You mean, there's such a thing as ART????

This week we had a big 3 day snowstorm.  PS was canceled on Tuesday.  That meant no Bible study for Mom.  That meant no "snow day" for these poor HS kids!  However, I told them if we did school on Tuesday (more than the olders normally do when I'm gone) then, on Friday we'd do something fun.  That settled the troops just enough to cram some learning into them....

Our regular subjects rolled along this week.  Nothing too spectacular to report.  Jayden has finally decided long division isn't quite as bad as he expected.  After reading some books with kids his age he decided long division was a task he did not want to undertake.  He figured he'd be just fine going through life not tackling this beast.  So, the past couple weeks has been "interesting" getting him to focus and take it on.  I think we finally made a little progress this week.  The biggest thing he's not totally getting is how place value works into dividing into the bigger numbers.  So, we continue to practice...

I instituted a time sheet with Jayden.  He is so. darn. pokey.  So, I've given him time limits that he can spend on each subject.  With the exception of math he completes everything now in "record time".  Now I still have to figure out how to curb the "between subject dwaddling".

Kylie is loving multiplication and doing really well on it.  I wondered how this new skill would go for her and I don't have to worry.  The girl pretty much just sits down and gets it done.  She never has to be asked twice to finish her work, gets her chores done (sometimes without even asking) and really does a good job.

I've decided I need to move Rylan along faster in math.  It's too slow for him.  So, we're starting to move a bit faster.  I always know when Rylan needs more because he becomes impossible!  We are starting to get into more rules with spelling, which I'm not sure how that's actually going to go.  When I ask him how he knows a word is spelled a certain way, instead of giving me the rule we just talked about, he tells me where he saw the word recently and remembers it from!  That boy and his memory!!  I'm guessing with Rylan it's going to be more memorization than rule remembering.  Just when I think I've got everything figured out.... here comes number 3 to keep me on my toes!

Bryson is buzzing through little reader books.  He's pretty much got cvc words down and we're starting to add in some sight words as well as a few 4 letter words.  He's very proud of the bucket of books he can now read.  He asked for "independent" reading time this week.  So, for his first independent work he sets his timer for 5 minutes and reads by himself from his bucket.  Part way through the week he wanted to set his timer for 10 minutes!  Of course, I didn't refuse him!  So cute!

So, then we get to Friday.  I decide we're going to do very little "formal" school work.  Just our history timeline, a science experiment and some math for the kids.  Then we would do an art project.  At first I thought about the lonely art curriculum sitting on my shelf that hasn't been dusted off all year.  (bad mom)  Then, I decided we do art so infrequently that I just want them to have fun.  So, bravely, I got out the tempera, filled the muffin tins, set out more brushes than a classroom of 30, put a stack of paper out and said go for it.  They LOVED it!  Almost everyone spent an hour painting!  Soon, the entire diningroom was swimming in wet, goopy paint.  Colors were being mixed (some on purpose, some not), brushes flew onto the floor, creativity bloomed, a couple paintings got dropped (face down of course) on the floor, a few tears were shed... but by the end everyone had a fun, creative color filled art experience.  Hopefully enough to last them awhile.

From all of this, I had a bit of the guilties that we rarely do anything "fun" in school.  Mostly it's because I lose a day with my current personal schedule.  I feel like our other 4 days really need to be serious.  So... that's leading me to really pray about my schedule next year... I'm thinking some things may need to change.  It felt so good to be able to take it easy on Friday and do some fun things.  Important things for young children!

Here are some picts, most of them the gallery from today!

 

We learned about our skeleton this week.

 
 

Our timelines.  Each child has one that folds into a book.

 
 

Ky's time line.  She decided to do some pictures this week. 

Usually she just writes.

 
 

What a GREAT school day!

 
 

 

Even Jayden's art work centers on video games!

 

 

Rylan's people.  Of course, in his favorite color blue.

 
 

It's a dog... nope... guess again... it's a scorpion!

Bryson was VERY proud of this!

  

Bryson's elephant is blushing!

 
 

Kylie was on an animal theme.  She gets the prize for the most

paintings painted!  A penguin of course.

 
 

An eagle (which I am told is a surprise Valentine's Day

gift for her brother who loves Eagles)

 
 

An Elephant

 
 

Yup, it's a turtle.  This is not the last... but I could post

many more and they are equally as cute!