My Girls' Weekend and Egg Carton Catepillars

So, I am back from my trip to Birmingham and it was pretty much as fabulous as I thought it would be.  I came back thinking, now that was a vacation.  I got to my friend, Laurahelen's house and walked right in, used several of her beauty products, not to mention wore a few of her outfits, just as if we had never left our dorm room at Auburn.  We ate, talked, laughed hysterically, ate some more, and talked a lot more.

These are my sophomore roomies.  We were pretty much joined at the hip from day one at Auburn, I mean, literally, our first or second day at Auburn we had all met and the friendships were instant.  Not much has changed except we've added several husbands, five little boys, two little girls, and Laura (far left) just found out she is expecting her third.  Girls, let's please not wait so long this time before doing it again!

Alright, so I was a bit behind on planning my week when I got back on Sunday.  But I think I've finally caught up on grocery shopping, laundry, and planning for our school week.  

Caution:  About to give quite a few details of our homeschooling thus far...might not be interesting to some.

School is going well.  Here is kind of what it is looking like.  We don't do anything on Mondays since Steven is home.  I really shoot for doing stuff on Tues., Wed., and Thurs. and then usually do Ellie's reading lesson on Friday.  I am using the website letteroftheweek.com for Ellie, and mainly Luke.  LB introduced me to it.  It is free and it takes a letter each week and expounds on it.  I don't do everything, but try to do most.  We take Tuesdays to go to the library and check out the books that are suggested.  When we get back, I usually introduce the letter, the sound, and the vocabulary words for the week.  We read a couple of the books and I let them color a coloring sheet that has the sign language for the letter on it.  I print those off here.  Coloring sheets are their favorites!  It also helps them to listen as I try to read or talk about something else.  I really like doing the composer of the week.  It is so easy to go to youtube and type in the composer and then the music is right there.  Great to listen to while they color.  They also really look forward to that part.  We usually don't get to that until Wednesday.  An art project is by far their favorite, especially Ellie's.  I found this fabulous book on Amazon.  I also bought a science one like it and I try to do one art project a week.  We have only done one Science project so far.

On Thursdays, I try to finish up the rest of the library books, oh, and we also usually read a poem having to do with the letter of the week.  Thursdays we usually do one of the suggested "social studies" activities.  We have a huge map of the world on our wall that I bought at Costco for $6.  Have I mentioned I love that place?  :)  So we usually locate a country, and maybe color a picture of the pertaining flag, and try to read a few facts about it.  I personally like that part because I am learning a few things myself.  I'm pretty terrible at geography.  If we don't do the country, we usually pick one of the animals, and again, do a coloring sheet, and learn some about the animal.  That is pretty much it for "letter of the week".

As for Ellie, for now, I am going with The Well-Trained Mind--sorry, I think I have already mentioned this.  Anyway, the reading curriculum is The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading.  This takes about 20-25 min. and we pretty much do this Tues.-Fri.  She is doing well.  No tears in the past few weeks (from either of us).  We are working on two-consonant blends and she is reading sentences such as this, "Next, the man did sit and bask in the sun."  With pauses, of course.  But still good, I think.  So very hard for me to know what is "normal."  Planning on meeting with some seasoned homeschool moms soon.  I am such a beginner with no teaching experience it is not even funny.  But we are surviving it, I think, one day at a time.

Here was a little of our day today.  Oh, what does Andrew do in the mean time?  A few of my friends have asked this question.  

Today, he ate a dum-dum and smarties, while Ellie and Luke made egg carton catepillars.  Don't judge me, it works.

Things quickly went south when I told him he may not have another one.  He found the stash and here he is begging me to open another one.

After I said "no, all done", he said, Fine, I will open it myself.

If you live in the Southeast, you probably heard the scream that followed this picture when I took it away.

Here are the egg carton catepillars.  This is from our art book.  It really is such a great book, and it has all sorts of recipes for great homeade stuff, such as playdough, clay, paper mache, and those sorts of things.  

I thought they were a hit, until we were done and Luke said, "Now are we going to make remote controls to go with them so they can move around?"  WHAT!?  Later, on the phone, Laura Beth said, "Wow, I guess he is ready for some major science lessons."  

Then, we moved it outside for more mess.  The weather is unbelievably perfect. It is an "open up your window" kind of day.   It would be a sin not to spend some of it outdoors.  

Andrew forgave me for the sucker incident when I let him feed himself macaroni 'n' cheese.

I am a firm believer that if you work on one thing and do it well in a day's time, something else gets sacrificed.  Today, we have done well on our school things and have enjoyed time outside. Other things have been sacrificed.  It is just how it goes. 

Enjoy your Wednesday!