Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which We Celebrate an Anniversary

In our homeschool... we started pretty strong this week and it looked like it would be a great school week.  Unfortunately the wheels kind of came off at the end of the week, and we didn't do any school on Thursday or Friday, but I think we'll be able to make that up quite easily.

Spencer got started on his Auto Upkeep course this week, and didn't quite finish the first chapter.  I'm sure he would have if Thursday and Friday hadn't been quite so strange.

In our American history lessons this week, we looked at Mesa Verde National Park (which I visited when I was young, so I had some memories to share), and St. Augustine, Florida, which we all visited a couple years ago on vacation.  The book also talked about stereoscopes and their popularity, and while we didn't have one of those antique stereoscopes, we did have a ViewMaster so we dug that out for some fun.

Kennady's art lessons this week had her drawing an historical event from her imagination.  She chose the sinking of the Titanic.  Why she thought of that, I have no idea.  But here is what she drew:

This is another piece she did this week - a peanut butter jar.

Today I have been working on reorganizing the school books, in preparation for adding another subject or two next week.

In other news... of course we've been watching the Olympics every night, and sometimes during the day!  We've been glued to the TV for gymnastics and swimming especially, but the boys all discovered handball and are interested in that, and Kennady keeps asking to watch weightlifting.  Not sure why she finds that so compelling, but we're having fun.

On Wednesday, the hubster and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary!  We didn't have a party or anything - maybe we will later on - but he took me out for a very nice dinner and got me some beautiful flowers.

And also we got new tires for the truck.  LOL  We know how to be romantic.

And then Thursday and Friday....  On Thursday, I was in town most of the day, with Bible study in the morning and then a bunch of errands to run.  In the evening, Harrison finished packing up for his mission trip to Haiti, and then we (DH and I) took him over to the pastor's house.  The plan was that Harrison would just crash there overnight, as they had a very early flight on Friday morning.  Pastor was going to drive and just leave his vehicle at the airport so no one had to go pick them up when they get back very late next Saturday.  Well, I wasn't home very long and Harrison calls me - their flight out of BWI was cancelled so they had to get another one to make their connection in Newark.  The other flight is out of Reagan, so they needed a ride.  That's why they called me.  *sigh*  So I got a couple hours of sleep and then was up by 3am on Friday to go pick them up and drive them to the airport.  And boy did I need a nap or three by the time I got back home.  And that's why we didn't get any school done.  LOL  At any rate, Harrison is in Haiti this week on a missions trip, so I hope he is having a good time and working hard.

So far today we have been working on painting the stairwell and moving around some stuff and reorganizing.  We're planning to go out for dinner this evening.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice...  as I was writing one of my entries for the Back to Homeschool Blog Hop this week (the one about classrooms), I was reminded of a book I read years ago by Cynthia Ulrich Tobias, called I Hate School!.  Reading that book confirmed my feeling that school - especially homeschool - does not necessarily need to be done in a uniform, at a desk, in a traditional looking classroom.  I have found that letting my kids do their schoolwork where they are comfortable (within reason!) generally gets better results.

Questions/thoughts I have... how many more bookcases can I reasonably fit into my house?  Hmmm...

One of my favorite things this week... my anniversary, of course!  And watching the Olympics with the kids has been great fun too.

A photo/video/quote or link to share... at risk of seeming like I am shamelessly self-promoting, I am going to shamelessly self-promote.  I wrote a blog post last week about some of the reasons homeschooling has been Worth It.  I would love to have you check it out:  W is for... Worth It!

On the bookshelf...

• The Forever Queen by Helen Hollick
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery
• Demolishing Supposed Bible Contradictions - Ken Ham, Editor
• Messiah in the Feasts of Israel by Sam Nadler

I finished The Heretic Queen by Michelle Moran.

A parting shot...




This post is linked to iHomeschool Network - see what other homeschoolers have been doing this week!