Homeschool Coffee Break: Homeschool Mother's Journal: The Break Before Our Break Edition

In our homeschool... I honestly thought we would continue to do school all this week. Crazy, huh? But after the first couple days, the non-school things we had to do crowded in, and I decided that if we got any school done, it would be good enough. And it was. Or will have to be, I guess.

Social Studies - Read about the country of Ecuador, and I assigned some more reading about the Incas to the kids so they could work on their own.

English - I had the kids finish up a writing assignment from IEW, just so that we were at a good "stopping place".

Math - Landon did a couple of algebra lessons, and Kennady did some reading in her Life of Fred book.

see - we did get something done this week!

Music/Art - Kennady had her last choir practice and music lesson for a couple of weeks, and I don't think she worked on art at all.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... It's not the end of the world when schoolwork doesn't get done the way you'd planned. Kids can read and do math problems any time so they can catch up if necessary. This was a week where I was kept busier than I'd expected doing things other than school, a week in which we had a couple of very minor emergencies that changed our plans, and I decided that my sanity in getting things done before we go on vacation would trump the original lesson plans for the week. It will still get done - it just means that we won't do it quite the way I'd originally planned, and that we might have to double up or do some extra to "catch up" when we get back from vacation. Totally fine.

In other news... Monday evening was the first of our homeschool fellowship's monthly Encouragement Group meetings. It was a small turnout but a very good time of conversation.

One of our minor emergencies this week happened on Tuesday at gym class. When I came to pick the kids up, Landon walked out with an icepack on one eye and handed me a baggie containing the remains of his glasses. *sigh* We had planned to get his prescription updated and buy new glasses right after vacation - turns out we had to take action a little sooner. I took him to the optometrist on Thursday, and the good news was that they could do a fairly decent repair on the glasses so they will be completely serviceable for our vacation. The bad news is that when I went to the "one hour" place to buy new glasses, the soonest they could offer them to me was in a week. Ummm. Thanks, but no - we'll be out of the country then. I went to that store specifically for the ONE HOUR service. I would have been happy with one day, honestly, but one week is not acceptable given their advertising. So we will take our business elsewhere. Thankfully, Landon's broken glasses were repaired so they will do until we get back - one lens is rather scratched, but it's not horrible.

Choir practices, Civil Air Patrol, church activities, and many errands to run kept us busy all week.

One of my favorite things this week... clear, cool evenings meant the stars were beautifully clear. Whenever I come home late and the moon and stars are clear, I find myself standing in the middle of our driveway staring up at the sky in awe. That's a big reason I love living where we do, in the country away from city lights that obscure the night sky. I wish I could take pictures.

Things I'm working on... I worked really hard on getting the to-do list conquered! As of now, it is mostly done. We have to finish packing and tidying up the house, and today will be extremely busy, but it's manageable.

My posts this week included:

A video/link to share...

I found this video and another of artist Henri Matisse at work in an Open Culture article: Vintage Film: Watch Henri Matisse Sketch and Make His Famous Cut-outs (1946)

On the bookshelf...

The Stones Cry Out by Randall Price
The Kingmaker's Daughter by Philippa Gregory

Still working on getting my book blog caught up.

A parting shot... almost every morning now, there's a layer of fog. I love foggy mornings! (Except if I have to drive in the fog - then, not so much.)

This post is (or will be) linked at SoYouCallYourselfaHomeschooler.com, at Hammock Tracks, and at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers - see if any other homeschoolers had to take a break this week.

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