January 16, 2023

Homeschooling Update Nov - Jan

 I saw a video on youtube that really hit home recently. It was about what happens when we have these homeschooling plans and they "fail". Not fail, but God changes your plans, etc. Link to the video. Just click on 'Link'. My first year homeschooling, like seriously homeschooling all in, have everyone on board with me for once, etc. It's just been like one thing after another. November Abby got sick a lot so we did what we could. She kept getting these random fevers. One weekend she got up to 103 every time the Tylenol (or Motrin or whatever) wore off. Then Thanksgiving happened. We go into December, we're doing okay...and then Samuel and I get the flu. Then it's the holidays again. Then I get told my mom has stage 4 esophagus cancer (she starts the non-aggressive treatments this week, her choice). We can make all the plans we want in life, have all the pretty planners, the pretty planner stickers, set it up all pretty, etc, but in the end, lol. In the end, the Lord directs our paths. He orders our steps. 




Proverbs 16:9 " We can make our plans,
but the Lord determines our steps."

I still love my planners, planner community, planning things out, and having a plan, but I also understand that those plans can change, but overall in my life, I believe, God has the final say. He is Lord and Savior of my life and he directs my household. What have we accomplished between November - January (half of it already) so far? 

Abigail had her first homeschooling music concert in November.

 We did  alphabet clip matching , cvc word spelling, greater than or less than math, and art. 











 

 We also did our 'Holidays around the World' unit for December. 



We also had our nutcracker performance in December! Our second year of being in The Nutcracker at her dance center that they do. It's very cute how they do it!! 







We did hot chocolate week the first week of January. We've been working on our Rhyming skills. Reading nursery rhymes, listening to words that end the same. Working more on beginning and ending letter sounds. We added IXL for our math and language too. We also started a swimming class!! So our extracurricular activities are swimming, music class, and ballet!  We are going to work on block patterns, shapes, chain link activities, keep going on our united states project we started in September (we got a bit behind on that one, we only have a few states in), letter sounds, etc. 

October 16, 2022

Menu Plan for October 16th - October 23rd

 

Sunday: Leftovers

Monday: Chili Cheese Hot Dog Casserole

Tuesday: Tortilla Soup (Crockpot) 

Wednesday: BBQ Chicken Sandwiches (Crockpot)

Thursday: Leftovers

Friday: Lasanga (Crockpot)

Saturday: Science of Chicago Museum. We'll be in Chicago Saturday.

Sunday: Chicken & Rice Soup (Crockpot) 

Trying to make most of these meals be made in the crockpot due to it being 'crocktober'. :)  :P 

Homeschooling Journey September-October Updates

 Hey family and friends! 


     I wanted to start a "newsletter" on our homeschooling journey as another way to update and share on our learning process for Abigail. I want to try and do these monthly, so don’t worry, I won’t be bombarding you weekly or daily. Just a monthly summary of our learning activities and goals we’ve accomplished. 

We started homeschooling on September 1st, 2022. We took it slow and eased into the process. We’re still kind of easing. I’m starting to slowly get to the more “challenging” activities. 

As some may remember (or forgot) as we are in this journey, Abigail was diagnosed with a learning disorder, so please don’t grill her. She’ll get stressed out. The grade she would've been in public school would have been kindergarten, but I am switching activities back and forth between a preschool level and a kindergarten level. We're not truly at a kindergarten level yet. We're not too far behind, but we need some extra cheering on. :) We’re working on retaining memory. She was diagnosed with a mild intellectual disability. She had a full IEP service when she was at Irving Elementary. She had PT, OT, and Speech Therapy. 

She has a reevaluation appointment in December and January at Children’s hospital. We’re in the process of working on getting her other services again. When I take her to the parks or watch her in volleyball, I can definitely see she still needs some physical therapy assistance, even Speech Therapy. 

Speech: In volleyball or group setting, like music class or going to parks, she struggles with connecting with other kids. She did when she was in school, because of her being behind in her speech. When she plays volleyball she’ll go off to the side and away from the group. You can tell when observing her that her Speech is still lacking when you compare her to other kids in her age range. I know, comparing is a big no-no, but I like to at least see where she lines up with other kids her age since she doesn't really attend a "formal" classroom. 

Gross Motor wise she has started to become a bit more daring with her climbing in the last few weeks, which has been nice to see. I don't really have any pictures, but we've also been working on the concept of 'over' and under' with throwing balls/bean bags, etc.

Fine Motor: We’ve been working on our scissors skills. Our gluing skills. 

  The themes we have worked on since the beginning of September have been directions/back to school, apples, animals, and weather (we did that for 3 weeks, just wrapped it up). We have community helpers and a space unit coming up for the rest of October. We have a field trip that we are taking next weekend to the Science Museum of Chicago with her homeschool group. 

We’ve been introducing letter sounds (she’s not a fan), we’ve been doing our alphabet review (doing a letter a day), and introducing CVC words (not a fan of that either). 

We’ve done a lot of reading! ‘What will fat cat sit on’ was a favorite for Abigail. 

A few of our other read-alouds were: Sheep in a Jeep, Ten Apples Up On Top, Up! Up! Up! It’s Apple Picking Time, There was a Cold Lady Who Swallowed Some Snow, worm weather, Leaves, Snow Days, etc.

For social and emotional learning we’ve been learning how to use our words to express what we feel,, we’ve been reading books like llama llama mad at mama. We also worked on some calming feel-good activities. She said the back rubbing was her favorite. 😂🙂

I’m also trying to break the thumb habit by at least reducing it to only at home. Not out in public. She’s been something else with that. I need to see other self-soothing ideas that she can gravitate to. 

Extracurricular: Volleyball goes until November!



 Ballet has the nutcracker recital coming up! December 17th and th 18th are the dates. I do not have show times yet. They finalize casting calls next week

Music class has a free concert they are putting on November 12th at 2pm! 

Thanks for reading If you got this far!! 👍 


June 4, 2022

2016 to 2022

         Hey Hey! I don't even know where to begin on an update from that long of a gap. I do have some time on my hands though currently. At the moment I am recovering from a broken tibia and fibia on my right leg. Injured myself on March 5th, 2022. Due to my Rheumatoid Arthritis condition, it's been a slooooooooooow process. I'm still no weight bearing. I haven't been at work since March 1st. I don't really have any plans for this blog at the moment. It's just kind of if it happens, it happens kind of thing. 

    I have 2 kiddos now instead of just 1. I have a daughter, Abigail. She turned 5 this past April 3rd. She'll be graduating preschool on the 9th of June. She loves dancing. She is in the middle of performing her recitals this weekend. She had her first one today. Her second/last one will be Sunday.  My Son, Samuel, will be graduating MIDDLE SCHOOL on June 8th. We have his graduation ceremony on Wednesday. 

I have to call Monday to start the process for physical therapy. Even though I am no weight-bearing now they recommended to start PT and they called late Friday. I'll be scheduling all that fun stuff Monday. I need an outlet while I'm on the road to recovery here. Maybe we'll turn this thing into something! :) 



Family picture from last July of 2021. We were visiting my grandmother in Blue Eye, Missouri. 

December 13, 2015

Family update

I can't help it! I miss blogging!! So much has changed in less than a year. I finally completed my high school diploma. 10 yrs later, but I did it. I have a full-time job as a daycare teacher. It has really been a blessing to my family.
I can't believe we're almost to 2016!! I'm pretty excited to see what God is going to do.
I know in May, my little sister is graduating college. I'll be going to Texas for that for sure! :)
I wanna try and do at least 3 things I'm grateful for a day here.

There is our Christmas tree. We already did the jingle bus from downtown Milwaukee. We are going to do candy cane lane (lights) tomorrow night. Samuel has his violin concert on Tuesday night. Excited for that! Hopefully I'll remember to blog again! Talk to you guys later! 


February 17, 2015

Back to Blogging

Yep, back at it! Right now I'm just watching 19 Kids and Counting (well now the new little family that premièred tonight after the duggars). Been watching on it and off kind of all day and now it's at the current episode. :)
So glad to have cable again! I missed TLC and HGTV. I re-arranged the master bedroom today. Tried to make it easier with Mark's music equipment all over. Almost done! Just gotta finish picking up and rearranging the book shelf and the top part of our closet to finish moving things around and make due with the space that we have in this 2 bedroom apartment. 
Happy Housewives is starting a book club and is reading Say Goodbye to Survival Mode by Crystal Paine. Just purchased the kindle version of it today and need to read the first chapter by friday. :)
Tomorrow it's suppose to be like -20 degrees! Yuck! At least we're not buried in snow like the east coast is though! Just dealing with the bitter cold weather. Oh well. Mark and Samuel went to the Gym and Samuel wanted to swim in the pool there so that's where they are at. I'm gonna go on Thursday. Well hope you all had a lovely Tuesday! 



October 31, 2014

Friday To-Do's

Boy, I know it's been a while since I last made a blog post, sorry! Life has been changing and getting busy and there's been some adjustments. I need the accountability of what I use to do and writing my to-do's as detailed as possible out. That way I get it done better. I have off of work today, so things I need to get done are

- Two loads of dishes ~ did one
- Mop & Sweep kitchen floor
- Clean out bathroom toilet & sink area ~ Samuel cleaned out the sink area
- Wipe down mirrors
- Read chapter 6 and do workbook for Made To Crave before study tonight at 7pm.
- Put away Samuel's clean clothes are still in the bag
- Exercise for 15 minutes (need to work back up to an hour, it's been months).
- Pick Mom up from work as soon as Mark gets home! ~ apparently from my brother calling a little while ago needing a ride, I don't need to do that anymore, but my brother may need a ride. We'll see who gets home first. Mom or Mark. lol.

Homeschooling Update Nov - Jan

  I saw a video on youtube that really hit home recently. It was about what happens when we have these homeschooling plans and they "fa...