The Homeschool Mother's Journal: Chess!

 

In my life this week...Little Alex, who is almost 2, has declared that he will no longer stay in his playpen/bed for naptime or bedtime.  Which means he also won't go down for his naps during the day, and bedtime is terrible.  He hasn't had a real nap this week, except for in the car, and can hardly keep his eyes open by around 6pm.  I'm still trying to figure out what to do with him now at bedtime.  My older 2 boys have also had a hard time going to bed at night, AND sleeping through the night.  I have been up several times a night with these boys.  I'm hoping it's just a seasonal thing, and we'll get into our Fall sleeping groove soon.  Needless to say, I'm pretty tired this week!

In our homeschool this week...We've been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  We have about 7 chapters left before we finish.  All 3 kids have started an Elections lapbook.  I actually had only planned to have April make one, but the boys saw her decorating with cool patriotic stickers so they wanted in on that too.  April got through 2 of her Singapore math lessons this week.  I am not sure this book is working for her.  It was a struggle both times.  She flies through her Life of Fred though, and she did get one chapter of Life of Fred done this week too.

 I am inspired by...Friday afternoons!  Yes, a weekend is definitely a welcome sight, and truly inspiring to do some catching up.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...We had our homeschool group co-op meeting today at the library.  It was book club, and we discussed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  That was pretty neat.  I like how it got the kids thinking about the book.  April and I went to church activity girls (girls group, ages 8-11) on Wednesday where we did face painting, and had a little halloween treat.  My boys always get to go over to their friends house to play during activity girls.  Poor Alex cries everytime, but the big boys have fun.

My favorite thing this week was...watching the kids learn to play chess.  It literally took them a day to learn the moves, and get some strategy down thanks to the game "no stress chess."  Then today at the library Aric picked chess to play at the children's services.  He was very excited about it, and I think the librarian was kinda surprised that he was so excited, I just know she was thinking something like "he's excited about chess, does he know what it is?"  Well, yes, he does.  Even my 4 year old can play chess with "no stress chess."

What's working/not working for us...art class didn't work for Aaron.  He and April started an art class last month.  He went for a few weeks, but it was just too intense for a 6 year old.  We decided that he wasn't going to continue with the class at the same time that the art instructor came to me and said that he thought Aaron was too young.  I'm glad that I had already decided that when he came to us with that.  I've also decided that Speekee TV isn't going to work for us, so we aren't doing that anymore either.  It was a great program, we just weren't getting to it enough each week to be paying a fee for it.

Questions/thoughts I have...I've been pondering this one for a while.  I need more for my 6th grader.  I'm not sure what it is, but she needs more challenge.  What exactly is it that she needs?

Things I'm working on...Halloween costumes.  Sorting through boys' clothes, weeding out the too small stuff.  Finding "new" clothes for the younger ones.  Lots of other things I can't think of right now.  I'm always working on something it seems.

I'm cooking...I made blueberry breakfast cake for breakfast today, and French toast for dinner.  I must have been in the breakfast mood today.  I didn't make much else this week.  I need to get back to the menu planning again.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...
The kids playing chess.  This has been the new scene at our house over the last week.  So fun to see!

    
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Desiree