12/20/09

TOG Y2 W19 - end of Unit 2

We are now officially done with Year 2 Unit 2. I don't know that we did justice to this unit, but I've learned, in my six years of homeschooling (and it's been a hard lesson) that sometimes you have to just let some things go. The nice thing about using Tapestry of Grace is that I know my kids will be doing this time frame again. I know we will be revisiting the places, the people and the events. So I'm not concerned that we didn't touch every fact I wanted to, or every thread, or done every project. Sometimes life just happens, and we must deal with what God puts on our plate. That's been the rule since the beginning of October in our home.

Princess E

Latin: Lesson 9.1 to 9.3, Exercise 9.3 to 9.4
Math-U-See: finish Lesson 10
Literature: Bard of Avon
TOG: vocab, important people copywork, geography study
Reading: The Awakening of Europe (excerpts)

Princess S
Growing with Grammar: 2.20 to 2.22
Math-U-See: Finish lesson 13
Literature: The Midsummer Night's Dream
TOG: same as above
Reading: Elizabeth I, William Shakespeare and the Globe

Princess L
MFW Kindy: start lesson 8 /d/ is for dinosaur
Math-U-See: Primer finish lesson 12

Princess M
This is my first child who actually puts herself to bed. This little munchkin, when she decides she wants to take her nap, will go into her room, start her Lori Line CD by herself, grab her blanket and ask me to get her Nuk. (She is also the child who has used her Nuk the longest because I haven't the heart to take it away yet. It's the only thing that soothes her teething, which is close to being done. So I'll take it away then.) She is officially down to one nap a day, but unfortunately it's not at a consistent time. Some days she want to nap right after lunch, other days I cannot put her down until after 2pm.

We will have a three week break starting on the 21st. I told the princesses that they will be required to have a one hour free reading session each day, and that they are still responsible for their chores each day. We will try to have a few play days with friends that are also on break. They are also hoping to get together with some friends at church so Princess E can teach them the song she wrote. One of these days I'll try to get the audio to post here.

12/14/09

TOG Y2 W17-18

We did two weeks in one week. That's because I noticed that we would have our three week break and then one week left in our unit. I decided that it was worth it to double up for one week and merely highlight stuff in order to end our unit before the break. Then when we come back, we will have only seventeen weeks left. This will allow us an extra week somewhere to either stretch out a week, end a week early, take several Fridays off, etc. We will have to see what happens. I like having options.

Princess E
Latin: Lesson 8.3 to 8.5, Word Power D1 and E1 and E2, Exercise 8.4 to 8.6, and Vocabulary E
Math-U-See: Lesson 10
Literature: Hugenot Garden
TOG: vocab, important people copywork, geography study
Reading: Brilliant Brits: Henry VIII, The Awakening of Europe (excerpts)

Princess S
Growing with Grammar: 2.14 to 2.19
Math-U-See: Lesson 12 test and start lesson 13
Literature: The Boy Who Held Back the Sea
TOG: same as above
Reading: The Netherlands, Brilliant Brits: Henry VIII

Princess L
MFW Kindy: finish lesson 7 /u/ is for us
Math-U-See: Primer finish lesson 12

Princess M
It is fun to hear the new words, which come daily now, that she tries to say. We still don't know what they are half the time. But they are getting there. She is enjoying playing out in the snow with her older sisters. She really didn't get to do that much last year, as she didn't have a warm enough snow suit.

We will end this week with the Nutcracker Ballet. I'm bringing some thing for Princess L just in case she gets squirmy.

12/9/09

BooMama Giveaway

Of course BooMama would be in on this too. Where is P Dub on this one?

Totally Together Reviews Giveaway

HP and BlogHer rock! Another giveaway to check out here.

Kelley's Reviews Giveaway

Same giveaway going on here. Check out her blog.

MckMama Giveaway

This is almost too good to believe. Follow this link and read MckMama's latest giveaway. It'd make an awesome Christmas present. But even more important, if you've never read her blog, stick around for a while and read about the miracle this family was given for their faith and patience over the last year. Her beautiful son, Stellan, is a testament to the Power and Glory of Jehovah Jireh!

12/8/09

Meet the Pioneer Woman



In case you've never heard of the Pioneer Woman, then you need to get your head out of the clouds, and head on over here. You're in for a real treat. She homeschools, she takes awesome photographs, and she makes incredible food. And she blogs about her life in a way that makes you ache for the simple life on an Oklahoma cattle ranch. Ree, aka Pioneer Woman, aka P.W., aka P-Dub, just finished writing a cookbook. You can pick one up here, or here, or here.

When I heard that she was coming to my own turf on her book tour, I jumped at the chance to get mine signed. So I got to the destination at 11am. I was way back in line, but it ended up being right next to the stage. P-Dub showed up at noon. What I didn't realize at the time, was that she was surrounded by media from both the local FoxNews station, and for the TLC show Mall Cops. I met some really nice people in line. There was one comical moment. We noticed that the mall cops, the real ones, stopped traffic. On the other side of the ropes from where we were standing, they were fanning out to control the crowd. It took a few minutes, but we figured out that they were looking at a bag that had been left unattended on a bench near us. They were calling in a bomb sniffing dog. There was a young mother ahead of us in line who had two small children. These kids had done so well all day. We were almost up to the front of the line. She had stepped out of line for a short time to give the kids and herself a break and get off her feet. She had accidentally forgotten her diaper bag on the bench. But they wouldn't let anyone get near it, even when she told them it was hers. After the dog finished sniffing the bag, and it had been opened and the contents sifted through, she was told she could pick it up later.

After a four and a half hour wait, I finally got my cookbook signed. It was worth every minute in line. I've made many of the recipes in the book, and have my eyes on several others that I must try soon.

TOG Yr2 Weeks 13 to 16

It's been a long time since I've blogged. We've had so much going on. And I was without a computer for two weeks. It had to be reformatted, and while I had it all backed up, getting everything back on takes time. Some of these weeks we did the bare minimums because it was during the holidays, we had relatives in town, and without my computer, I didn't have access to my HST+. Also, because I use TOG DE, I didn't have access to much of it. I had printed out all of the SAPs I needed, I didn't have the reading lists to know which pages or chapters had to be read, and some of my requested books didn't come in to the library on time and I didn't have any way to find alternates. So some of these are just what we came up with from the stacks.

Princess E
Latin: Lessons 5.5 to 8.2, Exercises 6.1 to 8.2, Word Power C3 to D2
Math-U-See: Finish lesson 5, Do lessons 6-9
Literature: Morning Girl and Spy For the Night Raiders. I could not get either the suggested lit book, or any of the alternates. So since the original book was a historical fiction that took place during Martin Luther's time and the Diet of Worms, I managed to find a Trailblazer Book (Bethany House) that dealt closely with that topic. She said it was one of the best books she's read. So I think I will be trying to find others that coordinate with the time frames we study.
TOG: vocab, geography study, important people copywork
Reading: The Awakening of Europe (excerpts), Exploration and Conquest, Aztecs and Incas. We were supposed to do Mr. Pipes, but I couldn't get it through the library and just couldn't swing the expense.
We have fallen behind on our read alouds for this unit. Between getting the flu, having relatives here and no computer, we skipped a lot of this. We will pick back up on read alouds after our Christmas and New Years break when we begin our next unit.

Princess S
Growing With Grammar: 2.2 to 2.13
Math-U-See: Finish lesson 10 and do lessons 11-12
Literature: St. George and the Dragon, Coming Home, Psalm 8, Mother Goose
TOG: vocab, geography study, important people copywork
Reading: Ferdinand Magellan, The Sad Night, Usborne Internet-Linked Middle Ages (excerpts), Martin Luther, Pieter Bruegel, Henry VIII and His Wives

Princess L
MFW Kindy - finish lesson 5 /n/ is for nest. Do lesson 6 /t/ is for turtle and lesson 7 /u/ is for us
As with the TOG studies, we did the bare minimums with this.
Math-U-See: Finish lesson 10. Do lessons 11-12. Learning the colors has been interesting. We used the same names that we used with her sisters.

Princess M
This little firecracker keeps us all busy. She is getting her two year molars, so there has been excess fussiness because of that. She is gaining a larger vocabulary every day. She celebrated her second birthday. My baby is now two. (Excuse me - I'm getting a little emotional.) She is funny to watch, because when she does something, she gets so into it. When she is coloring, she is so intense. When she is building with blocks or legos, she is uber focused on it and gets upset if someone tries to work next to or with her. She is officially down to one nap a day.

Because we got a little behind, we will be completing three weeks in two weeks so that we can finish up unit two before our break begins. Hopefully, we will begin our break on the 18th when we have a field trip to see the Nutcracker. Then we have three weeks off. I hope to include pictures of our "new" homeschool room after I've used the time off to finish sorting and purging. I am also hoping to do a potty training immersion with Princess M.