Wrapping this one up with an orange belt and some dance in the mix.

 

Family Life

This week Tommy walked into karate a yellow belt and walked out an orange belt.  We are so proud of him and his hard work at karate.  He has had times when he wants to quit and days he doesn’t feel like going.  He has powered through those and made it.  He is excited to continue advancing in karate.

Katey and Emily both had dance performances at a little craft boo-tique in our town. 

Here is Katey doing her favorite dance move – the coffee grinder.  And of course posing for her photo. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Emily’s dance almost turned into a solo.  Only one other girl showed up and neither of them knew the dance very well.  Out of about 20 that are in the two classes.  The teacher said that it is common for the teen class. They all have only just began learning this dance routine.  Some other girls showed up and together they all showed off their tumbling skills. 

Something we really enjoyed that we didn’t know we would was searching the internet for dance hairstyles and styling their hair.  In fact, Katey is normally an I don’t like my hair brushed, always wears it down kinda girl.  This has changed.  She has let me do her hair each day this week.  As in, more than just brush it.  So happy.

We had rain for an entire day.  I surprised Katey and Tyler by letting them jump in rain puddles when we were done Tommy’s karate testing.  They loved this and were so excited.  I wish I could have got better pictures of the splashing. It was fun and so worth it.

      

We went home and changed into pajamas after that and had a relaxing night.

      

School Life

School this week has been a little harder than most.  I think it had to do with the public school kids having “Fall Break”.  It throws our schedule off when they are out, since my kids always want to be playing with them.  I still made them do school in the mornings and they could play in the afternoons, similar to our summer schedule.  We did still get some learning in.

Katey reading has really taken off this week (FINALLY!!)  She is actually interested in reading.  Her confidence is really boosting.

Katey has been doing really great at math.  We reviewed Math Made Easy a little while ago and set it aside after the review was over.  We decided to pick it back up and start back over from the beginning.  She has been loving this.  Actually this has made math her subject.   I am also in the process of creating a morning book for her.  It is basically a book of things she will do first thing in the morning.  She has been working in it each morning, I have decided a few more things I want to add to it and then I will take it over to Staples and get it bound.  I will explain and show pictures of it a little later.

Tyler has also shown interest in drawing instead of just scribbling and in interested in being able to write his name.  The biggest thing he is interested in drawing is trucks and tractors. 

He has got the wheels part down.

We have been loving all the busy activities we have been doing lately.  Check out my month long busy bag activities posts for lots of ideas.

Katey and Tyler both have a love for Jumpstart.  They play on it whenever I let them. 

Tommy is still undecided in his math curriculum.  What I have done for him is given him two, Professor B and Math Essentials.  He has the choice each day as which one to do a lesson in.  Each day he has to do a lesson.  So far I have found that he sticks to one for about a week and then switches it out again.  I believe this helps him feel less overwhelmed about math, and that-is-a-good-thing!

He has also been whipping right through physics.  This has been a great science year for him.  I have also ordered Life of Fred Pre Algebra with Biology.  As soon as that gets here he will start in that.  I am sure he will finish in physics quickly.  So to fit it all together his next science with be biology.  I am still taking suggestions as to which one.  So leave me a comment if you know of one I should look into.  (8th grader with some biology experience) 

Fun School

We went to the dinosaur quarry near our house.  We met some other homeschool friends there.  We had such a good time.  They even all, well except the baby of course, earned their Junior Ranger Badges. 

Real Life

This week we continued our simple machines unit.  We learned about the screw.  We tried to build our own version of an Archimedes’ screw.  I got the idea from Walk Beside Me.    We tried to move some cereal up it and we did get it to move a little way up.  Then it just got stuck. 

The kids understood what we were trying to do and we read about it in our encyclopedia.  So that counts, right?

Well, I couldn’t get over it.  I decided to try to make one on my own, cutting and taping my circles perfectly.

I am talking perfectly!  PERFECTLY!  

I hate to admit it, but the first version that the kids helped me with worked better. Boo HOO!!!

A Collage

Here is a collage with some more pictures from our field trip.

Our Favorite Resource

This week I don’t know what I would have done without our Usborne Science Encyclopedia.  The resources it provides through the book and internet links on simple machines, saved my epic fail of building the Archimedes’ Screw. 

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