Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which We Play With Our Food

In our homeschool... as usual, I would have liked to see more accomplished during the week, but I'm not disappointed with what we did.  We started out the week by reviewing our classical astronomy and getting started on the next chapter, which is about the moon.  Unfortunately, despite best intentions, here we are at the end of the week and the boys haven't been out to view a sunrise yet.  Landon could easily have done it, had I thought to wake him up on time.  Spencer probably has a decent excuse - he is on crutches right now so it's not as easy for him to scoot up and down the stairs and in and out of the house any old time.  And he probably doesn't feel like it either.  Anyway, we had a couple beautiful nights to view the stars and it was New Moon on Tuesday, but we didn't record any of our observations. But we did a little more of the study today, including reviewing the phases of the moon using Oreos!

   

Spencer is on crutches because he had a mishap at gym class on Tuesday afternoon.  We thought for sure his ankle was broken, but the x-rays taken at the ER said it wasn't.  But the tendons are torn or damaged, and we won't know the full extent until we see the specialist next week.  In the meantime, he is to keep all weight off it.  The only schoolwork it keeps him from doing is really gym class, but I pretty much gave him Wednesday as a day off.

We had a "prospector dinner" one night in honor of our brief study of the California gold rush, and we started studying the Civil War. "Prospector hash" (corned beef, bacon, onions, and potatoes) and we enjoyed some Ghirardelli chocolate for dessert.  Did you know that Ghirardelli started importing chocolate and other luxury items and built his business in San Francisco during the gold rush?  That's why the chocolates are wrapped in gold foil.  (I love when I can tie chocolate to schoolwork!)

  

Despite my failing to mention them lately, all the other subjects are coming along fine!

In other news... Spencer is on crutches, as I mentioned.  That made Tuesday a rather interesting day, but we managed!

Helpful homeschooling tips/advice to share... sometimes it works out to have school hours during which the kids need to work on something educational, rather than just assignments with deadlines.  I read this in an article by Andrew Pudewa a couple of months ago, and found it very helpful.  With only an assignment list, Landon (especially) was just plowing through stuff and then sitting around idle.  When I asked why he hadn't worked on Language Arts for days on end, the response was, "I'm already two weeks ahead of schedule."  I changed our focus and let the kids know what hours of the day would be "school hours" and that no games or TV would be allowed until the schoolday was over AND any deadlines were met.  If they are ahead or up to date on all their work and can't possibly find a way to work ahead or read or do something useful, they can ask me for special permission to play games or whatever.  Turns out they almost always find something that counts as schoolwork to do, even when they are ahead!

What's working/not working for us... we're back to having trouble getting up and getting started on time again.  I guess the week after Thanksgiving we may have to do a little 'boot camp'!

Thoughts/questions I have... I wonder how long we have to get Spencer all his driving instruction time with the driving school?  Because he's not going to be driving much until his foot heals a bit more...

One of my favorite things this week... Thanksgiving focus at youth group on Wednesday night.  We won't have youth next week, so we did our Thanksgiving lesson this week, and it was a good one.  It was great to hear the kids volunteer some of the things they were thankful for.

A photo/video/quote or link to share... I finally got started moving my book blog over to Blogger, and updating it a little.  I still have a lot of updating to do, but it's up and running, and I'd love to have some followers!

Visit me at:  Just A Second

And related to that... I found a new website called Novel Crossing that is a little like Goodreads except it is focused on Christian authors and their books.  I recommend checking that out as well!

On the bookshelf...

• Brightest Heaven of Invention by Peter J Leithart with Shakespeare's Hamlet
• King Alfred's English by Laurie J White
• The Pool of St Branok by Philippa Carr
• The Crystal Scepter by C.S. Lakin

Finished Midsummer's Eve by Philippa Carr.

A parting shot...

Kennady arranged all her Almond Joy bars and took a picture, suggesting that I could use it for my wallpaper!

This post is linked up at iHomeschoolNetwork - See how other homeschoolers are playing and learning this week!