A New Path to Follow: virtues

Sunday, October 11, 2015

You can always tell when you or your kids are getting burnt out. I felt like school this week was being forced and just not happening naturally. It was difficult and frustrating and none of seemed to being enjoying our lessons, so we took the day off Wednesday. We all needed a little breather. The boys have not had one day off since we started 9 weeks ago, so they deserved a day to relax and play. That made us all feel better. I know we are all looking forward to our week off in October. The boys do not even know that we have a surprise trip in store or them!!

Virtue

We were still working on perseverant this week and, and it was a good lesson for us. School was really hard and we didn't want to do it, but we pushed through as much as we could this week. We did manage to check off at least half of the goals for the week. I'm counting that as a success, because I didn't even think we would accomplish that much!

Morning Work

The boys did manage to complete all of their morning work this week.

Tea On Tuesday

We didn't even get to our normal Tea on Tuesday activity this week, but we did read a fun book that was written in verse. Britton was learning about mud this week and this was the perfect book to go along with it. The boys made their own "disgusting" Wombat Stew and had so much fun. I also made homemade chocolate pudding for the first time and could not believe how easy and way better tasting it was than the box. I won't ever be buying box pudding again.

100 Book Challenge: Book #51 & #52

Book #51 was this fun short story called, Stuart's Cape. The boys loved Stuart's imagination. I loved how this booked had you stuck in the middle trying to decide if the cape really was magic or just in Stuart's imagination. If you want a fun, quick read this book is a great one to add to your list.

Book #52 is Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. This book has had all three boys laughing hysterically. They love all the trouble Fudge caused. I do not find too many books that can keep all three of my boys interested, but they have been begging me to read more of this book. It looks like we have found another series that my boys will want to read through.

Reading/ Phonics

We are so proud of Britton this week. He finished up his Kindergarten Hooked on Phonics and has moved up to Grade 1! He keeps asking if he is in Grade one yet. He is pretty close. Probably after Christmas, he will have all his Kindergarten work complete. So proud of how hard he is working.

Geography

This week we visited Florida. The boys learned about the Kennedy Space Station and made their own Space Shuttle. We talked about Citrus fruit and made our own key lime pie. Now, I am pretty sure the pie I made was no where near to what a key lime pie should look or taste like. My oven has been acting very strange and it has not been baking evenly. I was so worried that it wouldn't be cooked that I overcooked it and turned it into a caramel type of pie with a lemon taste. So, not a key lime pie, but still delicious.

FIAR- Mr. Gumpy's Motor car (Britton)

Britton started Mr. Gumpy's Motor Car this week. It is a little along the lines of a Little Red Hen story. Britton has really enjoyed it so far and we will finish it up next week. Funny story...for years I have read this book and always thought it was Mr. GRUMPY, and finally read that it was Mr. GUMPY and my mind was blown. I cannot believe I had been reading it wrong all these years. Britton wanted me to still call him Mr. Grumpy.

We learned about mud and how important it is to come cultures.

Teeny tiny frog in my yard. My yard is covered in these little frogs. Anyone know what kind it is? It could fit on the end of my index finger. They are so small.

Turning our soil into mud.

Looking at the different types of dirt we have in our yard.

Just being Britton.

Cloud ice cream sundaes to do along with the nice fluffy clouds in the story.

FIAR- Albert (Greyson & Lincoln)

The boys are still working through Albert. We decided to write postcards like Albert, except we are mailing them out.

Extra Curricular Activities

Lincoln played in his first basketball game today. He is a little timid, but does a great job blocking.

Co-op

Weekly co-op, our favorite day of the week. Britton is having story time.

Lego class for Lincoln.

Art about Jackson Pollock this week. So much fun!

Music for the big kids.

Team building for Lincoln. Greyson had cooking & team building also.

Special Moments

We stopped at the Gold Bar and the sweet owner gave all 3 boys their very own soap lollies. They were all very excited!

Ben was in Manila, Philippines from Wednesday to Sunday this week. It was a bit crazy, but we managed without him. I took the boys to the movies and a fun outing to the mall. Here is one of Ben's dinners.

Sometimes you just need a bowl of homemade noodle soup. Makes it feel like fall in Bangkok.

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap- Up
Weekly Wrap-Up

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Virtue

Attentive is our virtue of the week and boy, is this one we need to work on. "I am not...forgetful, or distracting, and I don't ignore or interrupt." Being distracting is a problem with my boys. They always want to get their brothers to laugh, which causes my blood pressure to rise. I want them to have fun during our school time, but I also want them to listen and be respectful during teaching time. This is a virtue that is going to need a lot of work.

Morning Work

Morning work packets are still going well. The boys are continuing to work hard and get their work completed by Thursday night in order to have some free time in the morning on Friday.

Tea on Tuesday

I was very excited about Tea on Tuesday this week. I started a Tea on Tuesday group here in Bangkok with members from our homeschool co-op. I was sending letters to the States almost every week and we loved that our co-op back in the States included us, but it was getting pretty costly. I asked my co-op here and we had a total of 6 families interested. We will be exchanging poetry every week and I will also be adding in additional poetry lessons with the boys.

This week was about the circus to go along with the FIAR book that Britton was reading. The boys had clown cupcakes and tea for a treat.

100 Book Challenge: Book #50

We are still working on Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. The book is getting really intense and the boys are interested in the story. This is book covers the deepest topic we have read so far, and it continues to bring up great discussions with the boys.

Geography

We took the whole week to learn about Vermont this week. There were so many fun topics to cover that we could not get to everything in one day. We started off learning a few facts about Vermont.

We learned that Vermont is one of the largest Maple Syrup producers in the United States, so we read a couple books on how syrup is made.

We compared artificial syrup to real maple syrup. There is just no comparison!

We watched a Postcards from Buster about Maple Syrup.

Here is the episode

We learned about Lake Champlain and the Champ sightings. The boys had a Champ snack one day.

We watched a Monster Quest about the Lake Champlain Monster.

We finished the week with Vermont's best ice cream, Ben & Jerry's Half-baked.

Yes, that says 299 Baht. Do you know how much that is? Almost $10!! This is why it was the boy's first time trying this ice cream.

Spanish

Working on shapes in Spanish.

Making Popsicle stick shapes

They had to write the English and Spanish name of the shape on the sticks.

FIAR- Mirette on the High Wire

This week we rowed Mirette in the High Wire. It's a sweet story about a young girl in France who meets a retired wire walker and become his protégé. In the process of Mirette learning to walk the wire, she pushes Bellini to face his fears. I love the relationship Mirette and Bellini develop throughout the story.

We found France on the map.

We read a story on boastfulness. In Mirette, Mirette boasts that she will never fall again. We read this Caribbean tale about how others feel when you boast.

This story was a little hard to follow, but Britton understood because at the end when the frog lost all of his color, I looked over at him and he was tearing up. He was so upset that the frog lost all of his color. He had the sweetest heart. It was not the reaction I thought he would have at all. He understood by the end that boasting can hurt friendships and feelings.

We learned about balance and the water in your ears. We put water in a bottle with glitter and spun in circle. It demonstrated how the liquid in your ears continues to move even after you stop spinning and makes you feel dizzy.

Trying to balance on the masking tape after spinning.

We watched a Bill Nye all about balance.

We also watched a video about Nik Wallenda, the man who crossed Niagara Falls in 2012. We also learned that his grandfather lost his life after a fall from the high wire.