Homeschool Coffee Break: Homeschool Mother's Journal: Changing Plans Edition

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In our homeschool... Not gonna lie, this week didn't always go quite according to schedule. At least, not the original schedule. We find ourselves in countdown mode, getting ready for our vacation starting next week, and we had several other things going on too, so we did as much as we could and called it good for the week.

Social Studies - We were mostly reading this week, learning about the Inca civilization prior to the Spanish coming to South America, and about Machu Picchu. At the end of the week, we read about the country of Colombia. We tried a couple of new recipes too.

English - If I remember correctly, we are now caught up with reviewing what we'd previously done with IEW and the kids are starting on some new assignments. We didn't do much at all with it this week, since it was mostly review and was something that could be set aside when time was short. Kennady is continuing to read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Math - Kennady got off pretty easy with math this week, but did work on it. Landon is doing very well with Algebra, and got started on his next unit. I will be writing the review for VideoText Interactive this week, so check back to see more details about what we think!

Science - Kennady and I worked on a little bit more zoology notebooking, and she seems to be settling into a nice rhythm with that. (Just in time for us to interrupt it with vacation, but that's just the way it goes!) I had a discussion with Landon about how his science is working out, and we are going to change up our approach a little bit. Instead of using High School Biology at Home as his main curriculum, we will rely far more on Supercharged Science. Supercharged Science has more appeal for him because he can do it in short chunks of time and the hands-on activities are more varied. He is not very interested in dissection and microscope work, so a little less emphasis on that will suit him better.

Music/Art - Not much different than other weeks. Piano and guitar practice, a guitar lesson, and choir practice. And some drawing with ARTistic Pursuits.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... If you're new to homeschooling, find a "veteran" homeschooler to mentor you. If you've got a few years of homeschooling experience, share that with a newbie. The high school help workshop I participated in this week was full of information that I wish had been shared with me around the time my oldest was ready to start the high school years. My personality and teaching style tends to be "fake it till you make it" confidence and "figure it out as we go" but even so, I was anxious and confused about many aspects of homeschooling high school just because I hadn't done it before. I'm glad that we finally got this workshop idea up and running, and I hope we can do it at annually.

In other news... Kennady and I got to go to a bridal shower last Sunday afternoon. Lots of fun to share the excitement and happiness of a very good friend as she looks forward to her wedding day!

I also faced some hard news this week, as one of my closest friends found out she has cancer. She will have surgery very soon, and then will have chemo as well. Amazing how quickly everything changes when the word "cancer" is involved. Their family is trying to find their new normal, and we are making ourselves available in any way we can to help with that.

Our homeschool fellowship group held the first of what we hope will be regular workshops to help moms get a handle on homeschooling through high school. I planned it and didn't know quite how everything would work out, but we had a nice turnout and good discussion, so I am looking forward to doing it again in the spring - right before curriculum fair season!

I attended the initial co-op planning meeting for our group's spring co-op classes, but it's still up in the air whether we'll participate this year. It feels very strange to be 'aging out' of something that has been a part of our homeschool experience for so many years!

We are busy prepping and planning for our vacation, and it will only get busier this week as the departure date gets even closer!

One of my favorite things this week... something silly the kids started doing on Saturday. Kennady had my camera and was taking pictures out the van window when she accidentally got her finger in front of the lens. We joked about drawing a face on it so it looked like a photobomb, and then Kennady and I actually did it! We drew little faces on our fingers and started taking pictures. Then Landon got into the game too. We decided that we will take a series of pictures on vacation with finger-face photobombs and Kennady can post them on her blog.

Things I'm working on... I've got a couple of epic to-do lists going on in hopes of not forgetting anything (or at least, nothing important) as we get ready for vacation. I've got a couple of Schoolhouse Crew reviews to post this week, and we'll get to good "stopping places" in our schoolwork.

My posts this week included:

A link to share... When you learned to type, were you taught TWO spaces after a period? And if so, have you been told lately that that particular rule is SO yesterday and outdated? You might want to read this article: Why two spaces after a period isn't wrong (or, the lies typographers tell about history) While it may not be strictly necessary to leave two spaces after a period, it's been a habit that's a bit hard to break. Well, I refuse to feel guilty about it any more! LOL

On the bookshelf...

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

I finished A Spear of Summer Grass by Deanna Raybourn and Liberty Hill by Sonja Heisinger. I'm going to catch up my book blog this week, maybe even tomorrow. I promise. I've got several other books I've finished but haven't blogged about yet, so if you go to Just A Second this week, you should be able to find out what I thought of all of them. Spoiler alert: I loved the Deanna Raybourn book, just like I love all her books.

A parting shot... Not many people are talented enough to balance a fork on their nose, but Kennady is among the amazing and privileged few.

This post is linked at SoYouCallYourselfaHomeschooler.com, at Hammock Tracks, and at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers - see if other homeschoolers changed their plans this week.

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