I think I know myself pretty well. For whatever reason, I have days where I feel really motivated and we get a lot accomplished during school. Then there are other days where I don't feel too motivated so it is really a relaxed day. I guess its pretty normal for no one day to be the same in our homeschool but I hate to get behind from week to week because of a "relaxed" day. We've been pretty consistent with daily lessons in Easy Grammar, Math, writing assignment from IEW once/twice a week but I haven't assigned any literature reads. The girls make their own choices at the library but this week I though we should all read a book from the Chronicles of Narnia.

DD9 and I are reading Price Caspian and DD11 is ready the Voyage of the Dawn Treader.
DD13 had to read the Magician's Nephew as part of the Classical Conversations curriculum and that got her interested in reading all the books in the series. So why not join her was my thought? It's not part of my curriculum plan but why not go with the flow. So I am 3/4 of the way through Prince Caspian, can't believe how much I love it!

My DD9 said I saw the movie but I don't remember. I'll have to see if the library has it so I can watch it again. So what did we do this week?

In addition to our "daily" dose of Math, Easy Grammar, and Wordly Wise Vocabulary, this is what we accomplished:

MONDAY - I usually do Science on Tue/Thurs but if I miss a day I'll do a Mon/Wed to catch up. This was the case on Monday. We studied the function of human blood and blood types. Worked in a bit of Art as well by sketching the make-up of one quart of human blood. Finished up a 3 part writing assignment in IEW.




Tuesday - planning for a Valentine's "Love Thy Neighbor" party we are having with friends on next Monday. We are making cards and decorations. Piano Lessons for DD9.


Wednesday - this was my unmotivated day. We started the day by catching A Baby Story on TLC and Make Room for Multiples. There were a lot of grimacing faces as my girls saw for the very first time babies being born. Eeek! This can fall under Health Education, right?

Thursday - Worked on elements of a Lapbook we are doing on the Renaissance/Reformation. Made a mini booklet of the Early American Explorers.

Friday - Since moving put us 15 minutes farther from the Classical Conversations campus my daughter goes to, I'm deciding to stay in the area until it is to time to pick up DD13 from class. DD11 & DD9 and I will spend the morning at the library doing some lessons then head over to a friend's for some PE time.

Nothing glitzy or glamorous .... but a good week.

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New School Space

Well most of the boxes are unpacked and we're getting settled in. The first space I attempted to get in order was my school space.



Why does it take an entire week to move from one house to the next I will never know so needless to say we did no work last week. I was determined to get back on track this week.


It is nearly impossible to get everything on your wish list when house hunting so I didn't get built-in bookshelves. But I'm awfully proud of the IKEA bookshelves I got off of craigslist for less than $30 for both! I just love a deal!





We explored our local public library this week and we all got library cards and left with an armful of books and and DVDs. I needed a little motivation so I checked out some homeschooling books to get some fresh perspective. In my last wrap up I mentioned my desire to give devotional time priority. Mission accomplished this week on that front. We really focused on Phillips 2:14 - "do all things without complaining and arguing . . . " and had many opportunities to put that verse into practice - mom included.

Here is what we did academically:

DD13 - Usual Classical Conversations work. I can not say enough how much she has improved academically because of CC Challenge A. Her ability to write literary analysis, learning Latin, and the collaboration with peers has made a tremendous difference. I also notice her using mature vocabulary in everyday conversation. When I pulled her from public school, this was one of my top priorities.

DD11 & DD9
History - Review the meaning of Renaissance, the unification of Spain under Ferdinand & Isabella and Henry the Navigator. Introduced the African Empires of Ghana, Mali, & the Songhay Empire. Played a game from SOTW Activity Book to understand how Ghana became one of the richest countries in Africa by taxing traders who had to travel through Ghana to get to the Salt and the Gold.
Science - I finally got to trace both girls on butcher paper. I purchased the paper over a month ago for this activity. They got a kick out of seeing their body outlines on paper. We used dark red and light red yard to trace the flow of blood in and out of the human heart.

I bookmarked a wonderful blog of a public school 4th grade "teacher of the year." She has great free printouts for teachers to use. I plan on using her Geography printouts as this is a subject we don't do outside of the mapwork included in SOTW.

Still trying to figure out Art. I purchased Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes. After the art instruction with Stebbing we did in December, I see the benefit of actually learning to draw and using that skill across the curriculum.

Hope you had a productive week. Join the weekly wrap up by visiting the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers blog and sign up and see what other homeschooling families have been doing this week.

New Year, New Beginnings

The packing is getting intense. I'm still trying to maintain some normalcy in our homeschool routine. With so much time off during the holidays and then straight into moving it puts a lot of pressure on the schedule. One thing I would really like to do is be more intentional about our devotional time together in the morning. Using MFW materials will really help with this because its built into the curriculum. I already have the younger two memorizing the first chapter of James as prescribed in the Exploration to 1850 lesson plans. I remember last summer when I first starting planning out the year "prayer circle time" was part of my plan but when I began working 6 - 9 am I rushed right into academics neglecting that important devotional time. This will soon change.

Hope you had a productive week. Join the weekly wrap up by visiting the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers blog and sign up and see what other homeschooling families have been doing this week.

Here is how our week wrapped up:

Monday - "Fill in the blank" test made at easytestmaker.com using last week's vocabulary words from Wordly Wise. After the girls do their daily exercises in their Workbooks I will be using this site to test their knowledge of that week's words every Monday. Daily Grammar sheet. Day's math lesson. Finished menu project. Girls had to come up a menu of 3 meals and two snacks using the FDA's nutrition guidelines for Science.

Tuesday - Daily grammar sheet with Easy Grammar. Daily exercise with Wordly Wise. Daily math lesson. History reading and timeline work on the Renaissance using Kingfisher's History Encyclopedia and introduction to Renaissance artist Sandro Botticello.

Wednesday - Usual daily work in the morning with the rest of the day spent at the new house helping my husband lay ceramic tile in the kitchen. It was actually kind of fun.

Thursday - Usual daily work plus IEW writing lesson.

Friday - playing with homeschool friends.

Well I've been missing a few weeks. A lot going on around here. We are looking to move so I've been preoccupied with that while trying to keep up my homeschool schedule. For the last two weeks we've done primarily Math and Grammar with Science and History twindling down to about once a week. Eeek! I have got to catch up. Monday started our 3 day class with Stebbing "How Great Thou Art." There were over 80 homeschool kids signed up for this class locally. I was looking forward to it because we hardly do any Art around here. I just don't know how to fit it all in. I purchased one DVD on Drawing to continue the basics we learned during the class and some of his paints. I think everyone had a great time.




Come January I plan to turn over a new leaf - new home, new homeschooling space, more time (as I will be scaling back my work outside of the home) so that I can do so much more with our studies.
Hope you had a productive week. Join the weekly wrap up by visiting the weird, unsocialized homeschoolers blog and sign up and see what other homeschooling families have been doing this week.

We are wrapping up our study of Botany this week. We visited the US Botanical Garden in WDC. It was a really good trip. Kids enjoyed moving from room to room - Hawaii, the Desert, Orchid Room, Endangered plants room. The Garden has such a wonderful ambience. We had a little time before we needed to be back home before rush hour so we walked over to the National Gallery of Art. We aren't cultured enough to enjoy all the art but we thoroughly enjoyed the gift gallery. I was able to pick up Renaissance Art Cards to play "go fish" and a activity book on Arcimboldo - an artist whose works were made of fruits and vegetables. What a great segue from Botany to Art. I found this book at the library and finished it on Monday. The author mentions visiting the Gallery of Art and purchasing some great items for art appreciation for her homeschool. It gave me some really great ideas for homeschooling as it chronicles a mother's homeschooling year with her 5th grade daughter. Unlike a lot of homeschooling books I've read, the book reads like a novel instead of a "how to" book. But I should have expected that since the author is a college literature professor. Makes for some good reading especially for a newbie like me.

Tuesday we worked on Botany collages - finding pictures of people using plants in our world aesthetically, culturally, religiously, etc.



Wednesday & Thursday are a blur with the exception of buying supplies for our human body science unit on Thursday, and going to the library. But today we shopped for our Christmas box for Samaritan's Purse. We will have to do some work on Saturday to catch all of the things that fell through the cracks during the week.

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Week 11 and 3 weeks behind in TOG Y2. I just can't get it all in but we are progressing nicely through the lessons. This week's focus was Marco Polo and exploration of the far East. The only thing the girls knew was the pool game Marco Polo which we couldn't figure out the correlation. I'm a little nervous taking on the next 9 weeks of Middle Age History without the TOG unit guideline but SOTW and the Kingfisher Encyclopedia will have to day until I can order MFW Exploration through 1850.

I'm also venturing into a Human Body Unit by using Alpha Omega LifePacs that I used with DD13 last year coupled with library resources and worksheets from EnchantedLearning.com. Now I see why people come up with their own curriculum. It so hard to use the shelf curriculum exactly the way it was intended depending on your goals. I looked at Apologia's Exploring Creation with Human Anatomy but just couldn't justify the cost as I know I'm not going to use the text for a complete year.

Here is how the week wrapped up:

History - I set up a hands-on activity from the SOTW Activity Book where we traveled on the Silk Route to trade goods in China from Europe. I made signs for the Gobi Desert and the Taklahaman Desert with pit stops equipped with snacks and water. We navigated the Yellow River (the steps from the basement to the main level) using a broom as an oar before reaching Kublai Khan's palace where we traded for gold, silk, and exotic plants. See, Kublai Khan is a Redskins fan??



It was fun and I know it solidified geography into the minds of my girls. Even though DD13 isn't formally studying history with us she joined us on this activity. I really need to break away from the book work and do this activities more often. They are really good for reinforcement.

Classical Conversations - we all went to the public library for DD13 to meet with her group for a study session. DD11, DD9 and I did our schoolwork at one of the tables in the library and then perused the shelves for new books. When we left the library DD13 left with a stack of historical fiction. She was turned on by a fellow student in her group and now she wants to read everything in that genre. In that moment I saw the benefit of her being involved in this group. Positive peer pressure!

Veteran's Day - we took the day off.

Math Lessons/Test, SOTW - The Ottoman Empire seizes Constantinople and updating our timeline. Playtime on the hill in the back of our house. I remember when the girls first discovered the hill they would run up and down the sides playing and yelling in delight. Now they dig in the ground pulling up roots and shouting "I found a fern"! Oh the joys of homeschooling.


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Well as usual Monday was our most productive day. We covered Genghis Kahn, did mapwork and updated our history timeline with SOTW. Math lessons done and worksheets completed for Language Arts. Tuesday - two worksheets done and some math done but we had a wonderful visit with family who were in town so that's a good reason not to get a lot done. But the highlight of our week was our visit to George Washington's Mt. Vernon. We aren't studying early American History but I couldn't refuse the reduced rate for homeschool day. Just like last year when we visited Monticello I forgot the camera! I took pictures with my cell phone but I don't know where the data cord is to transfer the pictures from the phone to the computer. So I'll have to visit the Verizon store to pick up a new cord then I can post the pictures here on tomorrow. Please visit late tomorrow if you've never seen Mt. Vernon, I think I got some pretty good shots.

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