Week in Review 1

First "week" of school of 2012-2013 is in the books!  (Actually only had 4 days.  We started Tuesday and had planned to take today off, but the kids demanded we have it!.  I sure hope this enthusiasm will continue!).


This year, we are taking a Five in A Row approach with MANY added in activities to expand learning deeper with Bradlee.

I'm also using Horizons Math and Kumon for supplement.  I'm using Explode the Code Level 2 and 2.5 along with Christian Light Education Language Arts to supplement the FIAR.  For Bible, I'm combining several different things to create our curriculum ("What's in the Bible" DVD series is a heavy focus at this point).

This week our FIAR  "rowing" is "The Story About Ping" so we had a duck and China themed week.

Here is Bradlee's week in pictures.  The big kids aren't much too interested in me documenting their school day in pictures.  :)

Here are the highlights:

Duck Pond with rubber ducks and blue punch

First Day of School Printable (have the matching page for the last day of school)

Reading Ping (with one of our little buddies joining in!)

Predicting buoyancy and recording actual answers

Math (Horizons)

Painted paper plate/handprint ducks (and both of the babies also joined in!)

Praying Jonah craft.  We talked about how both Ping and Jonah didn't listen the first time and what the consequences  of their disobedience were.  Both Jonah and Ping learned their lesson and became obedient.

Kumon Supplement "Time"

Flag of China and Chinese Paper Lantern

 We also spent a lot of time reading and working through our phonics/language books.  I was quite surprised with how amazing this week went.  It was fantastic to see how much easier it was with his ability to sit still and focus MUCH better than last year.  He also FINALLY doesn't refuse to color.  THAT is huge!  (Do you know how many times activities include "color __________ red " or something similar! It was a MAJOR battle last year!) 

The biggest surprise for me was how well we still managed to get everything on our list done with the babies. They were fantastic.  As often as possible, I included them in with what we were doing and took GREAT advantage of nap times.  We still managed to keep the house in tip-top shape and even hosted a dinner with some neighbors on Wednesday night.  I absolutely felt like a ping-pong ball bouncing back and forth and have been WIPED out physically at the end of the day, but I have been overjoyed with how well things have gone. I'm sure there will be many days that are a BOMB----but I'm going to celebrate EACH and EVERY one of the victories so far.  

The best news:  we are ALL looking forward to the next weeks with anticipation and excitement.  That is the most priceless feeling.  We will be taking most of this next week off because of a much looked forward to visit from my Sweet T (which is why I started earlier this year than normal).  After that, we will be ready to "row" "Storm in the Night" and I am most excited for this week more than any I've planned so far.