In my life this week...We got baby chicks! We have had our baby chicks for almost 2 weeks, and it's still so fun to hear their little chirps. You can see pictures of them here at Our Chicken Journal. The kids ask to hold the chicks at least daily, but I'm thankful that they aren't over bearing wanting to hold them all day long. So far having baby chicks has been a wonderful experience for the kids, and we are learning a lot!
In our homeschool this week...I decided to nix the workboxes. I have been feeling like the workboxes maybe aren't working for us, just creating too much busy work. But, I love them, and I will miss them. I keep having these panic attacks when I think about them being gone too. I feel like one of my best organizational tools for homeschool just up and left. I'm still trying to find my ground without them. We'll see. I can always bring them back. That's what I keep telling myself, breathe. I just want to see how we do without them.
In other homeschool this week we started reading The Easter story, doing some activities that go along with each day's reading, and learning some scriptures. One day we made palm branches out of construction paper, and practiced saying "Hosanna". The little boys really liked that. I love those sweet moments!
Places we're going and people we're seeing...we went to the dentist this week. All 3 older kids got checked out. They love going to the dentist. They go to a really neat children's dentist that just has such a fun atmosphere complete with toys, cool rooms with themes, and of course prizes at the end. It was Aric's first time actually seeing the dentist, and he did great for the cleaning. Since he was so reluctant, they didn't push anything else. They all checked out with no cavities, yay! They love being a part of the "no cavity club". I don't know how they have such perfect teeth. Really, they don't brush consistently. I'm thankful though!
My favorite thing this week was...the drawings and pictures that the kids made of their baby chicks.
What's working/not working for us...the way we currently school is not working for us. Like I mentioned earlier, the workboxes, and other things. Getting through the school day seems to be a hit or miss, and that needs to change. I'm in the middle of re-shaping our homeschool yet again. I find that I'm doing this often, and it's good I guess. I just wish I could find a groove and stick with it. I think we are getting closer though.
Questions/thoughts I have...how do I organize the kids' school work? I loved that the workboxes were a nice physical place to store the books and papers for each child for each day. Now I feel like I just have stacks of books and papers that I have to dig through to find what we need to work on next. I don't like that. Maybe I'll use some sort of folder system.
I'm reading...a lot of random things. Books about caring for chickens. Trying to get back into "The Little House on the Prairie". And, of course, always reading lots of blogs.
I'm cooking...not much this week
A photo, video, link, or quote to share...
Our salt dough tomb, which was loved and played with a lot by the 3 year old Aric (which is why the round stone is broken). Aric and April had fun making it, and we even pulled out our nativity characters like she did at Almost unschoolers. She explains well how the characters from the nativity are also fitting for this story as well. In the Easter story there is also an angel, Jesus wrapped in cloth, Mary is present in both stories, and the man can represent a lot of other people present at the time of Jesus' death. Aric plays with it a lot. He likes to call it his "tomb". We clearly didn't cook it long enough, I should have read further into the instructions, which is why the round stone broke. This was a great activity, one I hope to do for many years as a tradition.
This activity was from Almost unschoolers.
Desiree
2 comments:
Aww! Chicks! We're BIG chicken and now duck people! Love our flock! My kiddos held our chicks a lot too. Not obsessively, but often, and now the hens are very docile and don't mind chicken cuddles with the kids every day. Now to work on the ducks who are already 8-months-old! ;)
Organizing work? What about turning your work boxes into WORK BINDERS? For years now I have put dividers in 3 ring binders and added work to each subject section for 2-3 weeks at a time. Sometimes it's worksheets, other times just lined paper. There are also some Helper Sheets like a 100s chart and cursive script. When they're completed and checked by me the worksheets/work is placed in a "finished box", and every 4-6 weeks I organize them into their portfolios or in a drawer of paper for JIC I need more later.
We use the tall carts with 10 drawers labeled with different subject (like workboxes), but they are only used for storage. My kids have a clipboard with their schedule and they just go get whatever subject they are working on out of the drawer, do it, and put it away. Though not perfect, it works.
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