Thursday, August 1, 2013

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: Planning, Packing, Printing, and Playing


In My Life This Week
AUGUST?! Really? Huh. Sometimes it TOTALLY amazes me how quickly time flies. Does it for you? Summer vacation ends in just a few weeks! A Great Balancing Act cracks open the new curricula on September 4th, bright and early. But before that, we're heading off to ALASKA with Mimi and Pop.


In the meantime, we continue to enjoy our LAZY DAYS OF SUMMER; swimming at the lake, reading books, riding bikes, chasing chickens, watching the weeds take over the garden. All too soon these days will be over and Autumn will be here (which I'm kind of looking forward too actually).

This week we had a PERFECT storm blow in for watching weather, dark, fast moving clouds, but little thunder and lightning. Sam and I sat outside and watched the clouds change shade and color over the trees and felt the flutter of a breeze turn into gusts...and then finally ran inside when the sky "let loose" and "rivers" of rain raced down the path from the house to the coop and run.


Things I'm Working On
Packing tips and tricks? It's not often that I have to pack for a vacation. I think I've got a good "handle on it", but if you've got a suggestion...

What's Cooking?
One of my kids' FAVORITE sides is RAMEN NOODLE-BROCCOLI COLE SLAW from Food.com. (Want the recipe? Click here.) It's sweet, crunchy and filled with broccoli, seeds and nuts. (FYI: Instead of 3/4 c oil I used 1/4 c oil + 1/2 c water, and instead of 1/2 c sugar I used 1/3 c. I also chose unsalted seeds and nuts.)

Photo Credit

People & Places
• Portland Sea Dogs Baseball Game • Rec Lunch and Lake • Band Camp and Concert 

In Our Homeschool
I finished up some loose ends, printed out some activities and wall posters, sent in our letter of intent with our portfolio assessments, and finished up my supply shopping.

I  taped together a 3 x 3 U.S. outline map and hung it in our school room (i.e. diningroom). Instead of a wall timeline, the kids will fill out the map as we study US History from NROC. (You can find the maps here and the NROC curriculum here.) And I tacked up posters for continents and oceans from here, parts of speech mini posters from here, a calender (which I slipped ito a plastic page protector to reuse) from here, and a Roman numerals "cheat sheet" from here. But then I ran out of computer paper. Grrr!


Once I had paper and ink again, I printed out stuff for our portfolios as well: My Vocabulary Flip Book and seasonal reading logs. Stay tuned for a post on how I get our portfolios and work folders ready for a new year.

My Cati and the other summer band camp kids gave a WONDERFUL concert. Being in jazz band has sure renewed her interest in continuing to play the clarinet! 


Sam, Mr. Fix-it, reattached my hand rail to the stairs. Would you believe that we took it down 7 years ago to paint and it's been leaning against my bedroom wall ever since? Jake also fixed the trimmed around the back door. It's AWESOME to have such capable kids to help me out.


I'm Grateful For

Something to Share
This has been happening to me a lot lately. Although decluttering and reorganizing is AWESOME, the downside it being able to find things afterward.


As ALWAYS, linking up to these WONDERFUL blogs:
Homegrown Learners photo 79396fe0-1f8b-44f8-a90e-f8ca7bfa801e_zpsa74bcc3b.jpgThis Week @ Great Peace AcademyHip Homeschool Hop Button

5 comments:

  1. What cute little ducks! Have a wonderful Alaskan adventure! The school room wall looks great! Thanks for linking up at FF!

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  2. Wow! Alaska! Have a blast. I can't wait to see the pictures. I love to watch storms.
    Blessings, Dawn

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  3. Your collages are wonderful. I especially like the duck photos. The slaw looks wonderful. What a great week. Have a wonderful vacation.

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  4. Great storm pictures! Oh we love Alaska! Want to take the kids back there someday! Enjoy! Love that cartoon and so true! Blessings!

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  5. Love your pics. We haven't had a good old-fashioned thunderstorm all summer.
    Great resources in your school room. Everything all bright and new and ready.
    Instead of a timeline this year, we will make a book of centuries. It'll be differnt for us, so we'll see.
    Enjoy your trip - ok, I admit it, I'm just a little envious. What a fantastic field trip!

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