Monthly Archives: November 2016

Photos

From yip-yips to splish-splashes

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Monday

Some wonderful soul went as a Yip-Yip for Halloween.
Halloween Yip-Yip

Tuesday

Marsha T. Cat supervises Poppy’s vocabulary work.
Tuesday

Wednesday

Cubs won! Cubs won! Holy cow, Cubs won!
Wednesday

Thursday

I made Freddie Prinze Jr.’s carne asada tacos for dinner. They were delicious.
Freddie Prinze Jr's carne asada tacos

Friday

I caught a Meowth at soccer practice.
Friday

Saturday

Pete has been asking for a pool party for his birthday for years. It finally happened.
Saturday

blessings

Happy birthday Papa

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My dad was here for a few days last week, and we celebrated his birthday with cake and barbecue. His actual birthday is today, though, so hopefully he got more cake and more barbecue today. We celebrated with a pool party in his absence. OK, so technically the pool party was Pete’s birthday party. But still. I’m so very happy Dad was born. Happy birthday, dad!

Homeschool, National Blog Posting Month

I am the Jon Snow of reminiscing about our week

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I’ve felt like I’ve fallen into a time warp all week. And not the good kind, with fish fingers and custard and a quirky, handsome guide to the universe. It’s more like the kind where you accidentally start a war with a small landlocked country or get eaten by a baby pterodactyl. I’m having a hard time recovering from Disney World / Halloween / having guests / the World Series, is what I’m saying.

(I know none of those are even remotely terrible things, but my brain is fried nonetheless.)

So while I know the kids have accomplished some school-related work this week, I couldn’t begin to itemize what they did. Here is a bit of what we did this week:

Reading

We are all beginning to understand that “Little Women” is the longest book in the history of literature.

Math

Poppy is supposed to have a math test today, but she really needs to have a solid day or two of review before the test. And we have definitely not had a solid day or two of review, so the math test will be postponed until next week.

History

We returned to post-Revolution France this week, and the kids seem to have paid attention to the information. Today we’ll be doing a little map work and playing a card game in which the rules keep changing. After Anne asked about it, the folks at Peace Hill Press said it would be OK if I shared the rules with you. Here’s how you play!

CHANGING RULES

from “Story of the World: Volume 4”

Materials:
– a deck of playing cards
– a score sheet with space for 6 rounds (Republic #1, Empire #1, Kingdom #1, Republic #2, Empire #2, Kingdom #2) and a total
– at least two people to play

Keeping track of points:

  • During the Republic phases, all cards with numbers are worth their face value. A 6, for example, is worth 6 points. Face cards and aces are worth 1 point each.
  • During the Empire phases, an Ace is worth 20 points. A King is worth minus 10 points, a Queen is worth minus 8 points, and a Jack is worth minus 10 points. No other cards are worth anything.
  • During the Kingdom phase, a King is worth 10 points, a Queen is worth 8 points, and a Jack is worth 6 points. An ace is worth minus 10 points, and other cards are worth nothing.

    Playing instructions:

  • Shuffle the deck.
  • The dealer deals 4 cards to each player. Everyone can look at his or her own cards.
  • The remaining cards are placed face-down in a draw pile.
  • The player to the left of the dealer discards a card from his hand and places it face-down next to the draw pile, then picks up a card from the draw pile.
  • Play continues around the circle. You should never have more than four cards in your hand at once.
  • Once each player has discarded and drawn four times, count up the points in everyone’s hand. Write you point total on the score sheet, then start the next round with the cards in your hand left over from the previous round.
  • At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
    Extracurricular

    Poppy only made it to two of the four tae kwon do classes this week, and she only had two of her three usual soccer practices. Pete did make it to both of his TKD classes, but the Monday one was a special-edition Halloween class where they just played games. He’s been working pretty hard rehearsing for his guitar recital this weekend, too.

    How was your week?

    Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

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