Wrapping Up the School Year and Some Blogging Thoughts

A celebratory lunch at Steak 'N Shake... Granddaddy treated us for a job well done!

It was officially our last week of school.... now I have a first and fifth grader!   Where does the time go?   This was the first year where I had BOTH children at home and I am pleased with the way things went.  Of course there are things I will change, but I feel so blessed to have gotten to know my children's learning styles in and out, and so blessed that our family has come closer together.    Since we are schooling year round, this week was just spent wrapping up some loose ends.   We continued with math, history, grammar, etc... as usual.  

   

GMan finished First Grade in First Language Lessons.  His sister helped him practice his poems this morning, and this evening after dinner he recited them for dad.    I love what this program has done for him, and in two weeks will continue with Second Grade.   If you use this curriculum, or are thinking about it for next year, you need to download the printables from Homeschool Creations.  They are great!  

Miss B completed a lapbook to go along with The Trellis and the Seed, which I found at Homeschool Share.   We have been gardening a lot, so I've noticed a lot of learning going on in this subject.   Lapbooking really speaks to her - I give her the printed sheets and instructions in a ZipLoc bag and each day we have lapbook time.  This is a great independent activity for her.    I've started having the kids "narrate" their lapbooks to make videos and they love it!  

The highlight of the week was going to see The Atlanta Braves play... but before the game GMan's team (The Yankees) played a pre-game show in the outfield.   There's my little guy (#4) having the time of his life.   The Braves were milling around in the outfield with the boys - very cool!    We watched a great baseball game.  Too bad all the other kids had to leave early because they had SCHOOL the next day - NOT US!   We stayed until the bitter end and slept in the next day.  I love homeschooling!

Last weekend and this weekend are taken up with piano recitals... first a recital last weekend with Miss B's piano teacher and her students.   This weekend it is a recital for my students.  We went to the music store where the recital will be held to finalize some details and Miss B spent a lot of time just trying all of the pianos.  She loves music so much!    Click on the video to listen to her play ~ it is truly what she loves to do!  

I know a lot of homeschool families are starting to make curriculum decision for next year.   We are not changing much - actually we are adding Latin and a new writing program.   Everything we do is recommended in The Well Trained Mind, so I think we are moving much more toward the Classical end of the spectrum.  The children's Writing With Ease workbooks came and I had them unbound and put into notebooks.  This way I can copy the pages as we need them and reuse or resell them the following year.    I'm so excited about now using First Language Lessons, The Story of the World, and Writing With Ease.   

When I started blogging over a year ago, my main goal was to apply for The Old School House review crew and be accepted.  I am happy to report that I achieved my goal, and was notified this past week that I will be on the 2011-12 crew!  This is going to be a wonderful opportunity for my family.    Sadly, I won't be reviewing for The Homeschool Village (because you can't do two things at once!), but I want everyone who reads this to visit The Homeschool Village and check out everything they have to offer.  It is a wonderful online community with so many talented writers.    Their current post (Year #2 Direction:  Less = More) really resonates with me right now.   


I still want to post about everything we're doing (because I think this is the way we all learn from each other), but many of my posts will be reviews.    I hope you'll find some things you can use through these reviews.  I found SEVERAL great things for my children by reading TOS reviews this past year. 


Since I started the Homegrown Learners Facebook page I've made a lot of great friends, and I think we have all helped each other with curriculum decisions and just life's issues in general.  If you haven't connected with me on Facebook, please feel free to visit!  I'm also on Twitter, but am feeling the need to really scale back there - I cannot effectively balance everything!   This blog is not a money making venture for me, and I don't want to monetize or look for sponsors, etc...   I meet wonderful moms and sometimes review great products for myself and my children, but sometimes I honestly feel like the blog is a part time job.   That's crazy, because I already have one of those!   


I'm going to be unplugging for the next couple of weeks - maybe a post every few days, or maybe no posts at all.   As a friend told me earlier in the week - I'm just a drop in the blogging bucket, and if I didn't blog for a while most people would forget my blog ever existed and I would be replaced ~ I can't say the same about my job as a wife, mother, daughter, friend and church member!    


Wow, this turned out to be much more than a weekly wrap-up.  If you have any thoughts, let me know!!    *** If you notice, I now have Disqus as my commenting system - there is still a problem with the Blogger comment counter that I need to work out, but other than that I really like it!  

*Linking up to Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for The Weekly Wrap-Up

The Week of Outdoor Schooling

Only FIVE MORE OFFICIAL DAYS OF SCHOOL!

This past week was just too beautiful to stay inside....

           too beautiful to stick to the schedule 100%...

                    so we spent most of it outside!

TONS of bike riding was done, because now there are two children in our house who don't have training wheels.  We rode in the cul-de-sac to perfect our skills.  I guess you could call this PE, but whatever it was, the children had FUN and were worn out every day!

 In the middle of the week we took a long nature hike.  Using Crinkleroot's Guide To Knowing The Trees, we identified different Deciduous trees and Conifers, too.  If you would like a basic guide to trees, this is a wonderful reference.    I had been wanting to do this with the children for quite a while, because my knowledge of this was quite weak, until we studied it together!

There was a quiet pavilion by the lake where we collected leaves and identified them.  We saw two woodpeckers on a tree very close to us, and in the lake we saw lots of turtles and huge frogs.   

 

 We tried to take note of all the interesting things we saw on our walk... this log with everything growing out of it won the prize.

 No trip to this particular nature area would be complete without finding the "Mule's Head" carved into the rock... we had to stop here for a little snack.

 On Wednesday we made a dinner for a family who had lost a loved one in the recent tornadoes.  The kids requested I make Crunchy Jumble cookies as the dessert (with their assistance, of course).   We delivered the meal and were glad to do something (if ever so small) to help storm victims.   We need to find ways to do more.

We are almost finished reading Black Ships Before Troy: The Story of the Iliad... thankfully I had found these great character cards to go with the story.  I printed and laminated two sets, so as I'm reading aloud, the kids pull out the characters involved.  It cemented many parts of the story, and helped keep the many characters straight in their minds.   Since we have two sets they can also play Concentration with the character cards! They are LOVING history right now. 

 

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The week was culminated with a FIVE MILE bike ride around a local lake... I could not believe they went this far (especially my six year old), but with his sister cheering him on, he did it!   I had to take quick video of them at the very end.   As I was walking and watching them I had one of those moments where I just KNEW homeschooling is the right thing for us.  The children are growing so close to each other and I feel like we're living these precious years to their fullest.

 

 

Other accomplishments included GMan finishing his Horizons First Grade math book!   Second Grade will be here soon and he's ready to go.  Miss B is so close finishing Easy Grammar 4 - grammar is her favorite subject and we will continue with Easy Grammar 5 next year.  Miss B's piano recital is tonight and she has been practicing her heart out.  I can't wait to hear her, plus she is receiving a special award for three years of superior performances at the piano festival.  

We read (in just two sittings!), 26 Fairmount Avenue, by Tomie de Paola.   What a great book!  I ordered the next two in the series because we loved the first so much.  It was the kind of book that made us laugh out loud.  

In case you didn't enter the giveaway yesterday, it is a fabulous $65 subscription to Storyvalues Interactive.  Read the post here and enter to win - ends 8 p.m. Friday, May 6! 

I'm also linking up with Jen at Forever, For Always No Matter What!   

 

Highlights From The Week - With Lots of Links!

Another week is gone, and I love sitting down on Fridays to look back on what we have accomplished. No "formal" school took place Monday and Tuesday, and we eased back into our routine the rest of the week. Here are just a few highlights, and I've tried to include links and ideas that might help other homeschool moms reading this post!

Gardening: We planted part of our garden Thursday - just the zucchini, peppers and Marigolds. It will get finished this weekend once we have more soil and a little more time, too.

We started this Trellis & The Seed Lapbook from Homeschool Share. We love ANYTHING with the Magic School Bus, and this uses of their books, as well as other books about seeds! Next week we begin our Tops unit about seeds, so we will continue to build on this week's knowledge.

After planting for a few hours, I told my daughter, "I sure hope this stuff grows." She replied, "Even if it doesn't I don't care - because I had fun with you today." There you go. This is why I homeschool.


Reading: Our new read-aloud for Easter is Amon's Adventure - we sit each evening and read a chapter. The book takes a journey through Lent, culminating on Easter Sunday. I have heard the book is a staple.

We also read Dark Day in The Deep Sea (Magic Treehouse) to wrap up our shell study from the past two weeks. We own almost every Magic Treehouse book now, and I have to say both of my children have LOVED them. No matter what subject we talk about, they can reference a Magic Treehouse book.

A New Chore System: We have found a FABULOUS site, called My Job Chart. I will let you visit the site and see for yourself, but basically it is an online checklist of jobs for your children - they interact with the site to keep track of points and they can use points to earn rewards you put in place. My husband has been handling this. The kids LOVE using it, and they love the fact that once they check off their jobs they can send my husband or I a message. Mornings have been smoother - jobs get done right after breakfast and then a check-in at the computer. Evenings consist of more jobs, and a final check-in before bed. Brilliant. I want to hug whoever developed this site!

A Little Time for Mom: With spring break last week and a more relaxed week this week, I've been cultivating a few of my own interests. I finally got to participate in the Yarn Along blog hop -- check out my post! I was so inspired seeing other people's knitting, and also got some wonderful book ideas as well. This afternoon I've also had the entire afternoon to myself (a sweet friend of mine has both kids playing at her house) ~ I came home and made banana bread in the bread machine, straightened and dusted (a little), knit, and now I'm catching up on my blog. I am so blessed to have good homeschool mom friends who know when someone just needs a breather!

*Today, I'm linking up with Jen @ Forever, For Always, No Matter What. I enjoy reading Jen's blog - she is an inspiration to me. She's also part of the Five in a Row Blog Roll, which I am a part of as well. You know how much I love Five in a Row, and now you can see other bloggers that do, too!

Of course I'm also linking up with Kris for the Weekly Wrap-Up, too!

How was your week? I hope the links I gave were helpful ~ let me know if you try anything and how it works out!