No School this week

My husband's brother got married on Friday so we had a lot of family come in from far away and we're all tired of school anyway, so we cleaned and played this week. It has been very nice and very fun, but we are all tired. We have the science fair coming up, so that' what we'll be doing tomorrow, and then those girls have got to finish up math and greek!!! I hope the weather clears up, although I hope we don't get too much flooding!! We drove up the canyon after church today and the river is very high and there are a few fields already flooded out. Crazy weather!

Wrapping things up

We didn't get as far as I had hoped. I hoped we could take off a couple weeks starting now. I let the girls do only math for a week in hopes that they would finish and could move on to spend their time finishing up Greek. It didn't work that way- they just did math and not their other subjects but didn't finish math and now they are a little behind in Greek too. So that was a bad idea. We should have just kept going. Oh well.

The boys are both excelling in math and are very far ahead for their age. They have both started Greek and are getting it. #3 is reading for fun now, but has yet to write much on his own. So for the summer I'm going to focus on writing and spelling for him. #4 is close to reading for fun, so I will focus on his reading over the summer.

I'm going to let the boys take the week off of school. We have a wedding on Friday and family coming to stay with us this week, so I want to spend some extra time cleaning and of course as much time with them all as possible. I would also like to get the garden planted if there is any sun this week. I also need to spend some extra time with the girls keeping them focused and help them finish Greek and math. They will have time to do 1 hour of math and 1 section of Greek each day this week, even with all that's going on. I wish they could take the whole week off too- but they really need to finish up and a little bit each day seems to be more effective than a lot on one day. It shouldn't be too bad.

#1 has been working on review problems getting ready for the test and is happy to find that she is getting most of the answers correct. #2 took the test twice already- the first time she left a bunch of questions blank because she wasn't sure how to do them. The second time she just ran out of time so she definitely needs more practice. I think I'll have #1 do some more practice problems also and they can both take the test on Thursday. I really hope they pass. They have been left pretty much to independent study. I have even had them check their own answers so I think that's why it's taken a little longer. So if I focus on them this week and let the boys have it off, they should get through more material a little faster.

We are finally getting Spanish and French. I made posters with some of the sayings and vocabulary we know and during the sessions had them say things and talk only in the language we were doing. They seemed to enjoy it and I think for the first time realized that they can speak both languages a little. I definitely want to continue that through the summer, but we probably won't be able to this week.

We do need at least 2-3 weeks of no school once the girls finish math and greek and then we'll go to our summer schedule of school 2-3 times per week and focus on things like science, art and sewing. I also signed everybody up for 4-H. It looks like a great program and I think it will be good for us.

We didn't Finish Everything!

It's hard to get everything done with one day slotted off to go to vision therapy. In order to save on gas and time, I then have to do my grocery shopping the same day since the stores I like to go to are 15-20 min away from home and I pass a few on my home from the eye doctor. We do listen to books on tape on our trips, so that does help some, but the girls left too much work for themselves to finish on Friday and with a birthday party, play practice and soccer practice they didn't have enough time.

Oh well, I knew that with a baptism and 4 soccer games and regular cleaning we wouldn't have time on Sat. either. We didn't. Oh well. I may have to put the eye doctor on Wednesdays so that we have Thursday to finish up. we have a tendency to try to leave more than we should for later. Also we have been going to bed very late and getting up very late. So it may be time to return to our schedule. I also been very distracted dealing with a problem at church. It has weighed heavy on my mind and I haven't given my kids the full attention they need. It looks like we will be coming to a resolution soon, and it will be nice to focus back on the kids and make sure they're doing what they are supposed to. It turns out that #2 has not been doing enough pages of math or greek, so I have to follow up better. The boys are still in the easy phases. The girls do better when they start earlier.

I can't wait for summer break. I keep telling the girls that once they finish their math book and take the tests, then they are done for the summer. And once they finish Greek they are done for the rest of their lives. I'm so ready for them to be done!!!!

Glad this week is over!

This week was very busy. My husband was in San Francisco for a conference this week. If there was any way we could have all fit in his hotel room, we would have all gone, but there wasn't so we stayed and he went. Next year though it will be in D.C. so we'll turn that one into a vacation and all go.

Anyway, we pretty much got all our stuff done. Monday was rough as usual. I have to blame the weather a little bit- we are getting some cabin fever. It has been unusually cold this year and we really miss being outside. Tuesday it was cold and windy so we skipped the park and went to the library and watched a movie. Wednesday we went to visit some good homeschool friends who moved 30 min. away a couple years ago and we had such a good time, we are getting together to let the kids play and we moms are having a little Great books book club- next time we will discuss Julius Ceasar. The girls just had to do math, greek, piano and violin that day and the boys took it off. Spending time with good friends is so important to making the homeschool experience enjoyable. Even though it takes time away from studying, it makes the overall experience doable. Especially as moms we need to have friends to support us and just be able to talk about what we're doing. It was very refreshing for me. The sun finally came out at the end, but I think it was gone by the time we got home.

I did a short presentation on sprouting and took a couple salads and dressings to Relief Society class that evening,so it was a busy day and the kids watched another movie while I was gone. Fortunately the babies went to bed just fine.

Thursday we had #4's eye appointment. His eyesight has improved so that he is now with his glasses he is 20/20 in one eye and 25/20 in the other. When we started a year ago, with the same glasses he was 45/20 in one eye and 40/20 in the other. Before our break he was 25/20 and 30/20 so I am pleased with his improvement. He is using both eyes together up to about 3 feet, so he is reading well. Only with very very small detail does his eye cross and they stay straight pretty much all the time. So we will go ahead and continue vision therapy and work on extending out that stereo vision to greater distances. The doctors think he has a very good chance of doing so. We are rested from the weekly trips-- it is 45 min. away-- but so worth it. #4 is so energetic and enthusiastic about life. He doesn't like to miss anything and is usually the first one up, so it is especially heart warming to see him gain vision that I didn't realize he was even missing.

After the appt. we stopped by the store for snacks and headed to the zoo. I was a little worried it would be too cold, but it was O.K. We got there 1 1/2 hours before it closed and there was hardly anybody there. It was overcast but not too bad. We saw the animals doing things we don't normally see- a monkey nursing her baby and a peacock with his beautiful tail feathers a ll spread out. I was surprised to find that it was relaxing for me since it wasn't hard to keep track of everybody with so few people there. We pretty much had snacks for dinner, but it was nice. I think the kids enjoyed it too.

We have been listening to Rebecca of Sunnybrook farm in the car. Great book.

Friday, the kids took a long time finishing up all the stuff they had missed because of our travels and then the girls went to their friends house and I took the boys to costco and the health food store to get our weekly groceries. They all have hours of minutes of on the wii from Easter candy so I let them trade in an hour each for a new wii game. I also spent about 1 1/2 hours just folding clothes while the kids were working. I wanted to get most of my cleaning done, but it didn't happen. My husband came home late that night- YAAAAAAY!! I really missed him. It was so nice to have him home.

The Saturday was crazy-- too crazy. In the future I will have to opt out of Saturday parties during soccer season. We had our usual 4 soccer games in the morning- 2 of which were played amidst falling snowflakes. Then I had just enough time to make hummus and bean dip for a family party to which we stayed much too long-- then we came home with just enough time to clean a tiny bit and use up some wii minutes before a Young Men/ Young Women dinner/ party/ "talent" show. At least I didn't have to make dinner.

Anyway, that was just too much for one Saturday. In the future I will have to be strict about leaving or just skip something. We need time to be at home and relax and clean. I actually love cleaning now. I really appreciate the ability and time to do it. I'm going to try to have people over a lot more often and try to keep the house cleaner and have the kids do more cleaning.

So for Sunday, we went to our early 9 a.m. meetings for 3 hours 'til noon and then came home and crashed. It was a nice restful day. Now we'll be ready for the new week and maybe this Monday won't be so bad.

Also, I am officially done nursing the twins. #6 can walk across the room at last, he just needs to learn how to get up on his own. We'll keep working on it- he's not as slow as #5 was! I have to gear up for a good cleanse- not excited about it yet-- I'll have to go look in the mirror at my tight clothes- that should motivate me!

Whew!!! I'm also hoping for sun this week-- we'll do some serious gardening!!

Easter- Review

This weekend was so crazy I didn't even post about the week and now it's 4:36 a.m.! Oh well, I feel pretty good and awake.

So anyway, it was a good week once we got past Monday. Mondays are always super hard. I'm going to have to figure something out. Everybody finished their assignments for the most part and are doing well. The boys are moving along through their workbooks at a great pace. They are both pretty far ahead and #5 is reading with me everyday.

#1 is on schedule to finish 6B in about 3 weeks and Greek in 7 weeks. Greek has gotten a little tricky so I have had to help her a bit. She has learned to use reflexive pronouns, 3rd person pronouns, and the passive voice and has not had any guidance form me, so she finally got frustrated and I've had to walk her through some of the concepts, but she gets it now. She also took a couple of days to review the vocabulary. I'm very proud of her.

#2 should finish 6B this week and start reviewing and take the test next week and be done with Singapore Math!! Then she'll have to review some more and take all the previous tests to be ready to start Algebra. Because she loves math I will probably let her start algebra if she wants, but we really want her to start Latin with #1 in the fall so we'll probably hold off and have her focus on Greek until she's completely finished. She still has 14 chapters left- 14 weeks worth so she will be working on it this summer unless she can do more than a chapter a week. The goal for her is to do o 2 chapters a week.

#1 had her 12th birthday party on Friday, so we had to spend some time getting ready for that. We had math group on Tues. which went well although we could use a few more people. We read a lot which is always nice. Saturday was stressful because me, my husband and #1 were assigned to give talks in sacrament meeting on Easter Sunday. #1 did great. I did my best- which was not real great. I think my husband did well, but I only heard about half of it because I was in the hall with the babies. My mom and #2 mostly took care of them but by the time it got to the end, the babies had had it. I think they were a little hungry because with 9:00 church and everybody finding their Easter baskets and getting dressed, they didn't get to spend their usual long amount of time eating and I didn't have time to make a smoothie- then on our way to the church I realized I had left my talk at home and we were almost out of gas.

But we made it and we took nice long naps that afternoon. I had been up 'til 5 cleaning and doing Easter bunny stuff and writing my talk. What a night-- I did sleep from 10-1, but still. No wonder I took so long to recover this week. So far this week has been tough, it should pick up though!

My husband is out of town and I miss him a lot. I also realize all the things he does around here when he's gone-- like setting and turning off the house alarm. We set it off when we let the cat out- we wondered what the beeping was I ran to the box and it said- calling police-- aaaah!! I shut it off and the police never came so I guess we're O.K. I didn't get the trash out to the street in time either and I didn't have much adult conversation. I can't wait to have my husband home!!

Holidays are pretty rough when your life is full with just regular living. It's really hard to add anything else. But the kids love it. Life!!

On the final Stretch of School

Monday again-- the boys finished all their stuff, but the girls didn't. I thought it might help them to see exactly what they have left and how when they finish, they'll be all done for the summer. We have 26 school days left
-- 7 weeks and then we'll take off 3 weeks where I won't even make them read if they don't want to.

#1 has 40 pages of math left and the test and the final test-- so if she does 4 pages a day, she'll be done in the next 3 weeks. She has 7 chapters of Greek left, so 1 chapter a week equals 7 weeks. One section of science left-- I've just got to gather the supplies for the experiments so she can finish-- it won't take long. She has a lot of English workbooks left, but the grammar practice ones are full of things I haven't learned yet like the pluperfect tense- so she'll be fine doing that alongside Latin-- it will probably make more sense that way too. So she can finish those up during the summer. I will also have her continue with history, required reading, a little science, music, art and writing over the summer after our break and only a couple times each week just to keep so good habits and keep boredom at bay. I think this will help her see the end and keep going to the finish!! She is way excited to be done with math. We've been going strong a long time and I think she's a little burnt out.

I will also have her do a couple practice tests of standardized testing each week over the summer. She took a reading test and passed adequately, but she needs to ace it. She just needs practice taking tests and reading the questions. I'll probably have her start with the early levels until she is acing those and then move her on up.

#2 just has about 15 pages of math left, so she'll be done very soon. She has 16 chapters of Greek left, so that will take some time over the summer, but she is very good at memorizing and being exact so I don't think it will be too hard for her. She has the same science section left as her sister and about the same workbooks. So they'll continue to work together. She's pretty far ahead so I don't worry about her so much although we're pushing her to start algebra and Latin in the fall with her sister so they can be study budies.

The boys are pretty far ahead so for them it's just a matter of building good habits and keeping them challenged which really isn't hard. They're not burnt out, their stuff doesn't take that long and it's not that hard yet. So they'll keep their regular routine, but I am excited to have a break myself!

The Week after "Spring" Break

Mondays are always a little difficult to get into the swing of things and this Monday was the Monday after our break, so it was a bit trying. I just could not get the little boys to focus and get their work done. I finally gave up and figured we'd do extra on Friday- but that didn't happen either. The girls finished everything except their Friday writing assignments and I don't think #2 is doing enough Greek. Also one of the days, #1 needed extra help on math and the babies got woken up early from their nap, so instead of the kids getting their stuff done all at the same time, I had them do "preschool" with the babies which means entertain and keep them happy so that I could help #1 with math. It doesn't come easy to her, and it's way too frustrating to me to even try to help her onkey children all over the place. So it was nice to have everybody out of our hair so that we could concentrate better. As usual it took her awhile to get the new concept, but once she has it , she has it.

We also celebarted #1's birthday with her favorite spring rolls and a trip to the pioneer museum in Salt Lake City. We also went to the library that day and I gave a couple of piano lessons, so we didn't get a whole lot of schooling in on Tuesday either. Wednesday was a normal day, but Thursday I spent 2 hours at the dentist with #3 getting a very large cavity fixed. Friday the kids had some extra activities already planned so I had to do my weekly grocery shopping earlier than usual-- so no wonder not everybody finished their schoolwork!

I think we'll be more into it this week although it gets really hard to focus when the weather's nice. Oh yeah-- that's another thing that happened- the secondary water came on and I had to remember how to turn off the sprinklers and once everybody gets outside and out of the routine, it sure is hard to get back. This week should be better-- if we can just make it about 7 more weeks, we'll take a nice long break and then we'll move into our summer schedule.

It sure is nice to write and realize how much we did this week. You can check my other blog for the business of the twins.

Here are some more highlights:

#1 turned 12 and started attending the Young Women's organization at church
she loves it so far and can't wait for girls' camp

#2 was a little sick

We attending cub scout pack meeting for #3 and he loves it-- so does the whole family.

#4 is now riding a 2 wheeler by himself!!! he started learning at the end of last summer and he is so happy to be able to join the other kids on their bikes.

#5 has started reading lessons and he has been the easiest to teach so far-- I guess I'm getting pretty good at it-- and he gave his first talk in Primary at church-- it took some serious bribing, but he did it and is so proud.

#6 loves to walk around by holding 2 hands, but we have tricked him enough that now he'll walk just holding one hand-- walking is in his future

#7 has a few molars that have finally cut through, but there are still more on the way.