Homeschool Coffee Break: Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which There Are Some Firsts

In our homeschool... we made an attempt to get back into routine this week, with mixed results. Report cards were due this week, so I got those together on Tuesday, so I got some grading caught up for Landon and Kennady. I still have Spencer's grading to catch up on, and some of Landon's math.

We didn't work on any new astronomy lessons this week, but the boys did get back outside to observe the sunrise, sunset, and twilight hours as they were supposed to be doing. We will get back to those lessons next week.

History lessons this week included information about the Oregon Trail, the California gold rush, Niagara Falls, and John James Audubon. We're almost finished reading a book about the Oregon Trail - Bound for Oregon by Jean Van Leeuwen.

And we're signed up for the Christmas Craft Breakfast! It's still four weeks away, but getting registered for that event is a big deal! It turned out that I got to blog about it on the registration day, for the Blog Hop. Here's my post: Christmas Craft Breakfast {5 Days of Preparing for the Holidays}

In other news... Tuesday was election day, of course, and our oldest two boys voted for the first time. It was wonderful that we were able to vote, but we weren't under any illusions that our votes would mean anything at all except maybe for the local school board members.

We had our first hard frost this week too.

Helpful homeschooling tips/advice... Use chocolate as a teaching aid whenever possible! LOL Seriously, we talked briefly about the California Gold Rush in history this week, and the text mentioned that many entrepreneurs were successful during that time by supplying goods and services to the prospectors. The text only mentioned Levi Strauss, but both kids immediately said, "And there was the guy with the chocolate too, Mom! The Ghirardelli guy!" They were right! When we studied the gold rush a couple or three years ago, we learned that and I splurged on some Ghirardelli chocolates that we ate in class. And they remembered! So we will have a prospector's dinner one night this coming week, and enjoy some Ghirardelli chocolate for dessert.

What's working/~~not working~~ for us... carpooling! I find it slightly ironic that homeschoolers can make such good use of carpooling, but there are some things we just wouldn't be able to do if it wasn't for good friends that we can share driving duties with.

Thoughts/questions I have... Can I keep our calendar cleared during the weekdays till the end of the month? If so, we can knock off a bunch of schoolwork. My aim is to be truly HOMEschooling except for Tuesdays until Christmas Craft Breakfast. It will be a challenge!

One of my favorite things this week... the way worship team worked out so well on an unusual week.

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

On the bookshelf...

Midsummer's Eve by Philippa Carr
Brightest Heaven of Invention by Peter J Leithart, with Shakespeare's Hamlet (This has been shelved for a long time and I finally picked it up again this week)
King Alfred's English by Laurie J White

A parting shot... This was Landon right before his first o-flight last Saturday. He was grouchy with me for taking a picture of him in the van, and maybe it's just me, but does he look the slightest bit worried?