Whew

We will be doing five terms of eight weeks each. After each term is completed we are taking a full week off of school.

The two blocks on top are E's. The two blocks on the bottom are A's. And the middle grey section is joint activities.

We are definitely not unschoolers, not that there's anything wrong with that. And we haven't traditionally bought a full curriculum, not that there's anything wrong with that either.

The first year, I didn't have a full grasp of where E was in terms of his skills/knowledge.

The second year I did, but A was kind of between levels and it would have been hard to nail him down to a specific grade.

This year I definitely know what needs to be taught and I definitely know what level A is on BUT I have found that I like to be master of my school domain.

It takes A LOT of time. To try and co-ordinate the strands with each other and with the themes that we cover is time consuming. But by the time I am done I really know what we are going to be covering in the year. I'll know when we are falling behind....or if we can condense or drop anything to add something new we have become interested in.

I'm not done yet. I still have two terms of Science to insert. And two terms of themes to add. And a bunch of language/writing activities.

But anything you see on this chart has been prepared for lessons. Right down to what pages on what days.

(The exception is the dinosaur unit-I know we're doing it but I don't have resources for that yet.)

Vocabulary Builder

It has been nice being home owners again after being renters for three years. Except for the part where we have to pay for everything of course. Anyway, I have been working on building my vocabulary this week.
Did you know there was a difference between skylights, roof windows and sun tunnels? I know enough to know that I am super pumped about the Velux Sun Tunnel being partially installed tomorrow on my roof. I say partially because the roofers installing our new shingles are doing the exterior work and then Grandd is coming later in the week to do the interior work. (Right grandad?)
I will post some pics tomorrow of the workers on the roof doing their thing.

ExhibitA

This is why I try so hard to plan our menu ahead of time and shop as infrequently as possible. I needed milk. Just milk. I bought milk, blueberries, cucumber, lettuce, lunch bags, salad dressing, and two bags of chips. It should have cost me $5. It cost me more.

More

Please welcome our new guinea pigs from the rescue shelter. On the left, Buttercup. On the right, Maple. These two are different breeds from what we had before but just as cute.
This week we had the chance to visit with some friends. And at church we had a little impromptu reunion with the people from our old small group.

We have this tradition of always going out to eat after church. Always to the same place. But now we need a new place so we are trying out some different places. The restaurant we went to today was not it. We did have some fun thumb wars while we waited for our food though.
(If anyone has a suggestion for a not-too-expensive, not-too-busy, not-too-greasy restaurant please let us know.)

You know how there's always that one thing about yourself that is hard to accept? Well with me it's my hair. I hate it. I have tried cutting, colouring, perming, straightening, braiding. Right now I'm pretty committed to completely neglecting it. This pic from today cracks me up. It's like my hair is trying to do that flowing flipping thing but can't quite make it happen.

I think this is what my hair was trying to do.

I did a little hair makeover on-line. Aa-a-a-ah! My Good Hair.
Speaking of which, have you seen the movie? Funny. Check it out.

Whew

It was so funny because after the boys did it K wanted to do it too. She's younger but she was not going to give up until she got it. Way to go K! Good sticking to it.

And last night we went to the GodRocks concert at our church.

Here's A rocking out with his air guitar....get it....air guitar.....'cause it's filled with air...and he's doing air guitar....it's funny on so many levels.

Delayed

Hmmm......can you tell who this is? It's not one of mine.

Yup. There's one of mine in a cape. And another one in the background smiling.

Back to School

One of the blogs I read was discussing back to school preparations. Specifically, the homeschool room. Homeschool rooms were an issue around here after buying this house. We talked about using the 4th bedroom as a schooling room. The thing is, I don't think we'd actually stay in one room. We tend to move around a lot with our schooling depending on the day/other tasks I am trying to do/visitors/weather/the phases of the moon(alright I'm just kidding about that last one.)
But still I wanted to show where we would be learning this year so I asked the boys to help me.
Here's A in the reading corner.

Here's E at the kitchen island counter. Usually they work here if I am cooking or baking.

Here's A at the dinner table. Our most frequent schooling area.

Here's A at the van. We tend to do math facts or spelling in the van.

I asked the kids if they had any ideas of where I should include as places we learn.

'A' suggested the museums.

E suggested a picture of me. He says that where I am is where the learning is. I'm sure he didn't know how happy it would make me to hear that.

Try A Bite

A was keeping me company while I prepared dinner; asking me what all the different things were. Yellow pepper, onion, celery, garlic. What does that taste like? Well it's good but usually eaten after being cooked. Can I try some now? Sure.

Oh. That's what it tastes like.

Saturday

Lucky us were invited to a BBQ on Saturday.

But then there was work to be done. We have had our trampoline in storage for 3 years. That ended today. I managed to capture the 10 seconds of work the boys did to help their father.

You can't hear me in this picture but I'm yelling, "Wa-a-a-a-ait!! There is no net yet!!"

**No children were hurt in the taking of these pictures**

In Memory

Sadly, we lost our other guinea pig this week. Probably due to the same mystery ailment that claimed the first.
Here is A starting his memory stone for the garden. First, planning out his stone on paper.

Then, transferring it to the wet concrete mold.

Dream Come True

My son is a reader!!! This makes me so happy.

Sad Night

It was just over two years ago, May2009, that we grew our family by two critters.

Sadly, last night one of the girls passed away unexpectedly. We noticed in the early evening that she was behaving strangely. And after dinner she passed. She was buried late last night in the backyard with some flowers. Before saying a prayer E suggested we all eat a carrot in her memory....and we placed one with her in the grave.

We're going to miss Harley. She was a good pet. The boys are worried that the other guinea pig might come down with the same mystery illness so we are keeping a very close eye on her. Yikes!

It's Like Riding A Bike

This kid is crazy about biking. We needed to go to the library (just around the corner) and then get groceries ( a bit of a drive) so I wanted to just start in the van. This kid wanted to ride. So....we reached a compromise. He rode to the library and I drove. He followed me until after the major street and then he was off on the sidewalk. We met there.

The boys have a strategy they share with our new neighbour. Whenever someone wants to play, they go outside and kind of loiter outside the other person's window. BINGO!! Usually within 5 minutes they are all outside playing together.

I was incredibly relieved to come down this morning and see the front hall with dry paint.
The Butter Scream had mellowed nicely into the Butter Cream I had wanted.

Bye Long Weekend

It was a close call this weekend, we almost ended up with a pet turtle. E caught one out at camp and asked Grnny is he could keep it. She told him to ask me, I told him to ask his dad, his dad didn't want to say no.....yikes! Unfortunately(wink/nudge) there is a rule in the campground that you can't take animals home that have been captured. So they signed his belly with marker and released him. Maybe they will catch him again one day.

They also caught ten frogs. But there was never a question that they were going to be released.

And here's A supervising the fire. His favourite job.

I painted the front hall this weekend. I'm pretty sure I like it. It definitely turned out more yellow than I had expected. But it is a nice contrast with the more neutral livingroom and diningroom. Hmmm.....still thinking about this.

Why Moves Are Good

I feel I have been a bit whiny about the move lately. So I think it's time I mention some of the positives of moving.

1. People. I have met some great people because of moving. And all of those people have taught me something about the world or about myself. My bestest longest friend I met because I moved junior high schools. My husband I met because I transfered Universities. etc. etc.

2. The kids. Are learning where joy/contentment comes from. It doesn't come from a specific house. Or a specific city. It's not provided by your friends or family. It doesn't come from keeping everything familiar. And it doesn't come from leaving problems behind and starting again.

3. Our marriage. Has grown as our life has changed. There have been no ruts. When things change we are required to adjust and compromise and communicate. Also, we learn to depend on each other. To compensate for each other. And to take turns having our 'move melt-downs'.

Alright, that's enough of that.