Unexpected

This has been a week of the unexpected.  Last Friday some of our dearest friends were married, so our school day was slightly abbreviated.  Another good friend is moving from Michigan to Kentucky, so he had a going away party Saturday, plus we were able to get tickets to see the Irish Comedy Tour a few hours away on Monday night.

We planned to delay our school week until Tuesday, but now it seems like the delay may last just a bit longer....when we came home on Tuesday early afternoon, the house was unusually cool.  The city's water keeps freezing, but until this week, we've been fortunate to avoid the effects of the frozen pipes.  Not so much now.  None of the pipes in our home are frozen, but we have no water coming in.  No water is a bummer, but that in and of itself is manageable.  However, our furnace is a steam radiator system....that means it needs water to run.  So, without water, we have no heat.  NOT something that is fun to manage in the frozen North.

SO - off to the hotel our family did drive.  With four children under 8, two of which are 2 and under, staying in a house without a reliable form of heat in the middle of one of the coldest winters on record isn't really recommended.  I mean, we can melt snow for water, but there isn't much we can do for no heat.  The Kerosene heater is great, but not something we want to run non-stop for days at a time.

Getting ready to go swimming, I notice Savannah has a ton of random blotches like Mosquito bites all over her skin that are just suddenly appearing.  She had croup last week, and was given meds that she is clearly allergic to.  So, my poor girl is covered in hives that seem to come and go as soon as her benedryl and steroid prescription start to wear off.  It's tough to see her itching.  :(

On the upside, this is a review week and Trevor is covering again, so even though we have missed a few days of our normal school week, we can make up for it relatively quickly.  With Trev covering shifts, we will do school for the next 8 days straight, then take a 3-day weekend before returning to our normal weekly schedule.  Next week was supposed to be our Spring break, but with the weather being so iffy, and Trev having to work, I think we will push our break back just a bit longer...it's hard to believe that school will be done in just another 8ish weeks, which means we really need to start deciding what we want to do for next year.

I am still leaning towards doing some school throughout the summer.  Take a month off, maybe six weeks, then start back up for four weeks, take a week or two off, then do it again.  We will be able to take more time off throughout the year, and I think it will be good for the kids over all.  It might mean that we will finish more like two years in the span of one average "school year" but it would give us even more flexibility in our schedule and allow us to plan even more extracurricular activities.

It's About Time!

My minute and hour hand working together...

So - we have been working on concepts of time in the last week of school (I find it a little humorous that I'm late posting our lessons on time...). We have been studying the concepts of time as considered throughout the year (365 days in a year, 7 days in a week, 52 weeks in a year) and also the concept of time as it pertains to physical time on an analog clock.

When talking about the clock, we discussed that there are 24 hrs. in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute.  We've also gone over how to tell time.  The kids have gotten very good at both displaying time on practice clocks and reading times displayed on various analog clocks.  During our time lesson we did a variety of activities, from making a circle on the floor with 60 blocks, each 5th one a different color, to practicing being the hour/minute hands in the middle of a large floor 'clock' we made with index cards.  The latter proved to be the kids' favorite time telling activity. :)  Here are some pictures of the fun we had with that particular lesson.

Poetry

We have been working on all kinds of poetry in the last two weeks.  Some of the poems we have been reading rhyme, some don't.  Here are a couple of the kids' own poems that they worked on this week.  I think they are doing a pretty good job.

Savannah's Onomatopoeia poem:

Zap a Boom gun over
The nite. Achoo! A
Sneezey persone over
the day. What noise!
Vroom. My car is here
Smash! Not again!


Asher's Onomatopoeia poem:

Boom! and Bam!
And a Crash and Smash!
Lot of loud stuff.
And 2 more
Zap and Pop!



The kids also wrote a couple of St. Patrick's Day Poems where they were supposed to rhyme and include two similes.  This was a tough one.

Asher's Poem:
 
Get a Leaf
Get it and paint it green for St. Patrick's Day
A green man as a green door?
A green frog like a flower,
It is good!
I play with green balls for 7 bucks
Ball it is small.


Savannah's Poem:

Phile (Phil)

The St. Patrick's Day man
Had a brother named Nan

Nan had a jolly sole
Yesterday he saw a hole.
With Green Leaves as big as sharks!

Nan's Borther was like a bear
But only used a gun to hunt.

Friendly Letters

The kids started their "Friendly Letter" campaign about three weeks ago, and they are so happy with the results.  So far they have written over twenty letters, received at least ten, and already started working on their responses.  Unfortunately, since we've been sick, we have fallen a little behind, but they are really happy with everything they've done so far with their letters and are excited to keep working.  They especially like sending and getting pictures.  We now have our 'pen pal' board, where we are keeping any pictures that are sent our way, letters (until we reply), and any other important information we need for letter writing.  The kids' handwriting is improving daily, and they really enjoy getting to know their cousins, friends, aunts/uncles, anyone that showed an interest in getting a letter.

I ran out of pictures to add to their letters, so I will be printing more off and sending in later letters to those that missed out on the picture.  Right now, we have another eight responses to write to our pen pals, which might take us a few days. :)  But, the kids love sending and receiving mail so much, that they don't mind writing pen pals over the weekend, even.  It is interesting to read the many letters and see what they ask/tell the various recipients. I hope they are able to see at least a few of their pen pals this summer. :)

Icky Sicky

Last week Rosalynne and I came down with a pretty vicious stomach flu bug and cold combination.  Daddy substituted as our teacher Wednesday, and we had slightly abbreviated days on Thursday and Friday.  Even so, the kids did a good job learning about Fractions, Alphabetizing to the second letter, creating poetry books of their favorite poems, and starting our section in Social Studies about the Presidents.

They also made some really great Bird Feeders when Daddy subbed, for Science.  :)