Wednesday November 6

Wednesdays are always so busy, in a good way though.  

We had a nice breakfast again as on the days we are out I know they need to eat week in the morning. We then snuggled up on the couch and read chapters 5&6 in the lion the witch and the wardrobe.  We answered the questions and discussed the chapters.  Nathan and Genevieve are loving this time reading this book together.   

Nathan just wanted to stay home today and do schoolwork, but we had to go to physio.  Nathan stayed up late last night to finish a book.  I gave him some Tylenol before we left the house which helped.  I felt bad for forcing him to keep going but I know he needs to do it.  It is amazing how much our bodies can hurt on a poor nights sleep.  

Genevieve has started some music lessons while Nathan is at physio, his physiotherapists daughter is a music therapist and piano teacher.  Genevieve has been great the last six months, but I don't think it's fair for her to have to sit for an hour twice a week and wait for Nathan's therapies.  She had a fantastic time today!  She sang, she played some piano, and she had fun plaing on the piano making up songs with her teacher playing duets Gigi was making up.  Genevieve was thrilled with her day!  It was much more fun than watching Nathan.  

After physio we came home for a quick lunch and I convinced Nathan to go to hockey.  I bought a book written by an eds expert for physiotherapists, in this book it talked about the ups and downs of the edser.  I think it's important to stay balanced, if we had done nothing today either Thursday it Friday he would be well enough to overextend himself then feel terrible the next day.  So we still completed most scheduled activities today, but the kids were resting in their beds by 5:30 and just asleep now at 8.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a back to normal day.  The book talked about the importance of balancing and avoiding the ups and downs, I have seen this in myself many times I feel great and decide to power wash the entire deck, I then can't get out of bed for 3 days. 

So I decided to skip tayoisi choir today and instead have an early dinner early bed.  Oh we practiced piano at our lunch break too.  Nathan is able to practice so much better directly after physio.  

Here's a picture of Genevieve skating with grandpa today.  He looks a little wobbly in this picture but he was being goofy.  Gigi sure enjoyed having her grandpa come out and skate with her. 

Tuesday November 5

We had a later start today so we started with piano practice after a nice breakfast.  

Math practice. 

Art class at 10:30-1130.  

Piano practice/ more math practice

Play date with friends

I like Tuesdays and love art class, but I think we have to give it up after this session.  I think our week would be easier to handle having an extra morning with school work.  If we dropped art we could stay home until 11:30.  Perfect amount if time to get the necessities accomplished. 

Monday November 4

Today we read chapter 3&4 of the lion the witch and the wardrobe.   We are working with the beyond the page curriculum guide and I like it so far.  We are having some great discussions and they are both engaging in talking about the book. I purchased the online version so we can input the answers right on the computer and then print the page.  Nathan likes this much better no writting.  

We then played some math games.   

Piano practice for both of them was next.    It is helping Nathan to engage his muscles before he attempts to play piano.  

Nathan was completely wiggly today, almost anxious so I decided to leave it at this for today.  

I am thinking that we need to come up with fun exercises to do everyday several times a day, as he seems to be able to sit better when he has done something physical beforehand.  I happened to bump into his it from last year, and she mentioned perhaps he needs that physical feeling, she suggested a rebounder to use at home.  We were watching him play soccer and he definitely like the physical aspect if soccer.  He also loves physiotherapy.  He is also a very touchy cuddly guy.  So she was also thinking maybe he craves the physical touch to help him realize where his body parts are.  

So tomorrow hopefully we will complete chapter 5&6.  And I think we are ready to start both grammer and story of the world.  I have to get a better idea of what days work for doing what

Yikes

So the flu hit AGAIN

A few things we have discovered in the last few weeks...   

Genevieve just finished all the free videos on brain pop, I think I will get a subscription

Genevieve has started ixl - she loves ixl

Nathan has started dreambox and is enjoying it yeah!

I had to figure out something different for math as Nathan was not engaging at all, I realized he was bored.  I needed to let him work at his grade level, but we need to work on his basic math facts.  Nathan can not answer quick enough.  So we are now using dreambox for at grade challenge and we are doing math games everyday.  This seems to be much easier and Nathan can see he does need to get better at math facts.  I will be restarting math u see soon as well.  

We have started a unit study on the lion the witch and the wardrobe.  It is from beyond the page, so far it fits well for us. Chilliwack cultural centre has the lion the witch and the wardrobe play on November 22.  I am hoping to go to this with the kids.  

We are getting used to our routine...

Genevieve is putting in a consistent effort in piano.

Nathan struggles with piano for many reasons, his small motor control in his fingers and his confidence.   He needs help at the beginning if a new song, he doesn't want to play new songs as he says he's not very good.  Once I struggle and get him to play and practice hr likes it and is definitely proud he can do it.  If course he gets 2 new songs every week :).  So each week we start over again...

I am realizing that I think unit studies work well for our family.  I need to look at our plos and figure out how to incorporate these into our learning.  

I have so much I want to teach them, but I know I have to give Nathan some time to settle into this new learning environment we are in.  Genevieve is not having a difficult adjustment.  Nathan is doing pretty good but I know I am pushing him beyond his comfort every day. 

Wednesday October 9

Today was a great day in homeschool land.  Even though Wednesday is the busiest day for us, today was the first day I actually felt like we were getting all we needed to do to get done.  Not only school wise, but home wise too.  

We started off the day late!   I woke up close to 9!  So I quickly made the kids some yoghurt with fruit, chia, and crunchy stuff :).  They ate while we watched our math u see video.  We then went upstairs to do some math worksheets.  Nathan and Genevieve worked thru them fairly quickly. Nathan had trouble on the review sheet, he said I don't remember the 8 trick, but I'm sure he did, because he was able to give me answers.  He stresses so much about math, he had only a few tears today while doing it.  

We then got ready to go to physio.  I quickly cleaned the kitchen and put dinner in the crockpot.  I did not do the dishes last night, so there were a few :)

Had a good day at physio.  Nathan absolutely loves physio, he loves Janet and he really works hard at what he's asked to do.  

We then stopped at the grocery store and grabbed some thai curry paste (only ingredient for dinner I didn't have).  Got home about 11:45, and had left over quesadilla for lunch.  Genevieve practiced piano.   I finished up dinner.  

Out the door again at 12:30 to go to hockey and skating.  Kids had a good time.  I brought linkology with me for the 45 minutes she has to wait for Nathan to finish hockey.  Ended up 6 girls played with Genevieve, and another mom and I helped out and explained things as they came up. We had discussions on warm blooded/ what mammals are etc.  it was fun!

Then we raced out at 3 to run across town to go to the taiosi choir.  They do 1 hour of singing and then 45 minutes of ukelale practice.  Kids had more fun today, then their first class last time. 

Were then went home for dinner, which was almost ready, except for making rice and thickening the sauce. 

And after dinner we cleaned up the kitchen.  That feels pretty nice. 

So even though it was a busy day, it still felt balanced.  I didn't feel rushed, I felt like we accomplished what we needed to do, and now at 7 I may go to bed :)

Tuesday

Well my cold is in full swing!  November will be flu free right?

Math worksheet this morning, then piano practice.  Off to art class we went, then to piano.  While Nathan was practicing I played the new math game with Gigi and vice versa.  

Home we went for more piano from Gigi and Nate, and some reading.  Then Nathan mentioned he saw we had an IMAX movie on china.   Perfect, I've got a cold and I'm tired, they watched the movie about china and giant pandas.  We then had a discussion on ins angered animals and the different reasons animals become endangered. 

Next the kids went outside ride their bikes around, then played some street hockey with our neighbours. 

Monday October 14

We had a fairly good homeschool day today.  

Nathan was a little hard to get to sit still in his chair, but we made it through.   

We started with a fall themed notebook.  First up fall math sheet, it was a good review.  Next up poetry, we read a few poems and then thought of fall words, we then wrote down rhyming words for them.   I really thought Nathan would enjoy this one, but he wasn't into this today.  Genevieve came up with some pretty good ones though.  I plan to get them to draft a poem tomorrow.   

We played our new math game snap it up again today.  Nathan struggles with math worksheets, but he was quickly adding and subtracting up to 3 numbers at a time to try and see if he could come up with the answer.  It really showed me how much he hates sitting in a structured place, his math anxiety, and that he hates writting.  Not sure which one influences his dislike of math worksheets, but hopefully this math game will get him over it.  It is painful for me to get him to do math worksheets, but I know he needs the practice.  The game will also benefit genevieve as, she is a little slower at the game, she is pretty fast at worksheets though!

Next up was piano.  Nathan put up a stink about piano, his neck hurt too much to play, it hurt to sit etc.  I massaged his neck for 1/2 then insisted he play.  He practiced about 20 minutes, once he gets into playing you can see he likes it. 

Genevieve practices piano pretty faithfully and really enjoys practicing, I definitely don't have to ask her to practice, she practices several times a day.