Business Cards and Baklava - The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week:  I'm struggling to find ways to achieve BALANCE.    I am increasingly spending more time on my blog (a good investment, in my opinion), submitting writing to outside sources, and doing reviews for The Homeschool Village and a few independent giveaways.  It's turning into a small business!  Yikes!    To that end, my friend Tracey at Little Bitty Blogs made this business card for me.  Don't you love it?  I can't wait to use these -- especially when I'm being a homeschool ambassador!  

This week was also very scary, as we spent some time Wednesday evening in our basement while the tornado sirens were blaring.   We were just fine, but I know of several people in our homeschool group who either have loved ones who lost homes, were injured, or one whose brother-in-law was killed.  My heart and prayers go out to all of the storm victims. 

In our homeschool this week:  One word:  GREECE.  We are all things Greek this week.  We had a Greek dinner at Athena's last night and the kids tried Baklava (which they loved!).  We are reading Black Ships Before Troy and I am amazed at how much they are loving this retelling of The Iliad.  I love Story of the World.  

Places we're going and people we're seeing:    Would you believe I can't remember?   Actually, I do know we had some tball games.  It's that time of year!  My daughter and I also went to a local nursing home and learned about volunteer opportunities.  We will be going to play the piano for the residents in the memory care section.  Miss B sat down and played a little for them and I had a hard time not crying as I watched her sharing her gifts.  It made the residents so happy.  

My favorite thing this week:    At our homeschool group book sale on Monday I made $50 selling books.  Woohoo!  I also picked up two Latin programs for a total of $17.  Score!

What's working/not working for us:    My youngest is starting to sit for longer periods of time during read-alouds and I have come up with a way to increase his attention span.  He sits with me and follows along - when I stop he tells me where I am (sometimes I get lost, you know!).   I make a big deal out of the fact that he always knows where we are in the book, and he has been sitting for a long time listening.

Homeschool Questions/Thoughts I Have: I'm still debating which math program to use for my oldest next year.  She is currently using Horizons and I love the rigor and mastery, but it's a lot of work on me.  I've heard so much about Teaching Textbooks, but I've also heard it runs a grade behind.  Can anyone give me any words of wisdom?

A photo to share:  Miss B, enjoying her Baklava so very much!

*Hop over to The Homeschool Chick to read other mom's journals this week!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal - Spring Fever!

In my life this week: I've definitely felt the need for a spring break! In fact, we took off today because no one's heart was in homeschooling today, least of all mine! Our official "Spring Break" isn't for two more weeks, but it just may come early. It's baseball season again here, so our schedule will get busy. It is all worth it, though, when I see how much my son LOVES baseball and how much our whole family participates. I am thankful that my daughter has a good friend whose brother is on the same team, so practices and games are always lots of fun.

Getting a little deeper, I dealt with a couple of difficult people this week. It has taken me forty years to realize some people are not happy unless they have DRAMA in their lives. I am so NOT a drama person, so I don't deal with it well (whether it is through email or in person). Just as I was feeling discouraged I got a very sweet email from a homeschool mom I admire greatly - it made me realize I need to get better about tuning out the "noise" and focusing on the truly important things. I am not obligated to be friends with people who are hurtful to me. I enjoyed a pep-talk from an experienced blogging friend. She sent me encouraging scripture and put everything into perspective for me.

In our homeschool this week: We tied up a lot of loose ends this week. The kids spent a ton of time with our hermit crab, Harry (I'm amazed at the appeal of this crab!). We continued reading "The Wonder Clock" and working our way through The Story of the World. I ordered Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad for us to begin soon. It feels like we are really sinking our teeth into something great with this curriculum. I love classical homeschooling! GMan began addition with carrying and he was SO excited about it. I told him he was bound and determined to make me run out of money buying math books, so he has been working furiously to make me "go broke". I love it! Miss B is working on a book about a fairy that travels through each of the seasons. We haven't worked a lot formally on writing, but I was so proud of her work. It is so true that lots of reading produces good writers!

Places we're going and people we're seeing: Wednesday we went to see a production of The Pirates of Penzance by The Atlanta Opera. It was a wonderful show, but it provoked a lot of thinking on my part about something very different than opera. I posted about it here. Maybe you can help me with my questions. We also had co-op on Thursday - next week is the last in our session and we will all be sad. Today we met a dear friend from church for breakfast and then checked out a new place nearby - The Fresh Market. Quite nice - I picked up a good bottle of wine for dinner tonight and some fun things for dinners next week, along with fresh blueberries and raspberries. My goal was to spend less than $50 and I succeeded!

My favorite thing this week: I really enjoyed spending time this week talking about books and reading with my husband. He is in love with iBooks and the Kindle for iPad app and has been staying up a little later than usual reading. I love to read, so we've been comparing notes. My kids are book/reading junkies, too. We are a house full of nerds!

What's working/not working for us: I'm relaxing our mornings a bit by not pushing the kids so hard to get started on academics so early morning. We are usually done with breakfast and devotions by 9 and then dive into things. I used to think we had to start by 8 a.m., and everyone was crabby and not too agreeable. What difference does an hour make? The extra hour also gives me a chance for a second cup of coffee and a little more cleaning around the house.

Homeschool Questions/Thoughts I Have: My oldest needs more accountability. I'm not quite sure how to achieve that. If you can give me some advice I'd appreciate it! She is a smart girl, but lacks initiative (is this typical for the age?), and it's driving me BONKERS! I know I'm very hard on her (if you know me, you're vigorously nodding your head in agreement!) and standards are high. It's especially difficult when my six year old is motivated to do everything. I have polar opposites living in my house.

A link to share: Click here to see a trailer for the new "Mr. Popper's Penguins" movie starring Jim Carey. Really? I can't wait to see this. We loved the book, so I wonder what the movie will be like!

A photo to share: This is from six years ago today, but it makes me smile. My children (on most days) have this kind of relationship - Miss B is the nurturing mother and GMan is that giggling little boy by her side. I love it that they have each other.

*Hop over to Hip, Homeschool Moms to read other mom's journals this week!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week: BUSY BUSY BUSY! Tomorrow is Federation, a national instrumental competition. I have six piano students participating, and my daughter is also competing. Students have to play two pieces from memory for a judge, then they receive critiques. It is a wonderful experience for them. I will work the event all day and there's a lot of nerves that go along with the day. I love the day, but I will be worn out tomorrow night! Sometimes it is a bit hard working a part time job and homeschooling, and this is one of those times. I keep in the back of my mind, however, that I love piano and I love my students - and the income I make provides a lot of extras for our family. And, it's just cool having music in the house all the time!

My little guy has been sick since Tuesday so we have been taking it easy for his sake. I don't know what I would do without my husband who is so flexible and generous. He adjusted his work schedule yesterday so my daughter and I could go to co-op and he could stay home with GMan.

In our homeschool this week: GMan almost has the poem, Mr. Nobody (from FLL) memorized. He illustrated it and sent his copywork to grandma - a big project for him. Miss B is working on Adverbs in Easy Grammar. She also finished an Amelia Earhart biography this week. Math, History, Spelling, and all other subjects went on as usual. The kids begged me (like they usually do!) to read extra chapters in The Story of the World. I think the kids' favorite thing this week was working on our Sunny Seashells Download 'n Go unit study using the seashells we found at the beach two weeks ago.

Today I'm declaring it a SNOW DAY! There is no snow on the ground, but back in January when all of the school kids were out for five days due to the ice we kept on schooling. Therefore, today is our snow day. Ahhhh..........

Places we're going and people we're seeing: Monday we went to The Fabulous Fox Theatre in downtown Atlanta to see Seussical the Musical. We rode with friends of ours, so all of the kids had a great time to and from, and the moms got a chance to talk! The show was very good - we downloaded the Broadway recording of the musical when we got home and have been listening this week.

image courtesy Theaterworks, USA

My favorite thing this week: This has to be clothes shopping with my almost ten year old yesterday. We had a chance to spend some time alone since daddy was home with GMan. She is getting to be such a young lady and has particular ideas about things. We stuck to our budget and had fun trying on outfits. The "tween" is quite an interesting species, I must say - so I'm gearing up for the years to come!

What's working/not working for us: This week I tried to put history on two days and science on two days. When we try to get to everything in one day it never works! Yesterday was most successful, and we just focused on math, grammar, Bible and geography --- my children's attention spans are longer as they get older and I think scheduling like this will work.

Homeschool Questions/Thoughts I Have: I don't really have any questions this week.... I'm just so happy to be able to bounce a lot of questions and ideas off of the awesome group of moms at our co-op. Yesterday we talked about keeping the house clean and navigating the tween years. I'm so thankful to be part of this community!

A photo to share: One night when GMan wasn't feeling well I gave him a box of foam beads I had gotten at Wal-Mart for $1, some purple thread, and a big needle. He spent a long time stringing beads and made all of us bracelets. He's not usually my crafty guy, so I was glad to see him doing this. I just love a good bargain!





*Hop over to Hip, Homeschool Moms to read other mom's journals this week!