Last Saturday Jason had a work-related thing in Philly and then spent some great quality time with his dad, who lives just outside Philly.
On Sunday we all cleaned the house. This is our new thing. Since I work part time (8-12 hours a week) and homeschool, and (love to) cook and do all the shopping, etc. everyone is going to pitch in to clean one weekend morning. Jason did the floors and bathrooms. The girls did their rooms and the family room. And I cleaned the kitchen, master bedroom, and the office. Then we all decorated for fall!
We had co-op on Monday. The girls are really enjoying co-op so much. I asked them if they liked it better than school and A said yes because there is not much learning. Not much learning? She is practicing a poem to recite at a performance the co-op is having, just told me the Latin words for hello (Salve! or Salvete if it is to more than one person), Teacher (Magister, Magistra), Student (Discipulus). Friend (Amicus), Sit (Sedete), Stand (Surge) and Goodbye (Vale, Valete!) and was telling her father all about the optic nerve and visual tricks we had fun doing in Science Club! When I told her that was ALL LEARNING, she looked at me like I was crazy and said, "That's not how it was in SCHOOL!"
On Tuesday the girls and I went to Liberty Science Center for NJ Herps which was really cool. We LOVE Liberty Science Center and are strongly considering getting an annual membership. We love hands-on museums!
Wednesday was a bit rough, but I got my first blogging award and that made my day a whole lot better. We began our study of our state in Social Studies. My plan is to cover our state for a few weeks, have the girls have a better understanding of the state and where the different areas and counties are located so that when we go to Philly they know we are traveling Southwest or when we go to Manhattan we are traveling Northeast. I am also planning on a brief study of other states and a memorization of all of the State Capitals (because I think everyone should know that!) And then we will start "Story of the World" possibly after the holidays depending on how far we get.
Thursday went great! Lessons went well...we were all on our game! Jason got some awesome, exciting news at work!! And was on TV again!! We also got the "teaser" for one of the documentaries that are being made on the project...it was AWESOME!!!
I spent a lot of time reading articles and watching videos on NBC and MSNBC regarding the state of the American public education system. They ran some great homeschooling articles. My mom has also been reading blogs and articles and sending me links and telling me how she has changed her mind about homeschooling and thinks we are "really on to something great!" I love my mom!!!
Today the girls "Bridged" in Life of Fred. A did really well. She got one wrong, but it was a silly mistake. P needed a lot of assistance and I think "Life of Fred" is too much for her, so I am going to look into both Teaching Textbooks and Math U See today and hopefully order some new curriculum for her!!
The girls also took Spelling tests today. They had been finding Spelling really easy and I was considering changing curriculum...but today they did just okay...they each missed a couple of words. So I think we will stick with Spelling, especially since the program we are using teaches the rules of spelling (I think understanding the rules is more important than memorizing lists of words).
It's the third or fourth rainy day in a row...and readers like me just LOVE days like this...so, we are bagging the rest of our lesson plans and reading some storybooks about our state, and some biographies of Clara Barton and Amelia Earhart. I grabbed them when I was at work last night, just in case we had another rainy day where we could just lay in bed and read! And we can add all the info to the TimeLines I created this week (and am still working on how/where to hang!)
I am making chicken posole for dinner tonight--nothing like spicy Mexican soup on a rainy night!! And Jason is picking up the movie "Amelia" from the redbox on his way home - to go along with our biography unit!
This weekend I want to work on playing with the background of my blog and making it more seasonal!
