Weekly Update - Week of Game Play

DN has become very motivated and is finishing his entire weeks worth of work in just about a day, so he was only here Monday and Tuesday this week and I sent him home with a copy of Lord of the Flies to read and a calendar to keep track of any basketball he plays or other "phys. ed-ish" type activities he is doing as this is something that we feel is really important. He also responsible to do Khan Academy and watch CNN Student News each day while he is home. My hope is that in the free time that he has he will discover something that will spark his interest and he might start to see that learning goes beyond worksheets, report writing, and textbooks.


KM moved along smoothly with her lessons per usual. She has been working on a story that is in journal format and decided to turn it into a fictitious blog, pop on over if you feel like checking it out - HERE. She is planning on adding to it with some of her manga drawings, so it should be pretty interesting! She has two more weeks left in her poetry class she is taking via Skype and is getting a bit anxious about the final assignment which is to write a critical analysis of a poem. Formal writing has never been her strong suit, but it is more about her lack of confidence than her actual writing skills. I am fairly certain that she will do just fine and she is excited that she will be continuing with this group and doing a literature study of Bronte's Wuthering Heights.

Click here to get the answer!

Learning this week centered around a lot of game play. They played a round of Math Jeopardy from What's Your Angle Scholastic Math Games Resource. For health this week we played the Professor Noggin's Human Body game.  I am always shocked by the ones that we get right, as well as the ones that we get wrong.

As part of our U.S. History we have be doing activities from Colonial Days: Discover the Past with Fun Projects, Games, Activities, and Recipes (American Kids in History Series) and this week we played a Native American Stick Toss Game. It had a lot to do with luck, more than anything, as you simply toss the sticks in the air and add up your score based on how the sticks land. The kids seem to enjoy it and the scores went back and forth quite a few times!

KM started practicing for the World Education Games this week! She has participated in some Math events previously but this will be the first time she will be doing the spelling and science competitions so she wants to get as much practice in as possible. There is still plenty of time to register HERE!

KM also had fun with music and dance on the Wii this week! We all LOVE the Wii! It is such a great way to incorporate fun into learning while getting everyone up and moving!

Week 4 - Deschooling and Book Break Update

So our week is running a bit differently this week, as we are not doing "lessons" again until after the new year, instead we are working on some projects, getting ready for the holidays and trying to help DN understand that learning is a part of life and not just something you do on certain days, at certain times, and on specific predetermined topics set out by someone else. So he spent the weekend at home and we met up with him on Sunday evening so that he could join KM at the Smash Brothers Tournament at the Library on Monday. Since we didn't need to be there until later in the afternoon the kids had the day to do what they wanted.

KM choose to be on the computer, work on some Snap Circuits Projects, play on the computer and used some of the turkey bones that were leftover from soup making this weekend to try out a bendy bone experiment that she has been meaning to do for a while, but always seemed to think of AFTER I had disposed of the carcass. DN choose to read, read, watch Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer at lunch, read and read some more. KM tried to get him into some of the things that she was working on, but he was really into Battle of the Labyrinth - book 4 in the Percy Jackson Series, he read the first 3 in record time and was really glad I was able to get the 4th through our library network and even happier that I grabbed the final volume while they were in the tournament - luckily thing too since he finished the 4th within minutes of us returning home.

KM has been feeling a bit under the weather, sniffly and coughing at night, so we decided to put skating off until later in the week to not subject her to the cold and hit the movies instead to see Arthur Christmas. I had heard mixed reviews, but was really happy that we decided to go. It was super funny and both the kids really liked it. I was glad to see that it was rated PG as there were a few parts that I would think could be a bit disturbing to little ones. After the movies we dropped KM off at home to rest while DN and I went to run some errands. The beans we had setup last week to determine if direction of helium mattered needed to be transplanted and DN got to see how the bean transforms into the leaves. We spent the evening making ornaments with Sculpey and then at 9ish I had a surge of energy and decided we NEEDED to clean the fridge. Glad I did though because it took just less than an hour to scrub down everything, with the kids helping and they got to sleep in the next morning while I went grocery shopping. Teamwork and cooperation went a long way on this one!



Wednesday was shopping and chore day - I went grocery shopping and the kids needed to get their rooms organized and tidied up before the holiday.  They also spent some time painting the ornaments they had made the night before. We were hoping to get to the BSU observatory for their last public viewing before winter break, but the clouds just didn't cooperate. We did get to the discount store so that KM could pick up the fabulous dress for the formal New Years Eve party she will be attending with some of her youth group friends. She is VERY excited as this is her first formal. She picked a gorgeous flowing gown. We got the dress, shoes, and  shawl all for under $35! WOOHOOO for bargain shopping! The kids finished up their christmas shopping online, since CJ got stuck out on the road longer than expected this week. DN learned how to play Wii Music, set up his profile on Wii Fit Plus and played the new Zelda game he got from the library.

We made it to skating Thursday and they had a great time. We met up with DN's Uncle so he could spend the rest of the week home with them. Then KM went to a jewelry making class at the library - I just love how many activities she is getting involved with over there! I managed to find some time to get the last of the footage edited from KMs theater group and to finalize the majority of their winter session lesson plans. I always feel so much more at ease when I know they are all set. I am open to tweaking and twisting them around and I have a few more things to iron out, but just knowing they are there and ready makes me feel organized and ready to go. I will post about our upcoming plans next week!



All and all it was a really great week. We got a lot completed and had a really good time. DN seemed to really catch on with what we do around here, he was interested in most of the things, but passed on a few, which is to be expected - don't we all want to pass on some things.  It is weeks like this that remind me of why I started this blog in the first place - it is just a great way to see what it is that we have done. Even when it seems like it wasn't very much. Hope you all had as much fun this week as we did!

Summer Curriculum Picks - Starting 8th Grade

I believe I have most of KM's 8th grade curriculum choices laid out. I have decided however to list them each session, as I had done a while back, because we do change our minds quite frequently and I want to be sure to leave lots of space for changes and new interests that are developed along the way.

We school year round in 10 week sessions so we begin our "grade" year in the summer. KM will be an 8th grader started July 5th and will be studying the following topics -

English Language Arts - there will be a very strong focus on writing over the summer utilizing our free Mondays to boast ELA up to two days a week.

Math - KM will be finishing up Algebra, utilizing the free Ko's Journey subscription we received and working on word problems -

Science is always a huge area of study for KM so we are not slowing down, but charging ahead into the time line approach -

History will also be continuing on a steady pace and we hope to have Volume 2 completed by the end of the summer -

Music will be continuing with piano, voice and some extras -

We will also be doing some electives in Financial Literacy using Brain Pop and finishing up our Ocean Study using lots of movies on Netflix. Our physical education will center around swimming and bowling - Kids Bowl Free. We will be using some free resources for Art from the National Gallery of Art.

Since I had posted about thinking outside the box KM thought it would be fun to post some of her top Wii and DS game picks that she finds very educational...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a fantastic day of cooking...



playing.....
and going to watch a FANTASTIC movie....

It was much quieter than it has been in years around here, but it was still a great day and I think we really needed the quietness!

Wii Sports Resort is HANDS DOWN our favorite wii game. It is the most fun when we have everyone over and can challenge each other. It is truly fun for the whole family and an even playing field for most!

I thought I would mention that A Christmas Carol was INCREDIBLE. Though I had been warned that it was not for the very young and I would have to agree, I truly think that most kids 8+ would be okay with it. There are a few jolting moments, but nothing truly scary. We saw it in Digital 3D and if I hadn't known I would have thought they were real people. The animation was truly unbelievable. This is sure to be a holiday classic in our family!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!

It has been so dreary out...

...we decided to have gym class indoors today!

Fitness Friday - UGGGHHHH

Usually I type out my Fitness Friday post on Thursday night, but I was so crazy busy last night and had this awful wave of exhaustion hit me at about 7:30, that I forgot to do it. As it turns out that wave of business and exhaustion all caused me to break my running streak - I totally forgot to even do my body test yesterday! I had this perfectly filled month and now I have to see that one blank spot---staring at me! But I will get past this, I will not let it get me down! I will continue to fill it up for the rest of the month!

I have had a good week other than that little debacle - I have been get a lot more exercise in on and off the wii. Now that the weather is warmer we have been outside a lot. Over the weekend I did a 30 minute workout each day and have continued doing using the handweights and have started to incorporate them into the yoga and strength exercises as well. I am still doing the kids yoga on Mondays and my yoga class on Tuesdays. We went on a Maple Sugaring Field Trip on Wed which had a short little hike attached to it, but the weather got so warm that day that when we got home we didn't want to go inside so we went for a long walk through the conservation bogs in our neighborhood. Thursday we had the little one and she wasn't feel to great, so we had a low key day and I think that is what made my afternoon and evening so hectic.

Anyway I have been breaking a lot of records and will reconvene on my final new records next week as I have a few more days to push them even higher! Hope you all had a great week!!!

Fitness Friday Week 8

This week went SUPERBLY!!!

Here is my breakdown -
Fri - about 30 minutes on Wii Fit - started a new routine of yoga and strength doing one row of yoga and the complimenting strength exercises and then rhythmic boxing, hula hoop and step. I also played Wii Sport for almost an hour with CJ later in the evening.
Sat - just aerobics on the Wii Fit and then did the Wii Sport training session.
Sun - full routine on Wii Fit for about 45 minutes including all the balance games, my high scores are TOTALLY IMPROVING!!! Some of them that I thought there was no way I was going to increase have - Yippee for Mii!
Mon - taught Yoga Kids class in the morning and then did about 30 minutes on Wii Fit in the evening.
Tue - was not feeling too hot, so I only did one set of advanced step and a few games to total maybe 15 minutes, but I did push myself - because I had already paid for it - to go to my yoga class. By the time I left there my throat was on fire and my legs felt like they were not going to get me to my bed!
Wed - I was feeling better by the end of the day and I didn't want to break my full calendar goal so after dinner I decided to do my body test, then I did advanced step, beginner rhythmic boxing ~ which with those squats is actually pretty intense for the quads! ~ and then did wii fitness on wii sports and I got my Wii age down to...Thu - busy busy again, but I did manage to get in 25 minutes after the opera and before the homeschooling support group meeting!

To intensify the workout a bit I have been using the 1.5 lbs hand weights every time I do the step aerobics and when I am doing the rhythmic boxing I do a full squat for all the blocks. My weight still goes up and down, up and down all week. I am very consistent about doing my workout within an hour window from the previous day, so that is not a factor. I actually have been getting dinner started and then going to do my workout, by the time I am done, it is usually time for me to finish up the meal or on quick cook nights, I do all the prep, then the workout and then cook. Works really well into my schedule this way cause KM is usually ready for her alone time by then as well!

Hope everyone has a GREAT Spring weekend!!!

Things have gotten in the way...

of everything lately! I am soooo sorry to all my faithful readers who have been popping by and finding that I have really not been posting anything in a while. I know I have had my regular crazy/weird/odd holiday postings and my Fitness Fridays, but I realized that I have not made an actual post in quite sometime! To everyone who has sent well wishes and thoughts for my family I thank you all so much! I have also not popped around to other blogs in quite a while and when I started to do that this afternoon is when I realized I need to sit down and do this! I always feel better when I have - it is my lack of taking time for me that gets me so crazy because I just let everything else get in the way. So I thought I would go through some recent pics and post a quick summary of some of the things we have been doing...

KM went out Jeeping with CJ and I got an entire day at my house with SC all to myself!!! So we baked...

she is very patient and listens so well!
she likes to look through the big book of recipes - I know she can't read, but for some reason she likes to look and look and look!
She even likes to help clean up!!

I love seeing her and KM interact with each other, but I really like having her all to myself sometimes as well!!!

We had a fossil dig when we started our prehistoric study...

It was not your average dig site, but I REALLY DON"T LIKE MUD!!!
and they REALLY got into it!
KM identified all the parts as she found them, what type of foods it would have eaten based on it's teeth...
guessed what it's ancestors may have looked like before the evolutionary stages.
and now has T guarding her "clicky" pencils, that SC seems to be stealing all the time!
SC spent the rest of the morning playing with the peanuts!

In preparation for spring...

We have been decorating!!!

These springs are so festive and easy to make! The kids paint them however they like and then they ~ or you ~ cut a spiral shape in them and ....

waalaa...instant spring!

I am not a huge fan of TONS of TV time, but it would be nice if every once in awhile SC would watch a little PBS or something for a few minutes during the day when we need to get something done. However she never wants to be in a different room either, but I have found the solution...

she LOVES my laptop and the headphones! Here she is watching Elmo, It's Potty Time!
She also really likes these story sites -
Story Place
Looky Book
Might Book
Silly Book
Storyline Online

That is a bit of what has been going on around here! I will be sure to hop around to some blogs and post more consistently again!

Fitness Friday Week 7 - Jillian Micheals' Fitness Ultimatum Reveiew

I got this game about a month and a half ago and I was SOOOOOO excited to try it out.
Here are the game features that led me to wanting the game...

• Uses the Wii balance board
• 4 Workout types, strength training, weight loss, intervals and hill climb
• motion based fitness activities such as ladder climb, rowing and monkey bars
• track personal data and progress
• Unlock lifestyle tips from Jillian

I tried to ignore all the reviews that I had read and I had read a TON of them. I thought for sure that since it was Jillian Michaels it would HAVE to be good. I tried the game out in spurts here and there, but felt like I just could not get into it. I was reminded last week that I was going to be the featured writer for the Wii Mommies Fitness Friday so I said to myself - hey that would be a great topic!

I tried to think of a concise way to do this review so I forced myself to try it over the weekend and I planned out a system to try to get all the features covered. Since you can use the wii board or you can just use the Wii Remote and a nunchuck, I thought I would try it out both ways. First here is my opinion of the features listed above after trying the product out -

• Uses the Wii balance board - so you can use the Wii balance board or not. Some of the games are easier to do without it while others are IMPOSSIBLE to do without it! Grenade Toss was one that I spent a VERY long time trying to figure out what I was doing incorrectly while I was only using the nunchucks and still don't know that answer to it. While when I was using the balance board it was extremely simple to master.
  
• 4 Workout types, strength training, weight loss, intervals and hill climb - while this is true, I could not tell a difference between the workout types. No matter which one you choose the workouts are broken into segments that include running, a randomly chosen exercise, running, another randomly chosen exercise, running etc... until the allotted time is up. You are constantly brought back to the running which I personally HATE more than anything ~ but more on that part later.
  
• motion based fitness activities such as ladder climb, rowing and monkey bars - okay this part I had MAJOR issues with most of these were truly a joke! it was literally as if you could just sit there moving the remote back and forth at warp speed and get credit, but if you actually did it at the pace that was demonstrated for you they did not give you any credit at all.
  
• track personal data and progress - while this part is true the stats (especially the weight) was completely off from what Wii Fit was tracking me at. The calories burnt calculations could not be accurate either since, as I mentioned, it was not accurately reading the motions.
  
• Unlock lifestyle tips from Jillian - these tips that you are enticed into unlocking are LAME! The tips that are given in the little blurbs during the commercials for Biggest Loser are more inspiring than the tips that are unlocked here.

So on a scale of 1 to 10 - 10 being the greatest I have to give this product about a 3. I am not trying to be totally down on the game, but the only thing that I really liked about it was that you had the option to customize your workout and that you did not have to fiddle with controls at all during the workout!

Here is my list of the top three worst aspects of the game:

1. I hate running, hate, hate, hate it and unless you did the custom workout 2/3 of your workout was running the same boring tree lined path. The worst part of the running was that you couldn't even just swing your arms while you were running, you had to have them punching at a speed bag rate in order for it to register.
2. There were no real instructions on how to do anything!!! You got a picture of a person swing there arms a certain way or bending just right, but when you did it the way you were shown you didn't get any credit!
3. For those of you who frequently read my blog, you may remember when my back went out about a month ago - HERE - in this post, I truly felt like it was a great game I was so excited by the fluidity of the program, however now that my back is better and I have retried all the games I realized that the reason my back went out was the GAME!!! The rowing to be specific. The only way to get the game to recognize what you are doing is to move at a very ERRATIC rate. When I started to do the rowing last weekend, I was astounded at how quickly I felt my sciatic nerve pulling again.

So I did Jillian's game Fri, Sat & Sun and then I returned to my regular Wii Fit schedule of at least 30 minutes a day for the rest of the week. I will also admit that Tuesday morning I sent CJ to Gamestop to trade in the Jillian game for ANYTHING ELSE! I was seriously worried I was going to throw my back out again with the things so it HAD to go!

I have completed a body test and at least a 30 minute workout everyday for the rest of this week. I also taught the kids yoga class at our coop on Monday morning and MADE myself sign up for the 6 week session at my favorite yoga studio. I paid ahead so that I am more apt to FORCE myself to go. I love going, I REALLY NEED to go and I just have to remember that it benefits EVERYONE I am around when I do go!

This coming weeks goal is to continue with my 30 minutes a day on the Wii Fit! I WILL HAVE A FULL CALENDAR BY THE END OF THE MONTH!!! I would also like to try to get outside a bit more, as the weather is finally beginning to look like spring might actually arrive!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE AND KEEP UP THE INCREDIBLE WORK YOU HAVE ALL BEEN DOING!!!

Fitness Friday Week 6

Okay so I did AWESOME this week!!!
Toot Toot!!!

I really truly did and here is what I did...

• Friday - I did nothing...I was REALLY tired and was still trying to catch up with everything from the week before, but hey whatever.
  
• Saturday - 31 minutes
  
• Sunday - 33 minutes
  
• Monday - 42 minutes
  
• Tuesday - 26 minutes
  
• Wednesday - 30 minutes
  
• Thursday - 30 minutes

I did a lot of rhythmic boxing this week and I really like it because you don't have to fiddle and you can just go for the full 13 minutes. I have also been doing a full swat when it says to "block" and this is giving an added quads workout. On the advanced step I have started using 1.5 lbs weights to add a little intensity to that one as well. Again I like this one cause I don't have to stop.

I had planned on trying to get through the yoga and strength combos at least 3 days this week and although I did not get through all of them at once because that was just taking far too long, what I did was to start out in yoga and do one full row with the accompanying strength exercises at the same time. This work out great!!! I also found that if I did this first, I got much better scores than when I did the aerobic things first.

My weight has done nothing but fluctuate again this week...

My new goal is too keep my month full - I like how it looks with no blanks. So as long as I at least check in everyday for the body test, I will be able to keep it looking great! I also got a new stamp - look it is mii!!I was thinking that I would also like to list some of my high scores here and see if I can increase any of them by the end of the month. Here they are...

• Soccer (advanced) 348
• Boxing (expert) 1132
• Ski Jump 319
• Advanced Step 505
• Basic Step 292
• Penguin Slide 65
• Running 47%
• Basic Hula 297
• Deep Breathing 86
• Half Moon 78
• Single Leg Twist 87
  
• Warrior 92
• Lunge 100
  
• Tree 77
• Single Arm Stand 73
  
• Sun Salutation 83
• Side Leg Lift 61
  
• Standing Knee 90
• Single Leg Extension 73
• Dance 72
• Palm Tree 78
• Rowing Squat 86
• Chair 80
• Torso Twist 78
• Triangle 75
• Push Up & Plank 58
• Down Dog 8 - I have a perfect down dog and I honestly don't know how they get theirs to work at all!!!!
• Plank 41
• Arm & Leg Lift 58

So STAY TUNED cause next week I am the Wii Fit Mommies Featured Fitness Friday Writer and I will be doing a FULL review of Jillian Micheal's Fitness Ultimatum 2009.
I am going to work out with this program all this coming week, starting this afternoon and will let you all know how I TRULY feel about it next week!!!

Fitness Friday Week 5

First I must say that I completely missed Week 4 last week, but there really wasn't much to say as I had been stuck in Maine most of that week and then I was just trying to get everything straightened out with my car and everything that I had missed once I got home!

This passed week has been a bit better, I did manage to get on the Wii Fit 4 out of 7 days for at least 30 minutes each time. I have been doing the Yoga stretches, the step and some balance games. I think this week I am going to try to push myself to do the combinations that come up for the yoga and strength training combined, but - here I go again - I just wish there was some way to get the combinations to flow so that you didn't have to fiddle with the remote constantly!!! So here is my mission for the week - 5 out of 7 days for at least 30 minutes and 3 out of those 5 days I will do all the yoga and strength combinations.

I am truly pushing myself to do it because I don't see any results happening from it. My weight just does not seem to be going anywhere - which is the norm for me. I fluctuate from 1-5 lb difference constantly and I don't know how to fix that. I am also one of those wonderful people whose body RETAINS all the stress that is going on in my life. Maybe as things smooth out a little bit, I will see some improvement and I know I can't expect it to happen overnight, but SOMETHING would be nice. I think that I really NEED to get back to my regular Yoga class as this will help with the stress, stamina, and back problem all with one clean swoop, but I don't know where to fit it in! I am just going to HAVE to do it!

I start another session teaching the kids yoga this week at our local co-op, so I know I will be getting at least two good yoga workouts in - I have to do the prep work for the little ones, who are a lot more limber than I am and therefore I tend to push myself to the limits! They are so much fun though and it is great that they have an interest in learning these techniques at such a young age, so that they can carry them with them throughout their lives!

Good luck to all who are going to be participating in the
Wii Fit Olympics Tomorrow!!!

Fitness Friday

So my Fitness Friday post is short and sweet - I totally tweaked my back last week doing kayaking on Jillian Micheal's Fitness Ultimatum - so I did not get any workout in! Not a one - I did the body test each day as it helped me to see how unbalanced I was/wasn't to help with my sciatic nerve. It is better, but I am now "TRAPPED" in Maine, so I am hoping I will have a better week to come!

Fitness Friday - Wk3

I have to say I ABSOLUTELY ADORE the Jillian Micheal's game!!! It has it's downfalls, but I must say it is a pretty good work! I had really good intentions this week, I tried to stay on top of things and then midweek I just lost it. Here is what happened -

Friday - I got the game in the mail late in the afternoon, but decided I had to try it out. I really wouldn't have considered it to be a work out because I was just fooling around with the controls and seeing what worked best, using the balance board on some, not on others and so forth. I figured out how to program a routine - LOVE THIS FEATURE - and that it gives you about 15 seconds of instructions if you need it, before it switches from one activity to the next - if you don't need the instructions then you can just click right through it, no wasted time - my biggest pet peeve with the Wii Fit game! You are moving the entire time from start to finish!

Saturday - I did an actual workout. I love the way it is setup because you can either do a custom workout where you choose the setup and order of the activities that you want to do or you can have Jillian pick your routine based on what you want to work on. I decided to let Jillian pick my routine and worked on cardio. I did the full 20 minutes and then played around a little bit more to try to figure out some of the more difficult games. Here is one of the downfalls - it does not give you the greatest set of instructions so you need to decode what it actually wants you to do. Once you figure out what the graphics symbols on the screen mean you are golden and can pretty much figure out how to do each of the parts of the workouts.

Sunday - I did a 15 minute custom exercise in the afternoon and then played a few of the games with KM in the multiplayer mode. Another AWESOME feature. Of course you can only have one balance board working at a time, but as long as you have multiple controller you can play the multiplayer games and go head to head against each other or against the computer.

Monday - I was SOOOOO sore that I had to have KM demonstrate all the yoga positions at the kids coop class that I teach!!! My shoulders were the worst, there is this one exercise where you swing your arms over your head as if you are crossing monkey bars - I was almost in tears the night before when I was finishing it up. Needless to say I did NOT do any workout on Monday.

Tuesday - I did a short workout on Jillian's game and did 20 minutes on the Wii Fit playing balance games, boxing and doing the advanced step. I felt like I needed to recover a bit from the weekend!

Wednesday - We had a lot of lessons to get through and KM was having a difficult time with one of her math concepts - remember when to divide and when to multiple while converting lengths - I got some disappointing news about a family member, the phone wouldn't stop ringing, I had to pack for a field trip......and these are the "reasons" I am sticking to as to why no workout got done on Wed.

Thursday -We were up and out of the house very early, to go into the Museum of Science with MC & SC. I did a TON of walking and we made sure to take the steps instead of the elevators. When we got home my back was aching, it hurt to stand, sit, lay down, just about anything caused a wretched shooting pain across my back. I have had siatic nerve problems in the past and I think I have been neglecting my yoga practice so much lately that it is coming back. So I did a few stretches, took a muscle relaxer and went to bed at 4:30. CJ made dinner and brought it in to me and I was sound asleep by 6pm, I slept straight through the night until 7:30 this morning! Yup, straight through!! My back is feeling better, but if I turn the wrong way or stand up to quickly it is still a bit sore. If it isn't better by Monday I am going to have to have it checked. I know it is just one of those things that they are going to tell me to rest and let it heal, so I don't want to waste my time or my doctor's for that matter.

Depending on how I feel tomorrow I will try it again. I may need to regroup my ideas and start out with just yoga again to get my back where it should be before I start anything else at the moment.

My goal for the week will be to do the body test EVERYDAY, do 1-2 yoga flows on my own EVERYDAY and at least 15 minutes of aerobics on WiiFit 4 days this week! Lets see how this goes...

Mostly just a TV DAY!!!

We really NEVER do this, but we have spent most of our day today in front of the television!!! Sometimes you just need to have one of those days, to unwind and not do much of anything.

We started off the morning with part one of Gulliver's Travel - I absolutely adored this book when I was young and remember watching the movie when I was pregnant with KM. They do such an incredible job of bringing the book to the screen.

When part one was over I decided to get the bread baking started and KM watched some Saturday Morning cartoons, a rare happening around here. She is usually so into things that she doesn't realize that they are on until well after the ones that she likes are over. Her favorites are part of Kewlopolis on CBS and therefore she can watch them online at Kewl Cartoons, but I think she really likes the novelty of the "Saturday Morning Cartoons" idea.

While the bread was having its first rising time I made some lunch and got some dinner prep ready. Then we watched the second part of Gulliver's Travel. It was amazing to watch her try to figure out what was going to happen. We had to pause it several times to discuss what was happening or to have a further discussion of the comparisons that Gulliver was making along his way. If your kids - or even you for that matter - have not seen this movie I highly recommend it! It is a great family fantasy film, but can lead to such great realizations of society and the way that our lives are built.

When the movie was over, KM decided she would go out and see what CJ was doing - sure enough she found him outside sculpting the sledding hill. I am thinking it more closely resembling a luge at the moment, but I could be exaggerating a bit. Whilst they were out in the snow, I decided to go to the big screen TV try out my new Jillian Micheal's game for the Wii - it came in the mail yesterday afternoon...I am however waiting to make a full opinion of it until next week's Fitness Friday posting!

When they came in from the cold, I made some hot cocoa and we snuggled up by the fire to listen to a few more chapters of Dragon Rider - Can you tell we are on a fantasy kick lately? I have even reorganized our literature units to accommodate this need for the fantastical.

We made breakfast for dinner together and then we watched Before the Dinosaurs Walking with Monsters - I thought it would be a good way to start our prehistoric studies and since we had already spent most of the day in front of the screen, I thought we should throw in a really fantastic educational one for good measures!

I wonder if she realizes how much schoolwork she actually did today? On a Saturday - I know I am a cruel CRUEL mother!

Fitness Friday - week 2

I have done better this week, but it has just been the body tests, some games and aerobics part. I just get so aggravated with the wasted time during the yoga and strength training. They should have a way to set up flows or routines once you have the moves down. KM and I have also been doing the Wii Ski a lot - together as well as individually with the balance board. I was pleasantly surprised at how much you need to use your core muscles to really control yourself during this game. In case you didn't see my comment from last weeks Fitness Friday - I am awaiting the arrival of Jillian Michaels Fitness Ultimatum 2009 which I ordered last weekend from Amazon. I am very excited about the Jillian game...especially the fact that you can use it in a multi-player mode. I have seen widely varying reviews on a number of sites, but I am going to make my own opinion - and of course I will post it, hopefully by next week. Until then -keep up the good work everyone!!!

Fitness Friday - Week 1

Excuses, Excuses, Excuses -

I could sit here and list dozens of excuses as to why I have not been vigilantly sticking to some sort of routine on the Wii Fit, but I am not going to bore you with all that!

I can only HOPE and KEEP MY FINGERS CROSSED that I will get better. We have been using the Wii Play a lot in the evenings - bowling and tennis are KM's favorites, but I know I should be more diligent in my routine with it and I know if I am I will see results.

I think there are also some things with the Wii Fit that drive me a little crazy which is making me not want to use some aspects of it. For instance I am a yogi - in case you never noticed the pic on the side or my bio - I love yoga, but I can't stand the waiting in between and the getting into one pose then having to go through the controls to get to another it so not ZEN! I do like the basic premise of it and have heard that there is a game for the Wii that is just Yoga, so I may look into that when I get a little extra money - hahaha that's like an oxymoron these days right? -

I do LOVE, LOVE, LOVE most of the aerobics and balance games though. My favorite is the step, when I do get myself on there I have been working my way through the step levels and then doing the free step for 30 minutes with 1.5 lb hand weights - while I change the input and watch something on the DVR - LOVE THIS FEATURE! I also really like the boxing and will generally do at least one 6 minute set on there - again though I do wish that there were at least a little less in between time.

So in my strive for more consistence in a fitness routine, I will do what any good homeschooling mom would do - put it into the schooling routine! If it is in that school schedule IT WILL GET DONE! One way or another! It is magical how you write it in there and it manifests itself within day!

Lets see how it works!

Changes...again...

We have been revamping how things work again!
~~~ BIG SURPRISE I KNOW~~~

The first thing is our vocabulary program - KM has been using Wordly Wise 3000 second edition, since I brought her home from PS last year, as she "really liked the way it was set up." Last year they had let her keep the workbook copy that she had started with and since it was a fairly inexpensive system and she did seem to be learning from it we kept it going this year. However over the last few lessons, I noticed that she was having more and more problems with the testing part of it. She just did not seem to be understanding the definitions, when they were taken out of the content of the book or if she couldn't check the definitions. You see the workbook is set up with the words and definitions listed at the beginning of each lesson, then through out the week you do one part each day Monday through Thursday and then you test on Friday. So I sat down with her and had her show me exactly HOW she goes about doing the work. What I found was that she was never actually "reading" through the definitions of the words, she had been taught/instructed by her PS teacher in 4th grade on how to figure out the answers to the different sections using different types of context and scanning clues. Great for building "TESTING" skills, but not so great for "VOCABULARY" skills. I spoke with CJ about this for awhile this afternoon and we have decided to scrap the Wordly Wise for the time being. I am by no means knocking the product at all. I really do like the way it is setup and the different approaches, but my daughter has been trained to cheat her way through it and that just seems like busy work to me. By the way on the test she doesn't have the definitions available and that is why she can't use the system that they taught her in order to pass this test, so I wonder how well those testing skills do actually work?

So in lieu of the Wordly Wise for vocab skills we have decided to try a few different things. For one I had gotten her the My Word Coach for the Wii for Christmas - before the price shot through the roof, guess people found out how great it is!! - so we are going to incorporate that in, as well as some really cool free sites I have found online for vocab building including -

1. Number2.com
2. Free Rice
3. Learning Vocabulary Fun
4. Prepme.com

We have started Ancient History and I think the outline that we have planned is going to work really well. The hands-on project booklets, lapbook sets and ancient science are going to tie the information from the textbook together really well. I downloaded the audiobooks of the Story of the World from our library network site and I think that as we get into each section I will introduce it by using one of the stories from the set. I am stressing to her that they are stories though. I know that many, many, many people have said that SOTW is a secular program and I get why they think that since it covers all religions. At the same time, in my opinion, the way they present the stories just doesn't feel right as a "History" curriculum. However the stories themselves are great little tidbits of "this is the type of stories that they told at this time" or "these are the things that they believed at that time." I will be sure to post pics as we get more into our ancient science and kits that we will be using.

We are also adding in some more math practice review days as she is starting to get into some unfamiliar territory. Each time she comes across a new concept I am shocked at how much I thought she had learned at PS, but she really never even touched on the subject. She is using the Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra as that is where she tested into in the system and she really likes how the system is set up, but it also assumes that you have a really good understanding of a lot of the basics and while she does in some areas she is REALLY lacking in others. At the moment we have taken a step back and are spending some extra time with percentages. These can be tricky little buggers and she just doesn't seem to want to follow all the steps in the process. She starts out fine and gets so close to the answer, but somehow gets tripped up on one or two steps. The weird part is that each time it seems to be different spots as well. So we will be taking this next week to reinforce the concepts with some hands on things and real-life math problems to see if I can get her to understand that completing ALL the steps is the only way to get the right answer. As I have said a gazillion times before, I really do not like to bash the school system, but they teach the kids that any answer is better than no answer. You see on the MCAS test they get points as long as they put something for an answer. If they leave an answer blank they get 0, but if they at least take a guess, even if it is the complete wrong answer, they get 1 point. If they take a guess and get the answer that is "almost" the right answer they get 2 or 3 points. If they get the right answer they get 4 points. ---hmmmm

I adore math! I always have and the 1 and only reason for that is that math is not a subjective topic. The answer is either right or wrong, even if you can have more then one solution to a problem ~ i.e. name a prime number that is less than 11 - the answer could be 1, 3, 5, or 7 ~ the answer that you give is either right or wrong. There is no arguing about it. There is no teacher saying that THEY don't interpret it that way. It is a truly black and white subject. So it baffles me that things like this are going on in our school system and I am having to retrain my daughter's brain.

When I started typing I never intended for this post to turn into another rant about the PS system - HONESTLY I DIDN'T! Since it has been a year out of that system I really should be beyond that by now - shouldn't I? But the more I am thinking about it, the more amazed I am that I am still discovering things about the system that I somehow missed when she was there. I also think that the scary part of that is that I was a very involved parent ~ I was even a substitute teacher for a while at the school and volunteered all the time ~ so how much are the uninvolved parents missing. The parents who barely have time to read through the mass of papers that come home from school or to check their kids homework. I am not saying that they all choose to be that way or making a judgement on them, but it is a little bit frightening to me to think that their kids are just being shuffled along and taught strategies to get through the test instead of being educating in order to be a productive and prosperous member of society.

I do apologize for the twisted route that this post has taken...I guess you just never know where you will end up once you start out -or what kind of changes you have to make along the way - so maybe I didn't get so far off topic as I thought I had!

Rave Reviews for Wii Music

KM got this game for Christmas and I didn't really have too high hopes for it, but it is actually a really cool game! It teaches pitch, helps tune the ear, helps improve rhythm and so much more!

Here are some screenshots of KM's Mii..

Here is the very intriguing instructor, whom KM says she loves!

She was so into it...

It was soooo easy to play that SC even got to try it out in
Jam Session Mode.

Of course she had NO idea what she was doing, but she thought it was great that she even got to hold the controller. I honestly think the Wii is one of the best investments that we have made in a long time! I am constantly impressed with the quality of the games that they come out with!