This weekend I worked on lesson plans for the up coming school year. Since I am using a mix of Memoria Press and Kolbe, it took a big of tweeking, but I think I’ve got it down. I only wrote a week out for the older three kids, so we have room to adjust if need be.

I’m going to admit that my kids are whiners about having to write anything out. Why I’m not sure as they’ve always had to write things out for their school work. There is a lot more writing this year for the older two than there has been in the past and I’m hoping there isn’t much of a rebellion against it. I’ve tried to come up with a good mix of heavy writing days in some subjects and heavy reading days in others so they aren’t “killing” their hands. (As they like to tell me.)

Peter slept pretty well last night. He went to sleep around 9pm and stayed that way until 2am. He nursed then slept again until 645am. He’s mostly happy this morning as am I, plus I folded laundry and made dinner for tonight. (Tacos, if you are interested and everything is prepped for toppings too!)

I’m still trying to get a picture with the real camera for his birth announcement, but he’s not cooperating (and it’s hard to try to make him smile while making sure he’s arranged properly and holding the camera.

Oh and I made s’mores waffles on Sunday, wow, yum.

We started with teaching Margaret to read nearly a year and a half ago. It’s not been an easy road either. Many days a reading lesson ended in tears (on her end) and frustration (on our end). She struggled to remember words she had just learned earlier in the lesson (simple words like to, for example.)

I finally stopped doing actual reading lessons and we just started working on her phonics and having her sit with a book each day to practice reading. This has actually improved her reading skills and now she is able to do much of her school work on her own. She will actually grab a school book and start working on a lesson in the evening or on the weekend.

I am very proud of her.

I am a sucker for giveaways, especially something that will help expand our homeschooling library.

Check this one out:

http://homeschoolgiveaways.com/2012/04/giveaway-memoria-press-famous-men-set/

One of our chickens was attacked by a possum on Monday. I had Karol go out and check on the chickens (mainly their water and food) and the poor kid came in crying, saying that one of the chickens was dead. Karol was so upset and worried how we were going to have enough eggs.

Joshua wasn’t home when Karol discovered the chicken, so I called him while going out to check on things. Sure thing, one of the chickens was dead.  It was a bit surprising as we have had them since January, and they’ve been outside since March (first in a hutch, then in an open pen, where they have lots of room roam).

Karol spent the rest of the day talking a bit about the chicken he found, then playing make believe about chickens who die. I figured this was probably healthy.

When Joshua came home, we assessed the situation and buried the chicken.

That evening, another chicken was attacked, and Joshua discovered it was a possum that was doing the attacking.

The other chicken is still alive though, in the house (in a box), relaxing, receiving tlc from the Facekids (and well, their parents too).

The other chickens have to be put in the hutch at night now, something I am not sure they are fans of and something we aren’t excited about. (We want them to be able to stretch out and peck about as much as possible.)

It looks like we might be needing to get a dog, to protect the chickens. We are looking around for something, but most dogs here that are in our price range (free) are mixed with bird dogs (not good with chickens) or a dangerous breed like pit bull.

Editing this one to say that we did lose the second chicken….but we haven’t seen the possum for a while either. 

I did this a few months back and want to get back to it, so here it goes! 🙂

In my life this week… was fairly busy. Joshua worked Labor Day because he had taken Friday off. I took the kids to our friends’ house in the afternoon for dinner and visiting. It was a  lot of fun, it really did feel like Sunday at my grandparent’s house! The rest of the week was pretty standard, schooling and the like. Last night we went to Mass then I stayed for the Ladies Guild meeting. I think I found my “group”!

In our homeschool this week… We plugged through and did all the assignments and worked ahead in a few things. I realized that we are 3-4 days ahead in the lesson plans. I don’t plan on taking any breaks soon or slowing down, but I like seeing that we are ahead. Karol worked on Declarative Sentences this week. I sometimes wonder about my ability to explain things to him, but he caught on right away! One of the lessons was to write three of his own Declarative Sentences. He did a great job with it!

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… This week will be just schooling and hanging out at home. Joshua travels for his job this coming week, so we will be preparing for being without our Papa.  We are getting new windows on Wednesday and I look forward to that! Our weather has been wonderful down here and I can’t wait to be able to open all the windows! (most of our windows don’t have screens and if they do, the screens are torn.

My favorite thing this week was… Karol telling me why an example was not a sentence…wow, he amazed me. Then he told Joshua about them at dinner.

What’s working/not working for us…Math is a struggle. I am not sure if it is because there are so many problems on the page and that freaks Karol out or if it is because he isn’t getting it. I am leaning toward the former, but I am going to have Joshua work with him tonight to be sure.

Things I’m working on… I am working on some jumpers for the girls and an apron for myself.

I’m cooking…a crockpot of spaghetti sauce!

I’m grateful for…Joshua’s job and a faithful priest as our pastor.

I’m praying for…patience!

As I said in a previous post, I am attempting to get to bed by 10 pm, sans computer, every night. I decided that Friday’s can be a “late” night and I can stay up until 11 pm. I doubt I will make that tonight and knowing that, I actually wrote my blog post on paper  during our usual causal Friday dinner. Yes, I did feel like I was in high school again.

So, as I have also mentioned before, the Homeschooling Conference I attended was pretty amazing. There were many segments of the conference including: The 4 Temperaments, Canon Law, Catholic Culture Revival, Family Cathechesis and, Home Organization and Maintenance.

This post is going to talk about the topic I needed to hear about the most: Home Organization and Maintenance.

This is one of the areas I struggle the most with. I am not a big fan of cleaning. I know, who is? (Oh, that’s right, Andrea is.) I like the end results, I just do not like doing what I have to do to get there. I am also not good at keeping a schedule if I am the only one who is really affected by it if it is not followed.  There were three talks this weekend that touched on Home Organization and Maintenance; below I have listed the suggestions I found most helpful make my life (and home) more organized and maintained.

• Prayer Life = Very Important
• Pray, fast and give alms for the intention of: The unborn, holy souls, and our priests and bishops
• Observe, celebrate and honor the Sabbath and Holy Days
• Make  a schedule
• Set a goal for yourself
• Set a goal for your children
• Start with one thing (anything), master it, then add a second, master it, then add a third….

Yes, some of these things I already do or have done, without really thinking about it, for example, the last one, I have been doing for a long time. I started with just making dinner for my family (then only Joshua) without using a telephone or a drive thru, slowly over time, I was able to work up to making all three meals of the day, mostly from scratch, without much concern and time loss. (Big batches and leftovers, ladies, left overs.)  However, it is so very important to hear these types of suggestions over and over again.

I will break up the steps in to a few different blog posts so that I can focus on each of them without making a super long post. I promise to try not to be boring and to toss in quite a few Facefamily Adventures examples.

Do any of you use Kolbe Academy  for your home school curriculum? If so, can you send me an email at catholicmumma at gmail dot com.

Thanks!