Before you all drop you cup of coffee, let me fill you in quickly. :) Today we sent one of our kids to visit a local private school with one of his friends. 

You can hear a little bit more about it in the below video that sums up our week and a few other things, or keep reading – up to you. 

Since he is our one that likes to wear whatever, freaks out when he isn’t done by a specific time (or feels super behind), I have a feeling that this will be a great “Hey, remember when…” moment if he starts complaining about how rough he has it homeschooling. :) 

One of the highlights of this week has been reading with Kaleb. He finished up his book, Who Was Martin Luther King Jr., and now we are going back through the second half of All About Reading 3 to review some of the blends that he is struggling with. 

There are some days that run more smoothly than others, much of it depending on his attitude (isn’t that true of all of us?). We also started using the new app from AALP rather than our whiteboard, which is great if we want to be somewhere else in the house. 

Overall though, the review of the last bit of Level 3 is definitely helping, in many areas, but especially in Kaleb’s confidence levels. 

7th Grade Happenings

Zachary’s been working hard this week to get a little ahead so he could take a day off Friday and hang out with a friend. Our local school system has the day off, so he invited a friend over. I’m more than happy to see him motivated and definitely want to encourage that! 

9th Grade Happenings

One of the things that I love (and often forget about) is how flexible we can be with our homeschooling. While we are – sometimes we aren’t. 

Case in point. We didn’t really cover poetry in depth with Laurianna, which when she started her English class was a little bit of a hurdle. We are looking at the Grammar of Poetry class from Compass Classroom to add to McKenna’s year and likely run it into next year, depending on how the class flows for her. It’s also one that we will work through with another family and tie it in with our literature classes and co-op.

The flexibility of homeschooling comes in this: we aren’t tied to finishing a program during one school year. We can either pace out a class over the course of a few years, or two different semesters, and essentially make it work for our family.  

I mentioned in the video that the transcript we’ve been using for Laurianna is sorted by subject instead of the classes she took each year. Above is an example of how I’ve laid it out so far (you can click on the image to open a pdf file example. 

11th Grade Happenings

Laurianna is happily moving along with her studies, especially now that she has her English class off the table for this semester. Her classes at the community college are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so she spends the free time that she has working on Pre-Calculus and Latin 2. 

Her work schedule has been fairly light this week, so she has been cozying up in bed to work through homework and her other subjects. The above picture cracks me up because our dog, Addie, has to be right in the middle of whatever it is we are doing. Even math. 

The Mom Life

I’ve been quiet here on the blog this week, mainly because I have been swamped working on other projects in addition to homeschooling: putting together a website for a local pool, creating lesson plans for a church class in February, dentist visits (yippee), having our wills re-done, and shuttling the kids back and forth to all over the place.

So life. 

It’s been a little hectic to be honest and I don’t feel like I’ve had a lot of downtime, especially since I haven’t had time for reading. That alone tells me that I need to slow down just a little bit. :) 

That’s about it for our week – how have you been and what was a great part of your week? 

It’s been a cold week. Again. 

We started out the week with snow. Granted a wee dusting, but somehow the kids seem to think that means we should get the day off. Although the local schools did, we didn’t. Call me the mean ol’ mom. (Sidenote: I did invite some kiddos over for everyone to play with afternoon – I can be nice too). 

And the lack of pictures this week? Well, I’m trying to be more PRESENT. No phone in the schoolroom. Just us and focused. It’s been good, but few pictures to prove we’ve done anything (so does it count then?). (The answer is yes.)

Reading with Kaleb

One highlight of the week for me – catching Kaleb as he picks up a book to look through it. He may not have sat down and curled up to read, but this is definitely a move in the right direction for our reluctant reader. Last week I borrowed a few books from a friend (in the Who Was series) to use in our daily reading time together. We started out with Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.? Part of me is hoping that biographies will be more to his liking. While searching online to see what other books were available, I found one about the Superbowl. The boy loves his football, so that’s next up to read when we finish this first book. 

My heart is that this boy will find a passion for some subject and it will truly ignite a love for reading in him. 

Volunteering

Thursday was our chance to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. Our church helps serve once a month and it’s one of the community programs that kids under 18 are allowed to participate in. It isn’t always huge stuff – we set tables, cook and serve a meal, help clean up, talk to people, and are just present. No, the kids aren’t always thrilled to go, but it’s one way to help the kids understand the value of giving their time and serving others.

Loop Scheduling

Something that I tried to do this week was get back into a routine, or loop, with some of our smaller subjects: geography, art, STEM activities, and Bible. There are some subjects that we tackle every day: math, grammar, writing (Zachary), reading, history, read-alouds, handwriting (Kaleb), and science. 

But there are a few subjects that we put in a loop, meaning we cycle through them: geography, art, spelling, vocabulary, and Bible. Each day we choose one (or two) of those subjects to add into our day. There was a point where I scheduled them into our week on specific days, but that ended up getting me very frustrated because a day’s schedule would shift because of a doctor’s appointment or co-op – or something else. I’d start feeling behind, that would throw me out of whack, and mental chaos would ensue. 

So essentially, I’m trying to keep myself mentally stable. (ahem)

What Mom is Up To…

I shared my 2018 reading list earlier this week and am MUCH enjoying two of the books on it. One of them I wrapped up yesterday, and Godspeed by Britt Merrick – well, that’s giving me quite a bit of food for thought. 

We also have another puzzle in progress. With the kids busy with swim practice each night, we haven’t had as much of a chance to work on it, but every now and then we sit down for a bit and try to sort through pieces. Snow looks pretty until you have what feels like 1,000 bluish pieces and your eyes are crossing. 

That’s all for our week back to school. How are you all doing – and what have you been up to? 

You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? After getting everything lined up to start up after our Christmas break, Monday morning started with a call from the ER. My grandmother had called an ambulance and spent some time with the doctors there and needed someone to bring her home. (She is fine – no worries.)

So – the day already had a big kink in it and the plans to whip everything into magical shape (because you know it would have all fallen into place right.this.moment) went a bit out the window. 

Incidentally, those pens above? My absolute favorite ever. And of course the homeschool planner is too. But erasable and pens to color code things are my love language.

BEFORE I FORGET – don’t miss this giveaway from WriteShop (our favorite homeschool writing curriculum). Maybe you are looking for a mid-year switch, or want to learn a little more, but don’t miss the chances to enter and win!

The boys and I jumped back in with history right away (and yes, our dog likes to be a part of everything we do). While I read through lessons this week on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the boys helped me sort and count LEGOs from several of our kits that we are through using and getting ready to sell. 

Keeping hands busy while listening is a HUGE help. :)  

Our mornings have been starting off with CNN10 again. The boys have missed that after a few weeks off over break (me too!). 

Overall, it’s just been getting back into the daily routine: history, reading, math, grammar, writing, reading aloud, science, etc…

Laurianna’s classes have started back up for the spring semester. In addition to English and her second anatomy class, she is taking a Developmental Psychology class as well. Monday she interviewed for a lifeguarding position at a nearby pool and will be starting work with them on Friday. She is rather excited about the new job. :) 

McKenna has been spending time working on biology this week. We’re back in the routine of co-op class and lab with our friend, so she had some prep to do. 

Currently we are studying classification. Our lab this week focused on the identification of various leaves and insects and learning how to classify. We’ve had to edit the labs a bit from what is suggested because we switched mid-year from our other program. 

One thing we are already struggling with though – finding that balance and jumping back into the routine of getting things done (and not getting distracted). McKenna has had a few days this week where her schoolwork has extended a bit late into the evening. 

I’m trying not to push her too much on getting behind (or staying focused), because this is something she really has to learn to manage on her own.

And finally, we’re working hard on filling out passport applications and getting everything lined up for our trip to the Netherlands in May. I won’t talk about how many times I’ve messed up the second page of every application and how many times I’ve reprinted it. At some point I’ll get it all correct and we’ll submit them in the next week (hopefully). 

That’s all for our week back to school. How are you all doing – and what have you been up to? 

This week has been a slow and wonderful week. Truly. 

We started off the week driving home from upstate NY where we had been visiting Rick’s family after Christmas. It was COLD, you all.

Saturday was a balmy 16 degrees, so the kids were excited to go ice skating at the local rink. That lasted less than an hour, but hey – they did it, right? 

We returned home with crazy low temperatures at -22. Yep. We were ready to head back home. :) 

One thing I am so thankful for – we invited two families over to spend New Year’s Eve with us. One family spent the night (best idea ever), and while the adults enjoyed sitting and talking for hours, the kids all ran off and occupied themselves with cookie decorating and food. It was truly wonderful. 

And in that white bowl above is one of the BEST APPETIZERS EVER. Super easy and unbelievably yummy – bacon wrapped mini potatoes. Served with an aioli sauce, you may want to eat the entire bowl. Ask me how I know. 

Ringing in the new year with friends though was really the best. We all had so much fun catching up, laughing, and relaxing together. 

Somehow I misjudged our time off before Christmas, thought we had another week that we would be able to take off, and then managed to mess up our break. Whoops. 

We decided instead to tack the extra week off during the first week of January since Laurianna hasn’t started classes at the community college yet. And it’s bone-chilling cold here as well. 

All of the Christmas decorations were packed away, the house cleaned and organized, and we are ready for the upcoming week (well, almost). The fireplace has been on quite a bit as well, helping keep the house nice and toasty. Meanwhile, I’ve been curled up with a GREAT book (seriously, it is amazing how timeless the points in the book are), we’ve been playing games, and just BEING without needing to be anywhere or doing anything in particular. 

And that is a lovely thing. 

Next week, we’ll be back in the school routine (and I have some new routines planned for the kids to hopefully kick us out of some habits and add some new things in). 

How was your week?