This past week was rather full both school-wise and with life in general. Or at least felt that way. Not only did we have something going on almost every day, practically every evening was full too. 

I may have almost cried when I realized that there was an unexpected meeting on Tuesday night I hadn’t factored into my schedule. Classic overcommitting and life in general.

Monday we started off the week babysitting our friend’s sweet little son. This is the same little one we watched a few weeks ago and overall it was a fairly easy day school-wise. 

Kaleb has finished up his handwriting program for the year, so he started on Keyboarding without Tears. So far it’s been rather easy for him, but it’s been a great way to ease him into learning how to type (and I have a feeling he will enjoy this much more than actual handwriting). 

Laurianna has been having fun doodling what she has learned in her human anatomy class too. I love her creativity and the fun that she is having in her learning. 

Tuesday we had co-op with our friends and the boys had much fun with quite a few challenges, above they made a box out of paper and decorated it for Valentine’s Day. Then it was filled with candies and  they had to attach something to make it go down a zip line. 

Hands-on for the win!

Wednesday the boys and I wrapped up volume 1 of Mystery of History and pulled out the second book. The first volume covers from the beginning of time through about 33 AD. It has been a lot of fun re-learning things along with the boys, especially about all of the Caesars and how the Roman Empire was growing. We’re moving right on into volume 2 now and now learning about Nero.

Kaleb wrapped up Level 3 of All About Reading this week and will be moving on to All About Reading 4  next Monday. 

You all. I could seriously cry. The last year or two have been tough in the arena of reading. There has been a lot of pushing through and reviewing things (sometimes it feels like over and over….). But the last few weeks, something is clicking with him and he is doing amazing. YAY!!!!!!

This girl has been glowing the last bit of the week since she was able to get her own cell phone this week. She has been saving her money to purchase a phone and pay for the first few months of her service (yep, we’re the parents who ask make our kids cover their own cell phone bill. 

The Foundations in Personal Finance class has been a great fit for her this year, especially in learning more about budgeting, saving, and planning for the future. Over the next few months, McKenna is also participating in the H&R Block budget challenge along with the other kids in our homeschool co-op. 

We had a gorgeous day weather-wise (almost 80!!), which also warranted some outdoor school time via the porch. Yay for homeschooling! 

And last thing – Laurianna has been working through her Teaching Textbooks Pre-Calculus. A HUGE shout-out for a program that walks you through what in the world you are doing wrong. 

I didn’t have a fancy schmancy calculator like this when I was in school, so figuring out how to use it can be a pain in the rear (just being honest). So, super wonderful when the program literally walks you through and shows you what you need to look for on the screen when you are using it. Apparently we didn’t have it set to degrees, so we came up with the wrong answer. (Can I just say – hallelujah for a hand-holding sometimes?)

That’s about it for our week – how have you been and what was a great part of your week? 

This week has been fairly boring (to say the least). Not much out of the ordinary, but another week finished – and that’s always something to celebrate. On the bright side, we were home a bit more this week and didn’t have quite as many errands or appointments. And that is a wonderful thing. 

Last Saturday we took a trip to Maryland to visit with friends for the day. Frederick, MD has a cute downtown and on the first Saturday in February they have a Fire & Ice Festival with ice sculptures all over the town. It was FREEZING (understatement). Good for the ice, but for people, not as much. :)

The BEST part about this trip though was hanging out with friends. Hope (the mom) has been one of my best friends since our senior year of college, and we have vacationed together over the years and even though we live quite a bit apart, we try to meet up once or twice a year to spend time together – and I love that our kids can have fun together too. Just makes my heart happy. 

5th Grade Happenings

Reading is moving along. I cannot stress how much attitude truly plays into how this area of our day goes. Kaleb isn’t always thrilled about reading, but when he is prepped and willing, the reading itself runs smoothly. 

Kaleb’s day at private school last week was much fun. His biggest disappointment was not being able to finish all 50 of the questions on the math quiz they took. It was a timed test (which we haven’t done at home), and he was only able to get 48/50 answered in the time frame, but managed to get them all correct. He was just mad he didn’t get all 50 done. We have been cracking up about that all week. 

7th Grade Happenings

Zachary has been working hard this week too. He has worked ahead and finished both science and the Who is God? series, so his focus over the remainder of the year is his math, reading, vocabulary, writing, history, grammar, and whatever other fun things we add in over the weeks. 

9th Grade Happenings

McKenna’s laptop is having a bit of a screen issue. She and I may have differing opinions on how and why that happened, especially since she has a newer laptop (cough), but we going to have to deal with it at this point. 

Our co-op class on Tuesdays (literature and personal finance) has been moving along. We’re reading Julius Caesar right now, which is fun since the boys and I have been learning about him and the Roman government during his time this past week. And bonus for co-ops at home – you can wear your sloth pajamas and have fun with that. 

This is the other aspect of homeschooling that can be rather hilarious at times. :) On Thursdays we hang out at a friend’s house for biology, and often we have furry company that feels anywhere is acceptable to relax. 

11th Grade Happenings

The weather this week (ice and a little snow) meant that Laurianna had one of her classes cancelled, but otherwise she has been working at a nearby pool lifeguarding and also prepping for a youth worship night at church this coming Sunday. 

Mom Stuff

Every Wednesday in February our church is hosting a Bible study night and providing childcare which I am helping head up this month. The kids and I helped with this last year and it was a lot of fun (and crazy), but this year while Rick takes a class, the younger three and I are helping again (Laurianna has class). 

I haven’t had as much time for reading this week but am really hoping to have some time this weekend to sit down and focus. The book I’m currently reading, Godspeed, is one I’m loving, but it’s one that requires more of my attention because I am gleaning quite a bit from it and don’t want to miss anything. 

That’s about it for our week – how have you been and what was a great part of your week? 

Before you all drop you cup of coffee, let me fill you in quickly. :) Today we sent one of our kids to visit a local private school with one of his friends. 

You can hear a little bit more about it in the below video that sums up our week and a few other things, or keep reading – up to you. 

Since he is our one that likes to wear whatever, freaks out when he isn’t done by a specific time (or feels super behind), I have a feeling that this will be a great “Hey, remember when…” moment if he starts complaining about how rough he has it homeschooling. :) 

One of the highlights of this week has been reading with Kaleb. He finished up his book, Who Was Martin Luther King Jr., and now we are going back through the second half of All About Reading 3 to review some of the blends that he is struggling with. 

There are some days that run more smoothly than others, much of it depending on his attitude (isn’t that true of all of us?). We also started using the new app from AALP rather than our whiteboard, which is great if we want to be somewhere else in the house. 

Overall though, the review of the last bit of Level 3 is definitely helping, in many areas, but especially in Kaleb’s confidence levels. 

7th Grade Happenings

Zachary’s been working hard this week to get a little ahead so he could take a day off Friday and hang out with a friend. Our local school system has the day off, so he invited a friend over. I’m more than happy to see him motivated and definitely want to encourage that! 

9th Grade Happenings

One of the things that I love (and often forget about) is how flexible we can be with our homeschooling. While we are – sometimes we aren’t. 

Case in point. We didn’t really cover poetry in depth with Laurianna, which when she started her English class was a little bit of a hurdle. We are looking at the Grammar of Poetry class from Compass Classroom to add to McKenna’s year and likely run it into next year, depending on how the class flows for her. It’s also one that we will work through with another family and tie it in with our literature classes and co-op.

The flexibility of homeschooling comes in this: we aren’t tied to finishing a program during one school year. We can either pace out a class over the course of a few years, or two different semesters, and essentially make it work for our family.  

I mentioned in the video that the transcript we’ve been using for Laurianna is sorted by subject instead of the classes she took each year. Above is an example of how I’ve laid it out so far (you can click on the image to open a pdf file example. 

11th Grade Happenings

Laurianna is happily moving along with her studies, especially now that she has her English class off the table for this semester. Her classes at the community college are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so she spends the free time that she has working on Pre-Calculus and Latin 2. 

Her work schedule has been fairly light this week, so she has been cozying up in bed to work through homework and her other subjects. The above picture cracks me up because our dog, Addie, has to be right in the middle of whatever it is we are doing. Even math. 

The Mom Life

I’ve been quiet here on the blog this week, mainly because I have been swamped working on other projects in addition to homeschooling: putting together a website for a local pool, creating lesson plans for a church class in February, dentist visits (yippee), having our wills re-done, and shuttling the kids back and forth to all over the place.

So life. 

It’s been a little hectic to be honest and I don’t feel like I’ve had a lot of downtime, especially since I haven’t had time for reading. That alone tells me that I need to slow down just a little bit. :) 

That’s about it for our week – how have you been and what was a great part of your week? 

You know what they say about the best laid plans, right? After getting everything lined up to start up after our Christmas break, Monday morning started with a call from the ER. My grandmother had called an ambulance and spent some time with the doctors there and needed someone to bring her home. (She is fine – no worries.)

So – the day already had a big kink in it and the plans to whip everything into magical shape (because you know it would have all fallen into place right.this.moment) went a bit out the window. 

Incidentally, those pens above? My absolute favorite ever. And of course the homeschool planner is too. But erasable and pens to color code things are my love language.

BEFORE I FORGET – don’t miss this giveaway from WriteShop (our favorite homeschool writing curriculum). Maybe you are looking for a mid-year switch, or want to learn a little more, but don’t miss the chances to enter and win!

The boys and I jumped back in with history right away (and yes, our dog likes to be a part of everything we do). While I read through lessons this week on Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the boys helped me sort and count LEGOs from several of our kits that we are through using and getting ready to sell. 

Keeping hands busy while listening is a HUGE help. :)  

Our mornings have been starting off with CNN10 again. The boys have missed that after a few weeks off over break (me too!). 

Overall, it’s just been getting back into the daily routine: history, reading, math, grammar, writing, reading aloud, science, etc…

Laurianna’s classes have started back up for the spring semester. In addition to English and her second anatomy class, she is taking a Developmental Psychology class as well. Monday she interviewed for a lifeguarding position at a nearby pool and will be starting work with them on Friday. She is rather excited about the new job. :) 

McKenna has been spending time working on biology this week. We’re back in the routine of co-op class and lab with our friend, so she had some prep to do. 

Currently we are studying classification. Our lab this week focused on the identification of various leaves and insects and learning how to classify. We’ve had to edit the labs a bit from what is suggested because we switched mid-year from our other program. 

One thing we are already struggling with though – finding that balance and jumping back into the routine of getting things done (and not getting distracted). McKenna has had a few days this week where her schoolwork has extended a bit late into the evening. 

I’m trying not to push her too much on getting behind (or staying focused), because this is something she really has to learn to manage on her own.

And finally, we’re working hard on filling out passport applications and getting everything lined up for our trip to the Netherlands in May. I won’t talk about how many times I’ve messed up the second page of every application and how many times I’ve reprinted it. At some point I’ll get it all correct and we’ll submit them in the next week (hopefully). 

That’s all for our week back to school. How are you all doing – and what have you been up to? 

This week has been a slow and wonderful week. Truly. 

We started off the week driving home from upstate NY where we had been visiting Rick’s family after Christmas. It was COLD, you all.

Saturday was a balmy 16 degrees, so the kids were excited to go ice skating at the local rink. That lasted less than an hour, but hey – they did it, right? 

We returned home with crazy low temperatures at -22. Yep. We were ready to head back home. :) 

One thing I am so thankful for – we invited two families over to spend New Year’s Eve with us. One family spent the night (best idea ever), and while the adults enjoyed sitting and talking for hours, the kids all ran off and occupied themselves with cookie decorating and food. It was truly wonderful. 

And in that white bowl above is one of the BEST APPETIZERS EVER. Super easy and unbelievably yummy – bacon wrapped mini potatoes. Served with an aioli sauce, you may want to eat the entire bowl. Ask me how I know. 

Ringing in the new year with friends though was really the best. We all had so much fun catching up, laughing, and relaxing together. 

Somehow I misjudged our time off before Christmas, thought we had another week that we would be able to take off, and then managed to mess up our break. Whoops. 

We decided instead to tack the extra week off during the first week of January since Laurianna hasn’t started classes at the community college yet. And it’s bone-chilling cold here as well. 

All of the Christmas decorations were packed away, the house cleaned and organized, and we are ready for the upcoming week (well, almost). The fireplace has been on quite a bit as well, helping keep the house nice and toasty. Meanwhile, I’ve been curled up with a GREAT book (seriously, it is amazing how timeless the points in the book are), we’ve been playing games, and just BEING without needing to be anywhere or doing anything in particular. 

And that is a lovely thing. 

Next week, we’ll be back in the school routine (and I have some new routines planned for the kids to hopefully kick us out of some habits and add some new things in). 

How was your week?