Disney Week

We are on our way home from a week at Disney World in Florida. The drive to was quite painless. Everyone picked me up from work Sunday morning about 7:45 and off we went. I slept much of the way, thanks to Hulk riding down with Grandma & Grandpa. He adored the solo attention. The girls loved having a little more room to spread out. They hadn't had video game time in about a month so they dove in and zoned... Lol

Let's start by saying we had the great Disney vacation where almost everything worked as it should. Disney can't control the weather.. Lol

We got the opportunity to test Disney's new "Magic Bands" & " Fastpass+" systems. I LOVED the Magic Bands! Everything you needed on your wrist. Park tickets, room key, dinning plan, fast passes, charge to the room purchases. You can read a thousand Disney blogs explaining the ins & outs of them so I'm just going to say I'm a fan. I also loved the Fastpass+ service. The App was slow but we got what we needed. 

 We stayed at Port Orleans-Riverside in the Royal Guest rooms. Lovely moderate accommodations. We were able to have connecting rooms with Grandma & Grandpa & we were fortunate to have a mini fridge due to Grandpa's medical needs. Fridges had to be removed from most of the resort rooms earlier in the summer. 

We were on the dining plan & honestly loved it. We tried a variety of experiences. Our favorite character experience  was the 'Ohana breakfast. Relaxed, plentiful & joyful. Granted we did this one on our break day which probably helped with the relaxed feeling. Character wise was also had breakfast with Pooh @ the Crystal Palace & the Disney Jr Play'n Dine @ Hollywood & Vine. These we great but because we were in park we felt rushed/pressured to keep up the pace. Our other table service meals were used at Boatwrights (Port Orleans), Portobello ( Downtown Disney), & The Wave of American Flavors (The Contemporary). All we great, but I enjoyed The Wave for flavor, atmosphere & service. On the quick service end I enjoyed the create your own salad @ the Rivermill  Food Court, the shrimp Po'boy @ Sassagoula Floatworks, and the chicken/lamb shawarma platter from the Tangerine Cafe in Morrocco in Epcot's World Showcase.

My hubby & I also ate off the plan one night to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary. We enjoyed a lovely evening at Narcosse's @ the Grand Floridian Resort. The best part was watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks  & Electric Parade on the veranda complete with music and a full moon. Hubby did good on this one ;)

For parks we started off with Magic Kingdom. We did Fantasyland & Tomorrowland and called it a day. 

Tuesday, we headed off the Hollywood Studios first thing to make sure to get the kids signed up for the Jedi Training Academy. Getting to fight a living, breathing Darth Vader was the highlight of Hulk's trip, and ranked in the top 3 for Ying & Yang. Wednesday we scheduled  a break which was very providential since it was very stormy by mid afternoon. 

Thursday we returned to Magic Kingdom for Frontierland & Adventureland. We rode everything in these two by noon multiple times so we switched up our Fastpasses to allow up the reprise some favorites from Monday. Friday,we did Epcot. Not the kids favorite though the enjoyed Soar'n. Hulk & Ying loved Test Track, too. Yang was just done with it all & wanted the pool. Saturday, we checked out in the morning & spent the day at the French Quarter Pool.  The kids were amazed by a sky writer  who wrote "Jesus Loves U" & "Jesus 4Ever" over the resort. They immediately connected this with the great commission and were very impressed. We left around 5. Our plan had been to push on home, but due to rain and crankiness we stopped halfway home and spent the night in a hotel. Yeah, for internet booking on mobile apps! Now we're an hour or so from home.

All and all it was an awesome family week! We'll be off school for one more week coming down from Vacation and then we'll pick back up..,,

Week 10- American Revolution

Mashing our berries for berry ink!

 We have completed 10 weeks and now are on break for 2 weeks. We leave in a few days for our kids first trip to Disney World, the anticipation of which has made this week a bit more of a struggle. This week, we spent time on Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence, and the American Revolution. This was a lot for one week. I really think this part of the curriculum could be revised. We spent an entire week reading 4 pages about French pioneers, but gave an equal time to the American Revolution? Oh well... so goes life. We'll have to come back to it and spend some more time on the concepts of revolution. Here's how our week went:

Bible:
 Memorized John 7:37. Discussed "Living Water". Continued God & Me 3. Watched "What's in the Bible? vol 12."

History:
Covered the assigned reading and added the Magic Treehouse Fact Tracker: American Revolution. The girls read the  Fact Tracker aloud to me.  They gave two oral reports this week on what they learned: one to Nana, and one to me after we completed the book. We also completed a cute little book on the Declaration of Independence. Check it out http://www.teachervision.fen.com/fourth-of-july/printable/45983.htm

By far the girls favorite activity this week was making the berry ink and writing with quills. They played with this for hours. We also made hasty pudding, and the girls didn't see anything special about it. As far as they were concerned, we had just made grits...lol

We also started watching Liberty's Kids via YouTube. The entire series is available free of charge from the production company on the site. Through a bit of "Daddy magic," my husband made it so YouTube  can play through our Roku, so we can watch on the TV. I think this will come in handy for a lot of videos.

Language Arts:
 Instead of trying to summarize this weeks lesson for notebooking ,we went of course and tried our hand at fiction writing using historical figures. It was very funny to see how this morphed into different things in my two girls hands. Ying struggled.Her anxiety provided a real block until I got a prompt she could understand. Then her story very much followed the "Magic Treehouse" formula. But it was amazing how much she got down on paper once the stress of creating form was taken away. Yang on the other hand wrote me a 2 page story about Molly Pitcher, Sam Adams, and a Superhero on a speeding train. This was her zone.

Handwriting:
The girls are pretty much done with Handwriting Without Tears, so we have moved on the copy work to practice our cursive. This week the girls chose poems from Where The Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein to copy.

Math & Spelling:
Our methods ain't broke, so we ain't fix'n 'em. lol...

Science:
Talked about absorption.

Physical Ed:
 The girls running club started up this week. They are training for a 5k run in December. Thursday they had their pacer run. Ying finished middle of the pack for her age group. Yang finished last but with a smile on her face. They are excited to keep training.

Week 9- George Washington

 Whoa!!!. This week has been a bit crazy... After working my regular shifts last weekend I had to cover Monday night also. In the past this wasn't a big deal, but with Taz now coming weekdays at the crack of dawn and my DH having to work Tuesday morning it just threw us off. After years of night shift, I have gotten down flipping myself between my weekday "day shift" hours and weekend "night shift work", but when an extra day gets thrown in I am out of whack. Needing naps @ 10 am, and not being able to fall asleep until 2 am. But, we survived, if not thrived this week. 

 History- We fleshed out history with a simple G.W. lap book project.This is the first the girls have done and it went over so-so. I am finding that just giving the girls free reign over the book basket isn't productive. They don't seem to be absorbing anything and pretty much stare at the book never getting off the first page cause they are watching the clock. So, we are often using the basket books for research for our extended projects like the lap book.

 Bible- We continued to add devotions from God & Me 3.

Handwriting-They practiced copying some quotes of George Washington.

Reading and Read Aloud- We gave up on The Birchbark House. We do read a loud at night and 1/2  a page in the girls were snoozing, and not getting anything out of it.  Independently, they are still working though the Harry Potter titles.

Math & Spelling- These are on auto pilot right now. Our current methods are working, though we did add more verbal drilling on the spelling. After listening to a Focus on the Family program about learning styles, I have come to the realization the Yang is a mostly auditory processor and needs to verbalize something to cement it.

Geography- Our ship remained in the Caribbean this week hitting the Port of Spain, Tobago and is heading the St. John's, Antigua currently.

Thanks again for the prayers. We need everyone and appreciate every single word interceded to the Lord on our behalf. Blessing to you and yours.

Week 8- Ben Franklin

     This week has been a lot of work but I feel like we got a lot accomplished. We took Monday for a library day and then hit to our local BMX track for the first time. The kids had fun, even if they were not strong enough to get up the bigger hills. Burned a lot of energy leading to a good quite time..lol. Thursday morning the girls also went to a homeschool meet up at our local indoor trampoline gym. Unfortunately  we had very low attendance but the few that were there has fun. Its early in most folks year, so we'll hope for more as the fall progresses.
On to the Academics:
 Bible this week focused on Matthew 7:24, and Jesus being our bedrock. The Bible lesson have felt a bit light lately at times not very relational to my girls. So we have added a new devotional workbook called God & Me 3 for ages 6-9. They enjoy the discussions about kids their own age. For History this week we expanded on the assigned reading by including Who was Ben Franklin? By Dennis Fradin. We read this as a group, alternating pages between each girl and me. At the end of the week, the girls notebooked on specific areas of Franklin's life that caught their interest.  Ying focused on his inventions, and Yang the people in his life. They used a graphic organizer to gather their facts and then I helped them edit their sentences and correct spelling. After tweeking, the girls typed their final paragraphs and added pictures. This was a 2 day project after finishing our readings, but by end of the school morning friday they were really proud of what they had accomplished. Math we trucked a long. Independent reading this week took many forms. Monday, at the library Yang read 20 or so books to Hulk from the picture book section that he picked out. Ying finished Frindle, and moved on to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Yang got jealous by the end of the weekend changed her next pick from Lemony Snicket's The Reptile Room to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. We failed alot this week on getting our read aloud done. The Birchbark House is dragging a bit and while we are enjoying it, its not been our favorite. We are still struggling with spelling and are going to have to devote more time to drilling this down. I am thinking we may also need to step back and add in some more phonics lessons focusing on spelling. We shall see how that goes. We continued to follow our ship through the eastern Caribbean this week ending in Phillipsburg, St Martin on Saturday. 

     We also need to offer up praise this week for the Lord's protection. Saturday night, lightening struck not 30 feet from the girls. They were getting the mail when the lightening struck a utility pole. Only a few grey clouds in the sky. No rain. No previous rumbles. Nada. Then CRACK! BOOM! and my girls screaming. I don't think Yang has ever run so fast. But the Lord is good and they were safe. While the same can't be said for our cable modem and hubby's work computer, we give PRAISE to the almighty for His mercies. My girls are priceless, stuff replaceable and nothing.
       Next week will be a bit crazy due to Labor day. While for most it means an extra day off from work, for me it means covering an extra night recovering the world from their vacations and over indulgences. Pray for me that I may be humble and extend His mercy and grace.  Enjoy the holiday and be safe!