Thursday, January 8, 2015

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 14 - Back from Break with NEWS


EVERYDAY LIFE
Welcome to 2015! (Where did 2014 go?) I wish all of you a year of spiritual growth, good health, contentment with life, and laughter and love...

I got engaged! Eek! On December 20th, my BF asked me to marry him! I am SO blessed to have such a wonderful man in my life (and my kids'), one who is Godly, hard-working, selfless, giving. Despite life's bumps along the road, it IS good!

We all - my fiance and his kids too - spent 6 days with my family to celebrate an early Christmas. Weather was unseasonably warm and we took the kids to the Atlantic beach. No, not to swim, but to climb rocks, wade in the salty water with "muck boots", explore. It's not too often you can go to the beach in December in Maine! (Compared to this week when the Polar Vortex descended upon us and we had some -20s or so at night with wind chills. Vehicles were hard to start. Pipes froze. And schools closed.)

Photo Credits T. Skehan

We did some organizing, decluttering and rearranging in the bedrooms and closets. Sam is super happy to have a "livingroom" in his bedroom now. (He and Jake moved an extra sofa and coffee table into his bedroom, making a perfect area for him to build Legos or use his new Physics science kit.) Jake's bedroom went through BIG changes; a downsizing of stuff and a change of furniture placement. It took us a whole, exhausting afternoon, but so worth it!

We rang in 2015 with board games, an "Ice Age" marathon and yummy munchies.


And I whipped up a number of crochet projects (of course)! I created headband "ear warmers" (PATTERN) and a hat (PATTERN), with and without flowers (PATTERN), dishcloth scrubbies in greens and blues (PATTERN), and mid-sized mesh bags in sherbert ice cream and blue, mint green and white colors (PATTERN). I finished a cluster stitch bag for my daughter in harvest colors and another in orange, peach and white (PATTERN). I finished a cowl for me (PATTERN). And, finally, I am working on some coasters (PATTERN). Yeah, I'm obsessed. But my stash of yarn is getting low...

Check out this link to see why crafting, knitting and crocheting, is neurologically AWESOME for us

PEOPLE & PLACES
❄ On the Island (All) ❄ T__  Visited ❄ Lego Club (Sam) ❄ Jazz & Concert Band Practice (Cati) ❄ Cub Scouts (Sam) ❄ Patrol Leader Meeting (Jake) ❄ Bible Study & Fellowship (Me) 

HOMESCHOOL HAPPENINGS
It's always a challenge to get back into our every day activities and learning after a break, but especially so after 2 1/2 weeks of indulging in late nights and later mornings with unscheduled days. But we meander on. Our year is not quite half over.

Cati was blessed this Christmas was a MacBook. She spent a lot of time over the break writing stories on Wattpad. Have you seen Wattpad? I love seeing her delve into her creative writing with focus and excitement...and now she doesn't have to wait until my laptop is free!

Sam received a GREAT physics science kit as a gift. He has spent hours building and exploring on his own, but I thought it would be a great week for him to delve into the experiments provided by the booklet included. So, I replaced most of his Earth Science with Physics experiments this week.


It was also a review week for him. Those of you with unique learners know that sometimes a skill just needs repeating...and repeating...Sam reviewed multiple digit and multiple addend regrouping and alphabetizing with this game. Alphabetizing several words proved to be a visual challenge for him, one that not only worked his reasoning skills but his visual tracking. I came up with an adaptation for him: Write down the beginning letters then place them in order. All those letters needed visual "management" to avoid frustration and cognitive shut-down. I think he's got it now!


Cati
  • English - Wattpad Creative Writing and Editing, Transitive & Intransitive Verbs, Active & Passive Voice, Adjective Prepositional Phrases, and Indirect Objects
  • Pre-Algebra - Order of Operations with Fractions, Exponential Expressions & Radicals, Surface Area, and Scientific Notation
  • Earth Science - Energy Resources, Fossil Fuels, Renewable Resources, Nuclear Energy & Energy Conservation, The Water Cycle
  • Ancient History - Cyrus the Great, Sparta and Athens, Greece Around 500 BC
  • Current Events - CNN Student News
  • Phys. Ed. - Walking
  • Creative Arts - Jazz & Concert Band, Minecraft


Sam

  • Language Arts - Spelling Weeks 36-40 (1st grade) / Weeks 1-4 (2nd grade), Fables & Moral Copywork, Alphabetic Order, Grammar Ninja 
  • Math - Addition Regrouping, Elapsed Time, Solve for Missing Addends, Multiplication Facts
  • Earth Science - Rocks & Weathering
  • Physics - Center of Gravity
  • Ancient History - Cyrus the Great, Sparta and Athens, Green Around 500 BC
  • Current Events - CNN Student News
  • Phys. Ed. - Playing in Snow
  • Creative Arts - Minecraft, Kinetic Sand

READING & VIEWING
❄ Pigs Can't Swim: A Memoir (Peppe) (Me) ❄ Quartet (Lowry) (Cati) ❄ Ben and Me (Lawson) (Sam) ❄

PONDERINGS

Happy Homeschooling!

As always, special thanks to these weekly link-ups:

28 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your engagement! What a wonderful way to end 2014 and start 2015!

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  2. What very happy news! I am so happy for you. What a great year ahead!
    Blessings, Dawn

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  3. Congratulations, Jessy! So excited for you and your kids!!!

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  4. HUZZAH and Congrats Jessy! How exciting...sounds like you got a great catch of a man there!

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    1. Thanks, Melissa! He's a GREAT man! Good to read at your blog again!

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  5. Jessy! Excellent news! Congratulations -- you are right, God is good and I am glad He has sent you a Godly man to live the rest of your life with. Many blessings!

    Thank you, also, for the WattPad recommendation. I told my 13 year old about it - she will be doing a semester of reading and writing short stories right now, so this might come in very handy! Thanks for linking with Collage Friday!

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    1. YW, Mary! I hope that Wattpad helps motivate your daughter to write and share more! It's worked for Cati! And so helped her spelling! Thanks for the congrats!

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  6. Congratulations Jessy! That's awesome! I'm so excited for all of you. Looks like you had an awesome week and can't wait to see more from this year!

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    1. Thanks, Sennie! Looks like you guys have had a great time in the Mothership!

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  8. Congratulations!!!! That did look like a great physics kit.

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  9. Congratulations on your engagement! What a great way to start the year. I'm thrilled for you!

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    1. Definitely! A great ending and a great beginning!

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  10. Congrats to you on your engagement. How awesome your daughter is excited about creative writing. I wish my son would be excited about writing but no such thing. The physics kit your son was exploring looks like it would be fun. Have a great week.

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    1. Thanks so much, Stacie! It wasn't always this way! In fact, she disliked writing last year! What a difference!

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  11. Congrats on your engagement! I'm just visiting from Weekly Wrap-up.

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  12. Congratulations! Have you set the date? It sounds like you all had an awesome holiday season!

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  13. Congratulations! Love the pictures of the rocky beach. They are beautiful. My son is big into science too. He would love that kit.

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    1. Thanks, Monique! It was fun to explore the coast in December! Usually it's WAY too cold and snowy!

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