Today- Sept 20th 2010

Today started out a bit rough! the first day back to school after a week long vacation from school proved to be a bit tough. The girls overslept an hour, before i noticed they were not up and doing their stuff at 6:30 but we still managed to start history pretty much on time... i missed Bible! aak! totally forgot about it! not sure how that happened! So we started our day with history, which i'd been giving a great deal of though to. We are using Diana Waring's Romans, Reformers, and Revolotionaries sorta, which by the way is SUPER cheap at AIG- I say sorta because i'm also using All American History Which i do not find the readings to be as engaging as Diana Waring's RRR, (but let's be real- is ANYONE as engaging as Diana Waring? i think not!!!) So what i've settled on doing is i'm going to take 2 weeks to do our readings, some from RRR and some from AAH, instead of just one week on RRR. Then i'm going to take 2 weeks to do more extra reading instead of just one. and then we'll do RRR's 4 week plan as usual, week 3 as one week, week 4 as one week... i think... Anyway, one thing i LOVE about AAH is that it includes worksheets that help them see how well they retained their reading... AND they can be done WITHOUT ME! which i love. It leaves me time i'd have not otherwise had, to... say.... update my blog :-) So YAY AAH! Thanks for the extra freedom :-) So that is done (for me) Anna and Leif are working on starfall, and i just gave the babies who are in baby jail a bowl of dry kix to fight over, so all is well! i do need to be changing them and figuring out what they need next. We don't have much of an established schedule yet- another thing i need to work on today- but MAN am I tired! We'll see... Now that nik's schedule has changed, (he goes to the public school for math and language i need to rework things a bit. So today will be a light day- at least on the mom needed stuff. The kids have PLENTY to do... in fact, they have way too much to do. Our school day is WAY longer than it should be. I have to figure out how to fix that too.

so what are you all doing for history and how is it going for you?

the last few weeks...

I have been negligent in keeping up with my blogging! what can i say? I guess homeschooling 5 and keeping twin 1yo's alive is taking all my energy :-) but i do have some fun pics to share...

This is Elliott. We don't remember what he was laughing at, but I suspect it was my wardrobe!



This is Asher, He's at home outside. He's an outdoorsy kid and lately, its about the only thing that will make him happy, other than cuddling mommy to sleep, holding my ear.


The next couple pics are of us playing science with our AWESOMELY fun new curriculum! We have Astronomy right now, and will be doing several others through the year, thank you very much CVA!
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This is what my house looks like after i've been working with all the kids during our morning group school, babies run wild! elliott sneaks off with bananas frequently and eats them, sometimes WITH the skin, sometimes NOT! this time, thankfully was NOT!

Our first art project!!!

Thanks so much to JoAnn who totally turned me on to the amazing ART SITE that we are now doing lessons from! Its a fantastic site with directions based on a particular artist, holiday, etc.

This week we learned about Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an Austrian painter and sculptor, lived from 1928-2000 and was known as the greatest Austrian painter of his time. He had a distinct personality, and his own individual quirks. He thought straight lines were evil, and even designed a building with floors that weren't even. He was also an avid environmentalist. We had a great time learning about him. They we did a self portrait- Hundertwasser style, complete with a round head, large eyes, a funky nose and pointed lips! Anna made Dad's in addition to her own, and Nik made the twins in addition to his own! I helped Leif with his form, and some of the features, and I drew anna's head shape and frame and she did the rest.

with no further ado.. here they are!!!!