Feeling a bit better & Christmas Break

Well, I'm feeling a bit better during the day. Nights are still just awful.

We have snow and it doesn't feel like Washington State, not one bit. So, very odd. But, the boys have had so much fun sledding down the big hill here.

I have a bit of due date change on my ticker. And, there is nothing better than knocking a month off!

I told my oldest he is on official Christmas Break till Dad goes back to school Jan. 5. Even then I honestly know things are going to be a bit lax around here for awhile. I don't see me getting a great big amount of energy anytime soon.

And where have you been..

I've been vomiting.

See ticker in right hand corner.

We are all very excited. My wonderful husband is in charge of everything. I'm in charge of sleeping and vomiting and the occasional bath. If my laptop hadn't died I would probably be on here quite a bit. But, alas a computer by the kitchen isn't cutting it for my body right now.

I did get sea bands and that's helping. But, I'm hoping my midwife will give me some medication. I've never been so sick before.

November 17-Monday Progress Report

Prophet has started The Lord of the Rings. He ran out of MUS books to do. Until the budget is working again, we are improvising a bit with Math. I'm hoping he can somehow catch up to Grade level. His years haven't been consistent with moving in and out of public school and it shows in his Math. Yet, he is pretty good with that untaught Math. He can do some amazing things in his head but they don't translate well to Grade level. Right now he is working on AAA Math and one of the giant all encompassing workbooks which include quite a bit of Math practice. I'm trying to get him to do some copywork every day. I would like to see him work up to some dictation by the end of the year, but I've yet to see much progress in that area. We do some reading aloud from AO 5. Right now it's Abraham Lincoln's World, This Country of Ours, and Geography. He started a very plain construction paper Book of Centuries. I figure if I wait any longer to put together the perfect one then it won't happen. For science he is reading The Great Dinosaur Mystery & still trudging along in Exploring Creation with Astronomy.


Peacemaker is working on those Ed Emberley books...purple, orange, and green. We do some reading aloud from AO 2. Right now it's The Burgess Animal Book, Our Island Story (and sometimes we do that from Librivox because her voice is amazing), The Little Duke, and Understood Betsy (or is it understanding). Truthfully I think it's overload. We cannot do that much reading in such hefty books no matter how much we break it up. I think it will take two years to finish at this point. Which seems to be what happens...it always takes two years to finish everything. He has his own plain Jane Book of Centuries, as well. Both of the boys fight to write in them, but seriously they need to learn that writing with their own hands will not kill them. He had a melt down at church on Sunday. He was embarrassed because of how hard it was to write a letter (for a soldiers care package). Everyone was so kind and helpful for him. He did amazing. His handwriting was wonderful.

Warrior is working on letter recognition. He has been practicing writing letters and the sounds they make. We use some flashcards, blank paper, the white board, and starfall.com. He is still working on pronunciation by asking him to pronounce different words everyday. He asks us, too, and that can turn into quite a fun little game.

All the boys play outside everyday, ran or shine.

I really love all the books...

Ambleside has so many good books. I suppose if I had just stuck with my earlier decision to go with Ambleside a few years back, I wouldn't feel the need to enjoy these books so much.

But, alas I have yet to read King Arthur. So, I'm reading it aloud.

My children have not really developed some of skills needed to accomplish the quantity and quality of work expected from Ambleside and one of my boys is special needs.

So, this week I'm planning in my schedule and I returned a few books to the library. I wanted to avoid the overwhelming feelings of getting everything done. I can't really keep track of so many readings at once and still insure the boys are 1-narrating, 2-comprehending, and 3-enjoying themselves. I know the fine line our family can tip over. I know what happens when they loose that love of learning. It's when all those great discussions and the questions disappear.

So, I'm working on limiting some of the books for Year 5 and Year 2. We can always do them later or during the summer. But, to loose joy and Great Discussions...just isn't worth it right now.

Just about the last week of October...

Middle Ages

Everyone is listening in on King Arthur now. I always forget the title. It's really good and they love it!

That sometimes useful television

Warrior watched Between the Lions. We haven't watched that since the big boys were much younger. He really gets cranky about the time it comes on and I think it might be a good thing to let him do a few days a week as a "nap" and it can be some extra phonics and reading instruction for him.

Ambleside History & Literature

AO readings are all doing well. I've been filling out their Book of Centuries for them and I think this week they can start doing it themselves. It's not fancy (just construction paper that we will staple together later), but it's getting the job done. It's a record without all the detail-ya know.

Schedules & Character

We started a new schedule for the boys. They seem to be adjusting well to it. They each have an hourly schedule and are expected to get up and do what they helped plan. We have been discussing Obedience and Joyfulness a lot this week. Nothing was planned but it seems like those things really came to a head this week. The boys thought Obedience is behaving well enough to get to play video games. I kid you not. You would think they played all day long. We dealt with that and they now understand what Obedience is and why we are Obedient. I'm thinking this is something that has to be gone over a few times through the years.

Math

Prophet is still in MUS Gamma. He just finishing up Lesson 26. He will probably be done in the beginning of November. I'm not sure if I can work Delta into our budget right now. So, I'm thinking I might just pick up a smallish workbook at the bookstore for him. It might be nice to have a change of pace at this point.

Peacemaker is about finished with MUS Alpha and we have plenty of Beta worksheets left for him to work through that book. Hopefully he will be caught up to grade level by next year.

Mid-week Update

The boys let go some frogs this week. Those amazing creatures have done very well indoors. We haven't had any luck keeping frogs in the past. I think the smartest thing they did is to bring in a big ball of pond weed and all the scummy stuff that was attached to it. The tadpoles/frogs and snails ate it all up. They happily ate the fish food, as well.

We finished up the first two chapters of King Arthur by Howard Pyle. It's in the Ambleside Year 5 schedule, but I've been including all the boys. The younger two did wander off a bit during the second chapter today. It's a lot to take in. I did stop and ask questions or point things out. I have Prophet do mini-oral narrations every page or so. He doesn't realize it, but I'm sneaky like that.

They have done Math and Italics everyday. Prophet did some Grammar this week. Peacemaker has misplaced his Explode the Code book, but he has been doing reading practice. Warrior has done some readings from AO Year 1 with me. He is enjoying Pocahontas and the Aesop Fables. He has done amazingly well with oral narrations. I'm so happy to be starting this at a young age. I mean this is the kid who couldn't speak and still has a hard time pronouncing things.

Today was fruitful...

Everyone did their Ambleside Readings today! We played with kittens. Went for a walk around the pond and saw a Bald Eagle. I think it's the same one I saw last week since it headed out in the same direction. We started Shakespeare. The older two are just going to read through the Lamb book according to the Year 2 schedule at this point. I think it's probably wise since my oldest hasn't really had exposure to Shakespeare.

Peacemaker worked on his reading skills. We took a walk together (just the two of us) and found a leafed tree with little pine cone looking things on it. I'll have to get my camera out there. I never noticed it before and it's a huge tree. I mean at some point in the past 18 years I would have noticed that tree.

Warrior and I had a picnic outside on a sleeping bag. He helped me prepare a psuedo-7 layer dip and some tortilla chips. I brought my second cup of coffee and a mini-bag of m&ms (I realize I never have written that before). We started reading some of the Ambleside year 1 readings together. I realize I need some more guidance to my day, so I bumped him up there. I figure he can always take more than a year (which we always seem to take with everything anyway) and perhaps he will be my first child to actually be at "grade level". We noticed some purple coneflowers in the front garden. We don't see them usually because they sit under the window. My parents have been really busy the past few years with transitions and my mom hasn't replanted anything. So, it's been survival of the fittest for the plants. It's interesting to see who is hardy.

I realized twice today that we need to set aside some nature sketching time & it would probably be a good idea to take the camera out for our daily walks.