Several weeks rolled into two

Is it possible to do a 2 month "weekly wrap up?" Probably not so here are the highlights:

* having new friends over for baking. DD12 idea. She wants to open a bakery, and is an avid watcher of DC cupcakes which is based on a business in Washington, DC called Georgetown cupcakes. She is overjoyed at the prospect of visiting and purchasing their $2.75 cupcakes. Yikes!



*Took a detour in curriculum to focus on writing essays for HSLDA's essay contest. The cash prizes for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place entries are a serious incentives for my tween girls. The youngest finished first. Her entry went out yesterday.



*Is it too early to look at colleges? We purchased a state prepaid college contract when DD14 was 2 year's old. That was one of the best decisions DH and I have made as a couple. College is 3 years away and even though the tuition numbers and entry requirements may change, I've been researching options for her major of interest. I'm determined to find scholarship money so the contract we purchased can be spread out between the 3 girls.

*any one other than me not know which week of school they are in? I realized today that I am about 2 weeks off of my lesson plans. I guess that isn't too bad. I've had to make pit stops and pull together resources for what my DC need.

For example, we did IEW SWI A last year and I purchased US Based Writing Lessons to accompany our history studies for this year. My kids do really well with IEW but if you put a writing prompt in front of them they are a little lost. Even though I will continue to use IEW resources (it's great when I need to assist the kids with "style") but I had to pull together different sources to teach free writing. I had WriteSource 2000 on the shelf, Writing Strands Level 3 & 4, Writing with Skill (20 week sample) to teach these skills. I guess this is what it means to tweak and there is no such thing as one resource that teaches everything. By the end of the year, I pray I have competent writers.


* found a great way to teach vocabulary from a teacher of high school English. Vocabulary Videos. I am creating a word wall with the new words to keep the words in DC mind to incorporate in their writing assignments. I also took his idea of using writing blogs to encourage kids to write and to bring technology into the "classroom." Love this idea! It is motivating to my youngers who want to share their site with others. You can take a peak at her first two entries at www.mjwwritingblog.blogspot.com

*Won some curriculum from BrightIdeasPress for entering a sweepstakes. I'm so excited! Can't wait until it arrives.

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Oh boy... I don't know what happened to my motivation to blog. School is just so much more busier this year than last year.

I LOVE the MFW plans which makes my life easier. I do have to plan the Math & Science lessons but other than that it is easy, breezy, lemon squeezy. I do find it hard to read all of the history lessons from the different source texts. I find myself gravitating more to City on a Hill than the other texts.

I don't stay on task with getting Science done several times a week either but I figure it will all get done by the end of the year even though it may take us a little longer.

Being out of the house 3 times a week in the middle of the day is challenging to say the least. But it does help me to start school earlier - in the 8 o'clock hour ;) and it gives us some well needed social time. I'm glad the kids get the elective type of courses done outside so I don't have to feel guilty about them not doing Art, etc.

Each kid having individual work and doing less together keeps them busy when I'm working one on one but keeps me busy switching gears to grade everyone's work and to keep a pulse on how everyone is doing.

Experiments with DD12 and General Science is going well. Even the dog is interested.



We enjoyed our first field trip this year to Jamestown/Colonial Williamsburg. Except for the rain it was a good trip.





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New School Year

Wow I've been away for a very long time. I don't really have a good reason. Summer has been filled with lazy days, hit or miss math sheets, and sleeping in till noon. Tomorrow it is all over. Tomorrow begins the first day back with the whole gang going to co-op for the first time ever. DD14 went to Classical Conversations last year but this year she is home using My Father's World but taking Physical Science with a local co-op. Here is my big girl high-schooler:



I am excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time. I've got a lot of well laid out plans and a fresh looking school area but the doubts still linger in the corners of my mind. Am I going to be able to keep up, challenge my students, have enough patience? The doubts go on and on. Every time I drive past the local high school the feelings of doubt creep up on me. I know in my heart of hearts I am doing the right thing I just have to press pass the negative thoughts.

I can do this! I am looking forward to this new year and cross my fingers I'll keep up with blogging about our year.

I've been MIA a few weeks. I've had lots of goings on to share but just didn't sit down to blog. We have been officially finished with school since the end of April but we've been during bible study and some math. The bible study comes straight from DD13 MFW WHL high school curriculum. I thought we should get a jump start on it by doing it as a family so she will be ahead in her Bible credit come fall.

The biggest time consumer of the last two weeks has been this guy:





He is 3 months old so we are going through the potty training stage and keeping him on a schedule. He is a lovable little guy. So needless to say all of my time has been centered around him.

(this is an updated pic from 4th of July weekend)

Secondly, I've been selling off my homeschool items from last year and looking forward to all of the great resources for next year. I posted DD13 high school curriculum a few weeks back along with pictures but for DD12 I stumbled upon Hewitt Homeschool Resources and decided to do their Lightning Literature 7 with her. I am so excited about this find. I'll be using IEW's phonetic zoo B with her as well. I've purchased both of these used online and I'm very pleased with saving money compared to purchasing new.

Speaking of saving money. The family and I caught the show Extreme Couponing on TLC last week. It's the first time I ever saw the show and I was inspired. I'm not sure how to pay pennies for carts full of groceries but I did manage to buy 4 body washes and 3 deodorants from CVS for $4.65. That's a good start right? It has turned into a family affair. My husband set up and Excel spreadsheet to manage the coupons, the girls cut and enter them into the spreadsheet, and I scour the paper matching the sale and coupons. Here is what my kitchen table looks like:



What a great impromptu lesson on shopping and computer skills. The incentive is we get to keep any money we save in the grocery budget for the many homeschool "extras" we want to do next school year. So we will see how it goes. The summer is pretty laid back so while I have the time on my hands I figure now is as good a time as any to try this out.

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