Homeschool Highlights – Healthy vs. Junk

Evan had off this past Monday. We got in Nicholas’ schoolwork before we dropped him off at Nana and Poppy’s. They volunteered to spend the day with him so Evan and I could spend time together. Nicholas went to story time in his costume that day. What did we do? Something so romantic – cleaned the house really well. We both were motivated so it was the perfect opportunity.

On Tuesday, Nicholas started another round of swimming lessons. He has the same teacher and the same kids in his class. This is good because the teacher already knows everyone’s abilities so they are able to work on their skills rather than start at the beginning. Nicholas continues to be a jumping machine. In fact, I had trouble getting him out of the pool at the end of his lesson.

I didn't take many pictures.  It is his 15th lesson since the beginning of September.

On Wednesday, we started our new unit for the month in our All Around Town series. This month the theme is the grocery store. This week we started talking about what is healthy and what is not. While Nicholas likes some vegetables, he definitely has a lot more favorites in the fruit department. I guess it would help if he had two better role models. Evan and I aren’t the best vegetable eaters.

Coloring the food pyramid

We also did some sight word BINGO. I think this is the last year that I am going to do sight words. I have some mixed feelings about them. Yes, they are helpful to get him started reading words in books, but phonics is really more helpful. But I will probably finish out the year with the Primer list.

"BINGO!"

That night we dressed Nicholas up for his Wednesday night program at church. The calendar that I was given said it was “Backwards Night”. So, we turned Nicholas’ clothes around and headed to church. I looked around and noticed that no one else had their clothes on backwards. I asked someone in charge and they said it was next week. I apologized to Nicholas and took him to the bathroom to fix his clothes.

Backwards Night - One Week Early

It bothered me the whole night. Yes, I tend to dwell on things too much, but I really have a great memory for dates. So, the first thing I did when I got home was check the list – I was right! I must have been given a first draft or something (I am in charge of the Children's Ministry Newsletter). So, we had a trial run for next Wednesday.

On Thursday, Evan was able to see Nicholas and his new courage when it came to jumping. We both noticed that he is suddenly super-competitive with another girl in the class. He kept racing her. This little girl is starting to swim by herself. We’re hoping this motivates him to pick his feet up and start kicking rather than walking.

We grocery shopped this morning. Nicholas knows our usual purchases, so it easy to tell him to grab something for me. It’s when he goes rogue and picks his own things that makes it interesting. Overall, he’s more helpful than he is not.

We came home and worked on some schoolwork. One of the activities we did was make a picture of a healthy plate and unhealthy plate. It is a lot harder to find healthy pictures to cut out than it is junk food. Even though he may have preferred the junk plate over the healthier one, he got the message that it isn’t good for him.

Healthy Plate

Junk!!!

We have a long weekend ahead (this seems to be the norm lately). Please don’t miss the post about our puzzle piece and Ordinary Hero fundraisers. Our agency’s update last night said that they have had a lot more referrals and birth mothers interested lately. We just want to be ready. Thank you!