Homeschool Weekly - Back to the Books Edition

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In our homeschool . . . our goal this week was simply to get back to a regular homeschool routine and hopefully make up for lost time in at least a couple of subjects. Getting back into History, Literature, and Science proved a fairly easy task, but we didn't get to Grammar and Composition like we should have. As a result, Grammar is one of the top priorities to tackle starting on Monday. We are nearing the end of first semester, so technically we should be about halfway through the full-year courses and close to the end of first semester courses. Health (for Kennady) and Consumer Math (for Landon) are planned for second semester, so we'll be starting on those soon. We hope. Actually, I'd begun to consider leaving Health for next year, but Kennady seems ready to take it on this year, so we'll see what happens. We did make the decision to ease up on her Literature course and just do a half credit instead of the full credit, since she was finding it difficult to keep up with all the reading while doing all her other coursework as well.

In other news . . . It's been two weeks since my last weekly summary on Boxing Day (December 26), so plenty has happened, but I'll try to keep the update short. On Sunday afternoon, the hubster and I left for a weekend getaway that included a trip to Longwood Gardens to celebrate my birthday.

  

We arrived home late on Monday, and sort of hoped to have a couple of somewhat normal days, and maybe even get some schoolwork done on Tuesday and Wednesday. The days weren't quite as normal as we would have liked, but the kids did a little schoolwork. On Tuesday evening, we went as a family to see the new Star Wars movie. And on Wednesday evening, I and another lady from the coffee house group at church hosted a casual hang-out night for the youth. On Thursday afternoon, our oldest son arrived home for a few days' visit and went with us to our annual New Years Eve get-together with friends. Then we had a couple of quiet days, although we celebrated Christmas (yet again!) on Saturday evening, exchanging our gifts with Harrison and his girlfriend who spent the evening with us. They headed back home to Ohio on Sunday afternoon.

So this week the focus has been on truly getting back to normal, with all our weekly activities (except my choir rehearsal) starting up for the new year. Yesterday we celebrated Landon's birthday with some gifts and a special dinner menu, and he had a friend over to celebrate with us.

Today we are stowing away the last of the Christmas decorations and doing some clean-up, although we are not in the mood to be terribly productive, since hubby and I are both fighting a cold. We may go do some shopping this afternoon, but if so, I suppose we'd better head out soon!

Things that made me smile . . . birthday celebrations and the beauty of Longwood Gardens.

Organizing Our Homeschool Challenge . . .

I'm participating in a four-week challenge to get our homeschool supplies tidied up and organized. We don't have a dedicated homeschool space, and my kids are older, so some of the specific tasks don't apply to me, but it's still a good thing to be a little bit accountable to get things back in order. This first week we focused on supplies such as pens, pencils, and art and craft supplies. I got the pens and pencils in all their various containers back under control, and I thought I could pass on the art supplies clean-up since Kennady keeps all of that in her room. Therefore, her job, right? Except that I remembered yesterday that I do, in fact, have a small tote and collection of art things in my room, so I'll tidy that up later today. I promise. 

All the stuff collected up from several different places - BEFORE.

And AFTER. Doesn't seem like a big difference, but it really is.

You can join the Organize Your Homeschool in 20ish Days Challenge Facebook group at any time.

I recommend . . . visiting the Schoolhouse Review Crew blog - there's a lot happening right now as our new Crew year gets under way. We've started off the year with a Round-up of our favorite reads for parents, and the 2016 One Word posts. (I'm still working on my One Word!) The first reviews of the year are there as well - we reviewed SchoolhouseTeachers.com, so I also recommend checking out the current special. Until January 31, 2016, you can get a 50% discount on a one-year subscription, by using the coupon code: CREWFOLLOWER.

On my blog the past two weeks . . .

From The High School Lesson Book - Back to the Books
Virtual Refrigerator - New Coloring Books
Homeschooling High School - Graduation and Beyond!
Favorite Reads
January Plans
A Longwood Gardens PhotoJournal - Part Two
Virtual Refrigerator - Christmas Art: Bookish Tree and North Pole
A Longwood Gardens PhotoJournal - Part One
In Review - A Collection of Coffee Breaks from 2015

On the bookshelf . . .

Worship Changes Everything by Darlene Zschech
Odd Thomas: An Odd Thomas Novel by Dean Koontz
 A Taste of Traditional Regency Romances: Extended excerpts of Regency novels (Bluestocking League Book 1) by Gail Eastwood, Camille Elliot, April Kihlstrom, Vanessa Riley, Regina Scott

I (finally) finished The Fatal Tree (Bright Empires) by Stephen R Lawhead and reviewed it on my book blog, Just A Second. You can find other reviews and book-related things there as well, such as the Back to the Classic 2016 reading challenge I've joined.

A parting shot . . . 

    

I am linking up at the Weekly Wrap-Up hosted by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers, and at the Parent Teacher Meet-Up co-hosted by My Reflection of Something, Working on a Project, and The Kellum Adventures.

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