Homeschool Mother's Journal - In Which We Flirt with Disaster

In our homeschool this week... we (Landon and Kennady) got to work on our Science lessons, but only got one lesson done instead of the two I had planned on.  The first lesson had a great activity that involved going outside and marking off an area to study in the backyard, to observe ecosystems in action.  However, the day we did that lesson it was raining so I thought it might be best to do that initial observation under more comfortable conditions.  And even though we had a couple of nicer weather days since then, we were also busy with other things so I procrastinated a little longer with the project.  Now, we have a hurricane coming, so it will have to wait until Monday or Tuesday, depending on what the weather does then!

Kennady continued plugging away at Math - she does NOT like division.  It did help to do the drills on the BigIQKids website.  Landon continued working on Bible, and Spencer continued in Geometry and English.  He starts History/Bible/Lit next week, so I am planning to review the novels on the reading list with him over the weekend to decide which ones he will read over the course of the year.

This morning I attended our homeschool group's orientation meeting - the school year has officially begun once we have that meeting!

In other news... we had an earthquake on Tuesday! that was fun! I mean, if you're going to experience an earthquake, it should be just strong enough so you can feel it without any real risk of damage; it should happen during the day; and it should probably last less than a minute.  And we are just far enough away from the epicenter of Tuesday's quake that those were exactly the conditions we experienced.  So it was really kind of fun for us, even though I'm sure it was much more upsetting for the folks in Washington and northern Virginia!

And now, of course, we are bracing for the effects of Hurricane Irene.  Once again, we will be far enough away from the worst of it that we probably won't have to worry about much beyond a lengthy power outage and some local flooding.  Harrison, however, is at work - at the radio station near the beach communities of Delaware - so he should have a more exciting time of it!  He's already reported that they have tornado warnings or watches, and they do expect to lose power.  Right now, I'm sitting at home watching the dark clouds all around, and the wind whipping up the trees, but that's about all.  So far.  We are prepared to be without power for awhile (that's why I'm blogging now, while I still can! LOL) and are praying for everyone in the path of the storm.

My favorite thing this week was... we had biscuits and sausage gravy for dinner one night, and the family unanimously declared it my best sausage gravy ever! Yay me!!

What's working/not working for us... Thank goodness the kids seem to be over their obsession with using the intercom for nonsense!  I realized that I had loaned out the quiz and answer book for Spencer's History curriculum and I need to track it down and get it back pretty soon so he can start!! I wish I'd remembered that sooner and contacted the family that borrowed it.  Now I'm going to have to adjust his schedule because there's not a lot of point in starting the course if he doesn't have the lesson quizzes!

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have... I am still kind of obsessing about whether we'll be able to stick to a schedule.  Especially since I didn't do a good job of that this week at all!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

Tropical Cyclones Preparedness Guide from the US Dept of Commerce

Educational stuff for kids about earthquakes from the USGS Earthquakes for Kids page

Hello Hurricane by Switchfoot (I tried everything I could think of to link the actual youtube here and it was just a disaster. 8-D)

On the Bookshelf...

• Persuasion by Jane Austen


• Already Gone by Ken Ham and Britt Beemer


• Read for the Heart by Sarah Clarkson


• Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran

Finished Deep Church by Jim Belcher, Child of the Mist by Kathleen Morgan, and Maire by Linda Windsor

A Parting Shot...

[caption id="attachment_721310" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Earthquake Devastation"][/caption]

This post is linked to The Homeschool Chick - come see how others coped with disaster and success!