Co-op and Cookies

 

We had our monthly co-op meeting today.  The girls decorated sugar and gingerbread cookies for their cooking class.  And we even have icing left over to decorate some cookies at home!  After a simple lunch, we watched a video of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.  Even though I've read the book several times, I don't know that I've ever seen the movie.  It was cute, and the fashions brought me back to my childhood.  (Knickers, anyone?)  Joy and Grace's class has been reading and studying the book this semester, so it was a fun way to end the co-op semester.

The younger girls were all invited to a friend's sleepover, and Faith and some friends were hired to do hair for the sleepover guests.  (It was a spa party.) So Paul and I used our time away to eat some good Tex-Mex and do a little shopping.  We ended our date with some really disappointing bread pudding from a local restaurant.  Then we picked up Faith and her friend, who is sleeping over at our house tonight, and I brought them to the mall.  We had gone so that Faith could decide what perfume she like best for Christmas, but we ended up trying on formals.  That's a sentence a man would never write!  Now we're home and in our jammies and ready to relax.

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Write Like an Egyptian

One of the things I really like about homeschooling is how my children are freed up to use their creativity.  (Another thing I really like is getting to sleep later!)  Faith has been writing a story to send in for an American Girl Magazine story contest.  She finished it today, and I was impressed with her writing.  

As we were talking about the story contest, Hope said she would not want to enter a story because, as she said, "I only write books...and hieroglyphics."   Love that girl!

A Day in the Life

I woke up tired this morning.  Maybe staying up to read just one a few more chapters of the book I was reading wasn't such a good idea.  I had to wake up all the girls so they could get something to eat before we started school.  Usually Hope is awake before I am, but this morning she was tired, too.  (I blame the extreme silliness I heard from her and Faith at about 9:45 last night.

We were reading about John the Baptist this morning, and the girls were quite grossed out by the eating locusts thing.  We ended this morning with enough time for me to spend half an hour on the exercise bike before lunch.  Faith cooked the frozen pizza for her and the twins.  Hope cooked herself a waffle.  I made a meatball sandwich from the leftover meatballs I made Sunday night.  YUM!

I showered after lunch, and then we had a leisurely afternoon of reading and a nap for me and reading and play for the girls.  I did science with Joy and Grace, and all the girls listened to part of a Haydn CD for music time.


I made a big pot of chili last night, so dinner planning was easy!  I did make Pioneer Woman's cornbread (Scroll down for the cornbread recipe.)  And I even figured out the secret for keeping it from getting too brown on the bottom:  don't melt the butter on High!  Not all the girls like chili, so I also "cooked" some chicken nuggets and fish sticks.


Then we were off to the 4-H Pet Show.  Rebecca entered our cat, who did NOT enjoy it!  But Patches did win Coolest Cat!  Of course, we've always known how cool she is.  Hannah helped out with running the pet show.  All the girls loved seeing all the cute pets, and we had to exercise some serious willpower and resist taking home the adorable Miniature Australian Shepherd puppies that were for sale!  I also got to visit with a sweet friend from our former church.


We got home, watched the new David*Crowder Band video, then the girls asked to see this one, and the girls got ready for bed.  Paul went to help a good friend install floors in the house he is building.  


All is quiet now.  Netflix is calling!  (But the dirty dishes are silent!)

Two Blogs Are Better Than One!

I have created another blog! I know that I have been a sporadic poster on this blog, but I wanted to have an on-line record of the things my girls and I are learning. And I thought it would be nice to have all the educational posts in one place.

So ... Introducing ...What We Have Learned...Thus Far!

Spelling Wisdom

Hope has decided she wants to learn spelling. Even though she is in the second grade, we have only had a brief time of spelling instruction. The spelling curriculum I have used with Faith (Spelling Power) recommended starting at age 8, which is third grade. Earlier this year Hope begged to do spelling, so we did the first few short vowel lessons. But she lost interest when the long vowels were introduced.

Since then I have discovered Spelling Wisdom. This is perfect for Hope. She is given a brief quotation to study for a period of a few days and then I dictate the passage to her, checking her spelling. Since she is familiar with many of the words already, she only has to really concentrate on a few. This seems to give her confidence, since not all the words are unfamiliar to her.

I also like that she is exposed to good quotes as opposed to lists of random words. Later the curriculum moves to short passages and even poems. The author selected the quotes/passages based on the most commonly used words. Although we've just started using Spelling Wisdom, I think we have found a great fit for our family!