Track Meet 2 of 2012 season

All three boys came home with a medal this time!

Week in Review 4/27/12

We continued on in our Bible study each morning, praying for The Horn, the world, and a family who we received a Christmas card from. 

N had to take the SATs this week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so it was a laid back week around here.  He has continued his reading of In Freedom's Cause and we've done a Mystery of History lesson each afternoon. He completed 2 math lessons in Math Mammoth on Thursday and some grammar.

Each of the testing mornings, I dropped N off and came home to do only basic subjects with The Giver and Preacher Man. 

We worked on Apologia Botany and even did some painting with ferns:

The Giver worked through 4 lessons in RightStart D, did 8 pages of Easy Grammar and started reading Charlotte's Web.  He doesn't like to read.  He tries everything he can to get out of it and not do it.  He complains that he doesn't like the book, that it's too hard, etc etc. 

Preacher Man is practicing reading everyday.  We are still working on reading clocks in RightStart A. 

We had co-op on Friday, which is fun for the kids but means that we really get no school work done!

We will back to a regular schedule next week.  I'm estimating we will school for about 4 more weeks to get through all the math and writing assignments that we need to complete.  We are getting close to summer break though!

Wordless Wednesday - Caterpillars

Week in Review - 4/20/2012

• This week we continued on in our Bible Study in the miracles and life of Jesus.
• We continued on in our Christmas Card ministry, praying for the World, using Operation World and added Praying for the Horn (the horn of Africa).
• In Mystery of History we learned about Dante and The Divine Comedy, The Aztecs, The Hundred Years' War, The Black Death.
• 2 new posts in English from the Roots Up
• We worked on Apologia Botany.
• Completed our last lesson in La Clasa Divertida Level 1.
• Read MacBeth from Lamb's Shakespeare
• Started Parcel of Patterns for our read aloud

N - 6th grade

• Completed 4 lessons in Math Mammoth 6
• Completed Science portion of Spectrum Test Prep 6 (SATs next week!)
• 10 pages of Easy Grammar
• Reading In Freedom's Cause by Henty
• Phonetic Zoo spelling 100
• Guitar practice daily
• IEW Medieval lesson

The Giver - 3rd grade

• completed 4 lessons in RightStart D
• 8 pages of Easy Grammar
• Reading a book about David Livingstone
• Phonetic Zoo spelling 85
• IEW Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales lesson

Preacher Man - kindergarten

• completed 2 math lassons in RightStart A.
• Completed 2 lessons in IEW PAL
• Started AAS Level 1
• Worked on butterflies vs moths Venn diagram, made a butterfly lifecycle

Friday we had a field trip to the Southern Environmental Center  and Ecogarden on the Campus of Birmingham Southern.  It was a great field trip and we enjoyed it very much.

We are really close to finishing up our school year.  We only have 3 more weeks of Mystery of History lessons, though I'm planning a unit on Explorers when we finish that to get us ready for American history for next year.   

I'm been spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to research American History programs since Mystery of History doesn't cover American and that is what we need to do next.  I've eliminated quite a few programs but still haven't narrowed it down to 1.  It's really looking like I might have to do a separate program for N and have The Giver and Preacher Man do one together.  I'm struggling with this but I think it's just going to have to be this way to meet everyone's needs.  

First Track Meet of the Season

Week in Review 4/13/12

There was no update last week because my laptop screen died and had to be taken for repair.  It took a week since the part had to be ordered. 

Together work:

• Bible study - We have continued reading about the days after Jesus' resurrection and wrapped up today with Acts 1, where the Holy Spirit came upon the believers in tongues of fire.  (Can you imagine how you would feel to see a tongue of fire on top of each person's head?) 
• MOH - William Wallace, Robert Bruce, Marco Polo. 
• Memory Work - I Corinthians 13.  We will add the last verse next week!
• Finished up The Seventeenth Swap by Eloise McGraw
• 2 new words from English from the Roots Up
• Chemistry did not happen this week - I forgot to purchase iodine, cream of tartar and washing powders (we  use liquid).  urghh!  Instead we watched part of Mr. Wizard's World science DVD that I picked up at the library.
• Art did not happen this week because I thought we had Art/Geography class be skipped this week and have it next week.  So we should have done Meet the Masters but it just didn't happen.

N - 6th grade (I'm tossing around using something guitar related for his blog name....)

• Math Mammoth - finished up Chapter 7.  Made an 85 on his test today.
• Easy Grammar - 10 pages
• Spectrum Test Prep - Social Studies.  In the process of working through these pages, we decided he needed a little better understanding of the government system so we checked out some books to help get him up to speed.
• IEW Phonetic Zoo Lesson 8: Level B - 100
• IEW Medieval Writing - Completed Lesson 23
• Finished reading Roger Bacon

The Giver - 3rd grade

• RightStart math - 4 lesson, including a test - 97!
• Life of Fred - Edgewood - Lesson 3
• Easy Grammer - 10 pages
• IEW Phonetic Zoo  Lesson 8: Level A - 100
• IEW Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales - Completed lesson 23
• Finished Christian Liberty Nature Reader Book 1

Preacher Man - Kindergarten

• Righstart math - completd 2 lessons - worked on clocks!
• IEW PAL - 2 lessons - read every day, made sentences with word cards, built words with magnet letters
• Cloud Science - read dePaola book and made our own cloud book (which The Giver joined in on, too!)
• read about butterflies and moths
• Started the 3rd book of the My Father's Dragon Series (Giver listening in on this one, too!)

Everyone is dragging around here, me included!

Thank you!

Thank you to those who have bought something from us or contributed in some other way (aluminum cans, etc.) and prayed for our adoption.   We have raised $4,671!   Some of this was from our tax return and from scrimping on groceries/eating out/other expenditures but a good bit of it is from purchases and contributions made by our friends and families!  We are so thankful - more than words can really express. 

Boys, Weapons and Jesus

I don't really understand boys.  And I'm ok with that.  None of the kids I ever babysat were boys.  I have a sister and my nearby cousins during my growing up years were all girls.  Boys are rough, dirty and loud.  I'm sure some girls are, too.  They have this need to battle, play with guns, build things, destroy things and test their strength.  And really, I'm ok with that, too.   We have foam swords, nerf guns, bows and arrows and we allow this type of play. 

However, I draw the line at hurting each other.  When my boys "battle", I want them to be the good guys and on the same team, protecting each other, helping each other.  Well, today things got a little out of hand and apparently the 2 older brothers were leading a "battle" with 2 neighbordhood friends and they were all against Preacher Man.  

It didn't end well.

Preacher Man ended up with a bald spot and 5 stitches.

Luckily, he's going to be fine, but it could have been so much worse. 

There's been a whole lot of talk this evening about showing love and being like Jesus.   (Now this afternoon in the heat of the "battle" there was some yelling going on by me, for which I'm not proud.) 

Parenting is really hard.  During my yelling and panic as blood was pouring down Preacher Man's head and neck, I'm sure I wasn't seeming too much like Jesus either.   The two neighborhood boys probably didn't think of Jesus when I dismissed them from my backyard.  Tony probably didn't think of Jesus when he got a frantic message on his work voicemail from me regarding blood and pcv pipes. 

Luckily, Jesus forgives - including me.

More Pendants and a Cross

We can make these designs in almost any color.  If you see something you want you can post here or email me at cjgrubbs (at) hotmail (dot) com.  (Please put ADOPTION FUNDRAISER as the subject so I can easily find it in all the junk email that comes!) $12

This simple cross is about 11 inches tall.  Each cross will have a loop attached at the top (not pictured) so it can be hung in a window if desired.   You can choose other colors so it will match with your decor.  $75