Thursday, April 29, 2010
A little progress
Lamb 1 has been scared talk to the bank tellers when we go to the bank. I think it started when one bank event had a costumed character, but that is another story. This week is "teach your child to save" week at our bank. They have different activities each day with extra treats for making deposits. On Monday, if you told a joke or sang a song or something like that, you got a treat. Monday we didn't make it to the bank before closing time. I didn't expect him to even talk at the bank so I wasn't too worried about missing Monday, especially because there were other days this week to go get prizes. Lamb 1 was very upset. We couldn't do today's activity (bring your grandparent to the bank) so we went today and I explained that we missed Monday and we had a poem to recite. Lamb 1 led the poem and Lamb 2 said it with him. Two bank tellers stopped to listen and were impressed that they said the whole poem. One asked who taught the poem to him and Lamb 1 looked at her like she was crazy to not know that Mama was his teacher! I was very proud of Lamb 1 for not getting shy, reciting the whole poem, and answering the teller's questions. It helped that he had warning that he was going to need to talk at the bank and that he would receive a prize! The Lambs were given small footballs for a prize for reciting the poem. Then she gave them Frisbees because they made a deposit today even though they didn't bring a grandparent in. Tomorrow is the last activity, if they can tell a President on a coin or bill then they will receive another prize. I love small town banks and the attention they give to our Lambs!
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
35
Happy Birthday Ram!
*Photos to follow later today or tomorrow. We've already had a busy day-open presents, Ram nursing home visits today, parsonage trustee come and make some repairs on the house to get it up to code for insurance, and Spanish class tonight. Now it's time to frost the cake! On the menu tonight (Ram's request!) BLT sandwiches and banana cake (from Erin's recipe).
Also today would have been Harrison's 12th birthday. His family is in our thoughts and prayers today. I'll force myself to have another piece of cake in his honor today!
I like this part of the year because it seems like I'm only 1 year older than Ram! Ram's mom gave him just what he wanted for his birthday-lots of books!
Sunday, April 25, 2010
29th Week of School
We did some school this week. We were all too sick to have school on Tuesday and I was too sick to have school on Thursday. We had school the rest of the days this week. Our babysitter didn't come when we were sick. Here's what we accomplished.
Math: Continued to work on lesson 18 MUS-almost done. We checked out a kit from the library that had addition and subtraction activities that was very good for the Lambs. I was afraid we would lose the small pieces (or a Lamb would eat them), but that's another story.
Reading: Lamb 2 chose a Richard Scarry book from the library last time so it started a "read all the Richard Scarry books that we own" phase at our house. We read some My Book House volume 3 and also recited all the poetry we learned this year. We read Storm in the Night but we did not do any FIAR activities with it. We read The Gingerbread Man many times this week because Lamb 3 likes to say "RUN, RUN".
Science: We read some books about parts of a plant.
Religion: We did the Bible story "A Miraculous Catch of Fish" that they missed in Sunday School last week.
Spanish: We reviewed what we learned in class but we were unable to attend this week because we were sick.
Music: We continue to learn instruments and listen to them in The Story of the Orchestra.
Phonics/Handwriting/History are all taking a break right now-hopefully we can accomplish more this week when we feel better.
We have also been doing two other tasks this week-
1. I chose a stack of about 30 books that were rarely read in our house and each night the Lambs pick a few of those to read. If they seem interested in the book they go back on the shelf-if not, we put them in the give away pile. So far only a couple have made it back on the shelf. I will have a whole post about our children's books soon.
2. I've been going through my teaching files for activities/bulletin boards for holidays. Lamb 1 has been thrilled to do this "extra work" when I had extra copies. I am almost done with May (going in Jan-Dec order). My biggest files are Sept-Dec, so those will take longer than the first ones.
Now we're off to celebrate Ram's birthday coming up this week. The calendar is pretty calm this week so hopefully we can get lots accomplished in homeschool.
Math: Continued to work on lesson 18 MUS-almost done. We checked out a kit from the library that had addition and subtraction activities that was very good for the Lambs. I was afraid we would lose the small pieces (or a Lamb would eat them), but that's another story.
Reading: Lamb 2 chose a Richard Scarry book from the library last time so it started a "read all the Richard Scarry books that we own" phase at our house. We read some My Book House volume 3 and also recited all the poetry we learned this year. We read Storm in the Night but we did not do any FIAR activities with it. We read The Gingerbread Man many times this week because Lamb 3 likes to say "RUN, RUN".
Science: We read some books about parts of a plant.
Religion: We did the Bible story "A Miraculous Catch of Fish" that they missed in Sunday School last week.
Spanish: We reviewed what we learned in class but we were unable to attend this week because we were sick.
Music: We continue to learn instruments and listen to them in The Story of the Orchestra.
Phonics/Handwriting/History are all taking a break right now-hopefully we can accomplish more this week when we feel better.
We have also been doing two other tasks this week-
1. I chose a stack of about 30 books that were rarely read in our house and each night the Lambs pick a few of those to read. If they seem interested in the book they go back on the shelf-if not, we put them in the give away pile. So far only a couple have made it back on the shelf. I will have a whole post about our children's books soon.
2. I've been going through my teaching files for activities/bulletin boards for holidays. Lamb 1 has been thrilled to do this "extra work" when I had extra copies. I am almost done with May (going in Jan-Dec order). My biggest files are Sept-Dec, so those will take longer than the first ones.
Now we're off to celebrate Ram's birthday coming up this week. The calendar is pretty calm this week so hopefully we can get lots accomplished in homeschool.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Homeschool Name and Legos
Loopers recently talked about their name of their homeschool. A few said they were named Good Shepherd Lutheran. I liked that because of our blog, but I wanted a Latin name. Ram was filling out a form to get some free Legos for the Lambs and he needed a name of our school. He decided to name us Agnus Dei Lutheran Academy. I don't know if we will keep the name, but I like it.
The Legos arrived and Lamb 1's first question was "What do I build with them?" He's had a few of the basic sets that build something like an airplane. He was surprised that you could use your imagination to build whatever you want with Legos! Lamb 1 and 2 have been sharing this small free set. Maybe we'll have to put Legos on our Christmas wish list.
The Legos arrived and Lamb 1's first question was "What do I build with them?" He's had a few of the basic sets that build something like an airplane. He was surprised that you could use your imagination to build whatever you want with Legos! Lamb 1 and 2 have been sharing this small free set. Maybe we'll have to put Legos on our Christmas wish list.
Friday, April 23, 2010
People who live in the Parsonage
We ran into a former pastor of our church when we were in town today. His family was the first to live in the "new" parsonage that we live in now. He talked about where his garden was located and what a nice raspberry patch he had, with "big plump juicy berries". He asked if we had a washer and dryer in the basement. I told him I couldn't imagine going to the laundry mat 7 miles away! One of the first things we did here was to purchase a used washer and dryer and that was before we had children.
It made me think that usually pastor's families don't hear much about former pastor's families that lived in your house. The pastor either takes another Call or retires and moves away. I know not all pastor's live in a parsonage. But it is interesting to me to imagine where this pastor I was talking to today put his large family in this house. I imagine he had a girl's room and a boy's room, but I don't know that for sure. When they built this house he "designed" a root cellar type of room in the basement.
One of the back rooms here has a large cupboard built into the wall that I use to store my scrapbook supplies. A pastor that visited for a church anniversary a few years ago told me that was the "playroom" and their children would climb up in that cupboard like it was a treehouse or a little house. He also told me that they didn't have air conditioning and I can't even imagine living here without it!
Our kitchen is adequate, but does not have nearly enough cupboards for me. But I have very few complaints about the rest of our parsonage. We have lots of closets with a light in each of them. The boys like the full basement to play in. I like the space with 4 bedrooms.
It made me think that usually pastor's families don't hear much about former pastor's families that lived in your house. The pastor either takes another Call or retires and moves away. I know not all pastor's live in a parsonage. But it is interesting to me to imagine where this pastor I was talking to today put his large family in this house. I imagine he had a girl's room and a boy's room, but I don't know that for sure. When they built this house he "designed" a root cellar type of room in the basement.
One of the back rooms here has a large cupboard built into the wall that I use to store my scrapbook supplies. A pastor that visited for a church anniversary a few years ago told me that was the "playroom" and their children would climb up in that cupboard like it was a treehouse or a little house. He also told me that they didn't have air conditioning and I can't even imagine living here without it!
Our kitchen is adequate, but does not have nearly enough cupboards for me. But I have very few complaints about the rest of our parsonage. We have lots of closets with a light in each of them. The boys like the full basement to play in. I like the space with 4 bedrooms.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Today and My Lambs
Today is Ram's dad's birthday. Happy Birthday! We sent his card late and he was on a business trip so we didn't get to talk to him on the phone. But we had a long chat with his mom instead. I love my MIL-it's great to talk to someone that also had 3 boys!
Ram and I were so sick from Monday afternoon until this afternoon. Even when I was done throwing up, my head hurt terrible-not really a headache as much as being in a total fog. My blood pressure was pretty high this afternoon which would explain that "fog". The Lambs weren't perfect while Ram and Ewe were sick and we did have our share of discipline to deal with even while we were sick, but overall they did really well. We didn't allow them to go outside while we were really sick and couldn't supervise them and they hate not going outside. We had school on Monday and Wednesday, but I was too sick to teach school on Tuesday and today. Maybe Lamb 1 was missing school time, but I caught him doing these 2 "activities" that I just had to share here!
1. He chose a large book off the shelf and decided to "read the numbers" to me in the table of contents. I had never attempted to teach him to read numbers past 100. He started reading "447" in this table of contents. He didn't get all the numbers correct and I was too sick to use this teachable moment, but I was impressed. Now that I feel better, I'll have to work with him on this later this week.
2. Lamb 1 was asking a lot of questions that I was too sick to answer. Questions about when I expected him to finish his math book; when we would take a summer break; when Lamb 2 would begin doing math in school; and when Lamb 3 would begin doing more school with us, etc. He didn't like my answers that when he finished his math book, we would purchase another one; that we aren't taking a summer break, we only break for going to CA and vacations like that; that Lamb 3 would do more, but not as much as Lamb 1 and 2 next fall; and that Lamb 2 couldn't do math until he could write his numbers from 0-9. So Lamb 1 decided right then to teach Lamb 2 to write his numbers. He soon found that was very difficult! So then he decided to teach Lamb 2 to draw some shapes (rectangle, square, circle, etc.). He had worked hard on making some worksheets for Lamb 2 to write his numbers and then he switched to shapes. He told me he wanted Lamb 2 to "learn some math" even if writing numbers was too difficult. Lamb 3 was watching all this and he was thrilled when Lamb 1 helped him hold a pencil and draw some shapes too. Lamb 1 was very good about giving both Lamb 2 and Lamb 3 praise and encouraging them in their math.
I worked on dishes and laundry all day to try to catch up from our sickness. I'm glad that I finally feel better and "out of the fog". Erin told me she had 17 loads of laundry to do after their family was sick. I didn't have that much laundry, but the laundry I had was gross. But I probably had that many loads of dishes!
Ram and I were so sick from Monday afternoon until this afternoon. Even when I was done throwing up, my head hurt terrible-not really a headache as much as being in a total fog. My blood pressure was pretty high this afternoon which would explain that "fog". The Lambs weren't perfect while Ram and Ewe were sick and we did have our share of discipline to deal with even while we were sick, but overall they did really well. We didn't allow them to go outside while we were really sick and couldn't supervise them and they hate not going outside. We had school on Monday and Wednesday, but I was too sick to teach school on Tuesday and today. Maybe Lamb 1 was missing school time, but I caught him doing these 2 "activities" that I just had to share here!
1. He chose a large book off the shelf and decided to "read the numbers" to me in the table of contents. I had never attempted to teach him to read numbers past 100. He started reading "447" in this table of contents. He didn't get all the numbers correct and I was too sick to use this teachable moment, but I was impressed. Now that I feel better, I'll have to work with him on this later this week.
2. Lamb 1 was asking a lot of questions that I was too sick to answer. Questions about when I expected him to finish his math book; when we would take a summer break; when Lamb 2 would begin doing math in school; and when Lamb 3 would begin doing more school with us, etc. He didn't like my answers that when he finished his math book, we would purchase another one; that we aren't taking a summer break, we only break for going to CA and vacations like that; that Lamb 3 would do more, but not as much as Lamb 1 and 2 next fall; and that Lamb 2 couldn't do math until he could write his numbers from 0-9. So Lamb 1 decided right then to teach Lamb 2 to write his numbers. He soon found that was very difficult! So then he decided to teach Lamb 2 to draw some shapes (rectangle, square, circle, etc.). He had worked hard on making some worksheets for Lamb 2 to write his numbers and then he switched to shapes. He told me he wanted Lamb 2 to "learn some math" even if writing numbers was too difficult. Lamb 3 was watching all this and he was thrilled when Lamb 1 helped him hold a pencil and draw some shapes too. Lamb 1 was very good about giving both Lamb 2 and Lamb 3 praise and encouraging them in their math.
I worked on dishes and laundry all day to try to catch up from our sickness. I'm glad that I finally feel better and "out of the fog". Erin told me she had 17 loads of laundry to do after their family was sick. I didn't have that much laundry, but the laundry I had was gross. But I probably had that many loads of dishes!
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