Our plans for the week fell apart for us on Thursday morning. My husband was in a car accident that morning and I'm still saying to myself over and over "thank God he's alright!" He is fine despite a bump on the head from hitting the steering wheel. The truck on the other hand is going to take awhile to be fixed. The accident was not his fault- he was stopped waiting for the person in front of him to turn left, and someone else came from behind them and didn't notice that they were stopped and rear-ended my husband hard enough to push him into the next car from a dead stop. There is a good amount of damage to all the vehicles involved, but no one was hurt. The insurance companies had the claim pushed through by Friday morning and they ordered parts for our truck right away and we had a rental truck by the afternoon. I'm so thankful that this has been handled so quickly! Because of the holiday weekend next weekend the truck may not be finished by Thursday (July 3rd) but we should have it by the next Monday.
The sad thing is that we had just decided to take the plunge and get a new-to-us truck for him since it it his work vehicle. His old one was dying, and we were facing having to put a lot of money in to fix it just to *hope* that it would continue running. So we found a good truck and a good deal... and 3 weeks later the poor new truck has already been in an accident.
So daddy was home most of Thursday and all of Friday which threw our usual routines out the window. No school work, lots of swimming and wrestling with daddy, and very little mommy time since daddy is the best thing EVER! I got some sewing done in my unexpected free time and worked on getting my kitchen in a little better shape.
I'm at the point where I feel like giving up on ever being completely unpacked. There is a stack of boxes in my living room waiting to be taken down to storage. 6 boxes stacked neatly, ready to go to the basement. There is another stack of 5 or 6 boxes in our upstairs hall outside our bedroom and another stack of 3 boxes by the boys' rooms in the hallway, all due for storage. I can't carry them unless I want to slide down the stairs on my rear-end like I did last time (I've been supposed to have surgery to repair my knee since before my oldest was born, but every time we schedule it I end up being pregnant or nursing!). My husband has been working so much lately that when he's home I want him to spend time with me and the boys- not spend time taking boxes to storage! He has time off over the holiday weekend so we're planning to take an afternoon and try to finish up the last of the boxes. I'm so overwhelmed by them even though I know they are already sorted and boxed. It will be a mental relief to have them out of my sight.
Back to normal today. I'm up by 7, had my coffee and reading. My boys stayed with my mom last night overnight (I'm working a long day today in preparation for the holiday weekend) so they are blessing her with their early wakeup time.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Our Plant Unit
I loved putting this unit together! We started yesterday (Monday is my long workday so we have school Tuesday-Saturday).
Letter: Pp for Plant and Prayer. We are not working formally on letters yet- we will start that in September. Big Kid already identifies all of the upper case, so we are still talking about lower case and the letter sounds. We will be very specifically working on those things along with writing in the fall, but for now we're using whatever letter goes along with the unit we're studying.
Bible/Character: We are continuing to focus on Prayer and the types of things that we say to God- why we pray in Jesus Name, specifically. We are also focusing on Thankfulness in prayer.
Book of the Week: The Parable of the Lily. We read the book each day and talk about different aspects of the book each day.
Plant books: I ordered about 20 books from the library based on books that I used in my pre-mommy days of teaching preschool and referals from friends. I ordered a few I wasn't sure about and read them before- hand to be sure they fit my objectives. My favorite new discovery? Books by Penelope Arlon. They were written for DK and these are colorful, fun, fact-filled books. We are using "Plant" and "Tree" by Ms. Arlon and we've already read them several times in the last 2 days because my son loves the lift-the-flap aspect of the book.
Tactile: Big Kid is a very "hands-on" kid, so this is an important facet of my lesson plans. We've been using a pile of pinto beans for the last few days to do just about everything. We've been counting, doing small addition, forming shapes, making letter Pp, measuring, pouring and pretending to cook. If I had known how busy this little pile of beans would keep him, we would have brought them out ages ago!
We also planted our own flowers in a pot on the back porch. Big Kid is doing a great job taking care of them. We have planted seeds for sunflowers as well, and he is anxiously watching for the first little hint of green to show up.
Resources: I love many of the suggestions at homeschoolshare.com and we are using many of their ideas, specifically their unit on the Parable of the Lily. I also found a fun lily craft at enchantedlearning.com.
Pictures from this week in homeschool will come on Saturday when we finish the unit.
Letter: Pp for Plant and Prayer. We are not working formally on letters yet- we will start that in September. Big Kid already identifies all of the upper case, so we are still talking about lower case and the letter sounds. We will be very specifically working on those things along with writing in the fall, but for now we're using whatever letter goes along with the unit we're studying.
Bible/Character: We are continuing to focus on Prayer and the types of things that we say to God- why we pray in Jesus Name, specifically. We are also focusing on Thankfulness in prayer.
Book of the Week: The Parable of the Lily. We read the book each day and talk about different aspects of the book each day.
Plant books: I ordered about 20 books from the library based on books that I used in my pre-mommy days of teaching preschool and referals from friends. I ordered a few I wasn't sure about and read them before- hand to be sure they fit my objectives. My favorite new discovery? Books by Penelope Arlon. They were written for DK and these are colorful, fun, fact-filled books. We are using "Plant" and "Tree" by Ms. Arlon and we've already read them several times in the last 2 days because my son loves the lift-the-flap aspect of the book.
Tactile: Big Kid is a very "hands-on" kid, so this is an important facet of my lesson plans. We've been using a pile of pinto beans for the last few days to do just about everything. We've been counting, doing small addition, forming shapes, making letter Pp, measuring, pouring and pretending to cook. If I had known how busy this little pile of beans would keep him, we would have brought them out ages ago!
We also planted our own flowers in a pot on the back porch. Big Kid is doing a great job taking care of them. We have planted seeds for sunflowers as well, and he is anxiously watching for the first little hint of green to show up.
Resources: I love many of the suggestions at homeschoolshare.com and we are using many of their ideas, specifically their unit on the Parable of the Lily. I also found a fun lily craft at enchantedlearning.com.
Pictures from this week in homeschool will come on Saturday when we finish the unit.
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Scheduling
Our schedule is in flux again. My work schedule shifted to 3 longer days instead of 4 shorter ones, so we're trying to make the adjustment. Trying to rearrange my household duties around this new schedule has been challenging! At the same time my husband started a new contract and is temporarily working 6 days per week so he is not around as much to do his usual tasks.
I'm trying to get some of my old habits going again and I spent the last week working on my morning routine. My boys get up between 6:30 and 7:00 each morning and I've been trying to get back into the routine of starting a load of laundry and emptying the dishwasher while the boys are eating breakfast. I've been doing pretty well with it this week, so I'm going to try to add another one- I want to get up at 6:00 a.m. so I can get my shower and breakfast before they get up. It will make my morning go a bit more smoothly. I got a new one-cup coffee maker for my birthday last week, so I'm going to be setting that in the mornings- that will encourage me to get out of bed if I know a great cup of hot coffee is waiting for me.
The next step after this is to get back into weekly routines.
I'm trying to get some of my old habits going again and I spent the last week working on my morning routine. My boys get up between 6:30 and 7:00 each morning and I've been trying to get back into the routine of starting a load of laundry and emptying the dishwasher while the boys are eating breakfast. I've been doing pretty well with it this week, so I'm going to try to add another one- I want to get up at 6:00 a.m. so I can get my shower and breakfast before they get up. It will make my morning go a bit more smoothly. I got a new one-cup coffee maker for my birthday last week, so I'm going to be setting that in the mornings- that will encourage me to get out of bed if I know a great cup of hot coffee is waiting for me.
The next step after this is to get back into weekly routines.
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