Saturday, September 15, 2012

MFW-ECC Week 4


Well, we have wrapped up our study of the United States of America this week. Smiley showed much improvement in her state recognition by the end of the two weeks. Whether she was being difficult, was tired, or just having at off day, I don't know, but early in Week 3, I had each kid label the states they recognized on a blank line map of the US. I was going to label hers for her, but she only recognized Alaska. Thursday of this week, we repeated the activity. The older three kids were a little frustrated about it. They know all the states and where they are in the US, so it felt a little like busy work, but I had them label them with postal abbreviations, which it turns out need more work at our house. Smiley was delighted, however! She was able to easily identify five states: ours and the ones surrounding it. With a little more gentle pressure from me, she got up to fourteen states that she was able to correctly identify and put on the map! This week was crazy busy, which made me grateful for how much less busy work there is in MFW! We mostly skipped the first grade stuff this week. Smiley usually works on it while the other kids are working on their reading, but I knew we were pressed for time this week. We doubled up on school Monday, because Tuesday we had science class at a nearby science museum. The museum is about an hour away, but there is a Sam's Club not too far from it, so I use the opportunity to get groceries. We were able to count the day as a school day because of the science class, but I knew we would not get much curriculum done. I brought math in the car for Smiley, since she doesn't double up as well as the other kids, but she gets carsick easily too, so it didn't get finished. Also, rather than cooking, we went to a local place for burgers. Mine never seem to turn out the way I want them to on the grill, plus after our Friday morning school, then co-op with our friends, I don't feel like cooking! Co-op and cooking days seem to go together this fall, so we may be eating out for the food instead, which might be better. I can follow recipes, but how do I know if some new food tastes right or not. If it is bad, is it because I made a mistake, or do we just not like that kind of food? We'll see how that goes. We did cook though! We made cookies to take to co-op. I'll blog about that soon, probably on Tasty Tuesday. :)


 
My crafty friend is also great at photography!
This is all of our kids taken in April.
I was also glad for Fridays to be our easy days with less school, since we met up with friends for lunch, Bible Study, a craft and soccer. We get together every other Friday. It is good for the kids to play together, and great for us moms to fellowship. One of my friends is teaching the kids character this year. She started with obedience, because everything else we do stems from obedience to our parents and the Lord. She didn't say anything that I haven't already said, but it was good for The Bru Crew to hear it from another source. The other mom is very crafty, and art is something that often falls to the side for all of us, so she is leading them in a craft. I am teaching the kids soccer. My kids know how to play, but they still thought that playing with their closest friends was fun. It is great how the three of us moms and our kids all get along so well. For a long time, they each had one girl and the rest boys. One of them now has another little girl, but she just turned one in April, so she still doesn't "play" like the big kids. My girls get to do girly things with their girls (dolls, dress-up, "family," fix hair and paint finger nails), and Little Man gets to play with sticks/guns/swords or whatever boy thing they are doing that day without too much trouble.
 
Monday, we will "travel" to Mexico.  The Bru Crew is very much looking forward to that!  Monday will also be the beginning of the American Girl Book Club at our local library.  My girls are VERY much looking forward to that!


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