Weekly Wrap Up: The Short Week

It's been one of those weeks that we've just powered through. I'm glad we have a good rhythm this year for our school. It's helping to get some days out of the way before the winter doldrums hit us! Although, last week and this week I ended giving the boys Friday off. Last week I made them help me clean out our greenhouse and this week, we just had a lot of errands to do and house cleaning to do.

Monday morning was pretty routine. We did our usual work here at home. In the afternoon we had our bi-monthly art class and then a 4H meeting. Art class is always nice as many of us moms are able to sit in a side room and visit while the kids have class.

After art we had our bi-monthly 4H meeting. I run a local club. This is only our second year. Our focus last year was on GPS/GIS. This year we added Adventure & Challenge and Arts & Crafts to that focus. Our plan is to do an art project each month and then an Adventure or GPS outing on the second meeting of the month if the weather plays nice.

Working on their luminaries

This week was an art project week. We made decoupage fall luminaries and thankful tree paintings. I found both ideas on Pinterest. They turned out pretty cute actually. The hardest part was finding fake leaves that would work for the luminaries. 

The luminary doesn't have a great link, but these is the photo showing the supplies and really, it's pretty easy to make. I also found battery operated flickering tea lights at the local dollar store so everyone had one for their luminary. 

I created my own thankful tree printable. I just used a free winter tree image on line, copied it to MS Word, added the word "thankful" and printed it out. I had the kids paint "leaves" on it using Q-tips. I love how they came out.

Monday evening I attended a homeschool mom encouragement workshop. It was excellent. I talked about it earlier this week. 

Tuesday, as always, was our busy day. My oldest son is still taking his college readiness class. I have to share that I am so pleased with well he is doing. He really seems to like it. He's struggling a bit with math still, but he just told me this week that he's finally beginning to understand it. I've seen such a large amount of growth in him. I'm very glad we opted to try this class out.

The two younger boys and I hung out at the pool again for a couple hours. Poor kids though. This week they asked if they could swim when they didn't have lessons. They had opted not to bring any schoolwork to the pool and to finish it later. The instructors don't mind if they swim as long as they don't interrupt the lessons going on.

Well, for my youngest son, this worked out fine. He had his lesson first, forty minutes, and then was able to pretty much swim for another hour while other lessons were going on. However, my middle son also opted to get in the pool at 9:15. His lesson didn't start until 10:30 though and he swam for the entire time before that. He's in a higher level so most of his lesson is working on endurance and stroke. The poor kid was so tired and really struggled to keep up. Lesson learned. No swimming for the entire time before his lesson next week!

My youngest getting a chance to jump in the pool at the end of his lesson. 

I start my day really early on Tuesdays as well. I get up at 4:30, have my quiet time, and then go to the gym for a 5:30 class. It's a strength training class. I try to do that twice a week along with my Zumba. It makes for a long day though.

Tuesday nights my hubby and I also attend a Bible study so it also makes for a late night. We have been doing a survey of the Bible. It's been excellent and, while I'm usually pretty tired by the time we get there, it's very much worth it every time.

Wednesday is our nice quiet day at home. We have music lessons in the morning. This week they were later than usual because our teacher had car trouble. I honestly can't remember what else we did on Wednesday other than lessons and karate that evening. I am working to have more days like this!

Thursday is another early start day for me. Although, I have to admit that this week when my alarm went off at 4:30, I rolled over, reset it to 6:30, and went back to sleep. I was just so tired I could just barely open my eyes. I had even gone to bed early the night before! I just needed the sleep I guess.

My oldest spends the first two hours of the each Thursday at math lab which is part of his college readiness class. He was the only one there this week. He also uses it to work on any other homework he may have for the other classes he takes as part of that course. His brothers and I did the weekly grocery shopping and then just parked in the local grocery store lot - way at the back - and did the rest of our book work for school. One of the best perks of homeschooling.

One reason I wanted them to get as much done as they could then was that we also had our bi-monthly Spanish class today. I knew that by the time we got home, we'd all be too tired to want to do much else. I like our Spanish teacher. She's a young mom fluent in the language. She used to teach high school Spanish. She will be leaving for the mission field next year with her husband and son so this will be our last year using a tutor.

As soon as I got home, I had the boys quickly unload the truck and I hopped back in and headed downtown to meet my hubby for lunch! I mid-week date! We rarely get to do this since I babysit a two-year-old. However, I haven't had him for a couple weeks as his mom is out of work for awhile. I miss having him around, but I have a lot of flexibility in my schedule these days.

I did get to spend a few hours with him this afternoon though. His mom had a follow-up appointment for the surgery she had last week so I watched him for them while they went to that. It was so nice having him back in the house for a little bit.

Thursday evening I have been going to a Titus 2 women's Bible study. I talked about that this week as well. I also plan to share weekly about the things we're learning. We are actually over a month in. It's all been excellent so far.

Friday, as I mentioned, was a day off for the boys. The younger boys still had their play practice but that was it. We all had a nice quiet morning. The younger boys are in a homeschool production of A Christmas Carol. My middle son will be Bob Cratchit and my youngest will be both in the group of carolers and the poulterer - the gentleman that sells Scrooge the big turkey at the end of the story. I think they are both really enjoying themselves.

After play practice I decided it was finally time to finish outfitting them for the colder months. I had checked earlier this week, after we had already had our first snow, and realized I had no snow pants for my youngest, neither boy had snow boots that fit, and both had sneakers that had seen much better days. Off we went to see about remedying the situation.

I started at a local thrift store and not only found snow pants for my youngest, but I also picked him up a much needed pair of work boots. I ending up also picking up an absolutely gorgeous long coat for my middle son to wear in the play. It was a very pricey coat but I paid only $11 for it. Such a great score!

We then headed for the local box store and bought sneakers for both, snow boots for both, and work boots for my middle son. Phew! Hopefully their feet won't grow that much this year and these will last more than a season!

This was one of my more relaxed weeks and for that I am very thankful.

Weekly Wrap: Beginning and Ending with Art

Thankfully this week was a bit slower paced than earlier in the month. While it is still a bit over-scheduled, for now it's working. Although, I anticipate greater cuts to our outside activities next semester to allow more "downtime" in our week.

My oldest finally did his assignment.

Monday morning we were home! Yeah! We started the afternoon at our bi-monthly drawing class. I posted about this earlier this week (Why My Boys Take Art Lessons).

I also run a 4-H club and Monday was our first meeting of the new year. We finished wrapping up the year, talking about what this is going to be like and figured out what we would do this year for club projects. Not all 4-H clubs are animal focused. Ours is made up of kids from age five to fifteen with a couple of 2-3 year olds tossed in for good measure (younger siblings). All the kids involved are also homeschooled.

Last year we only met once a month. This year we are going to try meeting twice a month. The first meeting will be an arts & crafts project designed to both get our younger crew more involved as well as create projects to enter in to the fairs.

Our second monthly meeting will focus on our bigger club projects - GPS/GIS and Adventure & Challenge. I have some fun ideas for those but I don't want to tell anyone about them just yet.

Monday evenings find my youngest son at karate class and I go to my Zumba class. It's a great way to end the day in my opinion.

Tuesday is our crazy-busy-out-of-the-house-most-of-the-day day. Phew! That's about how I finish every Tuesday. We begin at 7:30 as we all head out the door as soon as my little charge arrives (I babysit a two year old boy). We drive 20 minutes to the next town over and drop my oldest son off at his weekly Adult Education class he's taking.

It's called College Transitions and it's designed to help people get ready for community college for the most part. They have a two hour math class, technology class, English Lit class, and a study skills/time management/test prep class. I think he's liking it but math is kicking his proverbial behind.

The rest of the boys and I then have an hour to kill in town until my youngest and middle son have swim lessons. This week I had a few errands to run so we did those and then headed to the college where the lessons are held.

I both love and hate swim lessons. I love that my boys are learning to swim really well right now (I do not). I hate sitting pool side for two hours while they have lessons - while wrangling a two year old. The way the schedule was set up this year, my youngest has class for 40 minutes, then all the lower level students have class for 30 minutes, and then my middle son has class for 40 minutes. It makes for a very long morning.

My two boys during lessons earlier this year when they had lessons at the same time.

However, this week we tried something new. I bought a day pass to the gym and, with his mom's permission, put the two year old into a play group that is designed so that Mom's can work out for an hour. I then plugged in some tunes and walked the indoor track for an hour. I could see him as I made my rounds. I could also see in to the pool area where I left my middle son to work on his schoolwork while my youngest had his lesson. This only left us an hour to fill with a squirming toddler. Overall he does really well, but it is hot in there!

We then head home where Mr. T (the 2 year old) goes immediately down for a much needed nap. The boys finish up whatever schoolwork they didn't get done before leaving or while at the pool. We only have 3-1/2 hours at home though before once again loading up in the truck. I take my middle son to his martial arts class and head back to pick up my oldest from his class.

I then bring the oldest and youngest home and head back to the dojo to pick up the middle one. I sometimes meet Mr. T's mom in town while picking up my oldest to drop him off. If she's unable to meet me, I drop him with his dad after picking up my son from karate.

Typically I then am home for about an hour before heading out to Bible study. This week we didn't have study so my hubby and I went on a date. Much needed.

Wednesday was a blissful day at home for the most part. We start the day with music lessons. My middle son is taking piano lessons much to his consternation. He's been playing for four years and I intend for him to play for at least four more. He'd like to quit immediately. I feel it's important for him to continue so he will continue. My youngest son has also been playing piano for four years. He just started taking violin lessons last month as well. I have a feeling, based on what his teacher has told me, that he may like that one better.

Wednesday evening we're again back at the dojo. Each boy has lessons twice a week but the schedule was changed a few months ago so they are there on different days of the week. This means I'm at the dojo Monday through Thursday.

Thursday typically means another early start for our family. Although, this week I started even earlier by heading to the gym at 5:30am for a weight training class called BodyPump. It's a group exercise class that uses low weights but high reps. Today (Friday) I'm feeling it and I've typically been going once or twice a week for the last month but my schedule got in my way so this was my first time going in a week. Ow!

My oldest also usually attends a math lab for his College Transitions class from 8-10am. Thankfully it was cancelled this week. I was thankful because my three boys and my nephew have a tutor for Spanish twice a month. We meet at her apartment. Class starts at 10am which means on Thursdays I usually have two hours to kill in town. Today we were just able to head in to class.

My sister and I usually walk around town with our toddlers in tow, well, we push them in stroller. However, we've been in the middle of a Nor'ester of rain and wind. Instead we opted to go shopping. We hit the thrift store in town and did a quick run through Wal-Mart.

For the last four weeks and for a few more, I've been attending a Titus 2 Bible study on Thursday evenings. It's been really excellent and I'm glad I can make the time to go.

Friday usually means we are home. However, this week we had a field trip. We headed to the Colby College Art Museum for a tour. We did a 30 minute tour of the contemporary art area. I'm always amazed at what people consider art.

Pieces of acrylic with gray colored edges and pops of colors behind it. 

It reminds me of lichen growing on tree. Not sure if that is what the artist had in mind or not.

We did see some amazing works of art as well by some very well known artists such as Georgia O'Keefe.

But one of the biggest reason I had scheduled the tour was to see the Bernard Langlais exhibit. This tour deserves its own post which I'll do another day.

We then headed to church for play practice. The two younger boys have parts in a rendition of A Christmas Carol put on by a group of homeschooling students. My middle son is playing Bob Cratchitt and my youngest the "Poulterer." They are really enjoying themselves and I'm glad they have the chance to not only see plays but to now be in one.

So a busy but full week yet again.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Our First Full Week Done

Today marked our first official full week of our 2014-2015 school year...kind of. What I mean by that is this - over the last 12 years of homeschooling I can't remember the last time we had completed all 175 days of school by the end of June. Typically we had a few more days (or weeks) to finish up throughout the summer. There were even a few years we had to do the dreaded Saturday school to finish everything up. Not this past year though!

A couple years ago I heard about Scholaric on a friend's Facebook page. I checked it out. I loved it immediately. It has saved me countless evening hours scheduling out the next day's workload, creating checklists, and tracking everything. It is not a free program, but it's dirt cheap (I pay a whooping $3 a month - but I was grandfathered. I think the max now is still under $10 a month.) I can track days, hours, and grades. I can bump assignments not completed to the next day. I can block days as "vacation" or "holiday." I can schedule our "Together School" across all the boys without entering it three times. I can schedule out a math book in just a few easy steps. Those are just the highlights. And it prints me a daily checklist which the boys like as much as I do. Checklist is done? School is done.

Since we had finished earlier than normal this year, we have been doing "light school" throughout the summer. I've wanted the boys to continue working on their math, writing, and reading - the three R's basically. So while this marked our first full week of school, it's actually over three weeks done.

We are still doing what I call a "rolling start," however. I just ordered my oldest son's science program and my middle son's writing program this week so we'll be adding that back in once they arrive. I also just received the back ordered history book for my middle son as well. I was pretty excited about that. I wouldn't say he was necessarily excited, though, more like resigned.

We have also been adding in our outside activities. This week it was Spanish class. I came across a young mom who is fluent in Spanish and once taught it at the high school level. Last year my sister and I asked if she'd be willing to tutor all of our boys. She agreed and we began going to her house every other week for sessions. In between the boys use Duolingo and BBC Languages. They also are working on memorizing John 3:16 in Spanish as well as writing out all the books of the Bible in Spanish. Sadly, we only have our tutor for one more year as she and her family will be entering the mission field next year. We have jokingly said we'll have to Skype our lessons after that, but I have a feeling she'll be just a touch too busy.

Overall it's been a great first week. We've stayed on task and accomplished all I have set out for them to do. I'm just praying the rest of the year goes as well. Considering this is my 12th year of homeschooling, I know it won't, but right now I'm still hopeful.

Weekly Wrap-Up - Starting to Get Growing!

We've lost a bit of ground over the last couple of weeks due to recovering from vacation and super busy days! That means our end date is slipping a bit towards the end of June rather than the start. However, I'm okay with that. I am still about two weeks ahead of where I was last year in days completed.

We had a few pretty simple days but days where the boys continued to make progress. We managed "book work" on Monday, Tuesday, & Thursday this week.

We missed Wednesday simply because I was beat. I had an extremely busy Tuesday and just couldn't get my act together enough to get any schooling done. This is a good reminder to me to take it slower this summer. Last summer was just as busy and I find I'm burning out fast at such a quick pace.

Friday we took off simply because I could. I get together once a month with my sister and another good friend of mine. We typically do these days on the weekend, but this month it just wasn't working out with the various work schedules and other activities we have to schedule around. So we picked a Friday and I had a great time.

I was able to make up one of those days on Saturday. The boys are participating in 4-H and we had a meeting on Saturday for our "Kids Can Grow" project. It's going to be a lot of fun and I plan to learn as much as the boys! My one and only attempt at gardening was a dismal failure. It wasn't all my fault as it was the summer we had a record rain fall. It started in April and didn't end until almost August - seriously. Whatever wasn't washed out of the garden was eaten by the local deer herd and wild bunnies.

Be sure to head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to link up if you want to recap your week.

Weekly Wrap-Up - The short edition

Even though it feels like we were never home this week, we did manage to squeeze in a few days of school. Although, it was definitely not a full week by any stretch of the imagination. It did serve one huge purpose though - I will be completely re-evaluating our homeschool choices as well as our schedules. It's just not working right now.

Monday I found myself down at my sister's home for the day. I am really enjoying the mini-co-op we are doing together. It's helped both of us accomplish some great music and art study this year. Far, far, far more than I ever would have done on my own!

Oh Tuesday...Tuesday is probably the busiest day of our week hands-down and it just got busier. Why? Baseball season started this week. I began the day an hour north at my weight loss class and then we headed back out to piano lessons. I arrived home thinking I had about an hour before taking J7 out to baseball. Nope. I had the wrong time. I was home for all of 30 minutes before running him over to the local rec center (former elementary school) for our first practice of the season.

And this was really depressing. Here is a photo from this year's first baseball practice:

And this photo is from last year....

::sigh:: 

dry ground

green grass starting up

no snow!

sweatshirt weather

::sigh::

Around here Wednesday was a holiday. You mean to tell me you missed it? It was N10's birthday! That's right! My middle son has hit the "double digits!" And I've realized I may have to change his name over on my homeschool blog. He's been known as "Conductor" there for over a year. However, his love has shifted...to planes. 

For his birthday, I was able to arrange for us to go to a local airport and check out a real airplane. The weather didn't cooperate (far too windy) but N10 has an invite back for another day to actually go up in the plane and he can't wait! This was all a total surprise to him. He didn't know where we were going until we showed up at the airport. Thanks to a great friend we were able to make this happen. Her father is the pilot.

I think that grin says it all.

All the kids who wanted to 

(my friend has seven) 

were able to get in to the pilot's seat

and try it out. I think J7 

thought this was a "video game" 

and he to be reminded to 

"take it easy!"

Mr. Carr - the pilot - is explaining what things are to N10. 

He spotted me with the camera though and jumped back rather quickly!

Thursday found us back on track. They completed their lessons and we ended the day with more baseball practice for J7 (N10 will be helping and he'll be the official "bat boy"). Then it was off to AWANA. Another full day!

The last day of the week, Friday, found us at our 4-H meeting. I'm so glad we discovered 4-H last year. It's been a lot of fun and I think my boys have been learning quite a bit through it. Aside from all that, we've made some great friends!

Be sure to head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to link up your own Weekly Wrap-Up!

Weekly Wrap-Up - Two Weeks Worth

I am working on keeping track of our daily homeschool doings, but my poor homeschool blog has been suffering. I haven't taken the time in the last two weeks to update it at all. tsk tsk tsk And we've been having fun too! Well, minus the more than foot of snow that arrived on April Fool's Day. So not funny.

Week One

On the 21st of March we accomplished some good "together school." I'm constantly tweaking what I think we should work on together and I'm pretty happy with our current plan.

I also just figured out that we are 17 days ahead of where we were last year. This truly has been the best year for me in keeping on task and getting our days done. I'm so excited!  If we I continue to stay on task, we will finish at the beginning of June. That's just about unheard of around here! Typically we need to go until mid to late July due to all the time off we I end up taking off throughout the year. In fact, we'll be done long before many of the public schools this year due to all of the snow days they will be making up. That makes me feel even better!

On Tuesday the 22nd, it as just a regular school day. Although, I'm getting a bit frustrated with my two older boys. I give them daily checklists to complete on their own (our version of workboxes) and they are not completing all their work but telling me they are. It's not going to be for them if they keep it up. Momma's getting annoyed!

This week we did a lot of "together school" rather than separate things including on the 23rd. I am trying to incorporate more Khan Academy videos as well. It's a really neat free resource. It mostly has math videos but I've found great ones for science and history as well.

On the 24th we attended college classes at the University of Maine at Orono and had a great time! I was struck again and again as to how much technology has changed the classroom from when I attended eons ago. The kids had a fantastic time even though we were up very early and were gone from the house for 14 hours on this day.

Friday the 25th was short and sweet. We were all still recovering from the long day yesterday. And this week, they had Saturday school but it was fun - at least I think so! It was our first Kids Can Grown meeting for our new 4-H project. The kids all began thinking about what they want to plant and learned how the program will work.

Week Two

We had a minuscule day on Monday. Tuesday was a bit more full. Another minuscule day on Wednesday. I spent this week going through every children's book and school book I own. I hosted a used book sale on Saturday and, of course, I didn't start going through my books until Monday. Wednesday I was suppose to go to my sister's for our co-op but we were both so knee-deep in projects that had to be finished by the end of the week we postponed it until the following Monday. 

Thursday they all did school, however, I haven't added it to my homeschool blog yet for the simple reason I haven't checked it all yet. I'm not sure if they did what they should have and completed all the work or not. However, they are going to start having "homework" for any work not completed during the day. Friday our bit of Maine saw close to 14 inches of snow fall so my boys received a "snow day." This was partly due to all the snow (and how seriously depressed that made me) and the fact that I still needed to finish getting ready for Saturday. Phew!

It's been a very busy past two weeks and this week doesn't look much quieter!

Be sure to link up to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers if you'd like to share how your last week (or two) looked at home.

Weekly Wrap-Up...a slow start

I had it on my calendar that we would hit day #100 of our school year tomorrow. However, we did "Saturday" school this week (since we took Monday off) so that was actually our 100th day! I'm sort of bummed as I wanted to do some fun stuff. I may still do it tomorrow and have fun anyway!

This does mean that we are over half-way done with our required 175 days. I'm pushing through and continuing to tweak things as we go, but then again, I do that every year.

Monday we took off. Tuesday we did our "checklists."  I find it hard to implement things mid-year, but some things do need to change. Our state convention is coming up soon and that's always a fun time to check out new curriculum.

My nephew was here on Wednesday this week. Since he was here anyway we did our Fine Arts Co-Op day. We learned about the French horn, bassoon, Franz Liszt, and Michaelangelo. We also did some art history and a drawing lesson. I really like the focus we've kept this year through this mini-co-op. Without the accountability of my sister, I wouldn't have been as focused on music and art.

I loved Thursday this week. We headed south to see a play at a local opera house. They typically host four "educational" plays a year. The plays are also put on by local student drama groups. This year fewer plays were offered and we learned that there will be no more until January 2012 due to renovations. We saw "Tattercoats: A Tale of Yore." They boys had a great time (as did I). I'm thankful we have these opportunities close enough to enjoy.

Friday felt like a really busy day although it wasn't. The afternoon/evening was busy with 4-H and driving my boys here, there, and everywhere. The two younger boys ended the day at the AWANA sliding party. I had planned to hang out in town and bring them over after 4-H. However, I needed to run a couple errands for my MIL and the boys had forgotten their sleds. That meant all the way back home and back out to drop them off with their dad for the sliding fun.

Since we took Monday off and I was going to be around on Saturday anyway (ha!), I left the boys some checklists to do. Having them productive is always a good thing.

Be sure to head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to check out what others have done this week.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The Short Week

This week we only managed three days of schooling. Thursday we were having company come for dinner - something I'm trying to do more of. I told the boys they could have the day off if they helped me clean. They jumped at the chance. It's nice to have a cleaner home.

Friday we had a major snowstorm. I had thought it was going to hit earlier so I didn't get the boys checklists ready. I planned to spend time doing "together" school. However, since it didn't start snowing until about 10am, I still managed to sneak in my weight loss class in the morning. Then I decided not to make the kids do school in the afternoon. I'm nice like that at times.

The first three days of the week (Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday) were just routine. Although, I have begun thinking about next year. Don't most homeschoolers at this time of year?

I've been really happy with some of the TOS Crew Review products we've been given this year and will most likely incorporate some of those in to next year. I'm also looking at revamping B14's entire program to include more DVD curriculum. I think it will help him learn better. We'll see. I need to make a list and then do more research. I love this time of year for that very reason.

If you'd like to see what other homeschoolers have been up to this past week, make sure to head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Weekly Wrap-Up - lots of art

The first two days of this week we spent a lot of time doing art and music. My two favorite subjects.

Monday my sister came to visit and we did our Fine Arts Co-Op. We finished making plans for the remainder of the year.  We've covered a lot of great composers and artists and mostly had fun doing it. We plan to end the year with a trip to an art museum. There is a great one on a local college campus that offers tours and it's free. I love free. In the meantime, if you'd like to check out an art museum and some famous paintings, check out this Google Art Project. I saw this on Teach Kids Art and it's amazing!

On Tuesday we headed north for our monthly art class. I continue to be impressed by the wonderful woman who teaches these classes. She takes a hands-off approach to teaching. She simply shows the kids what it is they are to do and then leaves them to create. She is always available for a helping hand or to bounce ideas off. This month they kids all glazed the pottery they created last month. She has oodles of colors to choose from. She also offered up blank tiles for the kids to glaze as well. I see lots of hot plates in my future.

Oh the joys of coming spring! On Wednesday we had lovely temperatures in the mid-40s. After weeks of single digits it felt like a heat wave. Last year we had a very warm late winter and hardly any snow. In fact, on the 17th of last February I posted photos comparing what my backyard looked like. Well, this year, we definitely have snow! Although, that did not stop N9 from taking his bike for a spin today.

This summer he and I (and his grandmother) will be biking together in the Tour de Cure. N9 is super excited and today he biked around the yard for a good 15-20 minutes and called it his "first training ride." We'll be doing a 25K (15 miles) and I don't think it will affect him much at all! However, once the snow is gone I'll start taking longer training rides with him. I have a six mile loop I ride (lots of hills) and I'm sure we'll do a few longer ones as well.

We are now over half-way done with school. Monday was day 87 which was our halfway mark. Maine requires 175 days. It feels good knowing that! And we continue to stay ahead of where we were last year. That feels even better! I feel my checklists are saving me this year! I'll be sharing what they look like at the end.

Thursday was a typical school day although the boys did have AWANA club in the evening. I am a bit frustrated with my middle son who continues to skip work and telling me he is done when he isn't. We're continuing to work on getting him a bit more independent and encouraging him to come ask me if he doesn't understand my instructions.

It was more of the "same old same old" on Friday. I had planned to be gone in the morning so the boys were on their own to do their school work. I love having a teenager who is old enough to babysit! However, the weather did not cooperate and even though I was home after all we did not do together school. It was a very low key type of day.

Today, Saturday, the boys raced their cars at the AWANA Grand Prix. They had a great time - as always. Lots of fun, food, and fellowship. 

That wraps up our week here. If you'd like to see what others have accomplished or link up yourself, head over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Weekly Wrap-Up - Nothing Exciting

It was a pretty routine school week around here. Although, we're still tweaking things but when isn't a homeschooler tweaking something. ;-)

Monday was a rather full day. I introduced the two older boys to new spelling and vocabulary books. I really like them, but I'm not quite sure they are as thrilled. N9 is using a generic spelling book and B14 also has a new spelling book plus I added Worldly Wise for him.

The boys had a great time on Tuesday when I let them paint their salt dough maps. It took quite a while for them to dry, but they loved it. I so enjoy seeing them getting excited about school.

Photos of the final projects coming soon.

Not much other than normal work happened on Wednesday. The boys did all of their regular work and we did a bit of together school. Cabin fever is beginning to set in.

Thursday the boys ended up with a day off. We made up for it on Friday. Although, Friday I was not feeling well. Thankfully I already had checklists ready for the boys so while I took a sick day on Friday, they did their school work.

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Weekly Wrap-Up: A Full Week!

I'm quite happy to say that we managed not only five days this week, but six! Yeah! We had four days off for illness last week and if my younger boys ever break out in chicken pox, we'll have some more sick days soon. I'm hoping to get a good rhythm established so that we don't get completely off track.

On Monday we headed down to my sister's to spend the day doing school today. I'm enjoying our Fine Arts Co-Op we've been doing. I think the boys are as well.

Tuesday was a slightly hit or miss day. B14 showed initiative and did his checklist on his own before we started out together school. Since we spent two hours in the afternoon at piano lessons, he was the only one who did his independent work today. The other boys only managed piano lessons and together school for the day.

On Wednesday I finally did something I have never done in our eight years of homeschooling - let the boys create salt dough maps. They loved it of course. As part of our geography studies for Tapestry of Grace there is a large number of geography terms they need to learn. A few weeks ago we went over them and the boys created paper maps. Today I finally let them create a salt dough map. Once they are completely dry we plan to paint them and then label all the land forms. Wednesday we didn't go anywhere outside the house and it was nice to stay in and have lots of time to work on projects like this. While I'm not enjoying all of the snow we're getting or the fact that my two younger boys still haven't broken out in chicken pox, I am loving all of the time we are having at home for a change.

We ended the day playing one of our new favorite games with Daddy during supper - TransAmerica. It's a nice and easy strategy game that also teaches the location of some major US cities. Even J7 is able to play with a little help. Daddy reads J7's cards and points him in the right direction to link up his cities. How he does that is up to him and he's come very close to winning a time or two.

The rest of the week were just getting basics done and working off of checklists. Thursday was rather boring I'm sure, but they did accomplish there work.

Friday I thought I managed to find some neat links for them to use for history thanks to the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History. I keep forgetting I have that book sitting here. It was really fun to go through all the links and see what I could find. The boys seemed to have fun with them as well.

I was a mean homeschooling mom this week and actually made the boys do school on Saturday as well. This did put us that much closer to getting our days in though so I was happy with it even if they weren't! We ended the week on day #82 out of our 175 days required by the state. I am almost positive this is the furtherest along we've ever been at this point in time. I didn't have them too much stuff - just the basics and a couple fun things.

It was a great week and one filled with all kinds of learning - the best kind of week!

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Weekly Wrap-Up - the sick edition

Last week my two younger children were exposed to chicken pox - on purpose. I have never fully trusted the varicella vaccine so we chose to expose them in order to give them lifetime immunity (no booster shots required). Our plan was that if they had not been exposed by the time they were teenagers, we would look in to the vaccine, but until then we waited. 
While they are still spot-free ten days after being exposed, the start of our week had our middle son in the doctor's office on Monday afternoon. He was diagnosed with a strep infection and a probable ear infection. The poor kid was hurting rather bad. Since I kept expecting him to break out in spots as well we only ended up doing two days of school this week. I will say that the first two days of the week he wasn't feeling up to school. My policy has always been that if one child is sick, they all get a sick day. It makes tracking the number of days they have done easier for me.
So having said that, we only managed to do school on Friday and, yes, Saturday. I figured if they were well enough to fight and play they were well enough to do school work. 
J7 continues to amaze me with how much more he is learning this year. It is vastly apparent that he is better able to sit and focus and work on the skills I want him to learn. There is truly nothing better than seeing your child learn to read! He is working through Alpha-Phonics book and is on Lesson 6. He read eleven sentences on Friday. So proud! He is also doing wonderful with his math book. This is his second year in the book, but prior to this year he simply was not ready to grasp the concepts being taught or able to sit and learn. This year - no problem at all. 

He's happy to do math with me now.

I keep coming back to a freebie I managed to get last year. It's put out by Sequential Spelling and it's a rather large sample of their video based spelling program. I love this as my two older boys have a good base in phonics so it's something they can work on alone without too much involvement by me. This frees me up to work with J6.

N9 working on his spelling. Yes, my desk is a mess. I'm cleaning it up this weekend.

As a variation to workboxes, I have gone back to my beloved "checklists." The boys even ask for them. I simply put a heading for the subject and write beneath it what I want them to do. They still have their bins to keep their books in which (supposedly) helps cut down on the "where-can-I-finds" that crop up.
While we only had two days of school this week and we're still waiting for our two younger boys to become "speckled" we managed to get some good learning in. 

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