Back In The Swing of Things!

We started school again last week.  Some of us struggled to get back in the swing of things while others dived right in head first.  By the end of the week we were all back on track.  For the girls we started  the year with a quick review of the Revolutionary War and now on to the War of 1812.  The four books we are currently reading integrate well into the curriculum and the girls are enjoying them.

                             

 Their curriculum, Trail guide to Learning  (Paths of Settlement)  is inclusive of all subjects except foreign language and math.  It's really nice because everything they are learning ties in and relates to one another.  For example, while they were learning about The Revolutionary War, they did copywork and dictation from the Constitution and Patrick Henry's famous "Give me freedom or give me death " speech.  They read books about John Adams, Abigail Adams, and George Washington to name a few.  I found a nice add on book at a trunk sale during coop that nicely showed King George's perspective during that tumultuous time.  For those of you who may be covering the Revolutionary War, the book is titled "Can't You Make Them Behave, King George?" by Jean Fritz.

   They learned about the different branches of government and their roles by way of the Constitution.  They are learning about each of the 50 states.  As battles and events are taking place in the books they are reading, they learn about the geography of where these things occurred and how the geography may have shaped the outcome of events.  Spelling and vocabulary words largely come from the books we are reading.  For art they are exploring water color.  They've painted landscapes depicting the vast expanses of the developing US at the time.  They have also cooked recipes of popular dishes from the states they have studied.  I can go on and on, but I'll save that for a review of the curriculum which I will do at the end of this school year.

  For the little one, I've continued with a work plan system that I nabbed from What DID we do all day? Click here to see her post.  I believe she found it by way of another homeschooler.  The system allows my little one to visualize what work he has done for the day and what he still needs to do.  It also allows him to see the bigger picture as far as what I expect him to cover throughout the week. Each time he completes a task, he can move the corresponding paper clip from the left side to the right side of the work plan.   I like this system so much, that I even created one for each of the girls for things that I expect them to do daily and weekly that are not included in their curriculum.  All three enjoy the visual aid and the fact that they need to physically move the paperclip.  I imagine there is a sense of accomplishment that they feel when all the paperclips have been moved.

All in all it has been a great start to a new year.  We are back in the swing of things and enjoying

(BOGO) Buy One Get One Free

     

We all love sales right?  Well, I know I do.  I remember falling into the traps of such places like Gymboree with there Gymbucks where if you buy more now, you'll save more later was the mantra.  I can still hear the cashier "Miss., your only $0.75 away from earning $75 in Gymbucks.  Are you sure you don't need these lovely socks here that are $5.00, but are the cheapest thing in the store that could actually be of use to you?" blink, blink, smile......

         I even became the queen of using Cartwheel during the last holiday season.  I mean come on, they had awesome deals at Target during the days that lead up to Christmas.  And yes, I have been known to get up in the wee hours on Black Friday to catch a deal.  I must say, I never made it to full coupon lady status, but hey, like I said, who doesn't like a sale right?

        I rarely see sale signs while shopping here in Nairobi.  So you can imagine how thrilled I was to see a Buy One Get One sign on an item that I've already been buying weekly.  I eagerly picked up four of the family sized packs of the kid's Weetabix Wheetos Cereal.  I practically skipped to the register relishing in my latest deal.  My husband awaited me there at the register wide eyed at the contents of our cart.  I just continued with a shrug and said, "What, they're BOGO?"  Knowing that this just might be too good to be true, I made sure I alerted the cashier that the cereal should be BOGO.  She nodded in agreement and said,  "It will be taken off at the end."  I noticed that each double box rung up about 200Ksh less than the normal price of 650Ksh and at the end, nothing more was taken off.    Wait a minute, did I miss something?  That's not BOGO.  BOGO would have made the price of each Family pack 325Ksh, not 450Ksh.  The store manager spent five minutes trying to convince me that it was indeed BOGO.  In the end, we agreed that the sale was more like buy two get one, and that it was a case of false advertisement.  I still left with the four packs of reduced price cereal, no longer skipping, but still happy to have gotten a sale.

        Lesson learned, in Nairobi BOGO may often times mean something very different than buying one, and then getting another for free.

The kid's new favorite cereal.  Now usually I'm not one for allowing sugary breakfast cereals, but I tasted this one and it's really not all that sweet.  It has just a hint of a chocolate taste (sigh...we Americans and our love affair with sugar).   They also have Weetabix Bran Flakes in a family pack as well and the kids enjoy those too.