My Homeschool Mother's Journal: Smokey, lapbooks, and music

Life this week...

I tried to catch it several times, but the sky was covered in smoke pretty much the whole week (actually it has been like this for several weeks, but this week it was finally getting to me). The light from the sun always had this orange/reddish tint to it making shadows and the ground have a orange glow. The air quality was terrible, and I missed seeing the blue sky, or even clouds for that matter.

The orange/red light from the sun wasn't just at sunset and sunrise. It was all day from all the air pollution/smoke. This is the light shining into my kitchen. You can see the orange glow pretty good. It is not sunset or sunrise either. This was a distinctly different light than usually comes in at that time of day.

Everytime we drove over a hill where we could see the whole city I was just amazed at how hazy it was. Tried to catch it in this picture, but it just didn't really come out in the picture. No, those are clouds though!

Some friends got amazing pictures of the red setting sun, but I just never had a camera around when it happened. I did try to snap a picture of the red moon one night though. Again, you just can't see how red it is.

Homeschool this week...

We are trying to get back into a little bit of a groove by getting some math done each day. This week I had found an old subtraction lapbook printed up that we never used, so I decided to have Alex give it a try. He absolutely loved it. It blew me away because he wanted to finish the whole thing in one day, and he was reading his subtraction families in the car while driving to and from Salem. I think he has a better understanding of subtraction now, and I am excited that he seems to like this method of learning.

His completed lapbook. Yes, we certainly realized we need to practice some number writing too.

I also found some felt numbers. He decided to decorate the back of the lapbook with these.

Reviews we are working on...

We are currently reading this book Imagine The Great Flood by Matt Koceich. It's about a boy who somehow ends up traveling back to the time of Noah's Ark. It's a pretty easy read so far.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

April had a music camp this week with Salem Symphony. It was a neat experience, and it required us to drive down and back to salem twice a day for 5 days. It ended with a nice little concert this afternoon. We all enjoyed watching the concert, and seeing her play with so many great musicians. This is such an amazing talent of hers.

We also had a swimming/ice cream party with church primary friends. It was an article of faith party, so for each article of faith they had memorized they got a topping for.  Aric had 9 toppings!

My favorite thing this week was...

Seeing signs of fall coming.

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

Finally getting to spend an afternoon at Wunderland. It's a nickel for every game, but most games take 2-6 nickels. There's an admission fee too. It was pretty fun overall though.

Last, but not least...

Alex lost the first of his top 2 teeth. I expect the other to come out pretty soon, it's already wiggly.