Weekly Wrap-Up: Getting Back Into the School Groove

I realize the weekend is pretty much over, but I'm posting my weekly wrap-up anyway. Just because I like to do it. It's always fun to look back over the week and see what we've been up to and what's been accomplished.

It's hard to believe that it was just a week ago when we welcomed 2012! This week has been so busy for me that seems like a month ago-ha!

On New Year's Eve we celebrated with the kiddos at home with some pizza and games. New Year's Eve is definitely different after children come along, isn't it? ;) Different is good though!

We played several games, but a new favorite is a little one that I put in Mr. B's stocking for Christmas called Story Cubes. What a fun little game! It's all about telling a story and using your imagination. I plan to use this for school writing exercises.

We started back to school on Tuesday. (I needed Monday to regroup from the weekend and do some lesson planning and organization in our Learning Room). It has been a very productive week school-wise, too.

Now the first couple of days were a bit rough for The Princess who just wasn't ready to do school work again. She took for-ev-er to do her math the first day back and then almost forever to do her grammar on the second day back. However, when she found that I would not let her roll any work over to the next day and that what was on the schedule MUST be completed that day, she did her work in a much more timely manner the rest of the week.

In the past I've allowed her occasionally (when the day was getting rough) to simply finish "later", generally the next day. Well, no more Mr. Nice Guy, so to speak. I know, I'm so mean. Oh, well. I'm okay with that. It looks like this rule is going to work out well though.

We stayed the course in Bible, Math, Grammar, Reading, Handwriting and Science. In History, we've been enjoying a break from our books with a movie guide on Ben Hur. It actually fits in with the period of history we are studying so it's been perfect. I also introduced our composer and artist for January: Mozart and Rembrandt.

It's been a very good week of homeschool!

(our herb light box--coming a long nicely!)

This week has also included LOTS of puppy time! I have to say homeschooling with a puppy is a bit of a challenge. I'd forgotten just how much work puppies are--and how distracting they are--but they're so worth it. We all adore her, she is just a little furry ball of sweetness!

And now I'm looking forward to another great week of homeschooling! Our new Co-op begins this week and we are excited about that.

One Way I Refresh During the Summer as a Homeschool Mom

As our homeschool takes some time off this summer, my mind almost never stops thinking of and planning ahead for the upcoming school year. This is probably because I'm Type A and an obsessive planner...lol Whatever the reason, I do enjoy this season of planning. But I also need to be refreshed as a homeschool mom. Homeschooling can be incredibly exhausting and all-consuming. It's not easy and it's a lot of responsibility. And I take that very seriously when I am researching curriculum and planning toward the next school year. So also taking some time to rejuvenate and refocus myself is very important. How do I do this? Each summer I take some time to read something inspiring and motivating that speaks to me as a homeschool mom. Some of my fave reads from past years--that I have nearby on my shelf and refer to often--are Educating the Wholehearted Child, The Well-Trained Mind, The Charlotte Mason Companion, A T...

The Making of an Egyptian Death Mask

We are learning all about the ancient world this year with Story of the World I and loving it! We've been learning a lot about Egypt, of course, which is completely fascinating. Most recently we have studied the New Kingdom of Egypt, which includes the story of King Tut. So we decided making an Egyptian death mask in the style of King Tut's would be a fun project. First since it was too cold at the time to paper mache in the garage (it probably would have frozen instead of dried-ha) and it was too messy to do it in the house, we decided to pick up a couple of cheap craft masks at Hobby Lobby. Next we cut out cardboard shapes to complete the shape of the death mask, attaching them with hot glue. Vince even put a little detail on the *beard* with the hot glue per The Princess' request. Then the kiddos started to paint them with this metallic gold tempera paint. It worked okay for the cardboard, but would not coat the plastic of the mask. We thought maybe a second coat ...

Door Hanger Chore Charts

My kids have had a chore chart for a while. It's one of those magnetic boards and they share it. However, it's not by their rooms and often they (and I) forget to update it. Plus it's a little bulky. When I saw the concept of a door hanger chore chart on Pinterest, I loved it! It was compact, right there were the kiddos could see it coming out and going into their rooms, and it costs almost nothing to make. I headed over to one of my favorite stores: Hobby Lobby, of course. They have these little wooden door hangers for .79. I also grabbed a couple of packets of decorative buttons for $1.99 each. I already had the clothes pins and the paint so those cost me nothing. I began by painting the door hangers (I used tempera paints because that's what I had). Then I grabbed a fine point Sharpie and the clothes pins and started writing chores on them, making sure to write them correctly so they will ...

my blessed life

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