The plan part 2

The next phase of the plan starts w/ Day 4. God Made the Sun & Moon. Our book for this week will be another HSS unit, Maria's Comet.

The next 2 weeks our focus is Day 4, god made the animals of the sky & sea. Week 1 is about birds, book to row is another HSS unit, Grandmother's Pigeons.

Week 2 will be a FIAR unit, Night of the Moonjellies. Don't the great resources over at HSS.

We'll finish up our counted days of school w/ 2 FIAR titles. One has an animal for a main character and the other has a human. Thus covering Day 6, God made animals & man. This also puts me one book shy of my goal to finish VOL. 1 this year. Week 1 is Papa Piccolo.

Our last week's row will be A Pair of Red Clogs.

As I said that will get me through our counted days. After that we will take a few weeks off to celebrate Day 7 God Rested. :)
Now that I have a basic plan. I'll work on expanding my idea & plans

I need a plan

I've spent my last Monday morning throwing together a plan for the week or looking back on the week to fill in my lesson plan based on what we did.Over the last 3 months I've grown to greatly appreciate the the ways of unschooling. However it's just not for me. I can embrace the idea that living is learning. I can embrace the idea of looking for teachable moments. But for my sanity I need a plan.
I would like the next couple of weeks to focus around God's creation. ("106 Days of Creation" is a part of the plan but I just can't go that deep right now. I think I might use next year as something I'll do once a week. But, for now I'll just keep it simple by rowing through the days of creation.)

This week we looked at Day 1, God made light. We rowed Storm in the Night. I chose this book because the story takes place in the dark. We used mostly activities from FIAR vol 1. I also did some basic light actives from books at the library.

The next 2weeks we will look at Day 2. God made air/ water. The first week we will look at weather. Our book will be Thunder Cake. We'll be using the unit from HSS. This is a one that is requested every time there's a storm. The second week we we will look to the sky & row Glorious Flight.

The next 2 week we'll look at Day 3, God made the plants. Week 1 we'll row The Gardener from HSS. "W" will get his own book the week, The Carrot Seed from B4FIAR.

This is the week we 're planting our container gardens. I hope to elaborate on this more in another post. Week 2 we will continue to work on our gardens & read books on planting & Spring.
I'm not done w/ the rest of the plan but' this at least gets me started.

New Again

Our pastor used this song and a similar video for our Maundy Thursday & Easter services this week. Turn off the music on the side . This is really powerful!

Easter Fun

I juse now got our Easter picture up on the computer. Our most fun project was our Easter card exchange w/ our FIAR friends. Fireman thinks it's really cool to have buddies all over the world that do the same lessons that he does. Here is the card they made.

Here are the great cards that we received in the mail. These are now sored safely in their treasure boxes.

We had a day of jelly bean math.

An of coarse Easter goodies.

To post pictures or not to post pictures

There was a thread a few days ago over at the FIAR. It has brought up some of my old struggles about blogging. I like the idea of public blog. I enjoy reading others' ideas & I enjoy sharing some of mine. But I'm still looking for a happy medium on the pictures. As a visual learner it really helps me when I can see the activity or lesson plan in "action" so to speak. My dh suggested that I keep both blogs going for a while until I decide. So that's my plan for now. If you're on my friends & family list you may still want to still check out the family blog for the really cute stuff .

Kid Funny

Here's a sneak peek into our lunch conversation this week:
Mi- After rest we have clean up because we're going to church tonight.
FM- Today's not church day. Why would we go tonight?
Mi- It's Maundy Thursday and we're having a special service.
FM- Hey mom, you're hair is green.
Mi- What are you talking about?
FM- Isn't that the day you tell jokes.
Maybe we should work a little more on holidays.

This weeks agenda

This is a work in progress. So. we'll see how it plays out.
Monday- St Patty's Day Party
Tuesday - Start Benjamin's Box . Decorate our own box
Palm leaf Craft.
Wednesday- Paper lace craft coin keeper. Ours looked like this only we used card stock, yarn, & Velcro. Started salt dough crafts. We we made one to look like a loaf of bread and some shaped like eggs. ( FM made a crown of thorns & nails too.)
Thursday- Paint Salt dough ornaments. Praying hands stained glass craft. (scroll about half way down) Practiced a simple braid w/ 3 strips of leather. Used plastic lace to make friendship bracelets.
Friday- Discuss the thorns ,the nail ,the dice, the cloth, & stone. Paint a stone.
Saturday- Empty Eggs (That morning when they get up their I will have their Easter Buckets sitting on the table w/ empty eggs. Then on Sunday the eggs will be filled w/ candy. Just as the risen Christ fills our hearts w/ Joy.)

Andy & the Circus

One of my biggest uses for my blog is as a lesson planner. It's just so much easier to organize my thoughts on the screen. I can search for links and find printables all at the same time.
Monday- Finish the Circus poster project. Tuesday- Discuss & list Andy's Family & friends Match them to how Andy helped them. Talk about sacrifice. Wednesday-Math lesson from Ringling Bros. Thursday- Science/balance (FIAR pg24) & circus works. Friday - LA sayings (FIAR pg 22) Shape book w/ fact about P. T Barnum. Optional activities -Kids can draw Circus pictures book from the library (Negative effect) Thomas tracks & plastic animals to make a circus train. Frogs .
I am making a purposeful effort to include W in school by finding a go along book or doing a unit plan for him from B4FIAR. Last week we found Louella & the Yellow Balloon. So this week we will read this book and do some activities from the preschool activities at the Ringling bros. site At least this is the plan anyway.

The greatest show on earth

Moved the last 3 post to family blog

Considering a move

I've been bloggging for a while now at another site and it has been quite fun. What drew me there was the privacy features. I loved that I could decide on a post by post basis what I wanted the whole world to see. Yet I could also keep somethings among just my friends. (Which is still a struggle to me) However that site did not provide some of the fun toys that I saw on other blogs. I like blinkies, music, and even some adds. I'm also exploring how to use my blog in a more marketable way. (hey us single income families gotta do what we gotta do in order to do what we love.) So for now I'm going to to play around at this place for a while . If you want to know a little more about me check out my other blog.