33 weeks

Some days I feel like I have a looong way to go yet with this pregnancy.  The baby feels huge and I am exhausted and out of shape.  Other days I feel like I have a ton yet to do and my due date is quickly approaching.  I warned Ross last week that nesting was probably about to begin soon.  He is usually a pretty good sport about helping me get things done and ready for the baby.

To Do:

- Keep taking my vitamins: prenatals, fish oil, and red raspberry leaf tea (steeped for two hours, blech).  Add in evening primrose oil and more tea at 36 weeks.

- Finish gathering items for my birth kit and put a waterproof cover on the mattress.  I was able to run out this weekend and gather a few things.  I also just placed an order with Vitacost for Earth Mama Angel Baby (nipple butter, bottom balm, etc.), Seventh Generation pads, and misc things.

- Make and freeze meals for after baby arrives.  My goal is to freeze at least one a week starting now.  Or maybe I just need to have one big baking day and do it all at once?  I should at least make a list of what I want to freeze and go from there.

- Sort out neutral baby clothes and wash them.  Figure out where to put them.  This may involve reconfiguring the dresser situation in the girls' bedroom and changing how I store their clothes.  I don't know, we're about out of space in our tiny house.  I need to think of a creative solution!

- Choose names!!  We have a few that we like, but nothing is settled on.

- Make a few more baby purchases: the co-sleeper, sheets, and a portable swing.  First we have to get the box spring and frame for our own bed, then I can measure the height and order the co-sleeper.  We got a nice new mattress this past fall, but its been on the floor so far until we could decide what kind of bed frame to get.

- Organize and wash cloth diapers.  Figure out where to put these as well.  Take inventory and decide if I need to buy anything else.  Maybe another cover or two?  I'll have to post a newborn cloth diaper stash photo soon.  :)

Eeek, what else am I forgetting?  This is just my "baby to do" list, then there is everything else I would like done - the bedroom organized, - school papers all filed and sorted, - the basement playroom cleaned, ... and so on.  Nesting has definitely begun!

Art Projects

A few fun art projects we've been working on lately:

heart garlands 

Charlotte's Web activities: 

spinning a web with yarn and popsicle sticks, handprint spiders 

stained glass watercolor paintings

Julia's Math Book

Lucy decided to make this for Julia one day.  The ideas were all her own!

trace the dotted lines, count the items 

dot to dot, goes up to 25 

trace the dotted lines, finish the pattern, what number comes next? 

draw petals on the flower, trace the dotted lines 

a picture to color

Julia loves it and will only do one page each day, in order to save it for a while.  :)

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Review

I am loving our new science curriculum!  We are only on Unit 4, but it is going really well.  Over the past couple of years I have looked at numerous science options and hadn't found anything that we really liked.  REAL Science Odyssey is a great fit for us.

looking at an egg and labeling a diagram

Heart of Dakota (our main curriculum) contains some very light science.  I found it to be rather unorganized and random.  While we love Heart of Dakota for the most part, we're enjoying adding in this science program.  I tried to enrich HOD's science and add in more, but with it being so scattered, I found that to be challenging.

Other science programs that I have considered were either too textbookish (just reading about science doesn't seem to click with Lucy), or too open ended.  Instructions like "write about what you learned" do not work well with Lucy.  NOEO science, one that I considered, is like this.  The idea of it is great, Charlotte Mason style learning from a variety of living books, but it seemed to lack the teaching aspect that Lucy needs.  Apologia science looks good, but is too advanced for us at this point.

REAL Science Odyssey is one that I had looked at, but wasn't sure about.  I ended up finding the book used from someone and am very happy that I did!  We are using Life Science level one.  The curriculum is set up so that each week we read a page of information and complete related activities.  The information page is written to the child and explains things very well, including new vocabulary words and simple explanations.  Our routine has been to read the information page one day and do a lab, then another day we read over the information again and do the second lab activity.  It seems to be just the right amount each week and not overwhelming.  The activities have all been interesting and fun.

jello model of a plant cell and an animal cell

The teacher's manual includes a list of a few recommended books and websites for each unit.  I've checked these out from the library and enjoy having other sources to reinforce what we are learning.  Daddy reads these books to the kids before bed or Lucy looks through them at rest time.  The books are not necessary, but are fun to have on hand.  We purchased a couple of board games and a coloring book that are mentioned in the teacher's manual as well.

REAL Science Odyssey Life level one is for grades 1-4.  I like that it can be used over a range of ages, but I do not feel like I'm having to adapt things too much for Lucy.  I am not one who enjoys sifting through information and activities trying to decide which ones my child should be doing.  So far we have been fine just using the book as is.  (Lucy is six years old, doing 1st-2nd grade work.)  In the front of the manual is a list of main ideas for each unit, so I am able to tell whether or not she is catching the main point.  

The Life Science Curriculum can be purchased as a book or an e-book.  We have the physical book, and then also purchased the student pages.  The student pages are included in the book, but buying them saved me from having to make copies out of the main book for Lucy to use.  Home Science Tools carries the REAL Science books, student pages, and also a supply kit.  We did not need everything in the science kit, so I purchased the items a la carte, finding everything I needed on their website.  It helped that I had the teacher's manual in hand because I could refer to the supply list and see what we needed.  

You can preview the entire front section of the teacher's manual and the first nine units on their website!  (This gives you the supply list too.)  Definitely worth taking a look at.

The program does say it mentions evolution in the level two books, but not in level one.  We have not come across anything objectionable.  At the level two point we will probably go with Apologia or something else.  For now REAL Science Odyssey is an excellent program, right on Lucy's level, informative, and fun.  She asks every day to do science.  On one of the first days that we were using REAL Science Odyssey, Lucy said: "Mom, are you teaching me science or are you teaching me to be a scientist?"  Bingo, kid!  Both.