Nothin' an art project can't fix!

Cati had a sad morning. On Saturday, after months of begging, I took Cati to get her ears pierced. (See this post.) She was so happy. She was really looking forward to changing the earrings in 4 weeks to some strawberry earrings that she picked out.

Unfortunately, we had to take out the earrings this morning. We will have to leave them out and let her ears heal. Yesterday, she developed a rash around both ears. It seems that she has a sensitivity to the metal in earrings, even though they were 14k gold. She's had many allergies and sensitivities since she was born, so it's not shocking, but still sad to a 7-year-old girl.

You can get see how red her ear is in this photo, although you can't really see the rash.



She sat in my lap and cried for a few minutes after I removed the earrings. Thankfully, I remembered that I had an art project planned for her today. Nothing makes Cati happy like a craft does! So, soon those tears dried...

...and Cati's pretty smiled returned! She's still a bit sad about her earrings, but she's definitely feeling much better after a healing art session!

Homeschool week (1/11 - 1/15)

We started back to school this week! It's been a good week, although somewhat difficult getting the kids to understand that vacation is over. They got all of their work done, albeit a bit slower that I would like. The only activity we have going on right now is Good Shepherd (religious ed), so that gave us a little extra time. Step Up classes at St. Vincent will begin in 2 weeks.


MARIA

I didn't do any homeschool posts for a few weeks before our Christmas break, so I'll start with a brief look back at some science...

Maria and Cati worked with minerals for a few weeks. They had a set of unknown minerals and observed their color, streak, hardness, and other characteristics to identify them.

In the end, they identified them all correctly!

Right before Christmas, we started studying rocks. We went on a rock hunt and collected rocks and we observed them. This week we started talking about different rocks, beginning with igneous rocks. We talked about how they are made from melted rock, and we demonstrated this by example. We melted some "rocks" (sugar, chocolate chips, marshmellows, and salt), mixed them, and cooled them to get a new rock, FUDGE! Here is Maria's lab sheet from the demonstration.

Maria started learning about prepositions in grammar.

She's been enjoying playing the piano (see the videos below), and this week she started some written music study.

Here are three narrations from history that Maria wrote this week.

She read about how Texas broke away from Mexico and became a state...

She learned about how people travelled west in wagons and some of the difficulties they faced...

She read about some inventions that helped with US expansion in the early 1800s. She decided to write about the telegraph.

Maria started learning about adjectives in latin...

In math, Maria studied decimals.

In spelling, she learned words using the /er/ of early ("ear" words) and words spelled with "ph". Here is her dictation test.

This part of the spelling test is called the "Writing Station". She is given 5 words that are words with suffixes or homophones, and she must spell them correctly and use them in her own sentence.

CATI

Cati is now focused on First Communion Prep, and in addition to her usual Catechism study, she started studying the Mass and making a "Mass book." This week she chose a picture for the cover.

There's Elena, who is always working with us in the school room!

Cati learned about subject-verb agreement in grammar.

She read this book for literature this week.

In writing, we studied the poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." Here is a narration that she wrote on one part of the poem.

Here's a look back on the beginning on our rock study in science. Here are Cati's observations on her favorite rock she found on our rock hunt.

Here is her lab sheet from our igneous rock demonstration this week.

She learned how to write the letter "Q" in cursive this week. She had to really concentrate on writing a "q" instead of a "g" in lower case.

In history, she learned about the crusades.

Here is a coloring sheet about the Crusades. She was very proud of how colorful it is!

I forgot to scan her narration about the Crusades!


In math, she learned about subtraction with borrowing.

And she reviewed addition with regrouping. She loves the Singapore workbooks that usually have a little game involved - notice the rabbit that she found when coloring the spaces with the correct answers from the top of the page. It's amazing how something this simple makes work more fun! She loves any kind of craft or art work!!

Cati started Level 4 of our spelling curriculum this week. The first week is 20 dictation sentences that review rules learned in the previous levels. She did 5 sentences per day. It was a nice review after our long Christmas break. Here is her work from one day.

MATTEO

Here is a handwriting page that Matteo did this week.

Matteo reviewed addition through 5 this week.

I wish I could show you what a great job Matteo is doing with his reading!!! I'm so impressed with his progress!

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Chiara from this week. I'll try to do better this week! But here are a couple of more pictures of Elena. She's SUCH a great baby. She sits on the floor with us during lessons and plays. You can see here that she has gotten into our math manipulatives - you can never start too early!!

Here is Maria practing the piano this week. She just doesn't want to let go of those Christmas hymns!

Guess What Cati Did today??

She said, "It hurt, but I'm happy!"

Early birthday humor

Matteo, who will be 5-years-old at the end of February, asked me today to start making his birthday cake...

Me: Birthday cakes taste best when you make them the day of your birthday.
Matteo: Please, Mom! Just put in one ingredient!

Before bed, I asked Matteo what present he would like for his birthday.

Matteo: Some slippers that fit because Maria's are too big for me.
Me: That's all you want for your birthday?
Matteo: Well, maybe you can get me some slippers and the others can get me some little cars.
Me: Who else is going to get you a present?
Matteo: You know, Papa, Maria, Cati, Chiara, and Elena, if she grows up before them. But, Mom, if she doesn't grow up until after my birthday, tell her she can get me a car then.

Look at those icicles!

You know...I had to look up the spelling of "icicle" ?!

Anyway, back to the post. We've had a LOT of snow over the past week, and as it slowly melts (even though temps have not been anywhere near freezing) it forms these amazing icicles off the roof of houses here. I had to get a picture!

Cati, Our Resident Creator

Cati is always busy doing something, and it usually involves paper, scissors, and markers.

One of her Christmas presents was a card making kit, which is right up her alley. Here are some envelopes that she made with the kit.





About a month before Christmas, Cati decided to collect all of our doll house people and carry them around in a basket. She's always liked collecting things. Today, she decided to take them out, tie them together and make a necklace...

...or a crown!

She always has that smile that makes us smile!

Back to School

Well, the Christmas season officially ended yesterday, so it's time for us to start back to school! And, it was time to change my blog background :)

Have a great day everyone!!

Snowy Fun!

I measured the snow outside around lunchtime today. It was between 8" and 10"!

The temps were in the mid-20s, which is relatively warm, so it was a great afternoon to go play in the snow!

Maria worked hard trying to roll up a large snowball to make a snowman. However, the snow was too powdery. I went out to help, but I had a hard time, too! Maybe we'll have a chance to work on it some more over the next couple of days.

The only way I could get the kids inside was to promise them some hot chocolate, which they thoroughly enjoyed!!

Even Chiara had some even though she didn't go outside. She was napping instead.