Board Games... Can't get enough of them!

  So as you all know our family is HUGE on board games.  Although when do you call it a board game?  What about when there is no board involved?  Do you call that like a table game?  And what about things like charades and hunt the slipper?  What are those called? 

Regardless, we love playing games, and the kids all learned to play poker, so last night we played several rounds of "Tripoli" which was one of my hubby's favs as a child, but I had never played it before.  It is a mixture of like hearts, poker and rummy.  Super fun!  I think this is one of our new family favorites!  I love finding new games. 

Still love the old ones too of course!  We are going into week 4 of our "Risk" game, and I seriously despair of ever getting my table back!  So worth it, except that as usual my 10 year old is wiping the entire family out as she uses Europe as a base and slowly rolls into Asia and Africa.  Have to say though, Blue is really getting the hang of the game and is giving her a run for her money.

Currently Flying Blind: A Novel of Amelia Earhart (Nathan Heller Mystery Series) By Max Allan Collins see related

Thanksgiving Week?

I am finding myself having a very bipolar week.  LOL  I am having really great moments and really crappy ones as well.  This is not a week of in between times!

I am having a modified school week for the kids, and a modified work and housekeeping week for me.   For example Monday the kids did a little Math and Music, a whole lot of reading and spent most of our school day doing their lap books.  I ran out briefly to do a work thing, and then worked a couple of hours from home while helping answer school questions.  I got virtually no housework done, just laundry, grocery shopping and dishes.  The rest of the day and night was a normal Monday.  We went to the library, and then the kids had PE in the afternoon, after which we hung out at the park for a bit.  In the late afternoon they did drawing lessons with Daddy and then we all went to play tennis before coming home to  have pizza and play a board game.

The girls are reading different biographies of Pocohantas, and my boy is reading a bio of John Smith.  He is also doing a pockets of time for "Squanto Friend of the Pilgrims" which was his reading for last week.  Yellow is doing a lap book for "Magic Tree House:  Thanksgiving on Thursday" which was her reading for last week.  Red is doing an expanded lap book with a lot of writing for "American Girl: Kit Thankfulness During the Great Depression".  This was not her reading for last week, "King's Fifth" by Scott O'dell was, but this was her fun Thanksgiving project.  The older two incorporated sayings from Jonathan Edwards "Resolutions" into their projects.

Tuesday I snuck over to the gym for about 35 min. while the kids practiced their instruments, and then made sure they had everything they needed to keep working on their lap books while I went to work.  I just went for a little while; one meeting and dropping by to see two clients, and then back home.  We spent the rest of the day reading and finishing the kids projects, with a break for choco chip cookies, popcorn and a movie.  I worked a few more hours from home while the kids did their reading and played, and then barely managed to get the house vacuumed, the laundry put away and the floor mopped before hubby got home!  Thank God for crock pots!  ! had veggie soup cooking all day, and so just popped a burger on the grill when he got home and had dinner in record time.

Today the kids made rag dolls, like in Colonial days, and Red made a short movie about the pilgrims.  Other than that they are just doing reading for school today.  I have worked from home this morning, and have a few more projects to do.  We managed to get all of the sheets changed, the trashes taken out and the fish bowls cleaned, but I still need to clean all of the hamster and mice habitats (10 pet rodents makes for a big job!) and the bathrooms cleaned sometime today. 

Right now we are off to run a couple of errands, and then we have Girl Scouts.  I am just doing a mellow meeting today; snack, craft and service projects.

Tonight the girls are going to help me make pies for tomorrow, and if Daddy is home early enough we can continue our game of Risk!  YAY!

Please pray for my two little ones, especailly my little man, who have slight colds.  We are very worried about carrying germs to my MIL who is fighting cancer again right now, and we are seeing tomorrow.   

Reading I've assigned the kids for this school year...

Biography of St. Thomas More

Biography of Martin Luther

"The Prince and the Pauper" by Mark Twain

"Royal Diaries: Elizabeth 1" by Kate Lansky

Biography of Mary Queen of Scots

"Outrageous Women of the Renaissance" by Vicki Leon

Graphic novels of several Shakespeare plays

"Shakespeare without the Boring Bits" by Humphrey Carpenter

"The Three Musketeers" by Alexandre Dumas

"The Man in the Iron Mask" by Alexandre Dumas

Biography of Peter the Great

History of Jewish Oppression and Displacement in the Early Modern period

Book of Saints

Biography of Christoph Demantius

"The Kings Fifth" by Scott O’Dell

"The Dark Frigate" Charles Boardman Hawes

The Kaya American Girl books

Biography of William Bradford

Biography of Pochahontas

Story of the Mayflower

"The Witch of Blackbird Pond" Elizabeth George Speare

"The Diary of Patience Whipple" by Kathryn Lasky

"The Matchlock Gun" by Walter Dumaux Edmonds

Biography of Ann Hutchinson

Biography of William Penn

"Night Journeys" by Avi

"A Break with Charity: A Story About the Salem Witch Trials" by Ann Rinaldi

Biography of Rebbecca Nurse

"Ben and Me" by Robert Lawson

Biography of Ben Franklin

Biography of Squanto

"Johnny Tremain" by Esther Forbes

Biography of George Washington

Biography of Molly Pitcher

Biography of Thomas Jefferson

Biography of John Adams

Biography of Samuel Adams

Biography of Thomas Paine

Felicity American Girl Books

"My Brother Sam is Dead" by Christopher Collier

"Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens

Biography of Eli Whitney

Biography of Elizabeth Fry

Biography of Edward Pease

"A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens

"Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens

Biography of Marie Antoinette

"Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley

Biography of Napoleon

Bioraphy of Tchaikovsky

Abridged version of "War and Peace"

Biography of Lewis

Biography of Clark

Biography of Sacajawea

Kirsten American Girl books

Short stories by Washington Irving

Short stories by Poe

"The Ballad of Lucy Whipple" by Karen Cushman

"Beyond the Divide" by Kathryn Lasky

"The Jungle Book" by Kipling

"Convict Words: Language in Early Colonial Australia" Laugesen, Amanda

Biography of Brahms

Biography of Mozart

"Uncle Tom’s Cabin"

Biography of Harriet Tubman

Autobiography of Frederick Douglas

Currently The Lovers: The Legend of Trystan and Yseult By Kate Hawks see related

First week of school year

  Everything went better than I realistically expected.  The kids started their Tuesday /Thursday workshops.  I am very pleased with the schedules.  It is about 3 hours History, 45 min break, just over an hour of Science, another hour of Art appreciation on Tuesday and Music Appreciation on Thursday (which will go along with the time period from History).  So far everything has been totally awesome from the literature assigned, read in class or discussed as a group being good choices (it also goes along with the time period either from or about- ex.  "Witch of Blackbird Pond" for Puritans, "Oliver Twist" during Industrialization etc.) for all age groups.  This goes along with the reading that I am assigning.  This week Red, for instance, read "Outrageous Women of the Renaissance" and "Royal Dairies: Princess Elizabeth" in addition to her free time reading book. 

  I was concerned about getting back into the swing of going out to workshops and the temptation of calling that the whole school day, particularly since our afternoons tend to be busy, but so far we have been up and at 'em and on track with getting Math, Bible and Logic done before hand.  That way all we have to worry about after afternoon/evening activities is chores and music practice, and maybe silent reading.

  I did make a few changes in our curriculum/organization from what I put in my earlier post.  For example, for Art class the kids will be using the drawing lesson books and videos with me for practice, but they are also doing half an  hour of cartooning with Daddy on Mondays, and hopefully continuing to take Art classes once a week from the fabulous lady who has been giving classes over the Summer.  She teaches in her home, and she combines Art with History, taking the drawing subjects form the time period and talking about them as they draw. 

  Also, we can not afford Rosetta Stone right now, so we will not be using that for Latin.  We are going to re-do "Getting started with Latin" and see what we can come up with later in the year.  On that subject, HUGE blessing!  My mom, who is brilliant at languages, like she is at most things has offered to take over the kids Spanish lessons and teach them herself!  Yay!

  We will not be doing tennis lessons this year either, although I hope to get some family playing time in, and we are holding off on martial arts for now, but we are continuing with dane and gymnastics and have soccer 3 or 4 times a week.  In addition to that the kids are signed up for a once a week PE class with bunches of their friends at a local park.

  Due to both finances and a soccer schedule conflict, we can not be in band for the first semester, but that is another thing I hope to be able to pick up later in the year.

  I am going to do a little more with geography this year than just maps and charts.  So far we are thinking of trying "Mapping the World by Heart" and I ordered a couple of games that Fridgedr. suggested...

10 Days in the USA
Item #: 027208
ISBN: 9781932359091
EAN: 659390010115
Grades: 4-Adult
Retail: $24.99
Rainbow Price: $19.25

10 Days in Europe
Item #: 036431
ISBN: 9781932359435
EAN: 659390010122
Grades: 4-Adult
Retail: $24.99
Rainbow Price: $19.25

  I also ordered some extra Logic resources including the books "Logic Countdown" and "Logic Liftoff" and  more of the "Math detective", Science Detective" an Reading Detective" books that we loved so much last year, as well as some of the other critical thinking books we have enjoyed in the past.

  I am also looking forward to receiving the Science stuff I ordered last week including these things from Rainbow Resources...  

Well, another Sunday, another church

  Here is what I want in a church (in no particular order):

Super Important Things

1) Rockin' good music

2) Belief in Holy Communion as the real presence of Our Lord, and no small children under Communion age being served the body and blood.

3) Strong Bible teaching- or at least part of the time, or at any rate stop the constant jokes and pop culture references, and I don't care what the author of a book that really impressed you said.  Tell me what the Bible says!  This is church, not a book club, glad you are reading good books and all, but it shouldn't come up so much in sermons.  Occasional reference to commentaries, or respected theologians or church fathers is fine, but even that should not be a constant refrain in a sermon.  We have a really good book to quote from and discuss- it is that big one on the pulpit.  Let's just go ahead and make that the basis and main reference in our sermon. 

4) Free Will not Election

5) Good Children's programs - choir, camp , VBS, decent Sunday School, Youth Group

6) Strong Christian Education- in depth Bible studies for kids and adults (at the same time would be extra good)

7) Instruction in the Sacraments- like for realizies.  When I saw this year's Confirmation class reading off cheat sheets to say things as simple as the Apostles Creed I wanted to shoot myself!  Who is allowing these people to be confirmed if they do not know something that basic?  You should have to work hard to learn all of your First Communion and  Confirmation stuff!  If it is important to you make it a priority, but if even the pastors don't care if you really get it your motivation could be compromised.

Okay, work phone is ringing.  More thoughts on this later.