This week we just spent time on the basic areas for school: math, reading, handwriting, Bible and hands-on fun. The weather was up and down again this week, so the kids spent as much time outside as they could.

Laurianna made an ‘exercise game’ for all the kids which has been so much fun to watch them do ~ wall sits, bike riding, sit-ups, jumping jacks and more. Kaleb has been able to do all of it with the exception of jumping jacks ~ to cute to watch him try those!

Handwriting ~ Kaleb is working through A Reason for Handwriting a little at a time. We’re working more on lowercase letters right now and remembering when to STOP at the line and keep the letters in the right places. Of course the zebra reminded him of Ziggy from All About Reading.

Math ~ We started a new math book for Zachary {Life of Fred Apples} and the stories are so fun that Kaleb has been sitting down with us to listen and work through the lessons with us. He’s still doing a few lessons from his Abeka math workbooks each week {simple addition, filling in missing numbers, telling time to the hour}. With the Life of Fred, he is also working on counting by 5’s and 10’s, talking about the seasons, and temperature.

Bible ~ We’re working full time again on We Choose Virtues and also continuing with our Grapevine Resurrection study. Only a few more lessons for the resurrection and we’ll be done.

Reading ~ All of the kids have been enjoying our read-aloud time {and so am I!}. We started the Gregor series by Susan Collins ~ full of bugs, rats and other sort of yucky creatures. During our reading time, the kids are drawing, coloring, relaxing and {believe it or not} listening to the stories. Kaleb has been understanding much of it and it’s cute to hear him quoting different lines from the story throughout the day {he loves the little sister Boots and the funny things she says}.

Hands-on ~ So many of our ‘extras’ have been pulled off the shelves this week and played with as we read together. Wedgits. Felt sets. Legos.

Kaleb {much to his sibling’s dismay} has been saving any money that he has earned or received as gifts. Truthfully, he has no idea how much money is really worth ~ he just forgets that he has it and doesn’t ask to spend it. This week he saw a Lego book at the store and fell in love. Literally sat down on the floor and started flipping through the pages. When I told him he had enough money to buy it, the look on his face was priceless.

Although he can’t quite make any of the creations in the book, he and Zachary have had a great time going through the book this week and creating their own masterpieces ~ boats, cars, spaceships, etc… Their bedroom floor has become a virtual minefield of foot pain {should you venture into it in sock feet}.

That about sums up our week ~ just the basics covered. Nothing super exciting, but still lots of fun and learning at the same time.

How was YOUR week?

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• Grapevine Studies ~ stick figure your way through the Bible
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Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a week is the lack of anything planned or expected. And this week just so happened to be one of those weeks. 

It all started with the mere fact that we woke up on Monday morning. While we had been busy sleeping, outside our house the snow had been falling all night long. It left more than a dusting and there were some whoops and hollers happening in the house when it was discovered {all too early in the morning}.

I did what any mom {who doesn’t see snow that often} would do. We called it a snow day, dropped everything and we ALL went outside to play in the snow. Took a hike through the woods and found animal tracks. Built snowmen. Went sliding down the hill. Did a whole bunch of reading.

Had fun.

Tuesday was a back-in-the-swing day, which was followed by Wednesday. A friend ended up in the ER and her children spent most of the day at our house. Another day spent playing together. Thursday we did some basics {handwriting, math, and science} and then had a belated Valentine’s Day party and enjoyed the fact that it was almost 70 degrees ~ after a snow day earlier in the week.

Go figure.

When all was said and done, I can honestly say that it was a most MARVELOUS week that boiled down to us spending a lot of fun, relaxed time together. There may not have been any specific focus overall for the week, but I’m very much okay with that.

Very much okay.

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On the school front, this was a very quiet week overall. I spent the first few days of the week not feeling well and then the last few days of the week with some wonderful ladies at The Beech Conference.

Kaleb meanwhile had fun racing in the derby at Awana this week and even placed in his race which was very exciting for him {although he doesn’t look too thrilled, eh?}.

That pretty much wraps up our week here. What excitement happened in your house this week? Link up and share below. :)

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• Maestro Classics ~ classical music series for children and families
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Out of all of the Valentine’s Day books that we had in our pile this week, the one that Kaleb kept pulling out over and over again to read with me was Snowy Valentine by David Peterson.  It really is one of the sweetest books and one that I am so glad I ended up buying this one.

At the end of the week, Kaleb gave me a story summary and chose the Snowy Valentine and here is his retelling of the story:

“Jasper had no gift. He stopped at the porcupine house. Then he stopped at the frog’s house. Then he stopped at the flower cart. Then he stopped at the fox’s house. He almost got cooked. Then escaped quick as a bunny. He stopped at the cardinal’s house and he saw he made a heart in the snow. His wife saw the heart. She loved the heart made out of the snow. His clothes were wet.”

All in all, a pretty good summary, but the illustrations are so absolutely precious and it is a wonderful story {Valentines’ Day or not!}.

We used many of the printables from the Valentine’s Day Printables, and had a lot of ‘hands-on’ fun as well. Here’s a look at our week {and for the record, Kaleb DOES where different shirts, but he tends to get ‘stuck’ in one shirt and refuses to change it unless it is filthy by his standards, not mine}.

Heart Hot Dogs ~ One day we had a special hot dog lunch with veggies…shaped like hearts. One of the kids managed to use up all of my toothpicks, so they were held together with uncooked spaghetti. You do what you have to…

Valentines ~ Kaleb wrote his name over and over to sign valentines for all of his friends in co-op. The kids also spent an afternoon making TONS of valentines for each other, Mommy and Daddy, and some friends that were visiting. SO much fun!

 

Cookies ~ Well, sort of cookies. I took the easy way out of baking and we made these super-easy Pretzel and Chocolate Buttons. We unwrapped a Hershey Kiss, put one on each of our square pretzels, popped the tray in the oven for 5 minutes at 250 and then pushed an M&M into the top of the melted kiss. And enjoyed them immensely.

 

Painting ~ We used celery to make ‘roses’ on a big sheet of paper. We dipped the end of the celery stalk into paint and stamped it onto the paper {thanks to this idea from here}. The boys then had much fun using the leaves to add greenery.

 

Estimating with Candy ~ I put a bunch of our candy in a canning jar and had all of the kids guess how many pieces of candy there were in the jar. We counted by 5’s and 10’s together to add them up. And of course we ate some.

Reading ~ Well, this wasn’t exactly Valentine’s Day related, but we’re still working on reading with All About Reading Level 1 and Kaleb has completed 9 of the lessons so far. We’re going through at least one lesson a week and breaking it up each day to go at his pace. There are some days that he wants to do more, so we move along as he is ready.

That’s about it for our week. I’m sure we’ll be sneaking in some more Valentine’s Day fun next week too. What have you been doing this week?

Other helpful Valentine’s Day Links:

~ Valentine’s Day printables from Homeschool Creations
~ Valentine printables from 2 Teaching Mommies
~ Love printables from 1+1+1=1
~ Valentine’s Day Tot Pack from Lawteedah
~ Valentine Candy Estimation
~ Valentine’s Day Pinterest board & ideas

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I know that we still have a few weeks left until Valentine’s Day, but I’m looking around for some fun things to do with all of the kids {especially Kaleb}. I’ve pinned a few fun-looking things onto Pinterest, but I’m always searching for more.

While I don’t think we’re going to take a full week to do Valentine’s Day, we will have a few days to soak in the love. Here are a few things I’m bookmarking to do during that time.

Homemade heart-shaped cinnamon rolls from Poppies at Play

Heart shaped cut-out pancakes from Quaker Oats Company

Heart Shaped hot dogs from Family Fun

Celery stamping from Maureen Cracknell Handmade

Handprint heart tree from Putti Prapancha

Secret message valentines from Better Homes & Gardens

Are you already planning ahead for Valentine’s Day?

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• Betty Luckens ~ educational and fun felt sets for children
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