Elementary Round Up

We have had a crazy week.  It included the Engineer being gone to our nation’s capital and sweet video chats with him,

a floor drain vomiting some unmentionable liquids,  and water leaking into our basement from a saturated wall.  Thus a revolving door  of individuals entered and exited our house.  . . . while the husband was away. 

It made school difficult . . . not to mention that the stench wafting up from the basement forced us to move learning back to the kitchen table. 

Thankfully I am using color coordinated tubs that carry the boys work separately.  And I am slightly more organized than last year, which I will share another time.

This week . . . not many pictures . . . so I will share with you something that I learned.

I learned that flies essentially vomit on your food.  Yup.  It is because the type of mouth they have is called a sponge mouth.  They need to absorb food somehow . . . so they puke the content of their stomach (including digestive juices and previous food) to turn my food . . . your food . . . into a liquid they can absorb with their spongy proboscis. 

Nice.  Rather creative, God.

What did you do?  Or What did you learn?  To see the original Elementary Round Up post, click here.  To view last weeks discussion, click here.

If you don’t have a blog to link up with . . . leave a comment and tell us what your family did in the Learning Room!

Guidelines:

1. Write a blog post about your elementary aged child(ren), first through sixth grade,comprising the activities you did the prior two weeks.  You can include pictures, bullet points, tools used, learning gained, God moments, etc.   Or it can simply be a new thing Mom learned.
2. Be sure to include a link back to my blog.  By doing so, other like-minded readers can hang out in a central location if they are looking for Elementary School ideas.   Publish your post and then head back to my site.
3. Provide the exact link (URL) of the Elementary Round-UP blog post you wrote, not your blog’s home address, through the provided Linky.
4. Optional:   I would love it if you grabbed my blog button over on the side.
5. You can combine this with other meme’s if that helps you to save time (as long as it is OK with the other blog owner).

BIG IMPORTANT HEART MOMENT:  This isn’t a blog post to WOW other moms . . . the point of this is to help YOU document on YOUR blog what you and your child(ren) are learning.  My link-up is only to provide some accountability.  I won’t come and leave nasty comments on your blog if you don’t link up.

I Got GAPS . . . You Got GAPS

It happened late in life for me.  I didn’t see Rocky until my mid-30’s.  Yes.  I know.  I was deprived.  I think I would be content to dismiss the sequels to this somewhat infamous movie. 

I’m glad I saw the movie just to add two movie lines to my mental archive.  One is personal . . . since a friend of ours has this name.

“Adriannnnnnnneeeeeeeee!”

and the other I love to say to the Engineer or whenever I talk about GAPS . . . two totally non-related subjects.  (But it made for a good intro . . . )

“I got GAPS you got GAPS, but together we don’t got no GAPS.”

I wrestle with this whole GAPS thing.  I don’t want to have to go on a particular diet.  I simply don’t want to do it.  I wish with all my might that when I became a new creation in Christ, that my body got healed at the same time. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

But it didn’t.  And no matter what I do, it won’t EVER be totally healed until I meet my Maker on that beautiful day of His return or my demise. (1 Corinthians 13:10)

However, I wrestle with God about this issue – food and health.  I want to point the finger, figure out, or blame circumstances . . . lack of knowledge on why I have some gut issues.  Thyroid failure.  Blahs. 

Stupid.  This type of illogical and circular thinking will get me nowhere. 

And when it comes down to it, what is the big deal about changing the way I eat for 30 days?  I haven’t been having much grain anyway . . . what’s the big deal about eliminating milk . . . coffee . . . chocolate?

Food shouldn’t consume my thoughts.  Hello idolatry. 

I like to make a lot of excuses to explain what could be titled as addiction.  Here are my excuses: 

• I’m going to the Apologia Live conference . . . . I want to purchase a Venti coffee on my drive up to Chicago
• . . . or not particularly desiring to haul a crockpot up to my hotel room along with cloth diapers and a pack-n-play. 
• And seriously, I doubt my  my roomies want me to anoint their clothes with the warm aroma of . . . chicken.
• Can’t forget the fact that Relevant is at the end of the month . . . the Engineer’s birthday . . . and many other October birthdays . . . .

There will always be an excuse or a celebration.  I can keep putting my health off and watch my issues grow.  This will make me a FANTASTIC candidate for The Biggest Loser, of which I do plan on applying for regardless.

I have got to slay this dragon once and for all.  I have told you that before.  I sound like a broken record that lacks superglue.

All this to say, don’t forget to prepare.  Make some stock.  Cut some veggies.  Toss or give away foods that might sabotage your road to healing.  If you are eating bread . . . try to taper off before Saturday.  Consider grabbing a copy of The Mood Cure  . . . sometimes our cravings are related to things lacking in the brain . . . like aminos. 

Just saying.  Remember, we don’t plan to fail we fail to plan.  So think ahead.  Come up with solutions BEFOREHAND for those events that you will encounter the 30 days you opt in on the intro diet of the GAPS protocol. 

Your belly will be glad you did.

And I ask . . . please pray for me. Pray that I would resist temptation and both start and finish this task ahead of me with determination, perseverance, and joy – always keeping the prize before my eyes. 

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.  (1 Corinthians 9:24)

You can still get your copy of the Intro GAPS Guide!  The challenge begins Saturday, October 1st!

Elementary Round Up

Lots of learning life learning. . . but not many books.  That sums up our week.

 Snuggles . . . and reading. 

Active learning.

Ezra helped me find key words in my Kay Arthur study of Colossians. 

Serving.  Cleaning the house.  Feeding sister. 

Folding, hanging, sorting clothes.  Sweeping floors.

Co-op.  Cimabue.  I’m so glad I finally figured out what Asher was saying. 

Copywork.

Awana.

Awana Sparks Flight Zone

John 3:16

S is for Savior

 

P is for Power

 

A is for According to the Scriptures

 

R is for rose again

 

K is for Keep

 

S is for Saved

Sparks Sky Stormer

Deuteronomy 3:18

 

Genesis to Ecclesiastes

 

Song of Solomon to Malachi

 

Matthew to 2 Timothy

 

Titus to Revelation

Awana Hang Glider

 

Psalm 147:5

 

1 Corinthians 15:3

 

1 Corinthians 15:4

 

James 2:10

P.S. Jolanthe has a fabulous page filled with Awana printables.  She has memory cards that are cute and durable when laminated.  I struggled to do our Awana verses each week last year and since switching to Classical Education, using the above Awana copywork pages as school work helps us accomplish our memory verses AND copywork.

Please note, the above Awana copywork is NKJV.

What did you do?  To see the original Elementary Round Up post, click here.  To view last weeks discussion, click here.

If you don’t have a blog to link up with . . . leave a comment and tell us what your family did in the Learning Room!

Guidelines:

1. Write a blog post about your elementary aged child(ren), first through sixth grade, comprising the activities you did the prior two weeks.  You can include pictures, bullet points, tools used, learning gained, God moments, etc.   Or it can simply be a new thing Mom learned.
2. Be sure to include a link back to my blog.  By doing so, other like-minded readers can hang out in a central location if they are looking for Elementary School ideas.   Publish your post and then head back to my site. 
3. Provide the exact link (URL) of the Elementary Round-UP blog post you wrote, not your blog’s home address, through the provided Linky.
4. Optional:   I would love it if you grabbed my blog button over on the side. 
5. You can combine this with other meme’s if that helps you to save time (as long as it is OK with the other blog owner).

BIG IMPORTANT HEART MOMENT:  This isn’t a blog post to WOW other moms . . . the point of this is to help YOU document on YOUR blog what you and your child(ren) are learning.  My link-up is only to provide some accountability.  I won’t come and leave nasty comments on your blog if you don’t link up.

Five Minute Friday: Growing

Growing.  While I hope to be shrinking, I find that internally I am expanding . . . growing.  Growing in what it means to be a mature adult and handle my feelings in a non-volcanic way, void of an eruption.

Growing.  Being ok with bugs taking up residence in my refrigerator.

Growing.  Being bolder with my faith and being able to give a reason for the hope which I have and profess.

Growing.  Being quicker to ask for forgiveness and admit when I have been in the wrong.  (However if I haven’t apologized to you, maybe I don’t know I offended you.)

Growing.  In a knowledge of essential oil.

Growing.  Abounding in  a new love for my children that can laugh at once annoying things (thank you amino supplements).

Growing.  Strength, determination, grit to slay the beast of gluttony and put a noose around my lazy thyroid or pituitary gland to guide it into submission; rather, wake them up.

Growing.  Seeing my absolute necessity to be in the Word before my children wake up.

Growing.  Just when I thought I couldn’t adore the Engineer any more . . . my heart expands even more because of some humorous antic he has performed.

STOP

If you wrote for 5 minutes about the word “growing,” what would you say?  Join me and others over at The Gypsy Mama for 5 Minute Friday.

She Got Bit

I’m still in shock.

We were minding our own business, when a little boy loaded with Mike and Ike’s bit . . . yes, BIT Naomi! 

As in teeth marks on her nose.

The mom had four kids like me . . . but all of the kids . . . had candy.  I’m not being judgmental (yes I am) but if you want to control your children at the mall, particularly in a boring place like a shoe store, DON’T load your kid up on processed, refined, chemical laden candy.

Save your sanity, and those around you.

Why would you want to bite a baby?  I mean, I bit my sister (sorry Michelle) when I was a kid . . . but the kid bit a complete stranger.  A baby in a stroller!

What galls me the most . . . and has left me dumbfounded. . .  is that the mom did NOTHING about it.  She swooped up her child – almost consoling him (yea, from the attacking, strapped in, stationary monster of a pink baby who smiles all the time, Naomi.)

Really?

What happened to even saying, “Sorry?”

What would you have done? 

I was in such a state of shock . . . I picked up my shrieking baby to console her . . . calm her from her unwelcome attacker . . . not caring where this kid was . . . shushing Naomi for some time.

Meanwhile, the mom kept purchasing her children’s shoes . . . and left.  Wouldn’t look at me . . . let alone have her child apologize.

Seriously?

I muttered.  I mumbled.  I displayed disapproving body language.  And to be honest, I thought . . . she must be a homeschooler . . . her kids are slightly older than mine . . . why else or how else could she be out shopping with perfectly healthy children at 11:30 AM? 

So, I thought . . . Gosh . . . I might see her at some homeschooling thing.  I can’t get violent.  But I wanted to.

I felt so sad . . . sad for how insane, crazy, bewildered those kids looked.  If their mom won’t apologize or be mature, why should her kids?

Part of me wanted to pray for them right there . . . extend a white flag . . . BUT he bit my kid!!!!  That is rather cannibalistic. 

In the end, we became victims . . . doing nothing.  Only gossiping about them to the Stride Rite employees after the Red Dye #40 family left.  That wasn’t right of me.  Sorry. 

If my kid hurt another child, you better believe there will be a consequence. There is a right and wrong.  (Thank you for that lesson today Apologia).  If we have to do a time out in public, leave a store with a full shopping cart, or miss a play date . . . we do that. 

No “appearance” is more important than doing the right thing.  And even if it is embarrassing, especially if it involves a stranger, we ask for forgiveness.

I’m just dumbfounded.  And blogging or rather writing is how I process.

I’m so thankful I started my amino’s today.

What would you have done?

 

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Next summer, some of the ingredients from this treat will actually come from my garden.  This is a refreshing, lite cookie made with the TGEO (therapeutic grade essential oil), lavender.

Lavender Shortbread Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/4 cup sugar (I used honey instead)
• 5-10 drops lavender essential oil (once again, I only recommend Young Living . . . don’t use this recipe if you aren’t using edible TGEO)
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh mint leaves
• 1 tsp grated lemon zest (or lemon essential oil)
• 2 1/2 cup wheat flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp. finely chopped  fresh lavender (optional)
• 1/2 cup cornstarch (I used arrowroot)

Directions

Cream together butter, honey, and sugar (if you used it).  You want it to be fluffy – like a down comforter.  Mix in the lavender essential oil, lavender herb, mint and lemon zest.  Combine flour, cornstarch, and salt; mix into batter until well blended. 

Divide the floral dough into two balls (so as to chill faster), surround with plastic wrap, and place them in the cold rectangle in your kitchen. 

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.  After about an hour, or when your dough is firm, roll the dough out on a lightly floured surface until it is about 1/4 inch thick.

Cut into shapes with cookie cutters if you are feeling cutesy . . . or use a glass to make circular  cookies.  Place on a cookie stone.

Bake 18-20 minutes until cookies just begin to brown at the edges. 

Use caution as to when they are cool enough to eat.  I like mine frozen. 

Elementary Round-Up and Then Some . . .

I’ve received several comments.  You want to know what’s up with Elementary Round Up?

To be honest, I’m not sure.

For starters, I’m sorry. I lied.  I told you that I would provide a link every week for the months of June, July and August.  I didn’t.  Here is my reason why . . . I was trying to take a bit of a blogging break. 

It worked – kind of.

June and July only had blog entries in the “teens.”

I’m trying to evaluate what I would like to do this year.  With having a second-grader walking in my midst and a rapidly rising kindergartner . . . I have to stay focused.  Ahead of the game . . . not to mention just living my life outside of the school room with all of its responsibilities.

There are so many other great blogs out there who host weekly link-ups that are a bit more dependable (read reliable) with their weekly memes.  Like,

• Preschool Corner (Homeschool Creations)
• Tot School (1+1+1=1)
• Weekly Wrap-Up (Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers)
• maybe some others I know nothing of . . .

It leaves me to wonder if there is room for another? 

My issue, though, is that I would like to link up weekly to all three . . . but in order to have enough time to do so, I have to do ALL of the above memes in one post. 

One entry. 

The question is then . . . is that right or fair to post our second grade activities on a link up for Tot Trays?  Or featuring Naomi for a Preschool Post?  Not to mention, in order to hopefully have others jump over to my blog . . . I’ve got to manually enter in my links to various websites.  And though it sounds like I am complaining . . . that takes time. 

Time that could be spent reading an extra page in a book. Or rubbing a tired back. Or having a prepared table to welcome the Engineer home of an evening.

And should my heart be concerned with others reading . . . since the Round Up is supposed to just provide documentation of our school work in a fun way for me?

The reality is that the most I ever had for an Elementary Round Up was seven . . . typically a faithful seven linked up.  Though a good number and I value those seven ladies . . . is providing a link for Elementary Round Up (Kindergarten through 6th grade) helpful? 

Did enough people use it to document their schooling or gain ideas . . . encouragement that it is worth my time?

I don’t have the answer to that question. 

I would welcome feedback.

I have had another idea. I’m curious to see what you think.

What about the opportunity to dedicate a post to what MOM learned that week?  Kind of going back to my If You Give A Mom A Book meme I did a year or so ago . .  .

We learned all about wasps and termites this week . . . and what an insect REALLY is . . . stuff I had forgotten.  It was so much fun to learn.  I’d like to share. 

So . . . let me know what you think.

Here is our week in review.  I’ll probably keep my words few as I have already said my share above.

Gabe – Tot School

Tot trays galore . . . but he only wanted to do them once.

animal figurines

using a spoon to dump buttons into a bottle

dumping buttons with the cap proved more entertaining

putting bouncy balls in an ice cube tray

ripping tickets

playing with Purpllinker

first day at our church homeschool co-op

playing quietly while his brothers did school in the kitchen

_________________

Ezra (Kindergarten)

 

A big component of Classical Education is copywork.  I don’t have my munchkins write to punish them . . . but to learn about language, both written and spoken, using the learning that is already occurring around my boys.

So rather than pull something out of nowhere, I have made some printables for Ezra (with the help of the Engineer and Valerie) using Ezra’s AWANA verses (this is only John 3:16).  Feel free to download them as they become available, but please note that they are the NKJV.  For other great AWANA printables, check out Homeschool Creations.

Letter K with Handwriting Without Tears . . . lowercase

uppercase

Ezra confiscated Gabe’s Tot Tray . . .

Memorization:  The Caterpillar by Christina G. Rosetti

He was so proud of his work.  One thing I have learned from all of the books I have been reading . . . assign age-appropriate work.  It would be STUPID of me to make Ezra write out this entire poem free-hand.  So, I wrote the poem and he traced it.  This way he learns letter formation and works within the structure of the poem without meeting frustration.  He can still feel proud of his work.

Homeschool co-op

Stick Figure Bible with Grapevine Studies . . . Old Testament

_______________

Asher (1st/2nd Grade)

Saxon Math

Memorization:  The Caterpillar . . . now Asher had to do the entire project on his own . . . because it was age appropriate for him to do so.  Does that mean he liked it?  No.  The reason wasn’t because he thought Ezra had it easier – it was because Asher wanted it to look perfect.  Sigh.  Being the first born can be rough.

Homeschool Co-Op

Science with Apologia Flying Animals of the Fifth Day . . . we captured a wasp and learned how they are different than bees.  Quite fascinating. 

AWANA  copy work . . . see explanation above.  And if you have a Sparky in the Sky Stormer book . . . here are some verses to get you started.  Once again, we are memorizing NKJV . . . check out Homeschool Creations for other options of GREAT Awana printables!

Cooking is a fabulous way to make math practical.

 

Phew! 

A new week begins in a few short hours!  What did you learn?  And let me know if you want:

• an Elementary Round Up
• if so, what day?
• or a link up for What Mom Learned? (AKA If you give a Mom a Book)