A Week, Briefly (#19)

We are approaching normalcy as Baby L reaches 3 months.  (Kind of supports the "4th trimester" theory according to The Happiest Baby on the Block.  I find that interesting.)

We've had such a long break from our regular school, that we all feel like starting a new school year.  However, we all have work to finish from this school year so we're gently working our way back into where we left off.

The older girls and I are continuing with the daily read aloud time we started with Standing for Something and their hunter education manuals.  We're done with both of the above, but now we're reading from Freckles.  It is an absolute win here in our house--even the littles bring in their coloring/quiet toys to play and listen as I read.  I'm trying to gently work us from just reading/listening to actively listening/narrating so that we can turn this book into a springboard for some nature study this summer

We missed the General Women's Meeting from General Conference in March, so we're watching one talk/video a day right now.  I think we'll finish this session up tomorrow.  All of the talks have been about defending and supporting the family as a sacred institution ordained of God.  I'm really enjoying it!

We started up with daily math lessons again.
*E15 is moving forward with Calculus Without Tears.
*M13 backed up to the beginning of her Saxon 8/7 book and is redoing the practice questions for 2 chapters per day.
*S12 is moving forward in her LifePac 4 math.
*J11 is doing the practice questions in her Saxon 6/5 book for 2 chapters per day.  We have a deal that if she has trouble with any of the practice question groups that we'll slow down and give her more work from the problem sets for mastery.
*A8 is finishing up her math book.  We've been doing a few free math problems a day at IXL math, too, and I'm finding a lot more holes in the Critical Thinking Company's scope and sequence than I previously thought. (So now I'm checking out other math programs for next year.)
*H5 is finishing up the math section of her grade 1 comprehensive curriculum workbook.  I don't think it is very comprehensive, but she sure likes adding and subtracting.  :)
*I3 counts what is interesting to him, draws shapes, and generally learns appropriate mathematical principles by living as a 3-year-old should.

A8, H5, and I3 are working on another Hands of a Child unit about Pond Life.  We're visiting local ponds and just seeing what we see.  We made it to one pond last week.  I'm hoping to go back to that one and then try to see another this week.   We're reading library books about ponds, too.  They're just happy to have organized activities to do.

For morning devotionals we're singing primary songs and reading Old Testament stories aloud.

On Friday and Saturday I was able to attend a Homeschool Conference.  I hope to write more about that in order to process some of the information I felt was valuable.   M13 went with me.  She managed to find some friends with whom she attended classes and roamed the vendor hall.  We compared notes at the end of the day and found we both disliked our first classes but loved the rest of them.

While we were gone, the other kids flew kites.  H5 took pictures:

selfie

I erased at least 100 variations of this photo, but that's okay because we still have over a dozen.  The kids were able to fly the kite at the full string length. 

She's rather an experimental photographer. :)

In other news:

S12's arm is not broken after all.  The splint is off, and she's using it well.

A8 got her cast off.  The only repercussion from the waterproof cast is that her skin is sensitive to everything and is broken out in a tender rash.  A little lavender salve has helped tremendously.

Just before heading off to have the cast removed.

And I think this selfie by M13 is super cool.