Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which I Catch Up After Vacation andHoliday Break

I didn't do an HMJ post last weekend because we had been out of town for a few days, and only returned on Sunday.  And my time just got away from me this weekend, so here I am on Monday morning hoping to get caught up.  Not only with the blog, but I'm hoping to get more school done this week too!

In our homeschool these two weeks... we basically kept up with Math and Language Arts as best we were able, with only two school days before our mini-vacation, and only a couple of schooldays this past week.  One of the books about Johann Sebastian Bach that I wanted to read several weeks ago for our Composer study finally arrived at the library, so we backtracked a little and read that.  We are moving on to Beethoven this week, but I do still have a book about Mozart we'll read as well, because I feel like we shortchanged him a little.  I also managed to get through one Science lesson with Kennady and Landon this past week, but we didn't get the experiment done, so that is still on the agenda for today.  Spencer did some catching up in Art, and did a pretty good job of keeping at Science and History even during all the upheaval of vacation and Thanksgiving week.

In other news... we took a little vacation from November 16th through the 20th.  A friend of DH's graciously offered their cabin for our use, so we travelled to Deep Creek, Maryland for a little rest and relaxation.  We had a few days of sleeping late, doing a lot of reading, playing some board games and card games, and hiking and sightseeing.  All on a very relaxed schedule.  We visited a couple of state parks, hiked to some waterfalls, and the kids and DH rode the mountain coaster at Wisp.  I have lots of pictures that I will post eventually, but here are just a few:







We came home on Sunday afternoon, and got started immediately on unpacking and doing laundry, because on Monday we had company coming for lunch!  A dear online friend from Florida was visiting family in Virginia, but she and her DH and little boy took the time to come visit us.  We enjoyed lunch together and then went over to my DH's greenhouse for a tour.



I had hoped to have a couple of days of "back to normal" on Tuesday and Wednesday, but not everything goes as planned.  Running errands during the day took longer than anticipated, and the constant rain from Sunday on caused some flooding, and a lot of roads were closed.  My Wednesday shopping trip took a long time because I had to take several detours looking for a bridge that was open so I could get home!



Wednesday evening was the annual "Gobble in the Lot" for DH's hockey buddies.  They play pick-up hockey in the evening, then the families come and we have a tailgate style Thanksgiving dinner in the parking lot.  We deep-fried the turkey for it this year.

On Thursday, we were very privileged to be invited to join a family from our church for their Thanksgiving celebration.  It was wonderful!

And I did NOT shop on Black Friday.  I don't think I even left the house.  LOL  Yesterday (Sunday) was DH's birthday, and we had no hockey or church activities in the evening, so we wound up going out for his birthday dinner.

My favorite things these weeks were... the generosity of a friend in allowing us to use the cabin; the wonderful time we enjoyed on vacation; and the warm hospitality of the family that included us for Thanksgiving!

What's working/not working for us... I'm just glad we got SOME school done over these past weeks!  I think our flexible schedule works well over the long haul!  I love being able to take vacation time when it works out for us, and just adjusting our school expectations accordingly.

Questions/thoughts I have... How much school do I think we will get done between now and Christmas? Realistically?  I think we should be able to get in at least a couple of fairly "normal" schoolweeks.  Starting TODAY.

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

"Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man." ~C.S.Lewis

On the Bookshelf...

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


• Educating the Whole-Hearted Child by Clay Clarkson with Sally Clarkson


• Taliesin by Stephen R Lawhead

I finished a few books on vacation, but haven't posted all my reviews yet.  I did post a bit on Sunrise of Avalon by Anna Elliott, and Cleopatra: Last Queen of Egypt by Joyce Tyldesley.  Just completed: review of Mozart: His Life & Music by Jeremy Siepmann. Still to come: reviews of Beloved Castaway by Kathleen Y'Barbo, and The Romance of Tristan by Beroul.  I tried reading Wuthering Heights but could not get into it!  I will try again another time.

A Parting Shot...



This post is linked to The Homeschool Chick - see how other homeschoolers are keeping up during the holidays!