Wii-vitas and plans

I think the kids are suffering from wii-vitas - too much playing of the wii leading to achy arms!!!

I also think they are becoming surgically attached to the controller and nunchuck!!

I am loving the boxing on wii sports and I think it will be great for toning my arms but it is highly addictive playing on there. Last night the kids were in bed and dh and I had a game of bowling and I won!! Yay!!

Dh is already suggesting that we get another one so that they have one each but I have said no way as then they would have it in their bedrooms and we would hardly see them and they would sneak on it in the middle of the night - plus I have books I want to buy for homeschooling and tickets to book for the theatre that will cost a bomb!!

I am hoping to get tickets to see Horrible Histories Frightful First World War and Woeful Second World War at our local theatre. I took the kids to see the Terrible Tudors in May when we were over from Cyprus and they loved it so I really want to get those tickets booked soon and also book to see Roald Dahl's The BFG which I am hoping we can see for J's 10th birthday at the beginning of April. Scary how fast he is growing up!! Where did my baby go??

I have some Amazon vouchers that I was going to use to treat myself to a couple of books as I very rarely buy anything for myself anymore but I keep seeing lots of great homeschool books I want instead. I just can't make my mind up which ones to get. I am thinking of finally buying First Language Lessons 3 but can't decided whether to get the workbook for it or not. Also Writing With Ease but everytime I look at what we already have I worry that by adding more in I will overdo things as I always seem to do. I am also thinking of getting Minimus Latin for them too.

We are planning on starting again with our homeschooling next Monday 5th January but we are also hoping to finally fit in a visit to Staffordshire to see my mother in law and so I am starting with a slightly lighter week than normal and then add to it if its not too much.

I have decided to give it a go planning weekly and then highlighting work in yellow as it is done during the week. Any work that is not completed by the end of the week is highlighted in orange and we will start with that the following week. Hopefully we won't end up with too much orange!! In the past I have always looked at what I wanted to get done each week and then broken it down into days but I very rarely finished everything on the list each day and I always felt like we were behind and if something popped up on a day when I had planned work then I felt a complete failure as we just seemed to fall further and further behind and then I would stress about it. Hopefully planning it as a weekly block rather than a daily block will mean we can have more productive days and it will be easier to see how we are doing and make any adjustments if necessary too. I am hoping for a four day week so we can have one day for going to the library or the zoo or a day out. I am also aiming to go further afield for a trip at least once a month hopefully.

Anyway this is my rough plan at the moment for the week of 5th January 2009. I will post it again on Monday morning with any changes to it and then see how we get on.

Week 1
J Maths: CGP Yr 4 Classbook B p16 - 17 (p38); p18 - 19 (p39); p20 - 21 (p40); p22 (p41); p23 (p42)
J English: GP Junior English 1: Chapter 2 Ex 2.1; Ex 2.2
E Maths: Number Book 5 p3, 4, 5, 6, 7
E English: Early Comprehension 3 p3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Oxford Children's Bible: The Tower of Babel; Abraham, Father of all Nations
Literature Read-Aloud: Five Children & It Ch 1; Ch 2; Ch 3; Ch 4; Ch 5
History: UILE p114 - 117; SOTW ch 2a, 4a, 2b; SOTW related activity pages; I Wonder Why Pyramids Were Built; GP Junior History Ch 5 pg 36 - 40; Horrible Histories Awesome Egyptians; Stories from Ancient Egypt.
Geography: Trail Guide to World History Week 1
Science: Animal Classification
French: Review what we already know
Latin: Possibly Minimus Latin
Reader: MTH Mummies in the Morning
Writing: Daily journal writing
Also possibly a lapbook if we have time.

So we shall hopefully get everything done. I still have a couple of things I want to add in some of Sonlight Core 1 and some of the Ambleside Yr 1 Readings and a couple of other bits and bobs but we shall see how we get on. On bad days I will do the 60 minute homeschool so I can at least feel we have acheived something.

I am looking forward to getting my teeth back into homeschooling as we've ended up having quite a long break with moving and everything so it will be nice to get back into a routine.