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Week 35

Week 35

We had a busy week. I didn't get as much one-on-one time as I would've liked too.
As much as I LOVE writing about our homeschool days. I don't have the energy to write everything out today.
When, I write all we have done, I have my planner handy.

And, I'll have some of the books piled up on a chair next to me, so I can go into detail about what we did. But today, I don't feel up to doing that.

I do blog almost daily. Please scroll down to see how our week went.

Summer School

We have one more week of homeschooling left. Wahoo!!! I plan to have us all take a week off of school. No math, no spelling, nothing schoolish. The kids can read of course. They love reading. I won't deny them that.

During that week off, I'm going to read three books:

Through the summer, I'll have the children continue working on math, light grammar, copywork, dictation and at least one narration a week.

I have enough to keep us busy. I have Math Mammoth, Teaching Textbooks, math drill books and more for math.
I think I can pull from what I have for copywork.
With Ethan, he will continue to copy the days of the week, months, phone number and address and poems from First Language Lessons. He will start Teaching Textbooks 3.

Lance, will work on his penmanship. Hopefully by the fall he'll be able to write his letters and numbers. I would like him to start simple copywork.

Josh, will continue to copy the Declaration of Independence as well as dictation from the passage. I would like to do at least one narration with him and start more outlining. I may have him go through the Writing With Ease text for grades 1-4.

Annette, she will continue using Learning Language Arts Through Literature (as will Josh) for her copywork and dictation. I will add in daily copywork from Thematic Copywork Lessons; Verses from the Bible by Sandi Queen. This book was gifted to me from a homeschooling, blogging mama.

Caleb and Brent, will continue with Spelling Workout, Teaching Textbooks Math, MCP Plaid Phonics and copywork. I won't have them do all subjects every day though. What they will do daily is math and copywork.

All the children will work on their AWANA verses. We really got behind with this.

I'm really excited about our summer work schedule. I won't need to purchase anything for 'Summer School'. Hopefully I can make small purchases through the summer fo next year stuff. I would really like to be done shopping right now but finances are slowing things down.
I know it sounds early to want to be done with buying next school years stuff, but I do like to look it over, read the teacher manuals and such. I don't think I'll have that luxury this year. I will most likely have to purchase everything in August. Since I'm ordering during the busiest time for homeschool publishers, it will take longer for my school stuff to get here. But what can I do? At least we'll be kept busy through the summer.


It's hot and here I am drinking a coffee. I had to put my hair up, just so I can drink my java. I had an Orthodontist appt. today. Because, it's in the morning, I usually don't drink coffee. I don't want to kill the nice people who are fixing my teeth with bad, coffee breath.

My time has come. I need to make a consultation appointment to see what exactly I need done. I have never had any kind of surgery done, ever. I know oral surgery isn't as bad as replacing a lung but I am a bit scared. I don't know what's going to happen. I'm actually looking forward to the consultation, so the unknown will be known. It's going to cost $135.00 upfront but hopefully I will be refunded.

I made an appointment with the dentist to get my teeth cleaned. I haven't been to the dentist since we moved here. Almost two years. Thankfully, we all take good care of our teeth. I will brush the kids teeth when needed. From Lance all the way to Josh. If I have to, I'll use a wash cloth. Josh, flosses really well. I'll floss the younger ones at least once a month. I know, that sounds bad, but I do brush them good at least once a week.

I also need to talk to the the dentist about my root canals that I had done when I was prego with Josh. I had a horrible dentist in California. The goofy people didn't even remember that they drilled a small hole to relieve pressure I was having. After Josh, was born (no one wanted to do anything with a prego lady) I went back to have the root canals done and they asked who drilled the hole. I was shocked! My goodness. Anyway, once the root canals where done, they didn't tell me I was suppose to have them capped or put a crown on them. So, here I am 13 years later, finally getting it done. Yikes.

I was going to have it done two years ago but it's expensive. I need four teeth crowned. I'm not certain, we will do the crowning this year but the oral surgeon needs to know because it makes a difference with the surgery.

I would appreciate any prayers. Lupe and I really don't know how we are going to pay for all of this but it needs to be done. I can't chew right because my bite is off. I can't chew much on my left side. On my right, it's very hard to eat small things and at times I do have to chew with my mouth open (I do use a napkin, so I won't gross anyone out). Those of you who have a nice aligned jaw, thank the Lord, because it really is a blessing. I miss being able to chew normal.

I have three appointments in the two weeks. Tomorrow I  get my eyes checked, the week after I have the consultation and dentist appointment. Oh, what fun =)

May 23rd

Lupe and I are parents to a teenager! Our first teenager. Wonder what changes are in store for us.

This is why the Mr. Sparrow poster. I saw it at the store and knew Joshua, would really appreciate it.

Joshua, wanted to invite friends from church and I would have loved to, but our house can barely fit us. With so much rain and all, we decided to keep it small with Grandpa, Uncle Joe and his friend, and Auntie and Uncle along with their four kiddos. 

The kids decorated the table and put some streamers on the fan. It looked really pretty.﻿
 Lupe, was in charge of the games.
The first game played was building a tower using marshmallows and toothpicks.
 Caleb, Annette and Brent.
 Lupe, helping Lance.
 Ethan, getting some ideas.
 Annette's tower was the winner.
The next game; everyone had a spaghetti noodle and had to pick-up Fruit-Loops with it using one hand.
 Annette, won again.
 This game was a Volcano-cake game. Lupe, dumped a whole bag of flour (carefully), put five Hershey kisses on top. We each had to make a slice (like cutting a cake). If the Hershey kiss fell, we were out. The last one, wins the game.

 Caleb, won two games. One was the Volcano and I can't remember the 2nd game.
The happy birthday boy.
 After the game, we sang Happy Birthday to Joshua.
 Annette and Brent, decorated the table.
Blowing out the candles.
 I thought this was a cute picture of my dad and Jake, laughing together.
 Josh, making the first cut.

Day 175

Yesterday, I mentioned that I am sitting and reteaching penmanship with Brent. I wanted to show you his writing from earlier this week.

His letters are slanted this way and that way﻿
 This one looks a little better.
 The one below, is from yesterday's Spelling Dictation.
Today, I sat with him again. We both wrote the whole alphabet. Upper and lower case letters. Hopefully tomorrow, he'll continue. I am going to sit next to him and make sure he makes those letters neatly.
In the fall I'll have Brent, start cursive. I meant to have him do cursive this year but it didn't work out.

Brent, completing a TeachingTextbooks math lesson (taken yesterday)
 Ethan, completing his copywork.
 Yesterday, after demonstrating how to make the letters, I had the 'Magic C' bunny, sit and watch, Ethan, to make sure he worked carefully.
 With Mr. C Bunny, Ethan, did do a better job!
 Ethan and Brent, working hard.

Today, the weather is really nice. Because, it was so nice, I didn't get many tutoring sessions done. The children did do some school that they can complete independently (math worksheets, copywork, TT Math, reviewing spelling words etc.) but lessons that I have to teach didn't get done. I had one, forty minute lesson with, Brent at that was about it.

Instead, I was outside with the children.

 Brent, made a boat. He put plastic wrap around it to keep the water out.
 Chili and Cilantro plant.
 Ethan and Brent, not sure what they are doing.
The weather this morning was not too hot. I was in the shade and there was a nice breeze. Once out of the shade, one could feel the heat. It's not summer, but with the 80 and 90 degrees, it feel like summer days.


Mr. Sparrow

Why do I have a picture of Mr. Sparrow in my kitchen? I don't even like Mr. Sparrow. I think, I saw the first two movies and don't remember much, other than I don't care for it too much. I think I didn't like the ghost, the romance scenes and the gloomy beginning of the first one. I don't remember if there was any bad language.

If they could at least leave out the romance scenes, I'd be happy.

Anyway, I don't care for my children to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean. My Sweets, thinks it's okay, I'm a bit more strict when it comes to what the children watch. My kids have watched a few movies that I don't approve of. Thankfully, for the most part, my Sweets and I agree with what our kids are allowed to see.

Some how Josh, happened to watch half of the movie. Can't remember where, but he thought Mr. Sparrow was so funny.

I guess there is a new Pirates of the Caribbean out, and he's seen the previews. Of course he thought Mr. Sparrow again, was just soooo funny.

Back to my question, why do I have a picture of him in my kitchen? Well, I'll have to answer that in another post.

I don't like movies with kissing scenes, bad language, kids being disrespectful, too much violence, or anything scary. For the most part they don't watch rated R movies. Even many PG-13 movies they don't watch.
I don't plan for the children any time soon to watch Soul Surfer because for my family, it shows too much skin. It's a great moral movie and  Lupe and I will most likely watch it.

Now that I have five boys and one little girl, I see movies/shows in a whole new light.

I got sidetracked with my post, sorry.

Day 174

I need to get up earlier in order to school all my kiddos. I wake at 7:30-40. Have coffee and computer time. My dad comes every morning to visit and have coffee too. I jump in the shower around 8:30-40ish. By the time I'm done showering, dressed and had breakfast, it's almost 10:00.

My tutoring sessions with Caleb and Brent alone are about an hour each. I try to fit Fast Track Reading, Phonics Pathway for Spelling Dictation and reinforce rules, a little bit of math, and now penmanship.

I've only had two, one hour sessions today, with a few quick ones sprinkled in. At noon we have lunch, then try to get more school in before our 2:00 quiet time.
Ethan, copied part of a poem and illustrated it. ﻿
My Brent, has not-so-good handwriting. Today, I decided that I would sit with him and show him how to form each letter. Something I should have taken more time with when he was younger. I shouldn't have handed him a penmanship workbook and expect him to just know how to write neatly.
I demonstrated how to make the letters a-q. I set the timer for 15 minutes. When it was up, we moved to 'Spelling Dictation'. I sat next to him, read the sentence twice, had him repeat it and write it.
As he wrote I watched. If I saw that he was going to make the letter 'i' starting at the bottom I would remind him to start at the top.
 Reminding him how to form each letter and sitting next to him to make sure he did took time but look how well he wrote the sentences.
A page he completed from MCP Phonics.


Ethan, copied the days of the week and our phone number. I cropped out the phone number.
I thought his penmanship looked pretty good. His is right under mine.

Ethan, completed Teaching Textbooks Math lesson 35.
Joshua, helped Ethan, with spelling today.
That's about all he did today school-wise.

Lance School

It's hard to believe that Lance's K year is almost up. One more week and he'll be a 1st grader. Although he still acts like a toddler at times.

Here is what Lance, has completed today.
Lance, practiced rhyming. He still needs lots of help. It seems right when I think he gets it, the next time we play, he needs me to stress the sounds A LOT.﻿
He loves Ziggy the Zebra. It's hard to take pictures of him, because I'm holding the puppet and the camera.
I guess we got a little behind with our worksheets. The past two weeks, I didn't complete everything as I had hoped.
To play 'catch-up' I had a review day with these two worksheets. Again, at times I really had to stress the beginning sound.
 Lance, practicing the letter 'd'. I thought he did quite well.
I read him a Cat in the Hat story today.
We went over what a noun is. He almost has the definition of noun.
He completed a page of math. I forgot to take a picture of his math page. Maybe I'll add it to tomorrow's post.

Gifts for the Grandkids

When my dad was in California, he bought the boys some army belts and Annette a canteen that included a belt.

Of course once they received their gifts they went the whole nine yards.
 Lance, didn't get a belt. He received a Ninja costume from a friend in CA. A belt would have been too big for him. He put one of the helmets on and I snapped a picture.
 Of course, if I snap one, then Lance, wants another.
 And another.
Annette, was at  sewing class at the church. I don't know why I didn't get a picture of Caleb.