Homeschool Mother's Journal: Shoebox Edition

In our homeschool... it was a marginally better week with fewer distractions, but not exactly boot camp as I'd threatened.

Social Studies - we read about Peru and Landon finished the book about Christopher Columbus. Kennady got started on an art project - retablo art in a nod to Peru. We're making our retablo in a shoebox! Our Eating the Americas project was hampered by the fact that our oven doesn't currently work, but we did have panchos for dinner on Friday night (hot dogs, Uruguayan style!).

English - Kennady finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, so now she'll be working on the writing assignments related to it.

Math - same as usual. It's noteworthy that in filling out my voting form for the upcoming Schoolhouse Crew Blue Ribbon Awards, Landon cast his "Teen Favorite" vote for VideoText Interactive.

Science - Kennady learned about comb jellies and 'nettle animals' this week. (That's what the Latin term for jellyfish means!)

Music/Art - Kennady did some extra art projects this week because we finally found blank scratch art paper.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... on Monday night our homeschool moms group met and part of our discussion was about how to get or keep kids on track when they are inclined to fidget and waste time and all the rest. Some kids need a dedicated place to work on school - like their own desk. If their schoolwork is done at a dining room table with all the potential distractions around, try making a study cubicle by using a cardboard trifold board. It's easy to move and can be decorated with whatever the student is currently working on - maps or times tables or their school schedule. Students who are distracted by noises going on around them may do better if they have white noise playing on their iPod (using earbuds, of course!).

In other news... It was a busy week! We got new tires, packed shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child, figured out why the oven doesn't work (though we haven't repaired it yet), hubby's stitches came out, and Landon got his first contact lenses.

One of my favorite things this week... was a news story. This wonderful Make-A-Wish story from San Francisco. Follow Bat-Kid's Adventure on SFGate blog

Photo credit: Raphael Kluzniok, The Chronicle
From the SFGate story: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Batkid-Thousands-cheer-on-pint-size-superhero-4985651.php

Things I'm working on... I need to work on getting my lesson plans up to date, as I still haven't reworked them since the computer problems. I also need to get my house cleaned up!

My posts this week included:

• Why I'm Thankful We Homeschool {Blog Cruise}
• Music {Homeschool Weekly Photo Challenge}
• Virtual Refrigerator: Scratch Art
• At Home in Dogwood Mudhole {Schoolhouse Crew Review}
• French Essentials {Schoolhouse Crew Review}
• Scripture and a Snapshot - November 10, 2013

A photo - video - quote - link to share... Next week is Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child! We packed some boxes at home, and our youth group packed all these boxes on Wednesday evening. If you haven't packed Shoeboxes and would like to, there's still time - go to the Samaritan's Purse website and get all the info you need.

On the bookshelf...

• At Home in Dogwood Mudhole - Franklin Sanders
• Forsaken Dreams - Mary Lu Tyndall
• Worship on Earth as it is in Heaven - Rory Noland
• The MacKinnon's Bride - Tanya Anne Crosby

Read Faith by Lori Copeland. I guess I'll have to work on getting the book blog caught up over the Schoolhouse Crew break in the coming weeks.

A parting shot...

This post is linked at SoYouCallYourselfaHomeschooler.com and at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers - see what other homeschoolers were busy with this week.

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