Wordless Wednesday: Recent Cruise Pic

Our Week

Let's see...what did we do this week. Since we have changes our format of how we have "school" around here (from structured to more relaxed), it seems strange to compile a weekly report at times. It just doesn't feel as if we had any school because it's simply included in day to day activities around here but here's our week.

In History and Bible, we reviewed the lives of Jacob and Joseph and learned about Queen Hatshepsut and Pharaoh Thutmosis. We wrapped up some literature reading in The God King, Tirzah, and The Pharoah's Daughter. They swapped around books that the other has or hasn't read.In, Grammar and Writing, we learned about writing paragraphs, topic sentences, and combining sentences. We also completed our lesson in Simply Spelling.
In Science, we learned about the scientist, astronomer, surveyor, author and mathematician, Benjamin Banneker. We completed our notebooking sheet regarding his life.

In Math, my youngest has started a geometry section of Teaching Textbooks. He's loving this and feels like such a "big boy" because he's learning geometry. My twins are embarking upon Fractions in their Teaching Textbooks lessons.

We didn't formally complete any art or music (composer studies) this week but we did attend Karate, Dance and our weekly music lessons. We also had fun completing this week's Think Challenge.

My daughter has been working on recognizing letters and their sounds. She is 3 and currently knows all of her colors and numbers 1 to 5 in addition to a few shapes. She only recognizes letters A, B, and C so we have a little work to do but plenty of time to get to it. We have enjoyed some old stories this week while reading with Mommy. She also did a little painting, coloring, playing with play dough, counting, computer games, listening to her preschool music CDs and just simple toddler fun.
My oldest is home and attending a local community college but it doesn't seem right not to include him in our report. He's also a drummer and participates on our church drama team in addition to participating in our local church basketball league. They are almost complete with their season and have done quite well. His team won their game this week. Yay! I'm really proud of him. He's working hard.So there's our week. I've been preparing for a Mommy getaway next week. Some wonderful sisters and I are going on a cruise. It's so nice when someone completes all of the planning for you, isn't it? This will be my first time vacationing without my children. I had just celebrated a birthday and my best friend, who will be on the cruise, will be celebrating her birthday soon as well so we are calling it our "Birthday/Mommy Getaway Cruise". I will truly miss my babies but this break is looooooong overdue. I'm looking forward to some renewing and refreshing of the mind.

See ya soon! Happy Valentine's Day!

Think: Nails, String, and a Board

This week's challenge: create something using string, nails and a board.

A hammer was allowed in the construction. My gang created a football field. They added some writing which I don't think was allowed but at least it was creative. LOL! I don't know who placed the Colts sign on the middle of the field. No one is confessing because they know Mom is a Saints fan. ;-)

Just hit the graphic to check out the Think Challenge.

Wordless Wednesday: Longing for Spring

How We Use Winston Grammar

I just wanted to share how we use Winston's Basic Grammar.

Winston Basic Grammar set comes with a student book with lessons and quizzes, a teacher's book with answer key and instructions and clue cards.

On the previous night, I read the teacher's guide book for the next day's lesson. I love how the instructions are written. They are very brief and simple to understand.

The next day, as each child sits with their student books at hand, I give each child the clue cards needed for that day's lesson (according to the practice sentence in the teacher's guidebook and the worksheet in their student books).

I present the lesson, explain any "new" cards and use our white board to parse the practice sentence listed in the teacher's guide book. I give each child a chance to parse or identify each word in the practice sentence according to the clue cards. Sometimes, they can parse the practice sentences without looking at the clue cards for hints, if that card or concept had been previously taught. If not, I sometimes make up a few more practice sentences of my own on the white board. As we parse the sentences, each child places a clue card in front of him as it refers to the words in the sentences. We use the provided black or blank cards to refer to the words which haven't been presented in the book as yet. This reminds us to skip those words for the moment. When a sentence has been parsed, each child has all of the pertaining cards formed into a row. Makes a pretty rainbow at times! LOL!

Last, I assign my children to parse three sentences from the day's worksheet in their student books. We do this 4 days per week so one worksheet is completed by the end of the week since each worksheet contains 12 sentences.

We also have the Winston Basic Grammar supplemental student workbooks (sold separately) which come with their own answer key. We use these for extra review if I feel the need to review on certain topics. So if you are using the supplemental student books for extra practices, you would have the children parse 3 sentences in the regular student book each day and 3-4 sentences in the supplemental book each day. Winston is a hands-on, visual, and relaxed way to teach grammar and the lessons are very quick. My children really enjoy it.

Winston Grammar does not teach punctuation or writing so we refer to Writer's, Inc in addition to editing our writing from other lessons. You can read more about Winston Grammar here.

What's Cooking

Monday~
breakfast- cinnamon oatmeal
lunch- leftover Super Bowl pizza
dinner- tuna salad sandwiches and chips

Tuesday~
breakfast- pancakes topped with fruit and whipped topping
lunch- pb&j sandwiches
dinner- hamburgers and oven baked fries

Wednesday~
breakfast- cereal and fruit
lunch- grilled cheese
dinner- veggie lasagna casserole

Thursday~
breakfast-breakfast pastries and fruit
lunch- left overs
dinner-herb baked chicken, sweet potatoes, turnip greens and cheesy macaroni

Friday~
breakfast- cereal and fruit
lunch- left overs
dinner- Grandma's pick

Saturday~
Grandma's pick

Sunday~
breakfast- bagels and fruit
lunch- chicken nuggets and sweet potato fries
dinner- dinner out