Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which We Are (a bit too) Relaxed

For almost as long as I've been doing some kind of weekly summary post, I've intended to do it on Friday.  And  then consider myself lucky if I get it done on Saturday.  Many weeks it doesn't get done until Sunday.  Since we are on a summer school schedule now, I am going to try to use the summer months to get in a regular groove of doing my HMJ on Fridays.  Here goes!


In our homeschool... other than the boys working on their respective math programs online, not a lot of schoolwork got done this week.  We really are winding it down for the summer.  And of course, Monday was a holiday.  We received a literature study to review, so Kennady and I started looking at that and should be ready to jump in on Monday.  I finalized all the grades and turned in report cards on Thursday, so from now on we are just tying up loose ends and working on whatever reviews come our way during the summer months.

In other news... Sunday afternoon I got to reconnect with a friend I hadn't seen in awhile, as she was kind enough to invite us to her hubby's birthday celebration cookout.  It was great to catch up with her and hopefully we'll be able to get together more often.  Other than that, Sunday was pretty relaxed.

On Monday morning, Landon and I got up pretty early and headed into town for the Memorial Day parade.  He was marching with the Civil Air Patrol.



We had friends over for a cookout (deep-fried turkey!) on Monday afternoon, and in the evening we went as a family to see The Avengers.  Very good movie, if you like those super-hero action type movies.  We all gave it high marks, anyway!

Kennady had her final softball game of the regular season on Wednesday night.  The remainder of the week has been pretty relaxed, and you'd think that I might have used the downtime to catch up on some of the household projects I need to work on.  You might think that, but apparently you'd be wrong, because I haven't done much more than putz around on some of those things.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... Get in the habit of dating each page of a workbook or school assignments as they're completed.  Or better yet, get your kids in the habit of doing it.  Many years ago I bought a date stamp and when the kids were younger they thought this was the coolest little gadget.  I need to buy another one.  It makes this so much easier.  I thought of this as I was going through some of Spencer's chemistry notes and realizing that he neglected to date more than half of them.  He should know better! LOL One of the things that I and the other evaluators in our homeschool group are looking for is evidence of "regular" instruction and progress.  In other words, if I look flip through a student's math workbook, I should see dates ranging through the year rather than a frantic cluster of huge chunks of the book all dated right around report card time or something like that.  Having the work itself dated makes this kind of review a lot easier and is about the simplest way to log work done.  Getting the students in the habit of doing it themselves from early on will save mom having to do it, and will serve them well when they need to keep logs of hours spent on high school credit courses etc.

Questions/thoughts I have... what happened to the Miniature Weapons of War book I bought at CHAP?? It seems to have disappeared!  Not only that, but I can't find my copy of a collection of Rudyard Kipling stories, and I kind of need that for the literature study.  Is there a black hole for books in my house or something?

Image credit: SpaceStationInfo.com

One of my favorite things this week... Wow, how do I choose?  Loved seeing the young people honoring veterans and fallen soldiers at the Memorial Day parade.  Spending time with our friends that afternoon.  I guess Memorial Day itself was pretty much my favorite thing.

A photo/video/quote or link to share...  Have you been playing Wycliffe's "In Other Words"? If you haven't, there's still time to join.  You can use the link above to join, and I'll be honest, using my link will get me an extra entry. So if you do that, thank you!  There are plenty of cool prizes!  The game is easy and fun, and educational too - each day I learn something new about the work of translating the Bible into other languages.

   Play "In Other Words" now!

On the bookshelf...

• Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider
• The Miracle at St Bruno's by Philippa Carr
• Have a New Teenager by Friday by Dr Kevin Leman (I like the ones I have, but it seemed like a good idea to read the book anyway! LOL)
• Brightest Heaven of Invention by Peter J Leithart; and Henry V by William Shakespeare
• Uncommon Grounds by Mark Pendergrast

I finished three books in the past week - The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens, Petra and Ben & Me.  If, by some miracle, I ever get my book blog moved and updated, I will let you know.

A parting shot...

Sing to God, sing praise to His name,

extol Him who rides on the clouds -

His name is the LORD -

and rejoice before Him.

~Psalm 68:4~

This post is linked to (the new home for The Homeschool Mother's Journal) iHomeschool Network - see how other homeschoolers are relaxing this week!