A Peek at Our Week: A Not-So-Off Week

In My Life This Week

Every Columbus Day weekend a friend of mine, R__, has a Women's Weekend, and for the first time I joined in. We ate meals at restaurants, window shopped for hours, people watched and chatted, played board games, and had lots of giggles. Over the years, I think I have forgotten how fun it can be to get out with girlfriends! How grateful I am that R__ treated me to every thing we did AND her husband graciously watched my kids so I could get out!

Things I Worked On

❦ Roasted and Pureed One Gallon of Pumpkin ❦ Raked Leaves ❦ Began Winterizing Coop/Run ❦ Cleaned and Vacuumed Van ❦

What We're Cooking

Pumpkin! We harvested 8 pumpkins from our garden this year and a friend gave us a few more. After each of the kids chose one to carve or paint, I baked and pureed the rest, roasting the seeds.

High School Happenings
So, I asked Jake what he did this week and this is what he replied, "Same stuff." There you go! This week's summary from a teenager! LOL

Homeschool Happenings

We had an off week. No school on Monday. For ease, I follow Jake's charter school schedule. When he's not in school, we're not in homeschool. We took yesterday off (for the most part) to kayak. The mild fall weather continues and we're taking advantage of it! (Last year the kayaks were stored the 3rd week of September because it was too cold to go out...)  But some school DID happen!

I was beginning to wonder if Cati and Sam were going to move ahead again in Spelling Power. After WEEKS of playing the Spelling Game, struggling through the same 10-15 words, I'm happy to report that we are once again moving forward. Phew!

Accomplishments
The Serpent's Shadow (C) & The Knight Before Dawn (S)
Easy Grammar - Preposition Test, Verb/Verb Phrases (C)
Daily Grams - Days 21-22 (C) & Days 26-31 (S)
Spelling Power - List 20 (C) & List 9 (S)
Poetry Unit - Diamante (C)
Greek Word Roots - pyro, photos, para, phone, graph
Saxon - Review 38/39, Test 8 (C) &  Math-U-See - 11C-F (S)
Life Science - Earth Changes, Bacteria and Viruses (C) & Plants, Reptiles and Amphibians (S)
Phys. Ed. - Bike Riding, Walking, Kayaking

People and Places

❦ Mom's Weekend Out (Mom) ❦ Library (C/S) ❦ Boy Scouts (J) ❦ Concert Band (C) ❦ Boy Scouts Camping (J) ❦ Kayaking ❦ 

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A Peak at Our Week: A Job Well Done

In My Life This Week

::sniffle:: ::sneeze:: Cold? Seasonal allergies? Not so sure, but I AM sure that I'm going through an awful lot of tissues. It's not slowing down this Mama though!

This week I focused on WORK ETHICS with the kids. I'll admit that I'm not the most consistent with discipline, but there are some things that need to be learned and learned well. Oftentimes I find myself redoing chores that the kids are responsible for because they're poorly done. Do you find sometimes that it's just easier to do it yourself? It doesn't instill GOOD WORK ETHICS in kids though. We had some LONG, LONG days of redoing chores to completion - *I'm* exhausted! - but I think they get it. I hope!

Things I Worked On

✶ Cleaned Baby Pine Trees Out of the Rain Gutter ✶ Replaced Broken Light Bulbs ✶ Dug up Potatoes ✶ Tried to Fix the Motion Sensor Lights ✶ Words with Friends ✶

We're Cooking

MORE apple crisp? I tweaked totally changed up the Barefoot Contessa recipe found here because it seemed like way too much work for apple crisp. All those ingredients! Lemon AND orange zest? And way too much sugar! Our recipe only has 2/3 c and we didn't miss the other 1 1/3 c!

Apple Crisp

Slice, core and peel apples to fill a non-stick sprayed 13x9 baking dish

Combine (with hands):

1 c flour

1/3 c white sugar

1/3 c packed brown sugar

1 1/2 c quick oats

1 softened stick of butter

dash or two of cinnamon

another dash of nutmeg

Sprinkle on top of the apples and gently pat down. Cook at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes or until apples are soft and bubbly. Serve warm or cold.

Oops! I forgot to take a photo.

High School Happenings
What went on at the STEM school? Measured acceleration of an object due to gravity using formulas. Learned to chart information in different ways. Spoke and wrote Chinese. (I'm thinking he should JUST write Chinese characters because it's MUCH neater than his English penmanship.) Pendulums. Designed an on-line portfolio blog logo. Worked on a photojournalism project. Played Tic Tac Ten. Worked on interviewing someone important in the community (which he recorded on his cell phone).

Homechool Happenings
Cati learned about Punnett Squares in Life Science this week, and dominant and recessive alleles, and phenotypes and genotypes.  Do you remember those squares with upper- and lowercase letter combinations to explain why someone has brown or blue eyes? (If the rolling of her eyes are any indication, Genetics and Heredity aren't her favorite parts of Life Science.) Using blue and white dice, she completed a multi-step Skill Lab over the course of the week to learn about allele combinations, creating her own Punnett Squares.

Sam didn't complete this lab with her. His focus was on Biomes, particularly the tundra and desert. Some concepts he just isn't ready for.

But he did create a castle on Minecraft. I finished reading aloud the Knights and Castles research guide that goes with The Knight at Dawn Magic Tree House book. (It's amazing how much reading gets accomplished sitting in the van during Cati's band practices.) He finds the Middle Ages interesting, and that interest makes for some meaningful learning. 

Next week he's working on a VIDEO PROJECT over Knights and Castles that I hope to share with you. Cross your fingers that I can figure out how to record it with Cati's camera!

I'm not sure if I will continue the NROC U.S. History with the kids. There's nothing specifically wrong with it, but I don't feel Cati and Sam are gaining enough knowledge from the lessons. Perhaps we'll switch to "America: The Story of Us" and "How the States Got Their Shapes" for a while. We need some "life" in our history!

Highlights

✶ The Throne of Fire (Riordan) (C) & The Knight at Dawn (Pope Osborne) (S)

✶ Daily Grammar - Prepositions (C)

✶ Easy Grammar - Days 13-16 (C) & Days 13-18 (S)

✶ Poetry Unit Study - Haiku & Tanka (C)

✶ Spelling Power - List 19 (C) & List 9 (S)

✶ Saxon - Lessons 27-29 (C) & Math-U-See - Test 9, Lesson 10A-D  (S)

✶ Life Science - Chapter 3: Genetics/Heredity (C) & Chapter 7: Tundra and Deserts (S)

✶ NROC U.S. History: Lesson 16-17

✶ Extras: Biking, Hiking, Kayaking, Cooking Meals, Animal Care

People and Places

✶ Drive-in Movies (C/S) ✶ Boy Scout Camping & Kayaking (J) ✶ Girl Scout Bake Sale (C/Mom) ✶ Cub Scout Popcorn Sale (S/Mom) ✶ Jazz & Concert Band (C) ✶ Cub/Boy Scouts (J/S) ✶ Open House (J/Mom) ✶ T__ Lake ✶

Our Favorite Thing

Wonderful warm weather! So, we loaded up the kayaks, packed up a lunch and headed to the lake for some paddling. It won't be long before paddles are replaced with shovels!

We saw a pair of Great Blue Herons up-close. The herons kept flying over our heads as we paddled through the shallow inlets. I didn't have my dSLR with me. As the family member voted most likely to flip a kayak, the camera is safer on-shore. :wink: But this photo I snagged on-line.

Please note copywrite. Photo by Coleta Air & Space Museum

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The Homeschool Mother's Journal: The One That Starts Bi-Weekly Wraps

In My Life This Week

I decided to start doing these wrap-ups every other week until fall. It's SUMMER, right? Although I do LOVE these, I also love spending LONG days at the lake with the kids, picnicking, kayaking, swimming, reading. So, that's where you'll find us. :wink:

On this day at the lake, Cati found a friend to hang out with...and to cover a BROTHER up with sand. And Sam used his slip-ons as BOATS. Imagination!

And Grandpa and Nannie Lobster drove down for a visit and got right to work on some household repairs. I'm not very handy with a saw or drill. They fixed up our broken kitchen drawers and painted.

Things I Worked On

The entry closet! Although you REALLY can't see a HUGE difference, I removed 2 STUFFED trash bags of, well, trash, and another 2 of donates, and then organized everything. There's NOTHING on the top shelf now. Wonder what I'll store there? 

My boys have A LOT of hair. Serious hair. Giving them summer "buzzes" are a PROCESS. Sam finds the vibrations from the trimmer uncomfortable, painful even, due to his sensory challenges. The mention of a hair cut, well, sends him into a "tizzy". But we got through it! Phew! Can you feel the LOVE from my boys in these before-and-afters? :wink:

Homeschool Happenings

Sam spent COPIOUS amounts of time building with Legos. Whole afternoons just spent creating, quietly, intently. His spatial skills AMAZE me! (Click on the link below to see my post on his camper.)

We signed up for the summer reading program at the library. Woot! For the first time they have an ADULT program too, and I can't wait!

We watched "Parental Control", "RV" and "Life of Pi" from Netflix. Are we the only ones that don't like "Life of Pi"?

With the help of Nannie Lobster, Cati painted her room. Out with the pink, in with the yellow! She's growing up. :sniff: :sniff: She learned to spackle and repair walls, "cut in" with paint, and use a paint roller (without dripping it all over the floor). I'm going to surprise her with a new comforter set when she comes back from visiting family.

We went strawberry picking. 30 pounds of strawberries! That night we had strawberry shortcake for dinner. :wink:

And Cati had her softball championship game. They lost 10-11, but it was a GREAT game. Considering the other team beat ours by a lot ALL season, the girls didn't make it easy for them in the final. Poor Cate got hit by the ball though.

I suppose all this isn't very "school like", huh? :wink: But most CERTAINLY some valuable life skills.

Helpful Homeschool Hints

FREE! World's Greatest Artists Volume 1 PDF download from Confessions of a Homeschooler
FREE! Fascinating Science e-Book from I Can Teach My Child (requires e-mail subscription)

Places We Went, People We Saw

• Boy Scout Court of Honor Banquet (All) • Doctor/Lab (Me) • Softball (All) • Friends - S__ with E__ and N__, S with A__ and J__, and D__ • Grandpa and Nannie Lobster (All) • Boy Scout Yard Sale Fundraiser (J) • Lake (All) • Strawberry Picking (All) •

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A Peak at Our Week: The One With Rearranging and Thinking Ahead

In My Life This Week
Phew! We had some H-H-HOT temperatures for a number of days. 90+ degrees with high dew points! It was kinda miserable. And we don't have AC, just lots of fan. I was SO relieved that the rain arrived and cooled us down.

And my divorce become final. I started June as a newly divorced Mama. Some days it seems surreal and others too real. But either way, I march on.

On The Menu

SUMMERTIME IS SALAD TIME. So, on Saturday and Tuesday I made up salads: Chinese Chicken Salad, egg salad for sandwiches (because eggs are CERTAINLY in abundance now), pasta salad (made with ham and cheddar), tuna and pea pasta salad, macaroni and turkey bacon salad, and fruit salad (with cantaloupe and strawberries).  Our favorite salads made for QUICK lunches and dinners!

Hint: Assemble salads with lettuce without the dressing. Mix it in right before eating so it doesn't get soggy throughout the week. And anything crunchy? Add those before eating, too, to keep the crunch.

Homeschool Happenings
A declutter, reorganize and rearrange of the diningroom/school room. The room is only 10x10 so I moved the table under the window instead of floating in the middle, then relocated the desk/hutch and a bookcase against another wall. After going through our supplies, I organized them onto the shelves. I'd like to get some pretty boxes for supplies and a throw rug for the floor, but that's for another day.

I also started looking over next year's curricula and began making plans for our new daily schedule. It's fun to look ahead to the fall even though we have "the lazy days of summer" ahead. How are you doing with next year's planning?

Funny how just changing where things are makes them new and exciting again. Sam rediscovered the Magnetix and started building with them again. Magnets and a metal tin make for loads of fun!

Places We Went, People We Saw

♥ Mt. Washington Scout Camping (S) ♥ Kayaking/Swimming (J/C) ♥ Portfolio Reviews (J) ♥ Softball (C) ♥ Scouts (J) ♥ Clarinet/Band (C) ♥ 

Our Favorite Thing
We went on our VERY FIRST kayaking trip this weekend, a few hours spent paddling around the lake. We saw several families of Canada Geese and some Loons. Nothing more relaxing! (But we ended up with some sore muscles and sunburnt legs.)

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