Caz

I may, or may not be back later to post.  As I had just written a relatively long post, saved several times.. and effing blogger ATE it!!!!!  It saved 3 stinkin lines, and it seems to be doing this regularly.  Yes, I realize the smart thing to do would be write in word and c&p.. but it shits me that I have to do that to get this bass ackwards site to work as intended.  

I'm going to have hot chocolate.. with whipped cream.. and possibly chocolate sprinkles.  And IF that's enough self medicating to make me feel better, I will return to REwrite my entire post.  But I wouldn't hold my breath....

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Caz

Seriously, is that not the CUTEST thing you have ever seen???  Over the weekend I hit Spotlight and found felt by the metre to make the boys their 'medieval style hats'... which Sam has dubbed Robin Hood hats (despite their not being green ;)  

And that is all I'll say right now, as Blogger has had another 'issue'.. I'm just about ready to give up on this blog for all the frustration it is causing!!

Caz
Give her a quality movie (Braveheart was the choice for this hs mum), a good cuppa coffee, and a pile of newly laminated montessori activities to cut out for her eager learners!   Thank goddess this was NOT on a Friday night, or I'd have to be a bit worried about mys social life ;)  But for a Monday, quite accpetable hehehe.  

We spent the weekend doing a major cleanout of the garage, and took a major load of stuff for donating & dumping, so my plans to test drive my new (el cheapo) model laminator kept getting put on hold.    But yesterday I got everything mounted on heavy paper and went to town.  It worked VERY well for a cheapie model... and I do mean cheap, this baby was 18bucks.  Hell, the laminating pouches (100) cost more than the machine did LOL.  

My big goal was to get Merry's very cool dragon activities laminated before he killed them.   He was a bit taken aback today when he asked for them and saw their new state.  'They're TRAPPED!'  he said.  LOL!    I was super surprised when he was quite ok with them being trapped when I explained that now they couldn't get destroyed and would last 'forever'.    Score one for mum.  

For Sam & Frodo, I have been geeking at This site, thanks to Kylie at Our Worldwide Classroom.  They have some great materials that you buy in pdf form, then print off & laminate yourself.  Certianly cheaper than other options for us down here!  Last night I made up the solar system nomenclature cards (although I do hate the pretentious sound of nomenclature... we're talking 6yr olds here lol) for the boys and this morning they have already been matching & defining to their hearts content.   Here' Sam busy at work :)  

 He really enjoyed matching the unlabeled picture cards & the proper label up to the control card (which has both the pic and the word).  He even sounded out a couple of the starting sounds, which we have been working on lately.  This was actually a team effort, as Frodo read the matching definition card and put it with the matches as Sam made them  :)  

They totally loved being able to work independently, which was nice for me as well!  I was able to get the laundry in without multiple trips back into the house to assist with schoolwork lol.  

I picked up several other thing from that site, a moveable alphabet (that will NOT get done until I have a paper cutter, as that is just TOO many small squares to contemplate cutting!!!), a living/ nonliving things activity, one on the layers of the Earth (as Earth is our next science unit study) and a 'research guide' for Frodo.   Each guide gives a list of questions to answer in a short 'paper' the child writes on the topic... the sun, a planet of their choice etc.   The idea is that the child can write the paper all by themselves using the guide to help them know what to put in it. Frodo is going to pick his favourite planet and have a go at that later this week.  I won't expect a thesis, but it will be one of his first attempts at independent writing, the only others have been the couple of letters he's written his pen pal.  

So lots of new, fun and independant activities for the boys to get stuck into!   

 

Caz

Not sure how that happened?  Doesn't SEEM like a week since I posted, I'm a very naughty blogger I guess ;)  It's been a pretty mellow week here, although a fair bit was accomplished.

Frodo's week 

Maths:  Frodo completed lesson 20 of MUS Beta, multiple digit subtraction (not regrouping yet) as well as how to check his answers for accuracy.  He did 3 lesson pages during the week & a systematic review.. just 'cause he likes those :)  

Language arts:  Grammar once a week - was on how to begin questions (ie, what words usually start a question);  Catching on to Comprehension was on classifying this week and had him classifying pets by various characteristics.  Spelling matters was the beginning of the 'magic e' words (a_e words).  The spelling was a bit easy for him but he got a bit of a challenge out of the extension activities though ;) 

Frodo also wrote a letter to his penpal on the weekend using his flash new dragon stationery and posted it off Monday.  He did a couple of pages of his cursive writing workbook as well.

With our history study for the week he did a couple of word activities, a word unscramble and a castle themed alphabetizing worksheet.  

Sam's week

Maths:  Sam did lesson 20 in his MUS Primer this week, he really could have gone ahead to 21 half way through the week but he enjoyed doing the review pages.  This lesson was on adding hundreds (100+200=) and he blew it out of the water by Wednesday.  Sam has a thing with coins lately, and did a bit of practice adding money as well (a 50c coin plus a 10c coin is 60c)

Language arts:  He did a few lessons of Reading Eggs this week, as well as a starting sounds activity (castle themed to go with history hehe) and got probably half correct.  Not the best, but a good start, so we'll keep working on that.  I printed out a nifty uppercase/lowercase alphabet matching game and I may print out some beginning sounds pictures to put on back of the cards before I laminate them.  (The typical A=apple, etc) 

Sam did a couple of pages of handwriting practice in his workbook and also spent a lot of time writing 'notes' to me (mainly drawing love hearts and writing his name hehehe...but very sweet and any practice is something!)

All Of Us 

History:  We read a chapter of Story of the World about the Glory of Rome, and had a lesson in Roman Numerals.     Our main history reading for the week was   'Adventures in the Middle Ages'  and it was a great book that the kids thoroughly enjoyed.   We also had porridge for breakfast, as that was a pretty typical Medieval times fare for your average villager.  The boys also poured over their new 'See Inside Castles' book about a zillion times.  I tell you, seeing what's under the flap will never bore my boys lol.  

Our craft for the week was getting a start on the boys Medieval style costumes.   The basis of those is going to be dark long pants, dads 'hippie' shirt (loose Indian cotton with toggles) and a belt.   Everything else we will be making with instructions from Days of Knights & Damsels.     This week was our peasants pocket (they didn't have pockets built into clothes, so they wore external pockets on their belt!)

Science:   We read our books on Jupiter this week, and worked on catching up on our lapbook mini books.  We did the Jupiter one, plus a few other ones that we had run out of time for last week.    I found a cool constellation activity, on Draco even (keeping with the history theme lol, even if on accident!), that the boys did and they also spent a fair bit of time on THIS website.  Lots of great educational games, animations and info pages courtesy of Nasa!  

Merry's week

Merry spent as much time outside as he could possibly get this week.   He's a much happier kid when he gets a few hours of outdoor time every day, so this works for me.   He's still loving his dragon games that I made for him and plays them for a while each day.  There was play doh (which took about .13seconds to draw the big brothers from where they were at) that was enjoyed by all.  He did a lot of drawing with colour pencils this week, and coloured in on a planet picture.  He will be a Picasso when he grows up as he has zero regards for 'the lines' and the idea of staying in them (not that I encourage it really ;) and just gleefully fills his paper with colour.   

I tried a nursery rhyme with him (Three Blind Mice) but he immediately started saying don't sing! stop singin!  as he always does LOL.  It doesn't matter what we sing, he does.not.like.IT!  I don't think my voice is THAT bad!

Next week will be a shorty, as Strider has a 3day weekend! (yay for 3 days off.. boo for not getting paid for that day LOL)   We'll have a 4 day wrap, but I'm sure there will be plenty going on in the Hobbit Household to share!

Caz

Squeeking in here at the 11th hour on Sunday night to post our weekly wrap up ;)    We had a fairly busy week, no days out this week as our home ed network is still on break between terms, so we got a lot of stuff accomplished.

Math:   Frodo & Sam both did lesson 19 of their MUS (Frodo's was on rounding, estimating and adding up to the 10thousands place with regrouping  ... Sam's was skip counting by 10's which he grasped really well.)

Language Arts:  Frodo learned about synonyms and statements vs questions in Grammar once a week (he already knew the latter but synonyms were new), using context clues to work out what a word or phrase means in Reading comprehension and did a LOT of reading.  He also wrote a fairly long letter (for an 8yr old) to his pen pal in the US.    

Sam did several lessons of  Reading Eggs, but when he got to lesson 10 he didn't pass the 'quiz' to go to the next map so he's doing the first lessons again :)  Which is fine by him, he enjoys them!   I'm going to be printing him out a 'moveable alphabet' so he & I can work together on cvc words and such as well. 

Science:  This week we started a rockin' lap book project to go along with our Solar System study!  I've been a bit lukewarm about lapbooks in the past, but now that the kids are able to do more of the cutting and such, it's MUCH less tedious for me! lol  You can find the 'space explorers' lapbook project FREE here!  I've linked her main lapbook page, because there are several more.  Some of them have more religious content than others (the space one has none) but all in all they are fabulously put together!  And FREE, which we love right? ;)  

 Here's a shot of the lap book thus far.  We've done the 'inner' planets as well as the books on the sun, stars as we've studied them already.. and one on the moon phases that the boys had to do.  Good little luna loving boys that they are ;) 

Sam will tell you that it supplies heat & light, of COURSE MUM. lol  (sun mini book)

 

Sam was very proud of his answer to this last one one... he probably could have written it, but he thought it was MUCH more fun to draw it ;) (the pics show it closed and then with all four 'points' opened)

History/ SOSE:  Our books for Medieval times finally arrived, as I posted earlier in the week (well, still waiting on one straggler!) We got stuck into reading the intro to the Middle ages, about castles & knights and had a brief look at Roman Numerals.  We'll review those here & there as we see them (clocks etc).  We watched a documentary called "Ancient Mysteries: Lost Castles of England"  which was about the Motte & bailey castles of the early 500yrs or so of the middle ages.   The boys were fascinated that there used to be WOODEN castles!  I also printed them out a Motte & bailey castle colouring page to occupy their hands while I read aloud,  that was a big hit.  Sam added knights to the tops of the towers on his castle hehehe.   

Art:  Nothing formal here this week, but there was lots of drawing and such going on as usual :) Sam has worked out how to draw a very nice love heart, and has delivered many to me sealed inside secret messages lol.  

Preschool:   This week Mr. Merry joined in a bit, he had his very own simple castle colouring page which he loved, and he built with the '25s' (what he calls the math u see blocks).  The big love of his life this week, is his new dragon & castle shape matching game, which I posted about yesterday ;)  I'll be adding to that repertoire as I find cool stuff that he'll enjoy!

And that's a wrap!

Caz
Mr. Merry has been getting VERY disruptive and cranky when the bigger brothers & I try to do any organized schoolwork lately!  So I've used playdoh (the brothers end up distracted wanting to play as well lol) and crayon colouring (works well enough, until he wants to reach over & scribble on one of the boys work!) with marginal success.    My recent replenishment of my printer toner brought to mind a very cute pdf of early educational activities I purchased a few months ago... with a castle & dragon theme! 

TOTALLY adorable.  

So, despite not having cardstock to mount it on, OR a laminator to run it through... I printed out a few of the activities anyway.   I'd link them... but sadly they are no longer listed on the site :(   Boy, am I glad I didn't wait to go back later to buy them!  But here's a shot of one of them...

 I didn't plan my picutre taking well, as there is no picture of both pieces.. ah well.   Underneath those stinkin CUTE dragons holding shapes... are castles with the same shapes.   The files are abotu 60odd pages long, so there are TONS of activities ranging from alphabet matching ones, to size sorting,  to shape & number matching.   

Merry already knows his shapes & colours, but he was just GIDDY at having mummy make a game just for him.   We were all required to take multiple turns playing HIS games with him.. which just delighted him to no end!

 Here's the little wizard playing his game (for about the 100th time I'm sure!)  I kid you not, he played this game on the rug for at least half an hour.. it was wonderful.  He was happy, the bigger boys were able to get a bit of writing done and such...and I was able to sit and laugh at Merry being so funny with his new activity.  

Yesterday he was asking repeatedly to do school with his brothers...  Today he was doing just that, well, as much as I would ever expect of a 3.5yr old!  And judging from how overjoyed he was to have his OWN 'school' to do... I'll be burning up the toner cartridges this weekend.  

And shopping for a laminator. 

Caz

I don't often order books, but I needed a few for the boys new History Odyssey as we have moved on to the Medieval times, so I decided to test out Bookdepository .   I usually go with amazon, but these guys do FREE worldwide shipping so I figured I'd save a fortune.  I ordered on the 8th.. and all but one of my books arrived today!  And I ordered in the evening on the 8th even.  So exactly one week to my door, not bad from the UK really.

Frodo has already had a good browse through a couple of the books and is chomping at the bit to get into This one, which is a King Arthur story just for kids about his age.  I'm hoping he'll be able to manage it independently, as it looks like an easy read and it isn't too long. 

The activity guide, with all the neato crafty stuff, for this level of History Odyssey is Days of Knights and Damsels.    It looks VERY cool, if possible even better than Ancient Egyptians and their Neighbors! ( last levels' book)   There are instructions for creating your own middle age costumes and many other things.  Seriously, middle age shoes made out of felt or scraps of heavy fabric with laces... we're talking very awesome stuff!   We are going to have a LOT of fun with this.

The other book I was really itching to get is an Usborne book (I'm a huge Usborne fan) called 'See Inside Castles'.  It's a FLAP book, and if it is anywhere near as good as the 'See Inside Space' book in the same series  the boys will just drool over it constantly :)  (I actually checked that one out.. and renewed it.  The sadly had to return it, but the next time I was in the library.. a whole week later, it was there .. so I snagged it again LOL)   The Castle book was sadly NOT in the mail today...I'm hoping it will arrive tomorrow, or that there's a slip in the mailbox because it was too big for the postie on his little bike to carry around.  

Our Medieval history study just got a whole lot more fun!

Caz

Thankfully.  After 10days off, the boys get a BIT stir crazy and want to do dumb things like as me to play the Wii at 6frickin15 am  *insert scowl*  and then repeatedly ask me all.day.LONG!  

So today we got back in the saddle and EVERYONE is much happier for it.    I'm working on a routine where I watch Frodo's MUS lesson dvd with him, then set Sam up to do his Reading Eggs (independently!) while I 'supervise' Frodo in case he needs help.  Then Frodo works independently on one of his language arts workbooks (today was Grammar Once a Week, which he loves oddly enough lol) while I do the MUS dvd & lesson with Sam.  Seemed to work out pretty well  and got Both of their math & language out of the way for the day in under an hour :D   

After that we had a snack and then we all read the intro to Medieval times in the UILE, and Frodo defined Latin.  We're still waiting on some of the books needed to get really going on this, but we have a fair few library books that will keep us entertained until then :)  

Frodo also spied a printout on my desk of an "Idioms" game.  The idea is to read the sentence and decide what it really means when someone says 'it's raining cats & dogs' .. among others.  He had QUITE a chuckle at those.  It was actually intended for another time, but hey, he was interested then so get it while it's hot ;)

This post would be much longer, but yours truly has not learned that Blogger cannot be trusted and that all posts really MUST be written in word and then C&P'd into the post form... so blogger had a tasty snack of half of my post.   If it weren't late, and I weren't tired, I might try to rewrite it.  Not, I think, today though! :P

Caz

Is what I have been for the last week or so, sorry about that!   We had a houseguest for about 5 days, and while it's nice to have company... it's also nice when they go home and you get your house back.  lol    We didn't really 'do' anything for Easter...our rabbits & bunnies holiday occurrs in the Spring, so this Autumn thing just doesn't work for me! (not that it FEELS much like Autumn.. still 29C here!)  We did, however, buy a few cadbury's creme eggs.. and a chocolate buzz lightyear for each of the boys ;)   Who can turn down a good excuse to have chocolate?  My DH swears that *easter* chocolate tastes different to 'regular' chocolate,  so it had to be done.. just in case he is right!

I've also spent a bit of time doing some school paperwork.  I am changing how we are registered soon, so I'm re-writing our program and such.  If you remember the massive amount of paperwork that I posted I had to do on the 'Regulations for HS in your state' blog hop, you'll be pleased to know I won't have to do that anymore lol.   It came down to drama, and a 'higher up' in the organization I was with having a bit of a God complex.. or power tripping.. or something.   So, I'll be registered with the state shortly and have to do significantly less reporting and have nobody in my business most of the time.

I ALSO have been on a decluttering kick the last couple of days.  My closet is clean, I'm donating toys & clothes (from all of us) to charity, we're taking the old dining set & sofa that are in the garage to Lifeline tomorrow. 

Coming up next week, is Treasure Map time again...( a brief summary of Treasure Mapping is you make a collage or other visual representation, of the things you want to manifest into your life in the coming year.)  TM's are done in the Aries new moon, as it's the time for beginnings/planting seeds.  In the time before the new moon, the idea is to clear the clutter!  If you want to bring new things/experiences etc into your life.. there has to be ROOM for them!   It might sound a bit hokey to some.. but I've had a TM hanging over my dresser for the last 3 years (new ones each year) and I've manifested some interesting things during that time.  And 'things' is a broad term... new friendships, relationship changes, new hobbies, experiences etc all qualify for a spot on the Treasure map.   I look at my map daily when I get up and focus on it, only briefly, to remind myself & the universe what is on the way to my life.  I think it also helps a lot to keep my goals firmly planted in my own mind :)  I can't work toward something that I can't identify & visualize!

I think the night before TM 2010 starts, I will sit down with my map for the past year and list off all the things I have brought to be in the last year... it'll be quite a list!  

The boys are on 'holidays' at the moment, so we're not technically doing any schoolwork... although this morning Frodo came in and ASKED to do Math U See! LOL  So back to work Monday I believe.. he's getting bored.  I ordered our new History Odyssey books, and got a slew of great ones from the library as well.. so we're fully stocked on awesome reading material!