Homeschool Updates, Week in Review and Meal Plan

We're at the point in our homeschool year where there are just a few skills left that I'd like N to learn, and a few skills I'd like to make sure are in place for L before we start kindergarten next year.  Last weekend while the girls were at Grandma's, I made a list of these skills and activities that will reinforce them.  We're abandoning a few of our workbooks in favor of just focusing on the skills we have left to cover for first grade, since N was feeling a bit of burnout with things that were repetitive, too easy, or taught in a confusing way.  I'd like to do a full review here of all the curriculum we chose this year; perhaps sometime later if I get the time and my readers wouldn't be completely bored by that.  Suffice it to say that we've learned a lot by trying things out!

Also, I downloaded a couple of apps to my phone that are really great at reinforcing some of the skills on my list.  The girls love playing their "games" and I love that these apps make learning fun in the areas where we need a little extra work.  I am always a little conflicted about adding technology to our education-- at the beginning of this year I had said we wouldn't use it at all until next year at the earliest, but there are so many great teaching tools out there I couldn't resist.  I'm still trying to limit the girls' screen time to an hour or less each day.  If I do a review post of curriculum I might ramble a bit more on this topic too.

So I thought I would include a bit of a week-in-review post, including some of our new activities, and lots of other cool enrichment activities that we did!  It was a busy, fun-filled week!

~Monday~

The girls were with Grandma while Mama had a doctor's appointment... and then we met for a pizza dinner!  Yummy!

~Tuesday~

In the morning, I set up "stations" for the girls-- as soon as they woke up N and L rotated through two different math/reading (pre-reading for L!) activities each.  They were done within 15 minutes and we had already practiced some skills before 7 AM!  Score!

Afterwards, N went to her nature science class at the local wildlife sanctuary, and I ran a few errands with the younger girls.  We went home for lunch, Daddy met us and took L to preschool (he was preschool helper that day!) and C and I went to pick up N.

In the afternoon C napped and N did some practice with place value on her new math app, and drilled some spelling words.

L and Daddy came home from school, and then we had supper and went about our evening routine-- work for Mama and Daddy time for girls.

~Wednesday~

We went to the ballet, had lunch out and then came back.  N did some practice with her math app while Mama graded for my class and the younger girls napped.  Supper in the evening followed by more grading for Mama and Daddy time for the girls.

~Thursday~

Stations again in the morning, a few sentence correction/grammar activities this time for N, and dot-to-dots for number recognition for L.

N went to nature science again; we were making up a missed class from a snowstorm day.  The younger girls played while I got supper simmering on the stove, and then we had lunch and went to pick up N and drop off L at preschool.  We went straight from preschool pickup to N's swimming lesson.  The younger two girls waited (not so patiently... it was a long day) with me while N swam, then we all went home, had supper, and went to bed early.

~Friday~

Stations again in the morning-- dot-to-dots for both girls (counting by 10s for N), and stamping activities for number recognition.

The rest of the morning we played and relaxed while Mama got caught up on laundry.

In the afternoon, C napped at home with Daddy (who was working from home) while the bigger girls went to a homeschool geography class offered by our local wildlife sanctuary.  Mama relaxed and sipped coffee while getting some grading done at the cafe nearby... ahhhhhhh.

 

They made paper flowers, learned about the Spanish conquistadors, did a Cinco de Mayo word search, and made some cool woven bowls.

After geography we dropped N off at home, and I took L to gymnastics.  I was able to get more grading done while she had her class.

We came home, ate our supper, a bit more grading for Mama, and then bed for girls and Vikings for Mama and Daddy :)

A fun (busy) week.  The only thing we didn't do much of this week was violin.  Hopefully we'll find some time to squeeze that in this week.  N has a new fiddle tunes book that she's really excited about!

Here's the meal plan for the coming week, to finish out this super long post... thanks for reading...

Sunday breakfast: banana flaxseed muffins

Sunday lunch: sandwiches and salads on the way home from church

Sunday supper: leftovers

Monday breakfast: leftover muffins

Monday lunch: grilled cheese on GF bread with avocado; fruit

Monday supper: whole chicken in the crockpot; mashed potato and brussels sprouts

Tuesday breakfast: poached eggs

Tuesday lunch: pbj roll-ups (packed lunches between activities)

Tuesday supper: leftovers

Wednesday breakfast: steel cut oats in the crockpot

Wednesday lunch: fruit & yogurt, rolled up cheese & turkey

Wednesday supper: creamy mushroom brie soup

Thursday breakfast: leftover steel cut oats

Thursday lunch: quesadillas and smoothies

Thursday supper: leftovers

Friday breakfast: popovers

Friday lunch: various leftovers from the week

Friday supper: preschool spaghetti supper!

Saturday breakfast: cold cereal

Saturday lunch/brunch: pancake breakfast at a local farm

Saturday supper: burgers and oven roasted potatoes