Week four summery

This week in history we learned about the first writings. Hieroglyphics! We had so much fun carving our names into clay using cuniforms and hieroglyphics.

I slacked this week with my blog. I have been fighting a cold/sinus thing. The girls are now not feeling well and we had the craziest week ever last week. First we learned about Van Gogh. We looked through some of his work and then drew a picture of "Starry Night" The girls did such a great job!
We learned all about his life, how he used textures and he did many self portraits. They really liked learning about him and we also listened to the song starry night.







For music we learned about Franz Joseph Haydn. We listened to "The clock" the girls loved hearing the "tick tock"

We also Went to Old Salem. I will post a whole other post for that. It was totally incredible!

Olivia continues to rock math but we need to work more on her spelling and writing. We have added 5 spelling words a week to out curriculum so hoping she will get better in that department.

In Science we learned about acids and bases. WE did not do our experiment this week but will finish this weekend.

Brooke is doing wonderful. She loved her little workbook and is learning FAST. She is still doing awesome at school and totally loves it.

WE also went to Great Wolf Lodge. It's an indoor waterpark. It was so much fun. So much fun that I forgot to take pictures. DUH!

This weekend we went apple picking! It was really REALLY beautiful. We had just so.much.fun! We picked about 40lbs of apples. Apple pancakes. applesauce, apple crisp and we will do more baking tomorrow. LOL!!




OH also, Olivia started acting classes and LOOOOOVES it and Brooke started gymnastics and LOOOOVES that so everyone is happy. Phew..told you it was a CRAZY week.

Brooke's first day of preschool!

My baby went off to preschool on Tuesday. I was an absolute nervous wreck all morning. Brooke is much more attached to me them Olivia was at her age so I did not think it was going to be easy. Boy, did she prove me wrong. I was delighted to see her walk right in with a smile and settle in as fast as her sister did. She said her goodbyes and went on her little way. She had a wonderful time and could not wait to go back. She was very proud of herself and we were so proud too. Olivia walked her in holding her hand and telling her the whole way how great it is. Olivia was very happy to see all her old teachers and it was a great reunion.I think that really helped Brooke too. It was a happy tear free morning. Well until I got to the car and drove away from my baby for the first time ever. My heart ached but I knew she was in excellent hands. I picked her up and she was just all smiles. It was a great first day! Congratulation Brooke. You are a big girl now...yes, just like sissy. (When ever I say "you are such a big girl" she askes me: "just like sissy?") I love you sweet girl!

Her first art project at her new school!

Olivia keeping an eye on her baby sister.

daddy was so proud of her!

We love you sooooooooooo much!!!

Week three summery

We had a very good week! Olivia is really getting on track with school work and Brooke is just loving preschool. We read lots of books this week and we also listened to and read "The story of the Orchestra" We are going to learn about a different composer each and this week was Vivaldi. We listened to his piece "Spring" and they liked hearing what spring sounded like to him. I told them to listen to classical music and think of what story it is trying to tell you. Olivia fell asleep last night doing this. :)

Brooke is working hard on her workbooks, she is doing awesome at preschool and she is learning her letters. She loves books. LOVES OVES LOVES to "read" and be read to. She is learning tons just joiing in with us and she has been so great while I am working with Olivia. She loves to play starfall! She usually does this while waiting for us to finish up. She also loves to color and she has discovered scissors! She cuts and cuts and cuts. LOL!!

We learned about compassion, The Nile river, chemical reactions, Olivia is rocking math and we also did some fun games for health "class" WE also learned about Arizona this week for geography. Olivia loved learning about where she was born and she is learning the capitals as well. Olivia is also doing really well with Tennis!! She LOVES it!!! We had a couple of playdates this week and the cookout was just so much fun! Brooke is starting gymnastics next week and Olivia is starting drama class. We are starting co-op on Monday We are also heading to Old Salem for Science day. It's getting really busy but we are having so much fun!

That about sums it up! It was an awesome week!

The Nile River!

This week we also learned about The Nile River and how every year it overflowed at the Nile Delta and created a fertile harvest. We made a model of the Nile and planted grass seed so every day we are going to overflow the Nile and watch it grow! The are so excited to see the "harvest" LOL! We had a BLAST!!

Compassion!

Every week we have character trait theme in which we learn, talk and do some fun activities surrounding that theme. This week it was compassion. We talked about times when we were compassionate, how we can be more compassionate and we had to do something compassionate for someone. Olivia decided to write a card for one of our neighbors who came down with a cold. She walked over to her house and gave it to her and said she hoped she felt better. Later in the week I asked the girls to draw a picture. I said "what do you think compassion looks like" Olivia drew a big heart and put words like "love" "caring" "helping" in her heart and Brooke drew a picture of the sun. SO SWEET!! then Olivia had to write a poem about compassion. She really enjoyed this! Next week is going to be responsibility! :)

Here are the girls drawing compassion!

Homeschool Cookout!

Monday was AWESOME!! We had a great time with some of our homeschool friends. It was so great to get our families together. the kids had an absolute blast and us moms and dads had some great conversations and lots of laughs. We are so blessed to have met such wonderful families to share this journey with. We just adore you all! Here are just a couple pictures

More science experiments!

This week we did chemical reactions. It was so fun to see things bubble and change. Olivia really enjoyed this.

Downward Dog

Olivia loooooooves yoga!! We try to do our stretches everyday. I need to find a class that we can all take together.

Daddy/Daughter Dates!!

Russell usually gets home an hour before the girls go to bed during the week so they don't get much time together so every Saturday he takes them out on a "date" It is very sweet. They get to spend some much needed time together and mommy gets a much needed break. It's a win win!

They go to the movies, out for lunch, shopping, the fountains at Birkdale, last week they went bowling and this week they went to the park. I keep telling him to take the camera. He forgets of course. LOL!! I put it in the bag last week though and he got some great shots of the girls bowling. I am so very lucky to have married this man. He is such a hard worker, he is caring yet I always feel protected, he is my biggest fan and my daughters hero. We are so very blessed. Here are the girls last week.

Week Two Summary

This week was so much fun!! It went much MUCH smoother then week one. I feel like we are getting into a groove and everyone is settling into a routine. The girls are just having a blast! We learned about molecules and Nomads, read The Tortoise And The Hare, learned about proper nouns and common nouns and Olivia is doing so good in math it's amazing! She did not get that from me. We had a lot of fun at some playdates with friends and Olivia is really loving tennis. We read books about all different things this week. Their favorite was about a boy and a dinosaur. It was cute. We visited the library as well. The girls have their own library cards so they love picking out books and using their own card. :) I am trying to keep these first few weeks pretty low key until we get into the full swing of things. It is going much faster then I would have thought. That is a good thing!!

Brooke had her orientation for preschool yesterday. She is excited but a little scared. She is going to do awesome!! I hate the thought of her being upset when I drop her off. It was so hard with Olivia! But within 5 minutes she had made some new friends. I am sure it will be the same with Brooke.

Today we finished the week off with health. We learned about sleep and the different levels and why it's so important. I did a little skit on not getting enough sleep and what it can do to you. I acted grumpy, I tripped because I was tired and clumsy, got into a fight with my "friend" and could not concentrate on my schoolwork. The girls were laughing so hard they had tears! Olivia went through her math work like it was a piece of cake. It's amazing! She did all her English, recited her poem without having to look at it and then we had a history project. We drew "cave drawings" I explained that the Nomads drew things on the walls of caves and usually there was a story behind it. Olivia's story was about her and a horse playing and Brooke made a tree that she climbed in and fell asleep. We finished the day with a playdate then riding bikes with the neighborhood kids. I feel very lucky to be able to spend this time with my kids and just enjoy life! Things were so crazy, stressful and hectic everyday last year. While this is more work, it is certainly much more rewarding and so much fun! I would not have it any other way. :)

Also, we have met some incredible families along the way. I can't believe how many new friends we have made through this and I feel so incredibly lucky to be sharing this with some amazing people. I could not do this without their support! We are just so lucky!

The girls making their cave paintings!

Tennis

Olivia started tennis lessons today and she loves it! It was a great class and she did so well by the end of the first class. She really enjoyed it.
Isn't she so cute! I just love this kid of mine. :)

Nomads for a day

The curriculum "Story of the World" starts with the Nomads. The girls loved hearing about how we lived 10,000 years ago. They thought it would be fun to be Nomads for a day. It lasted an hour. Anyhoo..we laughed so much trying to figure out how to use just the earth to live. They could not figure out how people could live without toilet paper. LOL!! "Mom, how did they wipe? EWWWW"

The Nomad children had jobs just like today's children have chores. Their job was to pick berries, gather eggs and lizards. We made "lizard stew" for dinner that night. It was chicken soup but they thought it was fun!




making a fire





sleeping in the great outdoors, no beds!

looking for shelter.....and lizards
Olivia "oh forget this, I want a cheese stick"

Reading, reading and more....reading

Olivia is obsessed with reading.............and I LOVE it!!! She is just devouring one book after another these days. She loves audio books, chapter books like Judy Moody, Judi B. Jones and now she is reading Little House in the Big Woods. She is also a wonderful big sister reading to Brooke all.the.time. My girls!



This is how she eats her soup. HA!


At the library just chillin




reading to Brooke

This makes my heart super happy!

Homeschool kids unsocialized???

Umm.....nope not even close. This is one question about homeschooling that will just never go away. I was worried about it too but these children have more fun! Between classes at her school that she goes on Tues/Thurs, drama class, park days, co-op, girl scouts (Liv is satrting this month) volunteer work, church (we just starting going to a UU church, more about that later) playdates, playing witht he neighborhood kids, library, field trips with friends and on and on and on it's almost impossible to have a day without socialization. LOL!!

Olivia, Brooke and friend Amelia at Monkey Joe's! They were exhausted!




This is how they started.


Brooke made a friend at the library. Olivia ended up reading to all the little ones there. She was in heaven!

Park day with some friends. There are more around somewhere!