Our Week in Photo Collage and Many Links

I love making collages of our weeks... I can look back and see what we did accomplish and what the highlights were!   Hopefully I will provide you with some helpful links, too!


1.  We did a lot with Snowmen this week.   It started off with a devotion from Keys for Kids (we use their free daily devotion booklets and love them) that challenged the children to make unique snowmen.   We mailed them to CBH Ministries afterwards.   We're also participating in the Christmas book activities with Nicole at Journey to Excellence and read Snowmen at Christmas and another book we already had, Snowpeople.   Click here to read it online - it's a cute story!   


2.  Lots of hot chocolate this week ~ finally a cold snap here in Georgia!


3.   Oh my!  Our Toydle fort (which we are reviewing for The Old Schoolhouse) came and we put it together... the construction process was a learning project and the kids had a BLAST! 


4.  Lots of math this week - FAVORITE RESOURCE this week was the Math Adventure Series - we read two of the books, Sir Cumference and the First Round Table and Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland.   These books tied in perfectly with our studies about geometry this week.  The terms RADIUS, CIRCUMFERENCE, DIAMETER, PARALLEL and lots of others are ingrained in my children's memories.  I highly recommend these living math books!  We also used a lot of our geometric shape manipulatives, too.


5.  The Christmas tree w/out decorations... we got it up last weekend and now I'm happy to report it is decorated!   We are putting it in our music room this year (to free up space in our living room) and I love the way the lights reflect off of the piano.  I've also been spending a lot of time in this room singing carols with the kids using Christmas Carols for a Kids Heart.


6.  I received a lovely care package (which I won during a recent series) from my sweet friend, Christine, at Fruit In Season.  She is a lovely person, and if you're not familiar with her blog, you should be! 


7.  Oh dear.  More Legos.   This time an adorable minifigure (I could not resist this one at the grocery store.  I have the word "SUCKER" stamped on my forehead.).   To say my son is obsessed with Legos is putting it mildly.  Next week, to celebrate his seventh birthday we are taking he and a friend to the Lego store just north of Atlanta.  He is SO excited!


8.  Our Names of Jesus Advent Chain from Maureen at Spell Outloud.  It's a simple, meaningful Advent activity for us.   


9.  I'm so thankful my children are home with me during the week to decorate the tree and celebrate Advent in such a meaningful way.  I look back to their days in school - the inundation of commercialism and Santa - and it makes me sad I wasted that time.  All I can do is look forward and make every moment count from now on!  


I hope everyone had a wonderful week!!




Participating in these link ups:

at My Home Sweet Home 

at learning ALL the time!!

The Weekly Wrap-Up

Recovery is Hard

Joining the Homeschool Mother's Journal this week... I'm working on a Weekly Wrap-Up post that has a photo collage with links, but we still have some things to add from today!  

 

In my life this week…   It seems like we're still recovering from our trip to San Francisco.  When you have so much excitement wrapped up in one week it's hard for everyone to come back to earth.  The kids have been a little less enthusiastic about schoolwork, I have been less enthusiastic about the mundane household tasks, and Dad is a bit grumpy because it's back to the grind at work.   Oh well -- this too shall pass, and it's a small price to pay for the marvelous adventure we shared! 

We did decorate the house for Christmas - tree up and almost everything out.  I love this time of year! 

In our homeschool this week…  We completed all our "basics"... math, Writing With Ease, History, reading, and read-alouds.   We started a beautiful Advent chain and began reading our favorite Christmas books.  The kids have done a TON of silent reading this week, by their own choice.   I'm thankful for that.   

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…  I was shocked yesterday when I was helping a neighbor boy (whose computer is on the fritz) with a science paper he is writing for school.   He had NO CLUE how to even begin typing it, and then asked me to type it for him.   When I told him no (I am so mean) he replied, "Well, my dad always types it for me."   I think we do our children a disservice by doing too many things for them, and also by not teaching them how to keyboard and use today's technology to their benefit.   So, my advice is to expose your children to technology!!  (at the appropriate age and with appropriate time amounts, of course)

I am inspired by… a handful of moms in our homeschool co-op who are so caring, generous, and just plain old wise.   Yes, I love reading blogs and getting ideas on the internet, but when it comes down to it, I get the best advice and wisdom from quiet, unassuming friends (who coincidentally don't keep blogs).

   

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…  not much this week!  We coordinated a service project during our Sunday School hour last week making cards for holiday food baskets.  We needed to make 65 cards and we ended up with 95.   Everyone was so creative and we had a great time, too!  

My favorite thing this week was… having no extracurricular activities (other than piano).  We were home a lot and just got to relax and enjoy each other.  

What’s working/not working for us… Math!    I was blessed, however, to have almost an hour long phone conversation with a lovely woman at Math U See - I have been given a wonderful opportunity to do some work with them (more about that in 2012 at Three Thinking Mothers).    In short, I have a math level coming which should help my daughter and I beat the math blues.

  

Questions/thoughts I have…  How do I store all of these homeschool materials I have?   I sell some at our homeschool association's used book sale and I give some away, but they are overtaking my life!!    

Also, I have to make a Lego cake for my son's birthday next week.  I'm going to be hitting Pinterest for that!! 

Things I’m working on…  I need to get serious about losing some weight and giving up Coke Zero.   I have had so many excuses as to why it wasn't the right time to start, but I just need to bite the bullet and DO IT.  

I’m reading…  Unbroken -- I HIGHLY recommend this book!  

I’m cooking…  Chicken Corn Chili -- it was really good and lasted several meals! 

I’m grateful for… my husband!   He is a hard working, honest man who rarely complains.   In the midst of watching several families we know being torn apart by divorce I have just felt the need to hug him tight whenever I get the opportunity.

I’m praying for…  so much.  It seems  like our world is so broken and that has overwhelmed me this past week.  

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…  My husband took this picture on our trip to California... this is just off of Scenic Highway 1 looking over the Pacific Ocean.  It is one of the most beautiful places I've been in my life.   It's now my "happy place"!