Maybe.
We'll see.
But posting Weeks 14 and 15 today means we are caught up. For now.
Week 14
November 27 to December 1
1) Monday was an after-holiday, now-the-floor-is-clean-again, back-to-normal school day. We kept Tot busy with markers and stickers and elementary kids jumped on their math and language arts. Then, since we recently got an awesome deal on a local zoo membership, we went to the zoo! We'd been members for years and kind of got bored with it (it's pretty small compared to city zoos) and then of course the year that we didn't renew, they completely renovated and added lots of new exhibits! So, we're back and exploring all the cool new animals and habitats.
Busy busy
Deep into math
We sent her out to play in the leaf pile
We watched Rock N' Learn Spanish together
One of the new exhibits at the zoo
Tot loves the big eagle's nest slide
2) Tuesday we had a regular day, but not a science day (I know! Tuesdays are supposed to be science.) They did math and language arts, Kinder kid read some BOB books, and 3rd grader did some logic games with me.
Our Elf returned Thanksgiving night, and is up to his old tricks
3) Wednesday we did more math and language arts, and logic games, and since it's field trip day officially, we went back to the zoo!
The headphones help cancel out distracting noise.
4) We broke out of out math and language arts groove. 3rd grader did Minecraft homeschool, she build a Safari hut and vehicle and learned about animals that live in desert conditions. She also did some phonics. Kinder kid did math dominoes and played some board games with me.
Tot grabbed kinder kid's math manipulatives, and sorted them by type. She's got a collection of cars in the middle there by her hand.
Kinder kid chews on a chew necklace for some sensory jaw input while working. Since he is mostly a Sensory Seeker, these types of things help keep him regulated while doing his school work, and other times of the day.
Apples, nutella, and math dominoes.
We switched out the IKEA swing in his room to a trapeze bar with rings. Pulling himself up or hanging from the bar or rings provides him with good shoulder input.
5) Friday the big kids did some of their routine stuff to wrap up their week and then I assigned them plus the 3rd grader a build in Minecraft - they all made gingerbread houses. They came up with some pretty neat designs, and the 9th grader's house had trip-wire, time-delayed fireworks in red and green. To keep kinder kid out of their way, he and I did Snap Circuits while Tot napped. We spent some of the afternoon on house chores and room clean up, and then went down to an open park within walking distance. We try to get out there 2 to 3 times per week before the sun goes down. We usually bring a soccer ball or frisbee, and there's trees to climb and lots of space to just run or "collect Nature" as the kids say.
Yes, I know he is in the same clothes as yesterday. I promise he didn't get dirty while sleeping. It happens. I always make them change by Day 3.
The spinning wheel is his favorite.
Tot wants to climb, too!
There's a 6th grader up there somewhere.
Week 15
December 4 to 8
1) December?!? Wow! We are on our 66th day of school this Monday. 3rd grader began her day by looking up the Bible verse she learned in Kids Church the day before. She did a few pages in her multiplication book, Phonics and Word Study, and Spanish. Kinder kid did a bunch of different math - shapes, domino dice, measuring in inches. He also read me his BOB books. It's about to get much colder around here so we went to the playground in the afternoon.
Tot made art.
Bikes and trikes and scooters, oh my!
2) Everyone had their regularly scheduled program, plus a lot of outside play. Elementary kids and Tot painted pinecones and added glitter. 6th grader had her Orchestra concert this evening and it was wonderful! It's always amusing to us, though, that when the group plays the songs we've been hearing her practice for the past 3 months, they play them waaayyy slower than she does at home!
She is in the black long-sleeved sweater with bare legs, center of the pic.
3) Big kids had history projects to finalize and turn in. 3rd grader had math, language arts and she's working on her chess game online. She also did music practice. Kinder kid and Tot went to a Music Together presentation, which was really fun. Tot was up dancing with the instructor the whole time. Kinder kid had some sensory trouble when the sticks were handed out and there were 25 kids and parents all tapping sticks together, and he ended up in my lap for most of the hour program. He did venture out for the bell blocks though. He tried to hoard a bunch of them once he discovered that there were different notes available. All in all, I'd say they both had fun, but I would probably only take Tot if I had to do it over.
She's so picky I made her a lemon balsalmic salad.... for breakfast!
Tot is loving the Music Together program!
Bell blocks. Too bad the toddlers in the room weren't interested in kinder kid's explanation of how vibration creates sound...
And on the way out of the library, he found this program - I guess we're going back to the library computers for Anatomy lessons!
4) Our kids get taught how to play chess at age 5, so it's kinder kid's turn. I never thought about how much this could benefit him. One of the different things about him, besides his sensory processing issues, is that he loves rules, so he really got into the different moves the pieces could make. He picked it up pretty fast, although he became very (very) concerned about losing. Obsessively concerned about losing. So, I just flat out told him that he's a new chess player, which means he's going to be losing for a long time. That actually worked pretty well. One of his phrases from Ms. Frizzle on Magic School Bus is "practice makes perfect" so we tapped into that and told him to just expect to lose until he gets better at the game. The really good thing is, it's gotten us all back into playing chess together.
5) Friday we wrapped up our week's work and since there was SNOW in the forecast for the weekend, we decided to finally move our big, fun leaf pile to the street so it could picked up by the township leaf sucker machine. We used lots of teamwork, filling different sized containers, dumping some into larger containers, and kinder kid made his own heavy work by loading a recycling bin onto a sled and "driving" it down the driveway and along the sidewalk and dumping it himself. We spent about 3 hours out doing this, and their (obvious) reward was S'mores. It made total sense, as the sticks we pulled out of the leaves we put in the firepit.
Busted! We wondered where all the chocolate was going...
To top it all off, we used up that bowl of pinecones making peanut butter and sunflower seed bird feeders for the birds to have something to eat in the snow.
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