This week, I’m going to put the sd card in the computer, and do a pictorial update this week. So, here we go, the pictures I found on my card from the last week.

Abby turned 12! She had a great time at her party. Which included Marshmallow Dodgeball. That counts as PE! lol

I found more lego pictures on my card. lol The boys like to take tons of pictures of what they have built.

Ah yes, who can forget the chipmunk in the house?! You can read The House Trap for the full story. And yes, the little chipmunk was safely returned to the wild.

This was funny the other day, when my son came in the house with a stow away in his sweatshirt.

 The cat enjoyed the ride, and stayed in there for a good 15 minutes before jumping out. Our cats love attention. lol They will even let themselves be wrapped up in blankets as babies. lol

And for the record, it’s very hard to take a picture of a cereal flake. lol

Hannah, the official challah bread baker in this house, made challah bread again today for the Sabbath. This stuff is so good, and she does an excellent job.

Oh, Money Saving Mom has a post on Educational Freebies and Deals if your in the market for such things. 🙂

To see more Weekly Wrap ups,  visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Another busy homeschool week! We didn’t have any major projects this week, but we still kept busy.

Two kids in high school really keep me on my toes. Once pushes them self too hard, and one doesn’t push hard enough. This is actually the 2nd time that I have had 2 kids in high school. And like having 2 kids in diapers THREE times, in a few years, I will have 2 kids in high school for the third time. Maybe by then I’ll have it all together.

Until then, I’ll just keep plugging along. I love using Homeschool Tracker to print out assignment sheets for the student that doesn’t push hard enough. The student can’t say they didn’t know about an assignment, or they didn’t know what to do. And since it’s printed out, and not hand written, there’s no way students can change the assignment. Not that any of my students would ever do anything like that. They might think it, though! lol

This week my son was playing with Lego’s and decided to make a Wii remote. He did a pretty good job.

He even put a wire on it.

It got me thinking about all the ways that Lego’s can be used in education. We used to use them all the time as math manipulative’s. Setting up historical villages with Lego’s is also fun. Here’s a link to Lego Education, where  you can find all kinds of activities to do with students.

To see more Weekly Wrap ups,  visit Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Our family has been making car models for years. It’s a great family hobby. We’ve been going to shows for about 13 or 14 years now. The shows are a day long event, and lots of fun.

Well, ok, the whole day isn’t fun. There is lots of down time while the cars are being judged. That can get quite boring. And lets just say it was quite challenging with babies and toddlers. I constantly had to be on guard to keep little hands from touching other peoples cars. Now that our youngest is 10. I no longer have to worry as much.

Last Saturday, they attended a show and had a great time. Due to my still not feeling up to par, I stayed home. And Hannah, 14, opted not to attend.  So the two of us had a Love Comes Softly Movie Marathon with all you can eat chocolate. All 8 movies in a row! It took just under 12 hours to watch them all.

Anyway, here are pictures from the model car show.

Zach, 10, at the show with some of his cars. He won 2 – 1st Place trophies.

Abby, 11, with some of hers. She won 1 trophy, a 1st Place.

Calen, 15, with his cement mixer he built. It won a 1st Place trophy, Best of Show, which is a very large trophy, and a Best Engine plaque. He also won a 2nd Place trophy, 3rd Place trophy, a Best Interior plaque for other cars he entered.

A total of 9 trophies and 3 plaques. A great pay-off for the months and months of work that can go into each car. Of course, the younger ones don’t spend as much time on theirs as the older ones and adults do.

Our church as an Old Fashioned Day once a year. This year, Hannah decided to make a new skirt. We didn’t have any patterns for this style, so she made it without a pattern. It has a waistband (not elastic) with a button & buttonhole. Her first buttonhole! She did a great job. She also made a matching drawstring purse.

It’s been busy around here, but they still managed to fit in book work. 🙂  We are still reading The Dawn Treader out loud, also.

We are in the process of reading The Chronicles of Narnia – The Dawn Treader in anticipation of the movie coming out in December. The kids are really looking forward to that, and we are reading the book out loud at their insistence. 🙂

For more homeschooling ideas, visit Susie QT Pies Scraps of Life: Homeschool and Education Link up

There are so many great homeschool sites on the web, including some awesome blogs. Here are some that I found helpful and interesting this week.

You can print out the Dolch Sight Words.

I loved Top 10 Reasons Why I Homeschool at Homeschool-Articles.com.

You can make oobleck! I remember a few years ago, the kids did an experiment with cornstarch and water. If you insert your foot really slowing, it will go it. But if you put your foot on it quickly, you can stand on it. They loved that!

How to pray for Missionaries As Christians, we should pray for our Missionaries, and this was very helpful.

Mad Libs Online! I remember doing Mad Libs and loving them. Here’s a digital version.

The Art & Architecture of the Tabernacle of Moses is awesome if your studying the Old Testament.

How about a Carnival of Homeschooling? There are lots of great links.

Putting Duplo Blocks to work in the school room.

I loved reading Back to School For the Year Round Homeschooler.

Weird, Unsocialized Homeschooler has some great Homeschool Storage ideas.

Homeschool Storage Strategies What homeschooler doesn’t need more storage ideas?!

Download & print Homeschool Planner Pages. They also have a lot of other printables as well.

Raising Arrows has a great article on A Lifestyle of Learning Grammer

For more ideas, visit Homeschool Snips & Tips Wednesday

Things I Love Thursday

Over the years, I’ve kept assignments and work logs in every way imaginable. We started homeschooling in 1991, with 6 kids that’s a lot of assignments!

I’ve tried it all. Lesson plan books with a column for each child, a log of work done as we did it, individual lesson plan books, and assignment sheets. All either written by hand, or done on the computer.

For the last few years, we’ve done assignment sheets printed from the computer.

The only drawback for assignment sheets for 4 kids, is the paper trail they leave all over the house. Let’s just say it’s huge. More like a paper mountain than a paper trail!

First we started keeping them in pocket folders, or file folders. That works very well, as long as the kids don’t drop their folders! And if they remember to put their assignment sheets back into the folders.

After many frustrating years, I came up with a solution. I’ve started stapling the assignment sheets to the folder. Something as simple as a couple of staples has made a huge difference.

No more assignment sheets all over the house! And no more lost assignment sheets!

Every week, I staple the new sheets on top of the old. When the folders get full, I will file them until the end of the year.

My homeschool mom life is now easier! And the kids school days go a lot smoother for them!