Wednesday Update

     Hey there! Coming at you tonight from a wild and crazy night at the Smilie House. I'm in my robe and ugly socks, and the boys, John included, are watching Minecraft videos on YouTube. And a special shout out tonight to John's younger brother who told John he really likes reading my blog! Tom, I think it's so funny that you enjoy reading this. But, thank you!

    Good news, everyone. The Smilie boys did not fail any subjects in our first quarter! I love Seton because they do some grading. I have a really good idea of what the boys are or are not understanding since we're all up in each other's business all day every day. But, to send in some tests and writing samples and receive grades from actual teachers is very affirming that we aren't getting terribly off track. Our oldest is more of a Reading kid than a Math kid, but he was so proud of himself for earning two A's and a B on the Math tests we sent to Seton. Scanning in the documents was a challenge for this gal, but I DID IT. Check out this nightmarish setup:

    So we are forging ahead into the second quarter! Topics currently being taught/learned include direct objects, indirect objects, possessive pronouns, multiplying large numbers, beginning subtraction, the 10 Commandments, and weather. That's all that I can think of off the top of my head, and I'm too lazy to walk into the school room to see what else we're doing this week. Teaching a 6-year-old how to subtract is harder than you'd think... The other day he boldly announced, "I don't need to be teached!'

    We carved a pumpkin the other day, and I'm going to go ahead and say that it was our art project for the week since everyone chipped in. It snowed the day we carved this guy, and while I love snow and I love Halloween, I do not love snow before Halloween. Stay in your lane, Winter.

    Another "art" day. We enter into art projects with a huge amount of enthusiasm, and then we get distracted by shiny objects and abandon the original plan. And this pile of junk just does not go with my decor. I honestly have no idea what they were trying to achieve here.

    Like I said, it snowed. So at 7:45 am on Monday morning, I was digging through four boxes of winter gear looking for matching boots that fit the boys well enough. The younger two helpfully shoveled the front yard. Whatever. PE- check.

    

        That's all our news for now. Thanks for checking in!

October Days

     October in Kansas is so beautiful. Our days are sunny and clear with temps around 80 degrees. To extend our fall days outside, we bought a gas fire pit for our deck and have used it nearly every evening. The other night we said a family rosary around the fire and roasted marshmallows. It sounds idyllic, and that night was, but usually there is a lot of hollering and whooping around the yard. John would like you all to know that he roasted the perfect marshmallow. See first picture below.

    Two of the boys appeared out of nowhere to help me make cookies one day. I glanced down and realized that they both showed up wearing just one sock. Just an unplanned, funny coincidence. And our cookies were pretty cute! I don't make sugar cookies with royal icing very often, but it's a fun little hobby I enjoy. KC friends- let me know if you need any fun cookies!

    Fridays are usually our art project and science experiment days. The boys love these activities but I have a love/hate relationship with them. Lots of planning and lots of mess. Last week we worked together to make a pulley elevator for mini pumpkins. And then we painted monsters with watercolors and blowing through straws. The googly eyes were a fun addition.

    

    We are smack dab in the middle of Week 9, the last week of our first quarter. It's been such a great start, and I'm so proud of my hard-working boys. End of quarter means lots of tests and writing assignments that will be sent to Seton for grading. I'm a nervous wreck that I haven't done a good enough job preparing them for their tests, so I've spent hours preparing study guides and flashcards for the boys. Then, this weekend I'll need to sort out the papers and ship them off. It's a lot to keep straight. I've got binders sitting everywhere, saving the spot for the test a kid is currently taking. 

    Alrighty, I'm off to do some grading and planning. We'll start second quarter on Monday!

Highs and Lows

    Writing on a Saturday this week so I can remember what a good couple of weeks we've had. (Nevermind the 6th grade English/sentence diagramming that is hurting my brain.) We try to do highs and lows at the dinner table a few times a week. If we do it every night, it gets old and someone will say something snarky like, "My low was when my brother hit me in the stomach and now I have a bruise and I'm going to get him later."

    So here are our highs and lows from the last two weeks. The days go so fast and I forget to write here! 

Highs:

- Beautiful fall weather here in Kansas

The mornings are cool so we are happy to do school work until it warms up some. The afternoons are then perfect for going to a park, riding bikes to the library, or swinging out in the backyard. We've planted our tulip and hyacinth bulbs, and I'm trying to coax some grass to grow in our shady yard. My Mary garden still looks pretty; I'll hate to see the color go in a few weeks. Last week we took a drive with John to a local  lake after dinner to get some fresh air and see the sun set. 

- New Skills

I pulled the trigger and bought a small laminator for flash cards and other miscellaneous items in the school room. Nothing in the house is safe now because THAT is a fun little toy for Mom!

I'm also trying to teach the boys a few life skills this year since we have nothing but time and no reason not to. This week's lesson: button sewing. It was no small coincidence that I scheduled this activity for the day we visited Grandma, the queen of sewing. Even the 6-year-old got the hang of it. I was surprised how much they liked sewing. It definitely could have had something to do with the wielding of tiny little swords.

- Funnies

The first grader is an accidental comedian. He's a wiggly little guy with an active imagination: a perfect recipe for blog fodder.

That brown lumpy thing is supposed to be a "yam" in his Phonics workbook. Our general routine is for him to say the picture out loud, and he's pretty good at figuring out the pictures. This time, he didn't skip a beat as he announced that it was a "Robot Potato!" Before I could stop him, he'd added several arms and legs to his Robot Potato. LOL

One of his spelling activities this week was to write his spelling words on black paper with a white crayon. He got right to work with his words and as soon as I was distracted by a brother, he added his own Halloween flair to the page. It's a Halloween "BOOOOOB!!" And I'm definitely just realizing it now that he misspelled wet. 

- Visiting Grandparents

My parents live out in the country, a veritable paradise for four boys. After school on Thursday, we drove out to their house and spent a day outside with Grandma and Papa. Highlights were definitely the bonfire complete with hot dogs and smores and then the combine rides the following day. Corn harvest is in full swing in their area, so we hitched a ride with a friend of my parents' as he harvested one of his fields. On the days that I sometimes wish the boys were in an actual school building, I need to remember how amazing these little opportunities are for us as a family.

LOWS

Luckily we don't have many lows, and I wouldn't want to share too many uglies anyway. But, they do happen. 

- Motivation 

Mondays are hard for us. I snapped this pic of my 10-year-old suffering from a case of the Mondays.

And I found this gem under the 3rd grader's desk as I was straightening up the other day. I have no idea what he was referring to but I feel like my answer would definitely have been, "Yes, you have to. Also, the "d" should be capitalized and you need a question mark after 'to.'"

- 6th Grade English

Listen, I got a minor in English but I'm having to re-teach myself this stuff and it might kill me. Let's just say that my oldest and I are spending a lot of quality time together with this subject. 

Thanks for reading!