Spetember 18th

Wow it has been ten days since I last blogged. Things have been a bit crazy and I have been more than a bit lazy. We have been homeschooling, as always, but Todd installed a new video game on the computer...
Nacho will be 14 Saturday. We took him shopping for his birthday and he got sneakers, a skateboard and guitar hero for the 360... Now getting him to do anything is a constant battle/bribe.
Lola is starting to get lonely with homeschooling. I have to set up some play dates for her. Tomorrow we are going out with some other homeschoolers. I hope that helps.
Coco is doing wonderfully. She started home ec and creative writing last week with the older kids and is doing really well. She has made muffins, apple cinnamon bread and helped make pork roast with sauerkraut.
Fifi cut her hair again. She now looks a bit like Mia Farrow from Rosemary's Baby LOL. She has also gotten into a Moon Sand craze. Thats all she wants to do come school time. Todd and I came up with a few ideas for incorporating Moon Sand into her lesson plan.

Last Week until today:
I am just going to combine all 10 days of homeschooling into one blog. Then hopefully but Monday I will be motivated enough to blog semi-daily again.

Fifi:
Math, we have worked on sorting, patterns, adding and subtracting with sums under 20. I like the Carebear workbooks. We have also just made a point of counting random things to improve her counting skills. We use that bead kit Todd bought daily. The hard part is keeping the older girls off of it, they want to make necklaces LOL
Science, Fifi has decided to join the 3rd grade girls in their Earth Science. She lead the class in making the moon sand/play dough models of the Earth layers. She also wanted to plant seeds with them when we started studying soil. (We are planting mums this weekend instead)
Spelling, Fifi hates spelling words. She wants the same ones as the big girls. Instead of giving her spelling words I have been giving her words of the day. She takes the words, spells it outloud, writes it, uses it in a few sentences, draws a picture...
We are still doing the letter of the week in order and trying to keep the spelling words within the letters of the week. We are on l this week.

Coco and Mimi:
Yup, Mimi is still here. I have hemmed and hawed for weeks debating on whether or not I could handle it. I finally decided I could. Plus I like knowing I am making a difference. Most of the time I dont feel like I am teaching my own children anything. There is no dawning recognition... With Mimi, shes so far behind, I get that moment almost everyday. Plus as long as she is not on her thyroid meds, she is relearning pretty quickly.
Math- We have started rounding and estimating. We have also done our math facts through the 11's table. Its odd cause the girls can round their numbers but they dont get how to do both rounding and estimating at the same time. From conversation and white board lessons, I know they can do it, but the writing it down part confuses them. We are moving on though. I rewrote it into my lesson plan in two months.
Science- We are finishing up Earth Science lessons about the actual Earth. We have learned its distance from the sun, relationship with the moon (Coco had an extra few lessons pertaining to Wicca about the moon) We have also start talking about soil layers and the seasons. Coco and I will be planting mums this weekend and celebrating Mabon on Sunday.
Geography- Last week we finished up our booklet for Miss Jenn in Arkansas. She loved it. This week, although my sister lives in California, I have quite a few friends from California, and my mother just came back from California, I have no California information. We are using the same library book series we have used for the others. I printed out map offline, no magnet, so silly facts. We are focusing on Hollywood, San Fransisco and the gold rush. Levi Straus really interested the girls as well.
Spelling- We did all the same old same old. I have gotten it so they start their spelling before I finish my first cup of coffee. We make flash cards Monday, write sentences Tuesday, alphabetize them Wednesday, a crossword and word scramble puzzles Thursday and test on Friday. Last week was a typical Mimi forgot everything week where she got a 20 on her spelling test. Coco only got a 72. the difference is Coco actually studied and works on it everyday after class time. Shes giving an awesome effort! Mimi, not so much. Her mom doesn't encourage her to read quietly at home, study her spelling words or practice her math facts. When brought up in conversation, she claimed she didn't know she was supposed to... This is why I almost quit...
Language Arts- we are still working with Adverbs. We threw in some proper nouns and pronouns to keep interested but for the most part, they have no idea... still.
ASL- We are still working on the Signing Time DVDs, the Flodin books. Lola is learning, Coco likes it and is picking it up a bit slower, Fifi ROCKS at it. She can do almost every sign she had ever seen. Nacho could care less, or maybe he couldn't and Mimi, well she tries. We have canceled the entire idea of putting on play. The younger girls wont listen to the older girl. Oye!
Creative Writing- Coco is now doing weekend creative writing projects. Last week we started a study of legends. Over the weekend the children had to write their own legend. Coco did very well. I have enrolled her in a creative writing class for the month of October.
I also have both girls writing three complete sentences daily about a lesson or whatever. I want them to know how to write a complete sentence. I want to them to improve their spelling of simple words. I think it is working, for now.

Lola:
Math- Lola is still going back and forth between aaamath and her workbooks. She whizzes right through the aaamath and has to slow down only a bit for the workbooks. She is doing addition, rounding, estimating, computation, and divisibility. Once she gets 100 on a paper, we move on. All she seems to get are 98 and 100...
Science- We have finished the muscular system. There are little or no printables online for this system... It was rough but we mostly just read books, made up our own tests and watched some videos. I love the National Geography series Inside the Body. Plus the books my mother sent are fantastic! We have moved on to the Ingementary System. Its easier for me to find the info online, plus she had some dittos from ps she is using. They were from Health class last year explaining why we sweat.
Geography- I think Lola's favorite part is making the flags. Shes more into the state facts than the fun facts. Her creative writing project this weekend is about Levi Straus.
Language Arts- We are using the CC book. She is working with compound words, prefixes, suffixes and learning new words. We are also still studying legends. Lola's legend paper last weekend was impressive. I will be posting it by itself when I am done blogging.
Spanish- Lola wanted to take Spanish with Nacho. They are both using www.livemocha.com and Rosetta Stone. They are alternating which each day. While I speak Spanish fluently, they dont want me to teach them LOL...
Home Ec- Lola has made a ton of dishes in the past few weeks. She keep calling them home ec. LOL. Banana Bread, Curried Beef and Rice, Italian Wedding Soup...

Nacho-
Math- After a week of using www.aaamath.com Nacho and I decided to go ahead and use the Algebra books and workbooks we bought on Amazon. Right now he is doing graphing and data collection (mode, median, average, mean)
Science- Our Science book finally got here last Thursday. We started Science classes Monday. We are using the book and workbook again. This week he is doing Intro to Physical Science... Exciting huh? We did however do some experiments with balloons this weekend (We went to Chuck E Cheese LOL Free Balloons) Nacho likes hands on Science. I ordered a book of Middle School Science Projects. Hopefully when it gets here I can steal a few ideas for him.
Geography/Culture- We are still doing Greece. Last week we studies Ancient Greece, and this week we are doing modern day Greece. We did get Nachos books in the mail and Todd and I are considering just using the book to follow along instead of our original plan of a new country every two weeks. We will talk more tomorrow.
Mythology- Nacho studied the Greeks these two weeks. He focused on Apollo. He had to write a few paragraphs about Apollos life and activities. That is his creative writing project due this weekend. His project last week was a disgrace...
Herbology- Nacho made Mabon oils from researching herbs and oils associated with Mabon. He he made enough for all of his Pagan friends and family. He is doing alot of this independently.
Language Arts- We are spending these two weeks reviewing our parts of speech. His books never showed up. Amazon refunded our money and we ordered new ones. They should be here in a few days

We wont be having class tomorrow as we are going to hang out with other homeschooling friends. I didnt keep the job I started last week. It was selling and I dont do selling. I think I will be working for the Obama campain starting next week. I have an interview at 9 am tomorrow. Otherwise I will be applying at Walmart and Lowes and such for part time work.