Weekly Report - Bieber Fever

I'm trying to write this at 10:30 at night, one handed while using the other hand to rock a screaming baby.

She was like this earlier and happy as can be now she is ready to rip my face off.

This week Roo's eyes were opened to the existence of Justin Bieber. She was provided with a magazine full of his pictures and now the house is covered. She even set up a "fake" bedroom in the living room just so she could hang up more pictures. So our house now has a dose of Bieber Fever - Thanks Naomi;)

The "fake" bedroom with the Bieber Fever

This week review:


Memory Work - Same review of stuff but we added a map of Canada puzzle to build as we go over the provinces and territories to help with placement.

First Language Lessons - We have moved on to pronouns.

Writing with Ease - Completed week 16 of copy work and narration exercises.

Latin (Song School Latin) - We learned the names of angel, shepherd, lamb, star and baby. This was supposed to be a Christmas exercise but sometimes I extend a lesson into two weeks so we were behind.

French (Nallenart) - Lots of review and we started using the words in negation. Mostly question and answer format of asking about something and answering in the negative.

Math (Singapore Math) - We added more math facts and we have begun addition of numbers higher than ten. Anyone else's kids end up building things with their linking cubes instead of counting with them? She made what she called an Egyptian guitar.



She also caught on quick to the Singapore method of adding higher than 10 and this is her proud face.




History (Story of the World) - We went began to study The Phoenicians and started to read In Search of a Homeland - The Story of the Aeneid by Penelope Lively.



Science (Elemental) - We finished up with birds this week by studying the flamingo, ostrich and peacock.

Composer Study - We read Henry Purcell's biography and listened to his works while she debated what she wanted to paint for her still life project. She couldn't think of anything so she is going to work on it this weekend because according to her "you can't rush art".

So now I am tired, the baby is happy again and Roo is in bed totally not sleeping because I can hear her going through the phone caller list.

We Produce Clones - WW

Roo (left side at 3 months) Merle (right side at 5 weeks)

What Am I Mom? What Am I Mom? Weekly Report

What am I mom? is a constant chant out of Roo's mouth over and over until she gets your attention. Usually when you look over she is contorted into some weird position, and you are supposed to know what she is pretending to be. Most of my guesses are wrong which makes her miffed, but this week I got two of them both on the first try. It helped that we had just been reading about Egyptians in History so I had an idea to what she was aiming for.

First: Can you guess what this is?

A sarcophagus

Second: Can you guess what this is? Probably not;)

Queen Hapshepsut's fake beard! Which we are in fact going to make a better one this weekend, but she hid under the table, constructed this one and then popped up in my face.

What we managed  to accomplish this week in school.

Memory Work - Same review of stuff but added the Days of the Week Poem and the Months Poem.

First Language Lessons - Nouns in idea form

Writing with Ease - Completed week 14(?) capitalizing months and days of the week.

Latin (Song School Latin) - We learned the names of household pets. Let me tell you, I know I have said it before but those songs are soooo catchy. I seriously find myself singing them when I am doing any menial task. I also found out the baby likes me to sing them too (at least while I'm bouncing her) .

French - Lots of review and we started using the words in sentences. Mostly question and  answer format.

Math - Still major drill of math facts and we just finished the subtraction chapter in Singapore 1A. I also found out that she can answer math flashcards faster when bribed with Reese's pieces.

History - We went back to Egypt in SOTW - Ancients and learned about Thutmose, Queen Hatshepsut, Amenhotep and King Tut.

Science - We skipped this week due to some annoying appointments, tasks and daddy coming home from work early and distracting her. We may do a bird experiment this weekend to make up for it.

One of her favorite gifts for Christmas that we got her was her own mini library in a box. It comes with the envelopes you stick in books, the checkout cards, the due date stamp/ink pad and pencil. She has been actively setting up her library for the past few weeks. The only problem is, that she forces people to play library and check out some of her books.




I love to read, all genres. I like reading fluff as much as I enjoy a good historical biography. But there is one series I read this summer that I really, really got into. The fever Series by Karen Marie Moning, it is 4 books with the 5th coming out this Tuesday. Let me tell you how much I want to get my hands on that book and how slowly time has been creeping because of it. It is the final book in that series and the last one left off with a horrible cliff hanger. The first two chapters of this new book were leaked online and of course I read it, so now the wait is even worse because of the way these chapters went. If I could take it back, I wouldn't have read them. I should have waited. It's weird how you can get so invested into a book. So on Tuesday I will be flying over to the book store to pick up this book. I did have it pre-ordered on Amazon but have a feeling it wouldn't arrive until Wednesday and I. need. to. read. this. book. on .Tuesday. It's imperative.



Also a bonus. I found out that baby girl will sleep for me longer during the day if I put her in the stroller near me. This leaves my hands free to work. Yay!

Weekly Report - First Week Back

So this was our first week back from Christmas break and our first week back with the new baby joining in. This picture may show how it went.

Me sitting with the baby in my arms while Roo dances around in her pj's, wearing her wolf hat totally not paying attention while taking pictures using the cameras timer. That was a mouthful, but she is having jealousy/adjustment issues. These come out full force at bedtime. She loves her sister and is super sweet to her, but she has become a nightmare to deal with at bedtime. We are at a loss on how to deal with her.

These pictures are like polar opposites of one another.

Now, on to our week:

Memory Work - was mostly review and working on some of the tougher to memorize things, we  didn't add anything new this week.

Phonics (Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading) - We went back to lesson 200 and are reviewing those and moving forward.

First Language Lessons - Still working on the different nouns and how addresses work.

Writing with Ease - Completed week 13

Latin (Song School Latin)  - We finished the chapter review

French - We began to learn the different rooms in the house and how to use them in a sentence.

Math (Singapore Math) - We continued to work on subtraction and fact memorization. Today we did a few page from Evan Moors Skills Sharpening book and played a few games of Sum Swamp. I like being able to trick her into math in the guise of a fun game. Also, the online game she likes to play called Jumpstart, added a new math world which she played for an hour this morning.










History (Story of the World - Ancients) -  We learned about the Middle Kingdom of Egypt with Egypt invading Nubia and the Hyksos invading Egypt.

Science (Elemental Science) - We are still studying birds, this week was Swans, Swallows and Hummingbirds.

Art - We did a picture study of a portrait of Henry VIII and then Roo made a water colour portrait of Merle and I.

The weather has been cold (not super cold like it should be though) and I haven't fully recovered from my c-section, so this week was a pajama week for us.
We are a hat family, we all like to wear them and we all look good in them. So I like to stick my kids in hats for some reason. This is our newest hat on our newest addition. It reminds me of the Swedish Chef and I like it;) I love this age when they will let you put anything on them.

Winter Hat - WW

Wordless Wednesday - Open Your Eyes

Wordless Wednesday - New Baby Girl

Almost wordless. Merle Jude was born December 14, 2010, weighed 8 lbs 4 oz.

Weekly Report and Still Pregnant

Another week down and still another week pregnant. Still no sure signs of labor, or a date yet for the c-section. To top it all off, it has been super cold this week and I don't have a winter coat I can do up of the ginormous belly. Blah. School this week went well although Roo was fighting a cold, it didn't really slow us down at all. If anything she was quite attentive and well behaved. She did help me to get the crib bedding cleaned and put in the bed though. She even tucked in some of her own toys for the baby.

There are some threads currently on the WTM forums regarding eating habits of kids and families. I am currently sitting here typing with a bowl of chips on one side of me and a bowl of blueberries and raspberries on the other, happily alternating between the two. How bad it that;)

It's funny how kids pick things up and you have no idea where. Roo has an invisible friend called Nina Petrina and she is the one that is usually to blame when she does something naughty. The other day Roo told me that Nina Petrina was Jewish (we are not) and that she was celebrating Hanukkah right now. When she went to bed that night, she proceeded to sing the Dreidle song for 45 minutes before she fell asleep. I don't have a clue where she learned the words to the Dreidle song, but what I heard sounded pretty accurate. She also insisted on schooling in her footy pajamas (which she never wants to take off because we finally found her a pair in her size) and her Halloween costume this week.

And on to what we accomplished this week:

Memory work - We began a new poem from FLL and are still working on getting the provinces memorized and placed on a map.

Phonics - Three syllable words and the suffixes er and est

Grammar (First Language Lessons) - Common/Proper nouns and a new poem to memorize

Writing (Writing with Ease) - Finished week 12 focused on songs/nursery rhymes

Latin (Song School Latin) - Review of last week and began the addition of please, thank you and excuse me.

Math (Singapore) - Working slowly through the subtraction chapter keeping our focus on recognizing of facts and number bonds. I added some new subtraction facts to our flash card review.

French - A lot of review and objects in/from a house. She then noticed how similar window and door were in both French and Latin.

Science (Elemental) - We still studied birds this week, chickens, ducks and penguins and then turkeys for fun because she likes the sounds they make.




History (Story of the World) - We entered Ancient Africa and read some books on the African folk tale of Anansi the Spider. She hates spiders, but for some reason really enjoyed this character. She then made a "African" hand print mobile and a paper plate, rice shaker, tambourine thing.




Art - She made a oil pastel of a landscape drawing. It was supposed to be some place she can see or has been and it started off as a landscape and ended up being some weird abstracty village.

Everytime I put together or build an apparatus for the baby, Roo insists on testing it out with her baby doll that looks like a real baby. My husband calls it the creepy baby because every time you walk by it you do a double take because it looks so real.

The creepy baby doll

Hopefully you won't hear from me next week due to having a baby. But at this rate you probably will.

Monchhichi and Me - Weekly Report

Monchhichi will be discussed down further. This is probably my second last week before we break for baby day. My due date is the 21st, but because I didn't attempt get the doctor to turn the baby and honestly I don't want to try for a regular breech birth, I am having a c-section. The date isn't set yet as they are trying to get a time in the o/r to do it so chances are I will go into labor first which sucks. Have I mentioned that after my ultrasound last week to see the baby's position we found out it was a girl? It inspired me to get down to business and buy some new baby clothes. I gave a lot of my old stuff to my new niece and some of the stuff I kept is worn and old so I thought she deserved some new things. It's way too fun shopping for kids clothes. This is the end result.


I also promised topost a picture of her fully done up Build-a-Bear birthday present from last week. This is the horrifying picture of the wolf. Poor wolf.

This week we accomplished a fair amount. Although after last weeks break it was hard to get her motivated at first.

Memory Work - I added the Canadian provinces and territories to our daily work.

Phonics - We have moved into 3 syllable words and are getting closer to the end of the book. I think we probably should slow down though until these are in right solid.

First Language Lesson (FLL) - We are still working on nouns, proper and common but I am seeing an understanding of the difference between the two. I like the slow pace of this book, I find it really solidifies and understanding without overwhelming the student.

Writing With Ease (WWE) - We finished week 11 (I think, I am too lazy to go verify).

Song School Latin (SSL) - This week we learned the commands listen, quiet, open your book and raise your hand in both singular and plural.

Math (Singapore) - We moved onto subtraction finally. We are still doing our daily drills and I added the first group of basic subtraction to the list. I have also purchased the games Sum Swamp and Zeus on the Loose for Christmas to have a fun way to work on math facts (without realizing she is working on math facts).

History (SOTW) - We have now entered Ancient China and finally got to read The Story of Ping.


Science (Elemental Science) - We began studying birds this week and were going to do the bird feeder activity but we live in an apartment and don't have a spot to hang one. We did go down and feed the ducks though:)

French - We constantly review the previous weeks lessons and we added new vocabulary this week, things around the house.

Do you remember Monchhichi? We were shopping this week and Roo was perusing the toys and came running over telling me to look at the cute monkey. When I looked it took me back many, many years. Obviously that is why they remake toys, because they know we will buy it because it reminds of of our youth. So here is our new Monchhichi.

We had our first big snowfall of the season this week. It was the big, heavy, really wet flakes that get you soaked within minutes. We walked down to the corner store and by the time we were home all of our clothes had to be placed in front of the heater to dry. But it was fun.

We finally built the baby crib this week! Yay! Next on my agenda is to pack those darn hospital bags that are beside me right now staring at me.