Letters From the Homefront

Week 6 - Day One On Monday of this week, I left my children alone. After waking up and getting their breakfast, we started our morning cleaning routine, complete with work cards, and spent a little while at it. For some reason, Monday mornings are rough cleaning days, although goodness knows why - half the weekend is spent at church, it seems, but somehow - they always are.  Then, I left my children alone. I dove into the abyss that is school materials, determined to clean out, rearrange, and reorganize. There were still things that needed to go on the shelves, Buddy Boy needed new theme trays, and it had to get done. Immediately. We had choir that afternoon for LM, and still had to fit lunch in before that. I faintly heard LM say she was going to start with the multiplication checkerboard as I began to move my couch away from my hidden, built in shelving.  About halfway through, this is what I found the kids doing. Miss Priss did this puzzle of the states - three times.

Wait for it.... Wait for it.... IT'S FINALLY FALL!!!! Okay, so I might be a little premature to call it Fall in the South, but the last part of last week, it sure felt like it! :) Fall = BAKING LM made her first ever solo batch of Pumpkin Bread. This recipe is one that I can't say was handed down through the family with tons of secret, special ingredients. I will say, though, that it was a favorite growing up, and the tradition continues in my home now, with my children growing up loving it. It was also greatly associated with Fall, Thanksgiving, and Christmas time. The recipe is so simple and easy to follow - you'll have great smells filling your house in under an hour! You'll need: 3 cups sugar 1 cup oil 4 eggs, beaten 16 ounces pumpkin (canned or fresh!) 3 1/2 cups flour 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 1 tsp ginger (not ale - typo in cookbook!) 1 tsp nutmeg 1 tsp allspice 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1 tsp cinnamon 2/3 cup h

Week 5 - Part II I posted some on what was going on in week 5 in my last post. It was too long, though, to go in to some extra fun, and this post will really be mostly extra fun that we have had going on. Enter Floam foam: A good friend of our family brought some goodies one day towards the middle of week 5, and one of them was a package of floam/foam beads. They LOVED playing with this, and it ended up being a fun mini-oceanography project, making a coral reef. Yes, that IS a large octopus and snake! We talked a little about camoflauge, and how it helps the fish/animals that live among the coral.  Can you find the fish??? Here's what's new in our world during week 6: They have come to take over our world..... and they have succeeded!  Birthday time for us is at a maximum in September, with 3 birthdays, 2 of which fell in week 6 of our school year. Hoss and Miss Priss have hit a Lego revolution with their free play

I can't believe I'm saying this.... Our first month of school has ALREADY passed! Where did the time go??? I've not been the most diligent mama-homeschool-blogger thus far. I've not taken as many pictures, or tried to keep a record and post once a week. I'm pretty sure it's been a month, at least, since my last post with pics and talking about what we've been doing. Oh, well - you win some, you lose some.  *Week One* We spent this week getting in to a good routine using our new Work Cards.  For the free printable, go here (look for Daily Work Cards under the practical life section) . I created this to help them be accountable for what they are supposed to do every day (very real practical life) without me having to tell them all the time - especially my older ones. I made their cards personal to  them, with their names, so I won't show their cards, but I have a template of what one looks like.  We had company with their c