Just a few short months later....

So, I last posted here in November, which if you asked me, was just the other week.  But, it actually wasn't.  Winter kind of came and went and school is nearing evaluation time.  In years past, I had full written and typed mid-year summaries done, and portfolios tabbed and ready for info by this time, but not this year!  Ha!  We do have our evals scheduled, though, so that makes me feel somewhat on top of things.

Oh, and Chase was invited to and participated in the regional Honors Band, his concert was in late March and they sounded entirely excellent!  We are proud of Chase for all of his hard work in band and he is looking forward to marching band with the high school next year. 

As usual, there are less pictures of the big kids, which I think I may have more for March (not included in this post).  Chase and Indy continue to do their math through textbooks and online sources, and all 3 older kids recently joined Prodigy Math and enjoy playing outside of scheduled school time.  There really can be some challenging problems on there, and they love the game that goes with it.  We still use Story of the World as our history base, but we thought their chapters on Rome were just way too short, so we shelved SOTW temporarily in order to hit the library and the internet and hang out and study Rome a lot more in depth.  My post on March will have more on that.  Art, music and phys.ed. are essentially the same, and health is mostly family discussion with some projects thrown in for good measure.  Chase and Indigo have a Writing Traits course which has them organizing their writing and doing a page or two each week, which they now submit to me through google docs and/or email.  They are using more and more online sources in order to prepare them for the likelihood that their future education and employment will require their knowledge of these sources.

Here are some of our current activities in our little homeschool:

Number tracing continues.  He loves this one, although I consider it redundant.  His OT says rubbing the dry erase off is seated heavy work, so we do it. 

Riley and RJ finished the art books they worked on intermittently throughout the year. 

Fun little shape hole punchers are also seated heavy work AND fine motor (bonus!)

Independent reading time always great!

A typical day

Riley worked on Saxon's 3rd grade math for a few weeks before she and I both realized how repetitive it was.  Not well-suited for her at all.  

She did love tracking the daily temperature, but we don't need an hour of paperwork to do that!

Card games are always good math, logic, and problem-solving!

When math attacks!!  Indy sliced herself on the jagged edge of the whiteboard.  At 4pm on Friday the 13th, on a day when my husband wasn't available to come help with the kids at the ridiculously busy ER that everyone and their mother and their mother's next door neighbor was at.   So. Fun. 

Apparently RJ was paying attention to Riley's schooling, he grabbed the clock one day and showed us that he can use it to tell time.  He does enjoy it though, he says, because it is circular and wheel-shaped and it makes him happy.

Painting the homeschool room allowed for an overhaul.  This is the moment when you realize you have a LOT of stuff.

Using firewood and power tools made for a fun project day.  The screwgun was too loud, so RJ got his headphones out, and he soon discovered that placing one small nail in a long skinny piece of wood could make a spinning propeller.

They made Valentine's. 

A basic preschool coloring page turns into a big lesson on the color spectrum and wavelengths and frequencies (thanks for backing me up, youtube!)

Shelby thinks she's helping...

Yet another way to spell our sight words.  We don't have the big whiteboard anymore because someone had to go and slice their hand on it.  

Our Use-What-Ya-Got Geoboard is still a big hit. 

Riley is making a book where she has to draw and write.

Indy helps organize things into her portfolio binder.

Chase practices along with Hoffman piano.

We did a lesson on Henry Matisse's cut-out art, thanks to an awesome Christmas present from Gr'Aunt Denise from New York!

They dug a hole, and we used the resulting dirt mound to make volcanoes, and to predict which dinosaurs would get hit with lava.

The hole is just Epic.

We do our work on wiggle seats and with fidgets close by and with Tupperware space helmets.

Riley uses www.time4learning.com's free trial to learn about Pirates and Vikings. 

Nice days can lead to playland picnics if the kids are good. 

This coming week is Spring Break for the district, and we'll take off, too.  The big kids need their friend time, plus they've been taking lots of runs and bike rides around the neighborhood and would like to continue their creek clean up project they started a few week's back.  The weather should be fantastic, so, school can wait!