the wound. Matthew just said "That Hurt" and had no tears. Then the guy took Matthew in a cool Wheelchair to the CAT scan. "Princess Sarah" took him and laid him in the "space ship" for his "ride" (again a story I told him to keep him calm). The results of the CAT scan came back quickly and all was clear. We then signed him out and got to go back in 5 days to remove the staple.

Matthew told Daddy when he got home that he had a staple in his head to hold in the brains. At least the staple had a good purpose.

Matthew LOVED the experience and bragged about his space ship ride and wheelchair.

What we learned ... head wounds bleed a LOT, the skull is the bone that holds the brain in, staples don't hurt coming out but do hurt going in, CAT scans are cool but cost a LOT of money, and most importantly ... NO MORE CLIMBING ON CHAIRS!

First week of January

This week we started back to school after our Christmas Break.

Shelby got to start a new Explode the Code book and Handwriting without Tears.

We also started a Math Unit on Decimal Placement. We created Decimal Street with a "Units" house, "Tens" house and "Hundreds" house. We used our blocks and 10's sticks to understand what Place value is. Next week we will start with the Hundreds. Shelby really started to grasp the concept of Place Value. Before she would try to add the numbers together instead of seeing it as an individual number. Now she can show me with 10's sticks and units the number 38 (for example) and if I show her the number with blocks she can write the number 38 in an instant. We have finally broke through a wall she was having. Hopefully this will really help her with her addition and subtraction facts.

She also knows that there can only be 9 units before it turns into a "ten" and 9 "tens" before it turns into a hundred. WOO HOO. She did great on her test at the end of the week and was able to explain everything to me.

We also started back up our spelling words this week. As we work on them we review the rules that any of the words may be following. She got all of her spelling words correct and was even able to tell me that the words "but" & "and" are conjunctions. She also was able to explain to me that a conjunction connects two ideas.

We watched Linnea in Monet's Garden, Animal Planet video's "Growing up American Black Bear, Growing up Zebra, & Growing up Lion". We watched one Planet Earth video :Ice Worlds" as well.

We have started reading "The Borrowers" nightly.

10 years

This post will not really be about school but about our family and the past 10 years.

In the past 10 years Mike and I have been through infertility, the loss of grandparents, the loss of great grandparents and the loss of a mother. We have survived my years of depression, years of unknown sickness and hospital visits. We have survived the loss of jobs, being jobless and losing a home.

We overcame infertility and have three children to show for it. 10 years ago I pictured myself giving birth HIGHLY medicated, yet gave birth without meds twice (recommend it highly). I would have never imagined myself homeschooling, yet that is what we now are doing.

I am very proud of who I am becoming and though I still struggle at times I am proud of the things I am doing today. I am very proud of Mike for working with the same company for 5 years (even though there are times he hates it) and doing what he needs to in order to provide for our family.

I look forward to the next 10 years and what it will bring to our lives. ... someone remind me I said this when we hit the hormonal teenage years.