Week in Review: Week 18- January 19-25

This week started off a little different than I had expected.  Greyson was admitted to the hospital on Sunday due to a skull fracture.  We ended up staying in the hospital Sunday through Tuesday, just for him to be monitored.  I think he enjoyed the time away.  Greyson even mentioned that it was kind of like a little vacation.  Poor kid needs some more alone time!  Here are some photos of Greyson's hospital stay.

 So happy to eat after not eating for 18 hours.  He was so hungry!

 The hospital grounds and the outside of the building

 Walking in to Greyson's room.  Yes, that is a refrigerator and a microwave!

Such a nice hospital.

Theme of the week:  FIAR Katy and the Big Snow

Well, it's winter in America, so I like to let the boys experience a little winter time fun.  We  started reading one  of the many favorites from our Five in a Row series, Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton.  This is a fun book about a snow plow named Katy and how she saves a city from a very big snow storm. We will be reading this book for two weeks, so I will have a post on what we did with this book, but here are a few things we went over this week.

 Learning how to read a map

 Learning what the colors of street signs mean

 Making a compass

 Watching a mash up of Sesame Street community helpers video.  

 Community helper puppets

100 Book Challenge

This week we started reading Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor.  I have never read this book, so I am excited to hear about this story right along with the boys.  I know it's a classic story and I am not quite sure how I missed it growing up.

                                                

We have also started our 3rd Lemony Snicket book, The Wide Window.  We love reading about the Baudelaire orphans.

                                  

Tea on Tuesday

Greyson and I didn't get home until around 2:00 pm from the hospital on Tuesday and I was not really in the mood to start up school work.  But, I did remember that it was Tuesday, so we read some poems and had some treats from the bakery.  The boys were not really interested in the poem selections from this week.  Next week, I need to plan more of an activity for them and maybe have them try writing a poem.   Just reading the poems will not keep them interested every week, but I am going to keep on trying.

History

We have been reading about Caesar and Cleopatra in our Story of the World curriculum.  All of us were very interested in their lives and what happened to Cleopatra after Casear died.  They had quite the soap opera going on.  We read a great book about Cleopatra's life and how it ended.

 What we are working on

The boys moved up to level 3 in All About Spelling this past week.  I am very happy with the pace they have been working at in this program.  I wish I would have started this program earlier with them.  We are still a little behind, but moving right along and I am very happy with that.

They are also working on their Writing with Ease program.  This is another program I wish I would have found earlier because both boys are behind in their writing skills.  I know we will get caught up, but every once in a while I have a slight panic attack when I think that my oldest will be in 5th grade next year.  I think I know what our focus will be this summer.

The boys started a great Spanish program two weeks ago and are loving it.  We are using Spanish for Kids and I am really impressed at how fast they are learning words.  They know their numbers, vowels, colors, and how to say some sentences and answer questions.  So, I am really hoping this is a program we can build on and they will be able to learn Spanish.

 New Food This Week

 Love making my own Green curry.  I use this recipe. I leave out the sugar and add lots of veggies. 

 Chicken spinach meatballs and cinnamon pumpkin

I loved this meal! Chicken Parm ( I used almond powder for the breading.) & homemade sauce (I left out the sugar)

We also started house hunting this week.  The owner of our home would like to move into it, so we have to move in June,  Hoping we can find a great house soon!

Finding Time to Read Out Loud

I know I talk about this all the time, but I started reading chapter books out loud to the boys a year ago.  At first it was hard to find the time or even to remember to read to the boys.  I know I teach them everyday and I read them several books a day, but reading for enjoyment was hard for me to fit into our routine. I found a great chapter book list that I am following and we have discovered some great books that I didn't even know existed. So, I decided that reading to the boys had to be a priority.

Once I decided that I need to make this a part of our daily routine, the next step was fitting it into our day. I have had many families ask me when I read to the boys and how can we complete so many books a year,so here are the times I read to them everyday.

1. After lunch:  The boys always have a little rest time after lunch, so this is the perfect time to read to them.  They lay on the floor and listen to the story while they are nice and relaxed from lunch.

2. Before bedtime:  Every night around 7:00 pm I start reading to the boys.  We read for as long as they are interested.  Some nights it might only be a chapter, other nights we read for a whole hour. All depends on the books.

3. During travel:  I know this may not work for some families, but we rely on taxis in Thailand.  Most places we travel to during the week are at least 10-15 minutes away one way, so I started reading during our taxi trips.  It has also cut down on the boys getting restless in the taxi and now they always ask me if I brought a book with me.

On average, I probably read out loud to the boys for an hour.  This has become one of my favorite times in the day and (although they would never admit it)  I think the boys really enjoy it to.

What are some ways or times you sneak reading into your day?

You may also like our Favorite Books of 2014

Week in Review: Week 17 -January 12-16

Back to school this week after having three long weeks off for winter break.  We were all ready to get back into a routine after having a well rested break. 

Theme of the Week : Starting off with a Clean Slate

I wanted to start our second semester off with a little back to school  fun and beginning the new year with a fresh start.  I decorated our windows to set the theme.  We talked a lot about what our favorite moments in 2014 were.  Disney and Legoland were high on the list.  We also talked about our new goals for 2015.  What they wanted to accomplish and any behaviors they would like to change.  I found some cute freebies to go along with our New Years goals.  I also made these boys this "punny" rock for them to keep with them and know how awesome they are. 

100 Book Challenge
 For our challenge book we have been reading we have been reading James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. The boys are loving this book.  I have never read this book before and cannot wait to find out hat happens to James at the end.  I really hope it is something wonderful!
                                                         
                                                       

We also finished the 2nd book in The Series of Unfortunate Events books, The Reptile Room.   This was just an additional book and not a part of our 100 books.  We are going to try and read the whole series.  

                                                   
                                                     

New Clubs

I am excited about two new facebook clubs that the boys and I joined.  One day I was searching facebook for international homeschool groups.  There really needs to be more support for families that are not homeschooling in their home countries.Maybe I will start something someday.   I did find an international homeschool postcard swap, so the boys wrote out 5 postcards to families in Nebraska & Missouri.  We also be receiving 5 letters from somewhere around the world.  We will be sending out postcards once a month.  We are looking forward to getting our postcards.

Lincoln writing out his postcards

We also started "Tea on Tuesdays."  This is run by our local homeschool group back in Ohio.  The idea is to share poetry with your children and enjoying a little tea along with it.  This past week we read poems by Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky.  Then I had each of the boys pick out their favorite poem. They had to write out why they liked the poem and address 4 envelopes to 4 families back in Ohio.  We also send some Lychee tea along with the poems. We will be sending out poems every week or nearly every week to families in our homeschool group. The boys will also be getting mail to open up during on Tea on Tuesday times.  Kids love getting mail!

 Finding a favorite poem

addressing envelopes

New Food This Week 

I tried lots of new recipes this week for the boys. All of them are refined sugar free. I could not eat any of the snacks due to them having wheat, oats, or honey, but they were much better options for the boys to snack on instead of the super sugary muffins and treats I usually make. Here were some of their favorites:

Honey Wheat Biscuits

Strawberry Banana ice cream  They loved this!

Whole wheat poptarts with homemade jam

Cottage Pancakes: The boys ate these likes crepes.  They added bananas and a little syrup.

Chocolate Ice Cream

Pumpkin Apple Hash ( I used pumpkin instead of squash.)

Few Other Things

Favorite photo of the week is Greyson taking care of the laundry for me!  He asked me if he could do it.

Britton has been loving his computer and doing his typing program on it.  He was even more excited that we found some head phones that work for him.

The weather has been so incredible lately, so we hung out at the lake and read our books during snack time.

Ben went out on Friday night, so the boys and I had a special night out.  The boys got pizza and we came back and they each got to have one of the delicious desserts that we were given.  I was dying for one, but I stuck to my goal!  I didn't east one piece!!

We took the boys to see "Into The Woods" this weekend.  The jury is still out on what we thought of it. There were lots of great moments, but lots of very slow moments.  Have you seen it and what did you think?

And Sunday, we headed to the hospital to take care of Greyson's skull fracture. It was quite a week. Hoping next week is a lot less eventful!