Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which We See Some Progress

In our homeschool this week... we had a pretty good week, working on all our usual stuff.  Did some reading about modern Greece and ancient Rome, and watched a Cities of the Underground episode about the city of Naples.  I had the kids work on some sketching - the Colosseum, the Arch of Septimius Severus, and the Tower of Pisa.  Both kids seemed quite enthusiastic in planning a couple of dinner menus featuring Greek and Italian dishes.  We will probably do those the first week of November.  Started a new unit in Science, focusing on water ecosystems.  We learned about the ocean's ecosystems in general, and did a demonstration of how the currents distribute the minerals throughout the ocean.  Then did a lesson on the coral reef.





In music, we studied Bach.  Language Arts has been going fairly well for everyone, and Kennady is making some progress in Math, since we are trying a different curriculum.  Stay tuned for that review coming up in a couple weeks!

In other news... Harrison had an eye appointment on Wednesday and actually had an improvement!  Thursday evening I was able to go to our monthly homeschoolers group get-together, where our discussion centered on field trips.  Sounds like we have some great ideas in the works!  Friday evening I took Kennady with me to the ladies movie night at the church, where we watched the DVD "Becoming Jane".  I hoped Kennady would like it, since she'd enjoyed watching some movie/mini-series adaptations of Jane Austen novels with me, and she did!  Also, my cellphone unexpectedly died on Wednesday, so I had to buy a new one on Saturday.

My favorite thing this week was... hearing good news and answers to prayer!

What's working/not working for us... I'm coming to grips with the fact that my schedule isn't working out that well. I am finding that it is that much harder to get things done when I am starting an hour later than usual in the morning.  DH is going to work an hour later during the winter, and losing that hour has made it harder for me to feel like I'm prepared (or have had enough coffee!!) by the time the kids are supposed to be up for school.  So I am thinking that I will have to try getting up at the usual time and maybe do my lesson planning or that sort of thing before he gets up.  I don't know if I can manage that, but I guess I'll give it a try. Since the kids were still struggling to get up on time, at the end of the week I had lost patience and pushed up their bedtimes with a promise to continue making it earlier until they could get up in the morning.  And it worked.  At least the first attempt.  We'll see if the trend continues during this week!

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

[youtube]4jUu9GwUWCA[/youtube]

On the Bookshelf...

• Already Compromised by Ken Ham and Greg Hall with Britt Beemer


• In the Shadow of the Sun King by Golden Keyes Parsons


• Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley


• Guardian of the Flame by T.L. Higley

Finished and reviewed City of the Dead by T.L. Higley

A Parting Shot...



This post is linked to The Homeschool Chick - see the progress of other homeschoolers this week!