WOW time is flying, this year is almost gone and Christmas time is upon us. I am doing a poor job of keeping this blog up to date so let me update on the happenings around here...

First in line is the homeschool department, we are finishing week 6/7 in our studies

Caden- * starts unit 7 in HOD next week
* reading is going very well, he is able to read books like cat in the hat, and most early readers on his own.
* he continues to do copywork for handwriting
* we are continuing to study phonic and spelling rules
* in math he can add, subtract ( simple without borrowing) he can write math sentences, can count money and we are currently working on telling time and place values.
* he enjoys Bible quizbowl each week during homeschool group.

Zach- * has completed 34 lessons in his grammer book covering usage of commas, run-on sentences, apostrophe, contractions, colons, hyphen, semicolon and underlining.
* almost finished with lifepac #2 in math
* has finished 6 lessons in spelling and vacab. (each lesson takes 4-5 days)
* we are finished with ch 4 in geography, this is taking longer than I planned, there is just so much good info in these chapters. We have covered the earths surface and landforms, maps, climate, and industry. The kids are also making a map project this semester.
* we have completed studies or experiments in the following areas of science.. air pressure, light, (color, refraction, shadows) and wind. We are ready to begin weather, clouds, and water. We all took a tour of a hydro-electric dam also.
* reading - has finished one biography (sitting bull) and is halfway into the second Gengis Khan
* music each week taking guitar lessons
* Bible quizbowl each week at homeschool group.

Autumn - * has finished 16 lessons in vocab/spelling. study of word root, prefixes & suffixes
* finished 25 lessons in editor in cheif for grammer review
* 104 pages in world literature
* Geography ( see above, both she and Zach are doing this subject together)
* science - finished ch 5 in exploring chemistry ( study of metals and gases)
* math - geometry- finishing ch 2 this week, this is slow but we don't move on if she is not understanding the concepts. The chalkdust DVDs do a great job of teaching, and she likes them alot more then the math-u-see we used last time.

We are back at school here in the Lewis home. This week we finished our second week of homeschooling, all in all it's going well.
Autumn started chalk dust geometry late, we had to wait on the book I had e-bayed, so she has completed a weeks worth of lessons. She loves the chalk dust series and is very happy to watch the teaching DVDs :) She is working through a lesson 4 x week in her editor in chief book, I love it for teaching grammar and attention to detail. Reading/ vocab and spelling are going very well. In science she is reading Exploring the World of Chemistry, she had covered two chapters on metals. Geography is going slow, we have covered a weeks worth of lessons in two weeks, mostly due to some time issues with the need to go into town so often right now (Zach's PT, both boys having had mono, ect..) I just started dictation with Autumn and Zach to work on writing skills. Here at home her mood has been very stable, she is helpful and pleasant to be around. (although she has had issues with behavior while out of the home).
Zach is half way through his unit one life pack in math mostly it is review work. He has almost finished his first biography Sitting Bull, he is on track in his grammar workbook, reviewing comma usage. He has completed two lessons in spelling workbook, this is the hardest for him, (using the dictionary to look up parts of speech, usage, ect). We are a bit behind in geography & science we just competed week one's lessons. He started guitar lessons this week & is really excited to learn more.
Caden finished unit 1 in HOD, he was sick several days so we broke week one into two weeks. We will start unit 2 on Monday. We are almost finished with his first biography read aloud, Helen Keller, he really loves this story. He is continuing to improve on his reading skills and doing very well. In math he has mastered counting money & counting by 5, 10, 2's.
Everyone (mom included) is finding it difficult to stick to their routine & chores, this is the area where MOM needs more SELF DISCIPLE (and prayer) to get us all to stick to it...
Next week we are adding BIBLE study each day, also Tuesday school starts soon.

Today was a great day for the lake.. Yep Z got his cast off yesterday! so for the first time this year we headed to sandy beach. It was a really good thing too, since he has yet to straighten his leg out, it proved to be excellent therapy for him. So good in fact that we may go back tomorrow.

I am enjoying having a week off from classes. Dd is home and although it has taken some adjusting on both of our parts things have settled down the past couple days. I needed to sit on the sand and relax, just to take a breather and process things. Some already know this but Caden has been getting yearly lab tests as part of a study for siblings with type 1 diabetes, We were notified this week that he has tested positive for antibodies, three to be exact (gad65, anti insulin & ICA512) So what does it mean??? well we are having further labs and tests ran, but the reality is that he is most likely developing or will develop type 1 diabetes. We have no way to predict when though and it is possible that he might not. The doctors really don't have the answers as this is very new territory in predicting risk factors. It may be that we are catching it early ( even years) before any symptoms show up, for now his blood sugars are normal. I am not sure that I have even taken the time to process the thoughts of this yet, today I am just glad that for now at least he doesn't have diabetes, every day that we can say that is a blessing. And I am really thankful for the beach...

We will be very busy in the coming weeks, college starts again, home school starts next week, Dd will need to see her therapist once a week & will see the Doctor week after next. Z goes back for follow up on the leg in a month and to see endo in October. And Caden has more testing that we will be doing at children's next week and he will be followed closely. Blessings Lisa