How was your week? Here it’s been feeling like a whole lotta spring, but also the weather has been fickle. 

And by fickle, I mean snow, ice, and freezing rain one day, and then two days later a balmy 75 degrees with the windows wide open and kids going nuts outside. 

Need proof? 

Zachary and Kaleb went camping with their Boy Scout troop over the weekend and hiked about 3 miles into their spot just before the snow started. Those lovely hammocks covered with tarps you see on the left? That’s where my two crazy boys slept while I was snug as could be in my bed at home. 

They did have a blast, stayed (mostly) warm until one of them stepped into the stream, but otherwise it was definitely a memory-making trip. 

While the boys were camping, the girls went out with us to go see The Greatest Showman. We’ve been listening to the soundtrack on Spotify for what seems like forever, and a discount theatre started showing it this past week, so we took advantage of the $3 tickets. 

McKenna has since been belting out the tracks, and the poor dog isn’t too fond of her choreography that goes along. (But I promise, the movie is so good!!!!!)

Although we are moving into All About Reading 4, we are still reviewing the word and phonogram cards for Level 3. That’s one thing I want to make sure of is that Kaleb has a SOLID understanding of the words and phonograms he has been learning (and remembers them). 

Kaleb has really been enjoying Keyboarding Without Tears as well and works through several stages of each lesson daily. He has been working through the lower levels since we bought a bundle to go along with Handwriting Without Tears, and at the rate he is going through the levels, we may end up purchasing the next level for him to finish out the year. 

I know the cat has nothing much to do with school, but this was pretty much our mid-week: outside and enjoying the weather. I have a gazillion pictures on my camera at the moment of said cat because the kids kept taking him outside and snapping pictures while he meandered around enjoying a bit of freedom. 

Wednesday night the three youngest and I helped out with childcare at an indoor inflatable playground. During the month of February I’ve been teaching the kids (ages 3-11) in a mini Bible-school of sorts while their parents have a chance to join a Bible study at our church nearby. 

All the kids have been coming home exhausted (mom too) – just one more week to go and we’ll be back to quiet Wednesday nights… :) 

Laurianna and I had a rather quiet evening on Thursday, so she had the opportunity to catch up on her Pre-Calculus lessons and ask questions when she would get a little stuck. Initially the year started out a little rough for her (much in part to me not having the correct scientific calculator – guess who didn’t read all the way through the required components). Since that’s been straightened out, the class is going much more smoothly for her and she is about halfway through her book – so a little behind, but she has been working hard to catch up. 

That’s about it for our week! Hope you all have had a great one and would love to hear what you’ve been up to!

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? 

It’s been a cold week. Again. 

We started out the week with snow. Granted a wee dusting, but somehow the kids seem to think that means we should get the day off. Although the local schools did, we didn’t. Call me the mean ol’ mom. (Sidenote: I did invite some kiddos over for everyone to play with afternoon – I can be nice too). 

And the lack of pictures this week? Well, I’m trying to be more PRESENT. No phone in the schoolroom. Just us and focused. It’s been good, but few pictures to prove we’ve done anything (so does it count then?). (The answer is yes.)

Reading with Kaleb

One highlight of the week for me – catching Kaleb as he picks up a book to look through it. He may not have sat down and curled up to read, but this is definitely a move in the right direction for our reluctant reader. Last week I borrowed a few books from a friend (in the Who Was series) to use in our daily reading time together. We started out with Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.? Part of me is hoping that biographies will be more to his liking. While searching online to see what other books were available, I found one about the Superbowl. The boy loves his football, so that’s next up to read when we finish this first book. 

My heart is that this boy will find a passion for some subject and it will truly ignite a love for reading in him. 

Volunteering

Thursday was our chance to volunteer at a local soup kitchen. Our church helps serve once a month and it’s one of the community programs that kids under 18 are allowed to participate in. It isn’t always huge stuff – we set tables, cook and serve a meal, help clean up, talk to people, and are just present. No, the kids aren’t always thrilled to go, but it’s one way to help the kids understand the value of giving their time and serving others.

Loop Scheduling

Something that I tried to do this week was get back into a routine, or loop, with some of our smaller subjects: geography, art, STEM activities, and Bible. There are some subjects that we tackle every day: math, grammar, writing (Zachary), reading, history, read-alouds, handwriting (Kaleb), and science. 

But there are a few subjects that we put in a loop, meaning we cycle through them: geography, art, spelling, vocabulary, and Bible. Each day we choose one (or two) of those subjects to add into our day. There was a point where I scheduled them into our week on specific days, but that ended up getting me very frustrated because a day’s schedule would shift because of a doctor’s appointment or co-op – or something else. I’d start feeling behind, that would throw me out of whack, and mental chaos would ensue. 

So essentially, I’m trying to keep myself mentally stable. (ahem)

What Mom is Up To…

I shared my 2018 reading list earlier this week and am MUCH enjoying two of the books on it. One of them I wrapped up yesterday, and Godspeed by Britt Merrick – well, that’s giving me quite a bit of food for thought. 

We also have another puzzle in progress. With the kids busy with swim practice each night, we haven’t had as much of a chance to work on it, but every now and then we sit down for a bit and try to sort through pieces. Snow looks pretty until you have what feels like 1,000 bluish pieces and your eyes are crossing. 

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