Revamping the Blog!

So I've done some brainstorming and have decided the direction to take this blog in. Yes, I will still talk about our adventures in learning and the books we are reading but I am going to start expanding into other topics - like what I'm reading! ;)

No, seriously, mostly what I am going to do is start expanding on the topics we already cover (so, yes, my books that I am reading will be mentioned) and slowly introduce other topics that I always wanted to talk about but never felt were really relevant to the blog (like cooking, working out, our daily lives, etc.) as well as topics that I've touched upon briefly when it directly related to homeshcooling but never really expanded upon (like our family trips, autism, our holidays, etc.)

I'm going to recatagorize everything, delete some pages, put up some new ones, fix the layout, and probably rename the blog. I haven't decided what yet - right now I've figured everything out BUT the new name.

I figure it'll probably take a full week for me to get all of this done with all the other changes in our lives going on around us but I look forward to the blogs new look - and new name!

So keep checking in all week to see anything new going on!

Moving

Well, that's that.

The moving van is pretty much loaded, our bags are packed, and the car is just missing us in it.

Tomorrow we leave to drive across the country and start our new life.

Obviously, while we are going I will not be putting up any new posts. As it is I'm not even sure what any new posts for this blog will look like. It should take us about a week to get to our destination then it'll take us a day or two to recover.

Then in the midst of job hunting, job interviews, apartment hunting, enrolling my kids in school, etc I will figure out this blog.

I hope I'm not gone too long.

Good-bye... Or Not?

I put this post up on facebook today and wished to share it here with you:

That's it! As of THIS moment, we are officially DONE with homeschooling finishing our final week early so we could end before we moved.

For the past 7 years I have homeschooled Optimus Prime & Bumblebee. 5 of those years we homeschooled for 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year for 1-6 hours a day (depending on their age, their grade, the topic, etc) and for the last 2 years (after I started Scooby-Doo on a fuller schedule) we homeschooled for 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year, for 5-6 hours a day.

For the past 3 years I have homeschooled Scooby-Doo. For the first year, it was for 5 days a week, a full 52 weeks, for an hour a day. After I switched Optimus Prime & Bumblebee to a lighter schedule for a year Scooby-Doo did school work for 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year, for 1-2 hours a day. For his final year I wised up and combined some subjects that Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were doing with what Scooby-Doo was doing. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were doing Norse Mythology for a few weeks? So was Scooby-Doo. Optimus Prime & Bumblebee were doing animals in Science? So was Scooby-Doo. So while his final year was also 5 days a week, 48 weeks a year, 2 hours a day one of those hours overlapped with his big brothers.

I don't even want to think about how many hours of schoolwork that was!!!

During this time period we covered so many topics I couldn't even begin to remember them all!!! The food pyramid, how to grow a garden, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Rome, knights, pirates, mythology (including Norse, Greek, Roman, Mayan, Incan, Aztec, Native American, Chinese, etc), religions, seasons, holidays, outer space, dinosaurs, the ice age, early humans, sharks, Texas, Native Americans, King Arthur, elephants, horses, volcanoes, earthquakes, ancient China, germs, desserts, bugs, the food chain, bats, whales, wild cats, farms, the arctic and antarctic, oceans, rainforests, robots, and a MILLION other topics I can't even begin to recall.

We learned about geography, history, math, English, Spanish, cooking, spelling, reading, handwriting, and a ton of other subjects I can't remember off the top of my head.

Plus there was t-ball, archery, fitness classes, Scooby-Doo's therapy, cloverbuds, whatever else I can't remember, and twice a week trips to our local library for new books to read.

We've lived in Alaska & Texas, visited multiple zoos, dinosaur parks & museums, national & state parks, many caves, gone hiking, seen glaciers, taken cruises, gone panning for gold, and who knows what else.

And somewhere, in the midst of that, I started reading the boys chapter books every day. At this point in time, we've read over 200 chapter books in over 15 series together as a family!!!

It has been a crazy, fun-filled, information packed 7 years!!! And while I am sorry to see it end - especially since I never thought it would - I am so excited for me & my babies to start our next chapter together in New York!

Celebratory End Of Homeschooling Night Out To Dinner here we come!!!

It WAS a fun ride, and I am very sorry to see it go, but we are excited to move on to the next chapter in our lives. After I posted this I recieved an overwhelimg amout of support from my family and frieds who openly admitted to being "in awe" of my "dedication!" I also recieved comments begging me not to end my blog but to continue it on in another form. I've decided to do that. I'm not wholly sure yet what form that will be (it will definetly include books) but once we get to New York I look forward to figuring that out.

Until then, though, this is it. Our FINAL homeschooling post! It is very bitter-sweet. Bitter because I thought we would always do this, sweet because we are looking forward to our new future...

Quarterly Curriculum May - July 2016

I had to do a bit of reshuffling this quarter to the schedule I had initially written up to ensure that we finished certain workbooks we had started before our move. I did not include page numbers because they varied day by day to ensure we finished our started workbooks.

Optimus Prime & Bumblebee:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday

Subjects:

Science - Learning about different animals (broken into units) with some reading comprehension thrown into the mix.
Days - Every other day.
Textbooks - The Complete Book of Animals Grades 1-3 (American Education Publishing).

Art/Logic - Painting, other activities, etc.
Days - Every other day.
Textbooks - None.

Math - Addition, subtraction, fractions, counting by 5's & 10's, time, money, etc. 
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - ARandom started books.

English - Learning the difference between vowels and consonants, learning how to sound words out, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, rhyming words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, sentences, punctuation marks, reading comprehension, etc.
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - Random started books.

Reading - Reading books.
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - Story books.

Scooby-Doo:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday

Subjects:

Magazine - His fun character magazines that cover letter sounds, counting, picture finds, etc.
Days - Every Sunday.
Textbooks - Character Magazines.

Art/Logic - Painting, other activities, etc.
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - None.

Math - Basic introduction to math concepts like addition, money, time, etc. 
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - Random started books.

English - Learning the difference between vowels and consonants, learning how to sound words out, synonyms, antonyms, compound words, rhyming words, nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, sentences, punctuation marks, reading comprehension, etc.
Days - Every day.
Textbooks - Random started books.

Reading - Every day together.

Final Notes:

• This is our final quarter of homeschooling finishing up our final school year.
• There were only 4 subjects for Optimus Prime & Bumblebee
• I dropped Spelling for our final quarter and we just did reading.
• Science and Art were alternated between

Done...?

For personal reasons, my husband and I have decided that my children and I should move to upstate New York to be with my family. Because of this, I will no longer be able to homeschool.

This makes my heart very heavy. All I ever dreamed of was having lots of children and homeschooling them  - a dream that, in part, my husband shared. Now not only is our marriage over but my children and I have to move across the country and I have to enroll them in school.

This is crushing.

I'm not sure what direction this blog will move in. Maybe I'll talk about fun projects we do now that we no longer homeschool? Maybe I'll speak more about good homeschooling memories? Maybe I'll talk about autism? My job? My kids schoolwork? Our family in general? The books we are reading? Or maybe I'll just end it.

I really don't know.

I will put up our remaining posts relevant to this quarter. Normally I put them up at the end of the quarter/beginning of the next quarter but this time I'll try to have them all up by the summer quarters end.

Then we will move to New York. Then I need to figure out the path my children and I (and yes, even this blog) will take.

3rd Grade Spelling Units #25-36

I just realized I never put up this post!!! To make matters worse, I had never actually finished it and their spelling notebooks filled with these spelling words have long since been thrown out! However, I still had the rough initial post so I feel like I can go ahead and finish it up with their reading schedule.

Optimus Prime did chapter books this whole quarter. He read 1-2 chapters a day. It was a huge jump up for him and despite stumbling a LOT he did really, really excellent! I was so proud of him and he was so proud of himself!!! This next quarter we will scale back on chapter books a bit but that is information for another post.

As for Bumblebee, his reading improves each day. He still isn't at grade level but each day that goes by he does better and better. He worked on level 1 & level 2 books. Level 1 books we spent one day reading, level 2 books were split up over 2 days.

Lastly, Scooby-Doo did have spelling each day, but like I said, his notebook got tossed too so his list was never saved... However, he did enjoy doing spelling just like his big brothers!

Optimus Prime:

Units #25-28 - Pokemon Junior

1. Surf's Up, Pikachu!
2. Meowth, the Big Mouth
3. Save our Squirtle!
4. Bulbasaur's Bad Day
5. Two of a Kind

Units #29-32 - Wonder Woman

1. Trial of the Amazons
2. Monster Magic
3. Creature of Chaos
4. Attack of the Cheetah

Units #33-36 - Magic Tree House

1. Dinosaurs Before Dark
2. The Knight at Dawn
3. Mummies in the Morning
4. Pirates Past Noon

Bumblebee:

Unit #25 - Disney

1. Dumbo
2. Bambi
3. Peter Pan
4. Lady and the Tramp
5. Alice in Wonderland

Unit #26 - Toy Story

1. The Bunny Surprise
2. Buzz's Backpack Adventure
3. A Spooky Adventure
4. Christmas Toys

Unit #27 - Pixar

1. Just Keep Swimming
2. Run, Remy, Run!
3. A Cars Christmas
4. Boo on the Loose
5. Driving Buddies

Unit #28 - Frozen

1. Big Snowman, Little Snowman
2. Hello, Olaf!
3. Anna's Best Friends
4. A Tale of Two Sisters
5. The Christmas Party

Unit #29 - Tangled/Cinderella

1. Kingdom of Color
2. Cinderella's Count Down to the Ball
3. Outside My Window
4. A Dream for a Princess

Unit #30 - For a Princess

1. Friends for a Princess
2. A Pony for a Princess
3. Surprise for a Princess
4. A Pet for a Princess

Unit #31 - Thomas the Tank Engine

1. The Close Shave
2. Thomas and the Jet Engine
3. Santa's Little Engine
4. Easter Engine
5. Happy Birthday, Thomas!

Unit #32 - Thomas the Tank Engine/Batman

1. Thomas Goes Fishing
2. The Rocket Returns
3. Trouble in the Tunnel
4. Going Bananas

Unit #33 - Batman

1. Flying High
2. Brain Freeze
3. T Rex Trouble!
4. Crime Wave!

Unit #34 - Princess Seasons

1. Princess Hearts
2. The Sweetest Spring
3. A Fairy-Tale Fall
4. Winter Wishes

Unit #35 - Princess Pets

1. Princesses and Puppies
2. Snuggle Buddies
3. Sealed with a Kiss
4. Travel Like a Princess

Unit #36 - Princess Stories

1. What is a Princess?
2. The Perfect Dress
3. A Cake to Bake
4. Sleeping Beauty

Home! Home! Home!

We are home (yay!) after a nice (but busy!) trip to upstate New York. We had a nice break from homeschooling and job hunting but now it's "once more unto the breach"...

Well, that applies more to job hunting then homeschooling...

New York

We are currently in New York visiting some family and seeing some sights. We've gone to the Adirondacks, hung out at Chuck E Cheese's, seen some local museums, and visited a LOT of family! We still intend to go to Howe Caverns and see even more family so right now is a VERY busy time! More to come soon!

Quarterly Curriculum February - April 2016

Last quarter was very touch and go almost up until the very end. Then, thankfully, FINALLY, everything fell into place. That made me VERY eager to move on to a full schedule this quarter.

This quarter I was very excited to bring back "core" subjects and "secondary" subjects. I had always loved our rotating schedule and was very sad when I had to retire it. It was supposed to be a temporary retirement, no more than a year, but it wound up being longer because I wasn't ready to bring it back until we brought Spanish back and I wasn't ready to bring Spanish back until at least one child mastered reading. Yes, you read that right, we are FINALLY bringing back Spanish! And yes, not only has Optimus Prime mastered reading but Bumblebee has really advanced these past three months. He's not there yet but he is close enough that I feel confident to bring back Spanish!

Optimus Prime:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday.

Core Subjects:

Math - Addition, subtraction, time, money, etc. 
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - No workbooks. This quarter to help Optimus Prime catch up he's doing worksheets tailor-made for him.
Number of Pages - 3

Spelling - Spelling words & units practiced in print and cursive.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets.
Number of Pages - 2

English - Phonics and reading comprehension.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Brain Quest Workbook Grade 2 (Workman Publishing), Comprehensive Curriculum Grade 2 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 3

Secondary Subjects:

Science - Learning all about animals, insects, and classifications.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - Exploring Animals (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 2-3

History/Geography/Religion - Norse Mythology and King Arthur.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths (New York Review Children's Collection), Tales of King Arthur (Anness Publishing).
Number of Pages - N/A

Logic/Art - Same/different, mazes, dot-to-dots, coloring etc.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - Random books.
Number of Pages - 4

Spanish - Learning Spanish
Days - Every three days
Textbooks - Exploring Spanish (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 2-3

Handwriting - Basic composition and handwriting.
Days - Every three days
Textbooks - Scooby-Doo Printing Practice (Bendon), Spider-Man Printing Practice (Bendon).
Number of Pages - 2-3

Other "Subjects":

Reading - Reading chapter (!!!) books on his own.

Bumblebee:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday.

Core Subjects:

Math - Addition, subtraction, time, money, multiplication, etc. 
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Sponge Bob Addition and Subtraction (Bendon), Disney Princess Addition & Subtraction (Bendon), Disney Addition and Subtraction (Bendon), Spider-Man Addition and Subtraction (Bendon), Disney Princess Addition and Subtraction (Bendon), Disney Addition and Subtraction (Bendon), Disney Time and Money (Bendon).
Number of Pages - 3

Spelling - Spelling words & units practiced in print and cursive.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets.
Number of Pages - 2

English - Phonics and reading comprehension.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - Brain Quest Workbook Grade 2 (Workman Publishing), Comprehensive Curriculum Grade 2 (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 3

Secondary Subjects:

Science - Learning all about animals, insects, and classifications.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - Exploring Animals (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 2-3

History/Geography/Religion - Norse Mythology and King Arthur.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths (New York Review Children's Collection), Tales of King Arthur (Anness Publishing).
Number of Pages - N/A

Logic/Art - Same/different, mazes, dot-to-dots, coloring etc.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - Random books.
Number of Pages - 4

Spanish - Learning Spanish
Days - Every three days
Textbooks - Exploring Spanish (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 2-3

Multiplication - Practicing multiplication and division.
Days - Every three days
Textbooks - No workbook. This quarter Bumblebee has a second math class with just multiplication to help him get the concept down better with tailor made worksheets for him.
Number of Pages - 2-3

Other "Subjects":

Reading - Reading level 1 and some level 2 books on his own.

Scooby-Doo:

Schoolwork on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday.

Core Subjects:

Spelling - Spelling words & units practiced in print.
Days - Everyday
Textbooks - None, just loose worksheets.
Number of Pages - 1

Secondary Subjects:

Science - Learning all about animals, insects, and classifications.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - Exploring Animals (American Education Publishing).
Number of Pages - 2-3

History/Geography/Religion - Norse Mythology and King Arthur.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths (New York Review Children's Collection), Tales of King Arthur (Anness Publishing).
Number of Pages - N/A

Logic/Art - Same/different, mazes, dot-to-dots, coloring etc.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - Random books.
Number of Pages - 5

English - Phonics and reading comprehension.
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - Beginning Sounds (School Zone), Letter Stories (Mead), Phonics (Bendon), Disney Phonics and Reading (Bendon).
Number of Pages - 4

Addition - Basic addition problems to help him learn the concept. 
Days - Three days a week
Textbooks - Numbers and Counting (Bendon), Let's Grow Smart Workbook: Numbers 1-12 (Dalmatian Press), Disney Numbers and Counting (Bendon), Mathematics Practice Workbook K (Silver Burdett Ginn)
Number of Pages - 4

Other "Subjects":

Reading - Reading together every day.

Some final notes:

• Spelling units are directly tied to what we are reading.
• For this quarter we have two Concept Weeks and they are tied into our History/Geography/Religion class and our Science class. There were no Concept Week posts.
• One of Optimus Prime's "secondary" subjects was Handwriting because his penmanship desperately needed it. Bumblebee did a second Math class during this time period where he just focused on multiplication. 
• The local elementary school has denied Scooby-Doo all of his therapy since we will not enroll him there in pre-k. He is, however, still doing speech therapy twice a week.
• Even though Scooby-Doo is only at pre-k age he will be doing kindergarten work this quarter as well as some pre-k.
• Scooby-Doo starts Concept Weeks this quarter. They are tied into his Science schoolwork.

A Break

I know it has been a bit since I posted and it will be a bit longer still. My husband has requested a divorce and I am unsure how this is going to effect our family or my homeschooling our children. I will obviously have to get a full time job now to support me & my kids and right this moment while I still want to homeschool I am unsure if that is even possible in the future. We are, at the very least, going to continue on with our summer quarter. It will be greatly abridged, though. We need to pack, I need to job hunt, we need to contact lawyers and/or mediators, etc. Plus we have decided that my boys and I should go to New York to visit my family for a couple of weeks so we can have that support during this upsetting time. I should resume posting by the middle of April.

Right now please just keep us in your thoughts.

The Flash

Synopsis - Barry Allen, aka The Flash, aka The Fastest Man Alive is a police forensic scientist who has an alter-superhero ego called The Flash. He runs around Central City solving crimes and taking down super villains.

Wandering Falcon - "I'm not a huge fan of the Flash (I prefer superheroes without superpowers) but these books were pretty good."

Optimus Prime - "I really like Weather Wizard and believe me he did none of the crimes that day. I also liked Fire and Ice. Fire and Ice, they are opposites, but when Captian Cold and Heat Wave shot at each other and end up making a two story building don't you think about running through because half of you will become ash and dust and the other side will become so frozen and cold it will make you break into a hundred thousand pieces. So unless you have a force field you can't get through. And trust me a big suit of armor will not help one little bit because one side will melt and your shoulder will get burned a lot lot lot and the other side will freeze so much that your armor will break. But actually maybe by that point in time you could have gotten through to the other side and survived."

Bumblebee - "I liked The Attack of Professor Zoom! I liked when Captain Cold froze the volcano. And, I liked the robots."

The Flash**

1. The Attack of Professor Zoom
2. Captain's Cold Arctic Eruption
3. Gorilla Warfare
4. Wrath of the Weather Wizard
5. Captain Boomerang's Comeback!
6. Trickster's Bubble Trouble
7. Clock King's Time Bomb
8. Master of Mirrors!
9. Ice and Fire
10. Killer Kaleidoscope
11. Shell Shocker
12. Shadow of the Sun

** These books are not numbered, so they are listed in the order that we read them.  Also, for these books I have not listed an author since they are too much like comic books with multiple authors, illustrators, and creators.

Bit of a Break

Taking a week or two off. Will be back soon with more posts!!!

Scooby-Doo Mystery!

Synopsis - Once again (after this series and this series) Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo go around stumbling upon - and solving - mysteries.

Wandering Falcon - "I gotta say, I was pretty bummed after we finished our last two Scooby-Doo chapter book series so I was so pretty excited to discover this one! Then I was bummed when I found out this series only had three books. However, I gotta say, they weren't as well written as the last two series we read so maybe that was why there was only three? However, despite that, they were pretty good. It was just a big letdown that there were not more. Maybe one day they'll make more - and if so we will read them - but I doubt it since the last one was written almost three years ago."

Optimus Prime - "The books are amazing."

Bumblebee - "I LOVED 'Pirate Cove,' the hotel was creepy, and Ice Giant (SPOILER) used salt."

Scooby-Doo Mystery by Kate Howard

1. The Hotel of Horrors
2. The Frozen Giant
3. The Haunting of Pirate Cove

The Magic School Bus

I just gotta ask, who doesn't absolutely love Ms. Frizzle?!?!?!? I'm pretty sure "no one" is the correct answer!

Synopsis - This series follows around Ms. Frizzle and her class as they go on wacky, outrageous - and completely implausible, often overnight on the other side of the world - science-based field trips.

Wandering Falcon - "I loved Ms. Frizzle as a kid (even though I was a bit too old for her) and I love her even more as an adult! Some of the books were better written than others, and some seemed to overlap a bit (like "Twister Trouble" and "Electric Storm" which both covered thunderstorms and tornadoes in their own ways) but overall they were very enjoyable and even taught me some things I had no clue about. And the amount of random information my kids retained is unreal!!! Bumblebee STILL goes on about the first full moon after Christmas and how that's the only time of year some plant or animal in Australia's great barrier reef lays it's eggs - and we read that book months ago. Optimus Prime STILL goes on about their bat adventure even though we must of read that book almost a year ago now! They were very good books and my boys all loved them."

Optimus Prime - "They are good. Okay, they are great. I liked the bats!"

Bumblebee - "I LOVED all of them! Especially the dinosaur one!"

The Magic School Bus Chapter Books by Eva Moore (EM), Jennifer Johnston (JJ), Anne Capeci (AC), Rebecca Carmi (RC), Judith Stamper (JS), Nancy White (NW), Martin Schwabacher (MS), and Gail Herman (GH)

1. The Truth About Bats (EM)
2. The Search for the Missing Bones (EM)
3. The Wild Whale Watch (EM)
4. Space Explorers (EM)
5. Twister Trouble (EM)
6. The Giant Germ (EM)
7. The Great Shark Escape (JJ)
8. Penguin Puzzle (EM)
9. Dinosaur Detective (JS)
10. Expedition Down Under (RC)
11. Insect Invaders (AC)
12. Amazing Magnetism (RC)
13. Polar Bear Patrol (JS)
14. Electric Storm (AC)
15. Voyage to the Volcano (JS)
16. Butterfly Battle (NW)
17. Food Chain Frenzy (AC)
18. The Fishy Field Trip (MS)
19. Color Day Relay (GH)
20. Rocky Road Trip (JS)

Concept Weeks #52-55/21-24: New Years Day and the Chinese Lunar New Year, Rainforests, the Inca, Maya, and Aztec, & Robots

Like I said in my last post, this is our final Concept Week post. For a while now these posts have been out of date but I've been clinging to them out of habit. I'm not sure what direction the new posts will go in but I'll hopefully have it figured out by the end of February.

Now, this month, together Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, & Scooby-Doo worked on four Concept Weeks. They were New Years Day and the Chinese Lunar New Year, Rainforests, the Inca, Maya, and Aztec, and Robots.

For each Concept Week they had a lapbook filled with information and fun worksheets and each day I read them a book (or two or three) pertaining to the topic. Some of the books were fun story books, others were full of information about the topic. It depended on what the library (and we) had.

Month in Review: January 2016

This month we finally, finally, FINALLY got our act together! I'm so proud of us!

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee worked on Math (Optimus Prime on 2nd grade math with a little bit of 3rd grade math, Bumblebee on 3rd grade math), English (phonics, consonant blends, alphabetical order, logic problems, riddles, comparing and contrasting, and reading comprehension), and Spelling & Reading (see this post for Optimus Prime and this post for Bumblebee).

Scooby-Doo worked on Handwriting (the alphabet, letter sounds, numbers, and counting), Art (coloring), and Logic (same and different, mazes, dot-to-dots, look and find, etc).

Together they worked on four Concept Weeks. They were New Years & the Chinese Lunar New Year, Rainforests, the Maya, Inca, & Aztec, and Robots - all of which I will cover in the Concept Week post (hopefully) tomorrow.

Also, I have decided that this is our final Month in Review post - and tomorrow's Concept Week post is our final one as well. I'm not sure what I'm going to do instead. I'm thinking of maybe doing posts about each unit after they are completed. I haven't decided yet. What I do know is for a while now these posts have been pretty obsolete and I've been clinging to them out of habit. I need to let them go. I'll let you know when I've decided what I am going to do instead.

Concept Weeks #48-51/17-20: Farms, Oceans, Arctic and Antarctic, & Yule and Christmas

Together Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, & Scooby-Doo worked on four Concept Weeks. They were Farms, Oceans, the Arctic and Antarctic, and Yule and Christmas.

For each Concept Week they had a lapbook filled with information and fun worksheets and each day I read them a book (or two or three) pertaining to the topic. Some of the books were fun story books, others were full of information about the topic. It depended on what the library (and we) had.

Month in Review: December 2015

This month we were a bit better off, but we still had a hard time keeping it together. We finally had our act together then we took a week of for Christmas & Yule, so that set us back a bit and had us scrambling to get back on schedule.

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee worked on Math (Optimus Prime on 2nd grade math, Bumblebee on 3rd grade math - he really is loving his multiplication), English (phonics, punctuation, adjectives, paragraphs, antonyms, synonyms, homophones, contractions, dictionaries, rhyming words, and reading comprehension), and Spelling & Reading (see this post for Optimus Prime and this one for Bumblebee).

Scooby-Doo worked on Handwriting (the alphabet, letter sounds, numbers, and counting), Art (coloring), and Logic (same and different, mazes, dot-to-dots, look and find, etc).

Together they worked on four Concept Weeks. They were Farms, Oceans, the Arctic & Antarctic, and Yule & Christmas - all of which I will cover in the Concept Week post (hopefully) tomorrow.

Concept Weeks #44-47/13-16: Halloween, Dinosaurs, After Dinosaurs, & Thanksgiving

From here on out any Concept Weeks will be done by all three of them together (except for one final quarter that I'm planning on for our Summer quarter). Obviously Optimus Prime & Bumblebee had harder work than Scooby-Doo but overall the work was more or less the same.

Together they worked on four Concept Weeks. They were Halloween, Prehistoric/Dinosaur Era, Prehistoric/Early Man Era, and Thanksgiving.

For each Concept Week they had a lapbook filled with information and fun worksheets and each day I read them a book (or two or three) pertaining to the topic. Some of the books were fun story books, others were full of information about the topic. It depended on what the library (and we) had.

Month in Review: November 2015

I'd love to say that this month we had our act together. But alas, no. We did better than all of last quarter put together but we were still all over the place. Part of the problem was Halloween, a family visit, a family birthday, and Thanksgiving. Part of the problem was just plain us.

Optimus Prime and Bumblebee worked on Math (Optimus Prime on 2nd grade math, Bumblebee on 3rd grade math), English (phonics, sentence structure, nouns, poems, verbs, and reading comprehension), and Spelling & Reading (see this post for Optimus Prime and this one for Bumblebee).

Scooby-Doo worked on Handwriting (the alphabet, letter sounds, numbers, and counting), Art (coloring), and Logic (same and different, mazes, dot-to-dots, look and find, etc).

Together they worked on four Concept Weeks. They were Halloween, Prehistoric/Dinosaur Era, Prehistoric/Early Man Era, and Thanksgiving - all of which I will cover in the Concept Week post (hopefully) tomorrow.