We had a wonderful October for the most part. We had TONS of learning, field trips and a really long road trip. All in all it will definitely be a memorable one...although some of the memories are painful ones. Our beloved neighbor and friend of 7 years passed away leaving so many who loved him behind. His wife will be in our daily routine now so we can try to ease the pain of missing someone who has been by your side for over 60 years. Bless her heart........My grandmother went into the hospital with numerous problems, had surgery, and has since been moved into a nice (as nice as you can get, I guess) rehab facility. She is soooooooo incredibly independent that it's very difficult to see her struggling with even the task of sitting up. She's also an incredibly stubborn 86 year old who wants things done her way. Needless to say it will be an uphill journey, but we will be by her side to help her through this. Trips to the rehab will also have to be fit into our schedule. On the other side of things, we took a family road trip (yes, in a car!) to Lexington, KY for a wedding. BabyGirl was the flower girl, I was the bridesmaid, and it was a beautiful ceremony. It was also an awesome time of year to be traveling. The leaves were beautiful and the weather was gorgeous. Aside from me vomiting every day from motion sickness...things were good. :) Our Halloween festivities were great. We had just gotten back in town and I was so glad to just settle down and take time to go have fun. We took our annual trip to Camp Cute N' Spooky at Discoveryland. It was SO MUCH FUN as usual. I can't imagine our Halloween without this event. So, that concludes our roller coaster of a ride October. I'm so happy to be back in the swing of things for November. We're already off to a bang! Here's what we've done the first week so far....
For history/geo we've started a month about Europe. We've traced the continent, and started our wall map of the world. Europe is our first addition...we will add each continent until we have constructed our world. Our Auntie just happens to be travelling in Europe at this very moment. So, we have been following her journey online and on our maps. We ate some celebratory chocolate when she was in Belgium, and sketched a picture of the Eiffel Tower when she was in France. We're also taking our history lesson of Christopher Columbus this month along with Europe. Currently Mr. Columbus is on board his ship sailing the ocean blue...next week we will continue his journey. Today we made our own ocean in a bottle so we could imagine him floating on the waves....
For science we complete our last lesson/project on plants and animals. That concludes our unit on life science. Next week we will begin our Earth science unit by studying weather a little more in-depth than last year. BabyGirl enjoyed taking pictures of our animals the last day of this unit. Check them out!
Our 1st grade phonics/reading is going great. The stories are very simple to read, but the phonics lessons are much more complex than the kindergarten curriculum and I'm so glad I decided to break everything down for her. Each story also has a project with it just like our science so she totally digs that! She loves doing her phonics worksheets as well....
We're sailing along in our kindergarten math and are just finishing up graphing. She had this mastered last year when we covered it, but I'm just building confidence at this point and making sure everything is concrete before we move on to 1st grade. We're about 1/3 of the way through our kindergarten math. She never fails to surprise me with how quickly she grasps things, and in some ways differently than I expect.
This week we also went to a box painting party, and had a blast. It's always fun to gather with fellow homeschoolers. Today we went to the library for an hour on our Veterans. It was wonderful for BabyGirl as well as myself. It gets me to thinking about all the men in my life who have so bravely and selflessly fought for our freedom. I miss the ones dearly who have moved on, and wish they could witness the beauty I see in my daughters eyes....
So, welcome November! We look forward to being thankful for your bounty, our friends, our family, our freedom.........................until next time....
