This is one of those weekends.....

This is one of those weekends where I pay the piper so to speak... So many fun things that I am missing out on due to work and sleep on the weekends. I am BLESSED to get to be home for so much of their childhoods and daily life; weekends like this just make me a little sad but thankful for all HE does give me. Last night the pack and hubby attended VeggieTales Live at our church, and in the morning when I came home the house was full of silly songs. I LOVE that my girls aren't too jaded/cool to enjoy something like that with the little guys. Our culture tries to make them grow up so fast and then leaves them in this weird suspended adolescence. Don't get me wrong, I know they all grow up eventually, but I would rather is happen as designed and not in hyper drive, but I digress...

Saturday afternoon I helped get everyone dressed and ready for our family Halloween party. Again, I missed it. Ying was Peter Pan, Yang channeled Cleopatra, DH husband was the 11th Doctor and Hulk was the TARDIS. The latter 2 costumes you either understand or have no clue depending on your Whovianism...lol. Great time was had by all who attended...

Came home Sunday morning to tales of cousins and costumes as I passed out. I routinely miss Sunday morning services. I can't keep my eyes open, and the Lord knows where I was. Even He healed on the Sabbath because it often can't wait. I got up in time to again dress everyone in costume for the Children's Choir costume event. Oh the controversy! For our church, Halloween divides  like nothing else every year. The vast majority of our families in some way participate in the holiday. We do not do a fall festival/trunk or treat, etc, because there are sooooo many in our area. Our church instead puts on a 2 day community Christmas festival. This year we gave the kids the opportunity within certain guidelines to come dressed up to choir, but this offended some of our families, who then kept their children home because we were "promoting Halloween in the church". For a few of these families this was pretty hypocritical ( IMO... but my opinion is just that) because their children dress-up on a very regular basis, come to choir in costume, etc. They only made it an issue for themselves. Next week, their kids will be back to dressing up.

Anyway, we all missed out on one event this weekend. The Kilometer Kids were the cheering section for the 25th mile of the Atlanta marathon on Sunday morning. We couldn't make it due to it being on Sunday morning. Sunday is the Lord's day, and we focus on His word and work (work as in service at church). Sunday for us is morning service for DH and kids @ either 9:15 or 11, home for lunch and naps, then back to church for Children's activities from 3:30-8pm. I currently serve as the 1st-3rd grade Sunday School curriculum coordinator, choir volunteer, co-lead a girls bible study. DH rotates in the toddler room in the mornings. It's a full day of service and fellowship. 

PAUSE!

 We've covered 12 states, and very little has been retained. Even when it comes to locating them on a map... uhhh!!!. So we are taking a pause week to review the states we've done, and give our language arts skills some focus time. The MFW curriculum does not fulfill all our state required "school" days, so I plan on adding a few of theses weeks here and there to help with information retention. So this week's lesson plans:

Bible: The girl have joined a young girls bible study @ church about friendship and this week we are using the homework from this study to fill in the gap. We are also continuing with Buck Denver & Friend's 21 days with Matthew video devotional on YouVersion.com.

Math: This is so not broke that I am not messing with it. Let me say again how much I LOVE Teaching Textbooks. I am not fighting with the girls over math, lessons are short, and constantly reinforced. Math is by far our best laid subject this year!

Reading: 2 Fold- The girls are continuing to read their independent books. Ying is almost finished with The Lion,  The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis and Yang is finishing Royal Diaries: Victoria, May Blossom of Britannia, England 1829 by Anna Kirwan. We are also doing  daily comprehension practice focusing on main ideas via worksheets from Readworks.org. While the girls are excellent readers, we still need to spend focused time reading for certain skills and strategies. Readwork.org has tons of free lesson plans, novel studies, etc is a very easy to navigate format. They are written to common core standards and give me the chance to check the girls against that standard at home. Highly recommend checking them out.

Language Arts:  Worksheet review. Two, too, to; Are and is; Us and we, and editing work

Spelling: Last week we had a mix up and before we realized it the girls has down two different lessons in Spelling by Sound and Structure so this week they are just switching lessons.

Handwriting: Copy work passages from my new favorite resource http://practicalpages.wordpress.com/free-pages/free-copywork-pages/. The girls have completed Handwriting Without Tears and now we just have practice, practice, practice to do...lol ( addenum

Geography:  Review, Review, Review..... Couple resources we are using:
The United States Map for the TAG reader by Leapfrog
Learning games for Kids 50 States games http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/us-state-games.html
We will definitely continue using this as we ga forward. They have games for each states and the for the 50 together.
US Snap Map-  http://www.coolmath-games.com/0-geography-map-snap-usa/map-snap-United-States.html  This is a map of all 50 states in an open puzzle format. We let the girls us their place mat maps and they have enjoyed fitting the pieces together.

Science/Nature Study: I am planning a fall nature walk since the weather is has finally truly hit fall like. ;) 

Physical Education:  All three kids are still training for their 5K in Decemeber. The girls are up to running t2 miles 2 nights a week and Hulk is running 1 mile, 2 nights a week. We also are still trying to fit in as many park outings as we can until the weather defeats us!

Field Trip: Monday we drove the 2 hours to visit our favorite children's museum Creative Discovery in Chattanooga, TN. The kids had a blast and got in their last visit to the Magic Tree House Exhibit before it sadly leaves. If this exhibit comes to your town, and your kids have liked the books at all, I highly recommended it. That one exhibit captured the packs imagination like none other. We listened to 3 Magic Tree House books via audiobook on the drive too..lol... Thank you library system for your digital downloads!

Yang as a Pilgrim mommy!

Ying as Jack!

Hulk; " the Pilgrims cook who dropped the corn..lol"

Taz loved the water. Being younger he didn't get the Magic Tree House stuff much but loved the water and had a great listening day!

And that's this week... We are still trying to find a good fit for a co-op/social group so keep praying for us please, and also thanks to those who have interceded for us with the Lord. We feel your blessing and His.

NH,VA,NY,NC

Yang in the green shorts @ 1.5 miles.

Our fly by study continues.... This week has been a little better as we have been able to make more personal connections to the states we are studying. Cousins live in VA, Great Uncle works in the pentagon, Uncle J works in NYC, Mommy and Daddy used to live in NC etc. It's made it more real. I think the science is what the girls have most enjoyed. They like reading about the birds and trying to spot them. Where we live still has plenty of birds, and winters many birds from the north.

 Hulk has been approved to run with the girls' running club in the 5-6 year old group after the coaches watched him work out with DH & I for a few weeks. They don't usually allow 4 yr old for safety/ motivation reasons ( does the kid want to run or the parents just want a break? And can they be trusted to listen to the coaches since its not a closed track.) But Hulk's training has proven again a blessing and on his first night he finished his mile 2nd in his group. He's a very proud little man.

Ying @ 1.5 miles

Hulk in the little white blur in the distance. He was too fast and too excited for his first run!

We celebrated Hulk's 1st official mile and the girls 2 mile mark with some New York Style pizza.

New York Style Pizza!

Skipping over Thanksgiving and on to CT,MA,MD, & SC

Our Little Zoo Crew!

 We are slowly getting back up to full speed. So far the girls are enjoying the state by state "quick study". And yes.. It's a very "quick" look at each state. To be honest I am not sure how much the girls are retaining, but we shall see.Yeah, I know not much to say this week. Its been hectic. Taz is having discipline problems at preschool that I have never experienced with my own three, so much of the week has been focused on his training, etc...

We did squeeze in a trip to the Zoo...

Red clay Elephants!

Taz picking his nose by the giraffes and zebras

Hulk feeding the parakeets. How theses birds are not overweight with 9 million kids trying to feed them a day is one of God's great mysteries. 

week 11-12----Not George Washington Again!

We started back up this week after our two weeks off. Its been rough and full of distractions.  Between beautiful weather, fall break for the boys, and daddy not being home the week has kinda been a mess. I'll admit we have covered the bare minimums this week with all the distractions. It was easy to get the girls to focus in July when it was 90+ degrees, humid, and the playground burned your hand by noon. Now, that its 70's with no bugs and humidity good luck.
On Tuesday, when we started the girls were none to pleased to be back on George Washington. We are beating a dead horse here. Between what they studied last year and earlier this year (where we went more in depth then MFW intended) they were done. So... we just skipped week 11 of the curriculum and moved on to week 12. Luckily,  I had already done my library requests for this week. Also about 6 weeks ago I started requesting tourist information from the first 15 or so states online.  Most states have a magazine and other information about the state available for free upon request. My girls loved the huge maps many states sent and currently have Georgia and New Jersey plastered on their walls. We used these maps and brochures to supplement our book basket, and they have easily spent a 1/2 hour studying the maps independently.
Another distraction is weighing heavily on us, too. After 2 years of public school the girls are missing being with different kids on a daily basis, esp my super social Yang. Academically, the girls very much prefer homeschooling. They are just missing kid time and separation time. I ask and plead with anyone and everyone reading this to pray for us. Pray that we follow God's will in this. I want to continue to homeschool, but only if its His will and to serve His plans not mine. Pray that the Lord provides godly friends and role models for the girls. Pray that He can fill that empty place in their hearts for friends and companions with ones that will build them up and help them follow His way.

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.