Getting the first-grade ball rolling

09/02/2011 Nichole 4 Comments

We never had a big First Day of School, because Poppy decided she wanted to start the day after her birthday. And we were moving, and I hadn’t planned to start until the week after her birthday. But I’m certainly not going to squelch her desire to learn, so we started first grade rather gradually. I think we’re now running at full speed. (Full speed in our house being rather slower than full speed in other houses, but we like it this way.) Homeschool at ButterscotchSundae.com

Here’s what we did this week, which I’m counting in my head as our first “normal” week of school:

Social Studies: We started “Story of the World: Volume 1” last week with the introduction, and Poppy was not been all that enthusiastic about it. Most likely because we didn’t do any activities. This week we moved on to Chapter One. …; The “map skills” workbook we’re using is a quick, fun little thing. Poppy did a few worksheets from it this week, and she seems to be having fun with it so far.
Math: We haven’t done anything with “Math Mammoth” yet, because I still haven’t printed anything. “Teaching Textbooks,” however, has been phenomenal. Poppy gets to “play” on the computer, and it requires minimal input from me. That’s been so helpful as we’ve been packing/moving/unpacking. Most days she asks if and when she can do her math lesson.
Language Arts: Poppy’s work in “A Reason for Spelling” has been kind of a phonics refresher so far, and she’s been doing fine with it. The worksheets are quick and easy for her to get through, and she’s been doing them with no complaints. “First Language Lessons” has been pretty gentle and easy, too. She’s balked at doing some of the writing exercises — she does not enjoy her handwriting exercises at all — so we’ve mostly been talking out the lessons. Until she gets more comfortable with the mechanics of writing, I’m not going to push it. Unless we’re specifically working on a handwriting lesson, in which case there are no free passes.
Science: We finally started “R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey: Life” on Tuesday with a very brief talk on what characteristics must be present for something to be alive. The first “lab” was just an “is this alive? what about this?” discussion. Next week we’ll be doing a little outdoor exploration.
Spanish: We still haven’t started. Poppy is pretty vehemently against doing it. Maybe I need to find something other than Rosetta Stone? I don’t know.
Art: It took a good long while, but I finally ordered Artistic Pursuits last Friday. Alas and alack, it still hasn’t arrived. Hopefully I’ll have something to report on the art front next week.

So that was our week. How was yours?

menu plan Monday

Oh so slowly getting back to normal

08/29/2011 Nichole 1 Comment

Hello there, Internet! Let’s see if I remember how to work this blog contraption. We still have large amounts of unpacking to do, but we no longer have overwhelmingly enormous amounts of unpacking to do. Which is good, because I don’t function well when things reach the Overwhelming stage. And it also means that we might be getting back to our regularly scheduled programming pretty soon. Speaking of which, the kitchen stuff is unpacked! So I have to make dinner again, rather than having it catered by our friendly local Sonic. There’s a silver lining to that, but the current lack of lemon-berry slush at my side is making it hard to find.

(Not really. I like cooking and it’s less expensive and my house doesn’t smell like tater tots. All good things.)

Monday: Chicken with Stuffing: I’ll be attending a “new members” meeting of the homeschool co-op we’ve joined for the year, so I thought I’d let Rockford have an easy evening with the kids. We haven’t tried this recipe before, but it sounds warm and comforting.
Tuesday: Grilled sausages with mac ‘n’ cheese: I’m trying to get back to my “themed” menu plans, and Tuesdays are designated Kids Choice. Poppy chose this week, which explains the macaroni and cheese.
Wednesday: Butternut squash ravioli: This was on the menu last week, but I never made it.
Thursday: Tex-Mex Beef Enchiladas: I’d planned to make these before the move, because they’re a freeze-ahead meal. I’d even bought the components! But then I never made it. So the beef will be coming out of the freezer this week, and the enchiladas will be … enchiladed?
Friday: Pizza

blessings

Where things stand

08/22/2011 Nichole 3 Comments

We’ve moved everything into the new house, save for a few cleaning materials that I’ll be using at the old house sometime this week.

The kitchen is chaos. The new house has plenty of cabinets, but for some reason I’m a little stymied as to how to organize them.

The kids’ rooms are almost completely set up. Poppy has a few toys yet to put away, and Pete’s clothes aren’t all shelved yet.

There are a few pictures on the walls, but only where there was already something to hang it on.

Our room is in a holding pattern. The bed is set up, but the clothes are here and there. And the boxes that didn’t have a specific destination? Stacked against the bedroom wall.

The garage is a few boxes from impassable.

The basement looks like it came straight from the ’70s. The kids have been working on unpacking the board games, and they’ve done a great job of it.

So, yes. Everything is pretty much wonderful.