Winter Geography with Buck and Honeybee

I love the way God works! He put together this wonderfully fun geography study for me. It all started with the thought that I should read Mr. Poppers Penguins to Buck and Honeybee. Then I had an email from CurrClick with this free Kindergarten Mini Study. The first part of it focuses on what else but geography. I also randomly (or so I thought) picked up The March of the Penguins DVD from the library. We also just happened to have a penguin playdough cutter. Hope you enjoy!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Buck's "Non-School Work" Game ~

"Mom, I don't feel like doing school work! Let's play puzzle solving."

OK Son -whatever you say :)

More WW fun!

Buck's Word Ladder

I'm so proud of Buck! He's doing great learning to read using Hooked On Phonics. He loves building the word ladder. If he misses a word, it goes to the back of the stack and he keeps trying until he gets it right. I'm so thankful this series was given to me. I had been wanting to preview it but had not had the opportunity. God is so good!

Math Fun With Buck

Just a quick post to share a couple of fun ways we enjoy math around here :)

Hope your week is blessed!

Pennies For Life

A few years ago a good home schooling friend started collecting Pennies For Life. She would bring the donation jar to our faculty meetings and ask for families to bring some change to donate to our local Pro-Life center. She is now "graduated" from the group and yours truly has taken over the Pennies For Life Campaign. I've just finished counting last years donations $40 - not bad for spare change. I am going to send a check to the Pro-Life center from our home school group. This money is used to help provide for women in crisis pregnancies so that they will not be afraid to CHOOSE LIFE! I am hopeful that this donation amount will continue to grow and that one day in the not too distant future abortion will be a thing of the past!

I also took advantage of this opportunity to have a little math lesson with Buck and Honeybee.
They helped me sort the change.
We also had the first of many talks about the value of money. Buck didn't quite get it - When asked if he'd rather have 100 pennies or a dollar bill he quickly said

"100 pennies!"

Playing Catch-up

Today we are trying to catch up on lots of work. I hope to have a lot of postings to share..

First up: Buck's Journal of our trip to Louisiana along with his coloring of a turtle. We saw tons of turtles "sun bathing" on logs in the bayou.

A Blessed Woman's Daybook

For Today
Monday, February 9, 2009

Outside My Window...
Skies are gray but the temps. warmer. The kids are all in the backyard already. Even The House Cat's back there. She and Snuggle Bug discovered a tree they could climb and sit in for inspiration. They've been discussing what they should name it :)

I am thinking...
I'm glad we'll be home for the most part this week. Last week was very busy with blessings!!!
On Wed. I took my mom to see a Rheumatologist. They x-rayed her entire body and took lots of blood. He thinks she may have fibromyalgia. We'll go back next week for her test results. Please keep her in your prayers. Thursday was children's theater and art class and Friday we went shopping with our tax refund, which was fun but tiring. My honey and I went for a guitar jam on Friday night. Then on Sat. we signed Buck up for T-ball after that, we had lunch with friends from India. I see a big lapbook on India coming up soon. After lunch, more errands for my honey then I actually went to Kohl's for a couple of hours to shop for myself :) I got home around 9:30 and then studied for atrium until 11:00p.m.. Sunday was an early start with 8:30am Mass and then Atrium until 11:30. I can't relay in words how much of a blessing it is to learn The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd! God is so good! The more I give of myself the richer I become!

I am thankful for...
The two hour nap my honey let me get yesterday afternoon. I sure needed it!!!

From the learning rooms...
Let's see.....
The House Cat's continuing math(Saxon 8/7) as usual. She's also working on a lapbook for Feb.2. She's reading Shakespeare's Richard III and continuing to write her book, Kainra. Continuing Apologia General Science and Catholic World Culture (Seton).

Snuggle Bug finished her math(Saxon 5/4) and is waiting for her next book to come in. We went with MCP for now. I'm thinking it will be a little more relaxed than the Saxon. She is reading The Hobbit and books from Along the American History Trail.Continuing Seton's Science 4 and Intermediate Language Lessons.

Buck's continuing Hooked on Phonics, Explode the Code, and I'm waiting on Miquon Math Lab Materials: Orange Book Level 1 to come in. I used this with the older girls and think he's ready for it now. He loves playing with the Cuisenaire Rods so we'll see.

Honeybee's moving onto Letter B from Serendipity's Along the Alphabet Path. I still need to make her a folder for that. She and Buck continue to enjoy coloring the daily scripture coloring sheets (posted on my sidebar)

I am reading...
Precious Treasure The Story of Patrick


Around the house...
Things are pretty messy :) It's too hard to keep the house nice and tidy when you're on the go.

One of my favorite things...
The light in children's eyes when they speak of God.

A picture thought I'm sharing...
I'm having trouble getting the pic uploaded???? Not from the digital camera this time.... I scanned it onto the computer but can't get it onto my blog??? Hopefully I'll figure it out soon. For now I'll post without it :(

For more daybook enteries visit Peggy.

2nd week of Advent

I've decided to put my computer time and blogging at the end of the day for a while. I have to say my days are definitely running more smoothly and definitely more productive. With that being said, my posts may be a little more sporadic. We'll see what God's plan is. Here are some things that we've been working on this past week. God Bless!

We are all enjoying working on our Jesse Tree (Jesus' family tree)

My hubby pointed out we should be starting from the bottom instead of the top, then The House Cat, noticed the weeks would be out of order(the pink strip needed to be moved up one). Beside from the fact that it's crooked on the wall, I think we've got the rest of it straight now:)

I bought purple folders for everyone to keep their work in for Advent. I also did this for November. It seems to help to keep all of the months activities in each child's own folder. I may continue this into next year and see if I feel a little more organized with it :)

I started Hooked on Phonics with Buck,5, and Honeybee,3 1/2, this week. I had been using "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading but was having a little trouble keeping them interested. It was probably because I never got around to purchasing the magnetic board and extra letter magnets you need :(

We were so blessed to be GIVEN the complete set. God is so good! Anyway, they are off to a terrific start with it and asking to do more. I really like how the lessons are laid out, with a book to read after a couple of pages in the lesson book. They LOVE putting the stickers on the chart as they read the books. Buck was so excited yesterday to read his own book. He jump around saying, "I can read, I can read!"

The House Cat,12, is really coming along with her guitar playing. We are working on Christmas songs now to be played at our home school Christmas play and also at Children's Hospital. We try to sing/play carols each year for those who are not able to be at home with family. This will be our first year at the children's hospital. Previously, we've played at nursing homes.

Snuggle Bug and Buck have also picked up the guitar and learned a few chords this week. Honeybee's upset she doesn't have a "pink" guitar to play. We'll have to see what we can do about that!

Snuggle Bug's still progressing nicely on the piano. We'll carry the electric keyboard along for her to play while we carol.

St. Nicholas Slippers







After morning prayers we enjoyed watching
this wonderful video.

Buck remembered that daddy had a special rosary with Our Lady of Guadalupe's image inside the cross. He ran and got it to share. Honeybee was sooooo cute trying to squint and look inside.

Saint Juan Diego Pray For Us