Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, I need to stop and take a breather! What a busy week we have had so far.  Doctor's appointments, orthodontist appointments, vet appointments, etc.  It seems like everything is happening this week.  Between all the appointments I have been cleaning up cat poop, pee and throw up.  Oh and trying to keep the ants from coming in the front door.  I am just waiting for the next drama or problem to surface.  Hopefully that does not happen because the week is not going to get any easier.  Tomorrow is an Ob appointment for me and I need to make sure I am prepared for the first American Heritage Girls meeting of the year. This year I am the explorer leader so my responsibilities have greatly increased.  But I am really looking forward to meeting all the girls and having a great year!  Once that is over comes a Friday of lots of packing.  We are leaving for Tennessee on Saturday (can't wait, we are very excited!) for our vacation where I will get a much needed rest.

Somehow in between all this chaos we managed to get some school work done.  Not all the subjects but have been focusing on the basics of math, spelling, science and Latin.  Christopher is learning about levers in his science book and completed a very interesting experiment that I attempted to capture on video.

In the experiment he made a lever.  The ruler was the rigid bar and the pencil was the fulcrum.  The dime is the effort  being applied to the lever.  The stack of quarters is the resistance or weight that is being lifted.  He learned that by using a lever you can move objects that would otherwise be impossible to lift.

Now after we come back from vacation my plan is to really slow down.  Right now I am 7 weeks pregnant and can't continue at this pace.  I think that is part of the reason why I have been trying to do everything I can while I still can.  Now just to make it to Saturday morning.  Tennessee here we come!

Renaissance Festival

So we had another fun field trip this week.  Since we won't be going on any for a while after the baby is born I am getting in as many as I can.  We went to the Renaissance Festival which is usually not open on a Friday except for one.  They do this for especially for school aged kids so it was much less crowded and they shows were a little more kid friendly.

These are they gnomes we saw at the entrance.  Aren't they cute?

We saw a very funny puppet show.  Amber was being to shy to sit on stage.

They loved this ride.  Emily and Amber were all smiles but a little dizzy when they got off.

Emily and Amber both had their faces painted.  Lovely!

This is Dead Bob who was very funny.  The kids loved all his dead jokes like Barney getting his head eaten off by a T-Rex.

Christopher demonstrating how to use his new sword.

Amber showing off her new crown and Christopher his new cloke.

Overall, we had a great time.  We saw a joust and our knight lost, saw some funny shows, bought costumes and did some shopping.

Apple Picking Time

It's one of my favorite times of the year, fall!  I love going apple picking and we had perfect weather for it.  It is still early in the season so their are a lot of apples that are not ready yet.  We picked a lot of Gala, Empire and a few Cortland.

Of course we had to taste them first to make sure they were good!

We got a ride out to the orchard with some of our friends from the Macomb Christian Homeschool group.

Here is Amber sitting with the other Mom's.  

Of course we had to have cider and donuts while we were there.  They also played in a playground and saw some farm animals which they fed.

Now it's time to go make some pies! YUMMY!

New Lego Store Fieldtrip

Not many school books were opened today.  A new Lego Store opened up in Somerset Mall and we had to go see it.  Christopher's pockets were overflowing with money given to him for his birthday.

And we definitely were not the only ones skipping school today.  There were a lot of other homeschoolers there as well.  Christopher purchased a kit for the Empire State building, a Racers kit and an alien key chain.  He even bought Emily a Lego set which had a couple of cars and a gas station.  

They also were able to assist in building what is going to be an 8 ft tall buzz lightyear.  Even Amber enjoyed this part!

This trip definitely renewed an interest in Lego's for all the kids which makes me happy because I love Legos!

All About Rome

Rome is the main topic of study in the house right now.  We are reading stories from the book Famous Men of Rome learning about all the major battles and important figures in Roman History.  We have read about the founder of Rome Romulus, Numa Pompilius, the Tarquins, Horatius, Cincinnatus and Manlius Torquatus to name just a few.  We are also learning about the many battles that they fought such as with the Etruscans, Gauls, Carthaginians, etc.  Yesterday they built an aqueduct which was used by the Romans to get fresh water to the city.

The kids had a great time building this but unfortunately it did not last long before it sprung a leak.

Today Christopher attended his first meeting with the Junior Classical League group.  It is a group that gets together to learn all things Classical such as Latin, Greek and Roman history, etc.  It seems like it will be a lot of fun.  They started a time line, made dormice and watched a movie called Roman City where he actually was able to see an aqueduct.  Here is the dormouse that he made:

Of course this is not the real thing like the Roman's ate.  Their dormice was more like this:

Baked dormice: "Stuff  the dormice with minced pork or the meat of other dormice chopped up with herbs, pepper and pine nuts. Sew up the dormice and cook in a small oven."

I think I like the chocolate one better!

On Eagle's Wings, A Memorial

Today in church we sang this song, On Eagle's Wings. I have always loved this song. Then I found this video with it which gives it even more meaning. It is a memorial to all the babies who have died prematuraly from abortion, miscarriage or any other reason. It so comforting to think of these babies in heaven with Jesus. I have a sister who died when she was a few days old and I look forward to seeing her one day in heaven.

Science Experiments -Surface Tension

Christopher's science book, Apologia General Science, had about five science experiments that he completed on Tuesday.  He was looking forward to it at first but after finishing off the first two it became a little tiresome.  But with a little help he was able to get them all done.  The goal of the experiments was to learn about the surface tension of water.  Here is some pictures from one of his experiments:

First he filled a bowl with water and sprinkled on pepper.  Than he had to dip in various objects and observe what happens.

Tweezers - nothing happened

Tissue - pepper moved away slightly

Piece of soap - surface tension of the water was broken and the pepper was pushed away towards the sides of the bowl.

Weekly Schedules

I cannot stand making schedules and sticking to them.  Something always interferes so I have to change the schedule or we forget to check the schedule.  It has been a struggle to find a routine that works for us, one where the kids have a good idea of what to expect but is not so strict.  I have tried the schedules that are broken down by time like 8:00 Eat breakfast, 8:30 morning chores, 9:00 Bible Lesson, etc.  Those always ended in complete failure.  Most of the time I have done just the opposite and have done school completely random depending on the day.  That worked somewhat but the kids never knew how much work they had to do day to day and I think that affected their motivation and attitude.  Then one day I made a discovery.  Whenever I leave them a checklist while they are with their Grandma they always got their work done quickly and without complaint.  So I have started making weekly checklists of all the school work that they are expected to do.

It is very flexible if something interferes with their work and I try to give them a little freedom in completing some assignments.  It has worked wonderfully. We have been doing this for about three weeks now.  Occasionally the kids need reminders to check their list for assignments but overall they are doing a fabulous job of getting their work done.  Besides school work I have also put on the lists some chores, practicing the piano and daily reading requirements.  

The hard part for me is sticking with this system.  I have such a hard time getting into habits but I know the kids need this so that is a big motivator.  It really is working.  So I just need to be disciplined and do the preparation work every weekend.  By doing this it has also allowed me to relax a little during the week and not be worried about getting their assignments together.  Also the form was a template in Word so making the checklist was a breeze.