Six Word Saturday: Finding Feng Shui

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Weekly Wrap-up: Week 14 - Back from Break with NEWS

EVERYDAY LIFE
Welcome to 2015! (Where did 2014 go?) I wish all of you a year of spiritual growth, good health, contentment with life, and laughter and love...

I got engaged! Eek! On December 20th, my BF asked me to marry him! I am SO blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life (and my kids'), one who is Godly, hard-working, selfless, giving. Despite life's bumps along the road, it IS good!

We all - my fiance and his kids too - spent 6 days with my family to celebrate an early Christmas. Weather was unseasonably warm and we took the kids to the Atlantic beach. No, not to swim, but to climb rocks, wade in the salty water with "muck boots", explore. It's not too often you can go to the beach in December in Maine! (Compared to this week when the Polar Vortex descended upon us and we had some -20s or so at night with wind chills. Vehicles were hard to start. Pipes froze. And schools closed.)

Photo Credits T. Skehan

We did some organizing, decluttering and rearranging in the bedrooms and closets. Sam is super happy to have a "livingroom" in his bedroom now. (He and Jake moved an extra sofa and coffee table into his bedroom, making a perfect area for him to build Legos or use his new Physics science kit.) Jake's bedroom went through BIG changes; a downsizing of stuff and a change of furniture placement. It took us a whole, exhausting afternoon, but so worth it!

We rang in 2015 with board games, an "Ice Age" marathon and yummy munchies.

And I whipped up a number of crochet projects (of course)! I created headband "ear warmers" (PATTERN) and a hat (PATTERN), with and without flowers (PATTERN), dishcloth scrubbies in greens and blues (PATTERN), and mid-sized mesh bags in sherbert ice cream and blue, mint green and white colors (PATTERN). I finished a cluster stitch bag for my daughter in harvest colors and another in orange, peach and white (PATTERN). I finished a cowl for me (PATTERN). And, finally, I am working on some coasters (PATTERN). Yeah, I'm obsessed. But my stash of yarn is getting low...

Check out this link to see why crafting, knitting and crocheting, is neurologically AWESOME for us

PEOPLE & PLACES
❄ On the Island (All) ❄ T__  Visited ❄ Lego Club (Sam) ❄ Jazz & Concert Band Practice (Cati) ❄ Cub Scouts (Sam) ❄ Patrol Leader Meeting (Jake) ❄ Bible Study & Fellowship (Me) ❄

HOMESCHOOL HAPPENINGS

It's always a challenge to get back into our every day activities and learning after a break, but especially so after 2 1/2 weeks of indulging in late nights and later mornings with unscheduled days. But we meander on. Our year is not quite half over.

Cati was blessed this Christmas was a MacBook. She spent a lot of time over the break writing stories on Wattpad. Have you seen Wattpad? I love seeing her delve into her creative writing with focus and excitement...and now she doesn't have to wait until my laptop is free!

Sam received a GREAT physics science kit as a gift. He has spent hours building and exploring on his own, but I thought it would be a great week for him to delve into the experiments provided by the booklet included. So, I replaced most of his Earth Science with Physics experiments this week.

It was also a review week for him. Those of you with unique learners know that sometimes a skill just needs repeating...and repeating...Sam reviewed multiple digit and multiple addend regrouping and alphabetizing with this game. Alphabetizing several words proved to be a visual challenge for him, one that not only worked his reasoning skills but his visual tracking. I came up with an adaptation for him: Write down the beginning letters then place them in order. All those letters needed visual "management" to avoid frustration and cognitive shut-down. I think he's got it now!

Cati

• English - Wattpad Creative Writing and Editing, Transitive & Intransitive Verbs, Active & Passive Voice, Adjective Prepositional Phrases, and Indirect Objects
• Pre-Algebra - Order of Operations with Fractions, Exponential Expressions & Radicals, Surface Area, and Scientific Notation
• Earth Science - Energy Resources, Fossil Fuels, Renewable Resources, Nuclear Energy & Energy Conservation, The Water Cycle
• Ancient History - Cyrus the Great, Sparta and Athens, Greece Around 500 BC
• Current Events - CNN Student News
• Phys. Ed. - Walking
• Creative Arts - Jazz & Concert Band, Minecraft

Sam

• Language Arts - Spelling Weeks 36-40 (1st grade) / Weeks 1-4 (2nd grade), Fables & Moral Copywork, Alphabetic Order, Grammar Ninja 
• Math - Addition Regrouping, Elapsed Time, Solve for Missing Addends, Multiplication Facts
• Earth Science - Rocks & Weathering
• Physics - Center of Gravity
• Ancient History - Cyrus the Great, Sparta and Athens, Green Around 500 BC
• Current Events - CNN Student News
• Phys. Ed. - Playing in Snow
• Creative Arts - Minecraft, Kinetic Sand

READING & VIEWING
❄ Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (Peppe) (Me) ❄ Quartet (Lowry) (Cati) ❄ Ben and Me (Lawson) (Sam) ❄

PONDERINGS

Happy Homeschooling!

As always, special thanks to these weekly link-ups:

Don't forget to check out my other blog posts this week!
Six Word Saturday: As 2015 Begins
Memory Monday: A Sticky Situation
Tuesday Coffee Chat: That One Resolution

A Peak At Our Week: Session 3 Week 1 - Welcoming in a New Year

In My Life The Last 3 Weeks
Nothing like "ringin' in the new year" with purging the clutter! I wanted to start 2013 off with an organized house so we spent copious amounts of time doing just that. Quality family bonding time! ::wink:: We have 25 bags and 200 or so books and VHS movies for donation, and LOADS of recyclables and  trash ready to load up. Seriously! We're not done with our decluttering, but we certainly got a great start and I'm feeling less, hmm, smothered?

Oh, and our final chicken and duck egg tally for 2012: 1605 eggs! That's a whole lotta laying, don't you think? And the hens took a break to molt for 3 months!

What We're Cooking
Oven-baked Caramel Popcorn (without nuts) for Movie Night! 

Homeschool High School
White Pine attended his first enrichment class at a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) charter high school this week. Although he was a little nervous venturing into a new school situation, he really enjoyed his first class learning Google Earth SketchUp to begin planning and creating a city such as an architect would do.

Accomplishments
The Screwtape Letters, Approach Paper: C.S. Lewis, Multiplication of Polynomials, Biology: Evolution, World History: Asia mapwork, Google Earth SketchUp

Homeschool Elementary
Session 3 and a new, slightly revamped daily schedule...and back to the good ol' white board (rather than workbox cards). White boards and wet erase markers are the best! Anyway, I simplified Sugar Maple and Balsam Fir's daily assignments, focusing more on those challenging areas, which means Spelling, Writing and Math.

Have you seen XtraMath? It's a FREE site that offers math fact learning for students and reports for us instructors. My saplings will be using it for the rest of the year to get those facts down.

Would you believe that my saplings ASKED to learn about Chemistry? Whoop! You see - I have a Chemistry lab kit that's been sitting on the shelf for a while, collecting dust, waiting for the day when JUST one of the saplings showed an interest in it. Finally! So, in additional to our Chem X100 kit, we'll be notebooking information from the Chem4Kids website. We focused on states of matter.

And we continued on with the Ancient Greeks in SOTW, reading about how life was different in Athens (where education and arts were important) and Sparta (where bravery, strength and fighting skills were important). Both saplings would chose to live in Athens. ::wink::

Sugar Maple's Accomplishments
The Heroes of Olympus: The Lost Hero, Creative Writing (on Computer), Cursive, Math: Decimals, Line Segments and CM, Xtra Math: Addition Facts, Chemistry: States of Matter, SOTW: Ancient Greece, Mapwork

Balsam Fir's Accomplishments
A Kiss for Little Bear, Word Work, Creative Writing, Handwriting, Math: Addition/Subtraction, Xtra Math: Addition Facts, Time Bingo, Chemistry: States of Matter, Snap Circuits, SOTW: Ancient Greece, Mapwork

For the Love of Books

Well, The Hobbit was a bust. ::sigh:: So, we moved onto Treasury of Greek Myths: Classic Stories of Gods, Goddesses, Heroes & Monsters by Donna Jo Napoli. With the shorter stories and vibrant drawings, we're all enjoying this one much better! (Note: Some passages may be questionable for your family.) 

And I started reading Stuart Little and Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Balsam Fir before bed while the other two settle down in their own rooms with books.

Places We Went and People We Saw
☃ Basketball (SM) ☃ 3D Architecture Class (WP) ☃ Library (All) ☃ Rec Center (WP) ☃ Overnight with T_ ☃ Christmas with Family (All) ☃

Around the 'Net
SOTW Tips from Mary at Homegrown Learners
Leftovers: Division Game from Education.com
Keeping a Garden Journal by A Natural Nester

Something to Share
Winter has truly settled into Maine during the last couple of weeks. Snow has blanketed the ground and trees and turned us into a "winter wonderland". 

As always, thanks for visiting Our Side of the Mountain. Here's hoping for an awesome 2013! We're linking up to these wonderful blog hops.

Making Life a Little Less Cluttered and More Organized: Week 5

Isn't if funny how you find things you've long forgotten when you declutter piles of trash things around the house? Little mementos of life you couldn't throw away and meant so much at the time, but end up at the bottom of a "junk box". I guess they're not quite THAT important. ((wink)) 

But those fun Brighter Vision Learning workbooks I did with White Pine as a toddler are still pretty sweet. We spent time almost every day enjoying the book, workbook, activities, music (on CASSETTE) and STICKERS that came in those BVL boxes. These were our first years of HOMESCHOOLING (even if we didn't know it at the time)! 

Oh, and the foam calendar and weather "frame" that he learned to tell time and date on by placing little rectangular pieces into the slots.  The last year piece is 2005...It's a tiny bit OUT-DATED. LOL

And guess what? I unearthed my photocopied worksheets from my PUBLIC TEACHING DAYS! 100s of organized-by-subject helpers in a re-purposed PAMPERS box. Yep! Even a 100+ count diaper box can come in handy for school!

Ah, the memories!

Anyway, I was a bit more productive in putting out "hot spots" this week. And Blue Spruce continues to work on that Honey To Do List diligently.

Accomplishments

• decluttered under the desktop computer desk, removing 2 garbage bags of trash and COMPLETELY removing everything and relocating items to their proper places
• placed peel-and-stick tiles under the desktop computer desk and chair and near the kitchen sink and stove for more protection from scuffs
• cleaned the chicken coop and run, replacing bedding and adding DE and raking everything up
• gathered the rest of the bulk trash in the garage and bagged it up to be dropped it off at the Transfer Station along with all the recyclables

Making Life a Little Less Cluttered: Week 3

My motivation to work on my decluttering projects TOTALLY waned this week. I had to really push myself to get anything beyond "the usual" (i.e. laundry, dishes, trash, bathrooms, animals, vacuuming, sweeping, mopping...) done and hit those Fly Lady "hot spots"!

But I DID tackle some of those "dumping grounds" this week. It took MUCH longer than the 2 minutes Fly Lady suggests though. ((wink))

"Hot Spots" Put Out

A Repurposed Microwave Stand for My Bedside Stuff
On and Around My Rocking Chair
Re-bagged Donations (Since the Kids Got into Them)
Foyer Closet and Shoe Mats By Door
Purged and Organized Curriculum

SOME of the curriculum on the way
out! Feeling SO much better with
less on the shelves because I  saved
the books that are most useful.

Honey To Do List Completed
New Programmable Thermostat Installed
New Computer Router Installed
Fundraising Cookies Made
Refitted the Kid's Bathroom Toilet

Weekly Wrap-up: Days 146-151 - Spring IS Sprung!

Movie Night! On Friday, J headed off for another weekend of Boy Scout camping, so C, S and I snuggled down on the sofa and watched "Nannie McPhee", eating brownie sundaes.

Our Flooded Backyard

The sun shone bright and warm on Saturday. A brought C and S to Lowe's Build and Grow where they constructed mini wooden pinball machines. We spent the afternoon raking the right "side-yard". (The left "side-yard" is STILL covered in snow!)

S with his Lowe's Pinball Machine

J arrived home from his camping trip on Sunday. We had a S-L-O-W day! 

Super Busy Tuesday! S had Astronaut Training at OT and then we popped into Walmart so he could spend his PENNIES on a little Lego kit and picked up some groceries. J and C went to a chocolate-making class at the library and then Dodgeball at the Rec Center with A. And J had Boy Scouts after dinner. Phew!

Wednesday afternoon the kids had 4H and learned about geocaching. We were avid 'cachers for a while, but haven't been out "treasure hunting" in over a year. It was a good refresher! 

Bright, sunny Thursday was spent doing some school assignments then playing with friends outside in the afternoon and going to PJ Storytime at the library after dinner.

Since Friday was beautiful and we had no other plans, we completed some of our daily assignments and then headed the the state park for a stroll with the dog. S got to use his metal detector (from Christmas), but wasn't successful at finding treasure. Want to see our morning at the park? Click here!

J, S, R (Dog) and C on the Trail

Our Nature Study this week was the Water Cycle and Clouds. We made cloud identification wheels, watched a fun You Tube Water Cycle video and made a paper sundial. Here's my post about it!

J's Accomplishments

Rowe English Grammar Lessons 16-18

Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra Lessons 101-104

Literature Study: Animal Farm

Apologia General Science Module 13-14

Jumpstart Typing

J with his Cloud Finder Wheel for Nature Study

C's Accomplishments

All About Spelling Steps 13

Saxon Math 54 Lessons 79-80, SP 76

Daily Grams Days 61-67

Florida Lapbook

Handwriting Without Tears Cursive pp 64-72

Apologia Zoology 3 Lesson 13

C Standing on a Log in the Lake

S's Accomplishments

Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read pp 56-66

Readers: Ann's Hat, Sam and the Mit, 3 Big Hats, Dot and Mit

Draw Write Now Book 1 Rabbit
Handwriting Without Tears - S

Houghtlin Mifflin Math Addition and Subtraction

Train Lapbook

Train Lapbook - Rolling Dice to Make Addition Sentences

Playing in our Flooded Backyard

My Accomplishments
Decluttered, Reorganized the Master Bedroom Closet
Tidied the Linen Closet
Cleaned and Vacuumed out the Van 
Tidied up the Utility Room and Cleaned up the Floor
Cleaned and Decluttered 3/4s of the Garage

How was your week? I'm linking up the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Forever, For Always, No Matter What, Hip Homeschool Hop and Bounce! Check them out for more homeschooling fun!