Homeschool Mother's Journal - End of Semester Edition

In our homeschool... the kids spent most of their school time working independently on their subjects. We had a couple of late start days, and I do wish they could be trusted to get up on their own, but for the most part things went quite well this week. Gym class started again this week too. Yesterday was the end of first semester, so I need to make sure all the grades are entered in my Tracker and produce some report cards.

Social Studies  - We read about the Caribbean island nation of Grenada. Landon has been studying the life and work of missionary pilot Nate Saint. We finally got back to our Eating the Americas food project and had our first complete recipe fail - I'm not sure what I did wrong, but the Caribbean fried biscuits did NOT turn out right. We did have a surprise success though - I wasn't sure how Pabellon Criollo (a beef dish from Venezuela) would go over, but it was fairly well-received. We tried a cake recipe from Uruguay last night but haven't tasted it yet.

English - we neglected IEW this week, but Kennady has been working on Lightning Lit. This week she has been reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Music/Art - Kennady's subject of choice is almost always Art. This week she started working with markers and produced drawings of the Eiffel Tower, a mixed media picture of a wolf, and a still life. She also had some fun with Sculpey.

   

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... Watch for the Schoolhouse Review Crew's blog hop starting on Monday. 80+ bloggers on the Review Crew, including 'yours truly', will be sharing their ideas on Homeschooling Essentials. I'll be sharing about Homeschool Essentials for Graduation - the things that I think are essential for kids to do before graduating from my homeschool. Others are writing about all kinds of topics so there will be something for everyone.

In other news... We had lots of rain last weekend, and several days this week that were very foggy. It was like living in a Grimm's fairy tale. The rivers were quite high but there was no flooding. The ground was very boggy though - enough to mess with my attempt to turn around beside the driveway at the piano teacher's place, and I wound up stuck. Y'know how sometimes you know the split second that you do something that it isn't a good idea after all, but it's already too late? Yeah, that was how I felt as soon as I turned aside off that driveway (which is really only a track with a nominal sprinkle of gravel here and there). But there I was, spinning my wheels. I called the hubster to come pick us up as it was already dark, and I went back the next day to meet a tow truck driver courtesy of AAA who made quick work of winching the van out.

What made it really awkward was that our truck was in the shop for half the week getting major repairs. I truly hope that we can have a nice lo-o-o-o-ong break from vehicle repairs now.

One of my favorite things this week... Kennady's artwork.

Things I'm working on... putting finishing touches on my blog hop posts, updating grades so I can submit them next week, and trying to keep up with housework.

My posts this week included:

• Virtual Refrigerator: Eiffel Tower
• A Canadian Rockies Photojournal - Part One
• Waffles and Awesome Sauce
• Beauty Captured - Days 160-165
• Scripture and a Snapshot - January 12, 2014

A link to share... A few weeks ago I stumbled on a nifty website and tool that I am finding very handy. It's called ZipList, and it's an online recipe clipper. It works a little like Pinterest, but it's specifically for recipes. You can use the web recipe clipper tool to save recipes from the web wherever you find them, put your own tags and notes on them if you wish, and it will save them to your ZipList recipe box. You can also use it to make your menus and grocery lists, and there is a mobile app as well.

On the bookshelf... The nightstand is stacked pretty high with books right now, but I limited myself to just three that I worked on this week.

• The Gossamer Cord - Philippa Carr
• Dragonfly in Amber - Diana Gabaldon

Finished A Morbid Taste for Bones by Ellis Peters and even blogged about it! Updated my book blog with a couple other titles read around Christmas time - A Christmas Garland by Anne Perry, and Patience by Lori Copeland.

A parting shot... My Grimm's fairy tale backyard this week:

   

This post is linked at SoYouCallYourselfaHomeschooler.com, at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers,  and at For the Display of His Splendor -  see what other homeschoolers worked on this week.

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