because i want to remember

reading machine:

Ava has been a reading machine this year, here is the list she has finished so far:

 

1. Henry Reed Inc.
2. Arby Jenkins by Sharon Hambrick
3. Stuart's Run to Faith
4. Trouble At Silver Pines Inn
5. Island of the Blue Dolphins
6. Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes
7. Just so Stories By Rudyard Kipling
8. Louis Braille
9. Call it Courage (didn't quite finish the last chapter yet)
10. Kite Fights by Linda Sue Parks (LOVED IT)
11. Mandie Collection( I read this to them, finished Volume 3 & 4)
12. The Rat Catchers Son
13. Meet Marie Grace--AG book
14. Star of LIght by Patricia St. John
15. Beat the STory Drum Pum Pum
16. Marie Grace and the orphans
17. The Land that I lost
18. Journey to Jo'burg by Beverly Naidoo
19. Harriet the Spy (in progress now)
20. there were also a bunch we started for school (Sonlight) that we haven't finished in the Read Alouds, so we need to go back to those. This is all since August and they are all pretty long chapter books.

 

I am so HAPPY that Ava loves to read so much! I hope she keeps this up! We have about 75 books sitting on the living room school table waiting for her!

ava's days:

Ava's days go something like this:

 

wake up at 7:20 to drive savannah to school.

she just stays in her jammie's since it's 2 miles up the street and we just hop into the car

right in the garage (she does put a coat on or wrap in a blankie).

come home & eat breakfast (cereal, waffles, yogurt & fruit)

read for 1 hour, Spanish for 20 minutes on the computer

( I usually work out and shower or do Bible reading during this free time for me)

LA, Math, Spelling/Vocabulary/Reading + work sheets

 

Lunch break anywhere from 11:30 or 12:30, it varies

 

on her lunch break Ava usually does a photo shoot of her dolls or makes a stop-motion video or plays

with her dolls or a game on my phone.....

then we head back to work:

History, Science, Writing (I make her write about the books she has read or journal writing),

and Bible....we do these subjects on the couch where it's very cozy, my favorite part of the day.

unless of course she has a Science experiment or needs to do map work or computer stuff.....

I am loving how in the middle of the day Ava might pick up a book and read poetry or look up

something on the computer to learn more about it. that's my favorite part of homeschooling, when

we get lost on a tangent of learning!

and YES< she was drinking a bottle, she didn't feel well so I put some Emergen-C into organge juice into

a bottle, that way I could be sure she drank it all up. (she had wanted me to buy the bottle for her dolls

a few years ago, but secretly, I think she really wanted to drink from it--better that than still be

nursing from me! ha ha)

 

bits & pieces of our lives:

(making banana bread muffins)

 

(checking her math, grading papers, lesson planning)

 

 

(my sweet puppy, piper, who puts his head by my knees and looks for attention. all. day. long.

 

 

(ava, always editing photos + making AG videos of her dolls.)

 

(yum, chocolate chip cookes + milk just for ME)

 

( I have been giving savannah a card every single day of december leading up to her birthday december 24th, she loves it so much, she started hanging them above her bed! she needs to add the rest, she took a few to school also)

 

(ava has been a reading machine this year! she is doing so well! I am so proud of her because she is reading books from Sonlight Core F--ages 10-13, so she is on the low end of that age bracket and most of them are pretty hard to read, I will have to read a lot of them aloud to her! but she is reading stuff that lots of kids her age aren't even exposed to and I love that!).

 

 

ava + mama

it's quiet here at home with savannah gone, but don't you worry, ava & I are doing just fine with

making our own kind of noise and mostly having fun doing it too! have a great day!

Sonlight

We are using Sonlight for the first time this year.

We love it so far, but we are also doing Reading through BJU Press,

so we decided to stretch out the many books of Core F Sonlight for 18-24 months.

it's ALOT of books, somewhere around 50...along with mapwork, hands on activities, worksheets etc.

it's an amazing History/Social Studies program.  We are LOVING IT!

we are studying so many different countries/people/ways of life.

and there are also some great "fluff" books in it too, that we are loving!

ava took this shot, which I love. it's how we do Sonlight, me reading to them.

Henry Reed, Inc. was such a cute "fluff" book, they really enjoyed it. we are almost done with Island of the Blue Dolphins as well.

so many great books. can't wait to get to them all!

and the ones they have to read on their own, I want to read them to the girls instead!

that's how great they are!

I am not sure if we will do Sonlight again  as it is extremely time consuming! it took us 6 weeks

to get through 2.5 weeks of material, but they are getting a lot out of it, so maybe we will do it again!

so worth the  extra money, especially if we stretch it out over 2 years!

this day:

daddy had the day off.

daddy got a little taste of what it's like to homeschool....we only ended up doing a half day because

he got bored with it or overwhelmed, maybe a little of both! ha ha!

 

instead we went for a nice walk at the forest preserves. well it was nice, until they saw a snake ha!

I love spending time with the family, especially documenting it all....

the real reason hubby took the day off?

to go to the courthouse with me because I had a ticket for an expired sticker (which was his fault,

because he didn't tell me ha!)

spanish with rosetta stone.

Ava is loving Spanish on the computer using Rosetta Stone.

she is already on level 4 and doing very well. her pronunciation is incredible and I am so happy with it.

it's been wonderful for her. I can't believe how fast she is picking it up!

I need to video tape her talking so you can hear it. it's the cutest thing ever.

she wants to learn French next.

 

Zoo

for a fun outing/field trip for school we went to the Brookfield Zoo here in Chicago.

Love this Zoo so much! We rarely get a chance to go, even though we have a membership.

I don't like to leave our dog alone for too long, so I just went for a few hours, but we had a blast!

We met up with my friend Christine and her daughter Ry who is on her first year of homeschooling....

they sat here for the longest time...I could have sat there all day...

ava pretending to be a frog!

they are so CUTE! rylie is my favorites, the turtles!

pretending to be zoo cleaners/keepers!

 

they really got along GREAT! they are ages almost 11, almost 12 and ava just turned 10.

 

they got to watch something being fed, but I can't remember what they were, some sort of monkey?

ava comparing her hand to the gorilla, yikes!

 

I took Savannah's photo in this spot once before, I should find that photo and compare the two!

 

they love posing for me...sometimes!

we did see actual animals too! see the tiger (barely) back there, sleeping!?

 

in the ice cream shop, thank you christine for spoiling them with ice cream!!!

 

 

 

 

and this was right when we were leaving....

what a beautiful perfect day!

we have made plans on the calendar for 1-2 field trips per month with Christine & Ry...this is going

to be a great year!

 

Mount Kanani

Savannah has been asking to make a volcano for as long as I can remember!

Well, she was studying them again this year, in a little more detail and I decided,

that yes indeed, this would be the year she was ready to do it on her own.

we made  paper mache paste of water, flour, glue and salt. it was the perfect combo~

she had so much fun, she's such a tactile person, so being able to get all goopy and dirty/messy

with her hands was perfect for her! she took a few days to make it. she painted it herself and came

up with the idea for a background and sign with the name....

 

she was SO PROUD of it! and ava took a video when we made it erupt!

 

she named it after her American Girl (Hawaiian doll) Kanani~! perfect since there are so many volcanoes

there!

 

doing projects  this year was on my list because we didn't do enough of them last year. we are

trying to do the majority of the Science projects this year. Savannah has done 2 so far with a 3rd in the

wings. Ava has done one and is going to do her 2nd one this weekend. Homeschooling is in full swing

and I am already tired, but they are learning, thriving and actually loving some parts of it so far!

I am so proud of how much work she put into this project and pretty much all on her own except for

the helping of making the paste and the initial getting the shape of  a mound with  a water bottle inside.

Today

Savannah typed up her paper for English, but I don't have any printer ink to print it out, so I have to wait to grade it.
Ava had a big long 39 problem chapter review and I made her do all of it. She wasn't very happy about it.
They did a cool Science project today with Plaster of Paris.
They also went to their first Mosaic Enrichment class! They are studying about Hawaii with American Girl Doll Kanani!
I needed a coffee big time today so I ran to Starbucks while they took their class!
Piper has been sleeping on and off all day as usual.
My hubby is at work, I so appreciate how hard he works to have a home and be able to stay home and homeschool!
Listening to Savie on the computer doing Spanish right now = too cute!!!
That about sums up our day so far!
We have the Chiropractor, dinner to make , my weight watchers meeting and a family walk later. Hope your Monday was great!