The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week...

we've all been battling sickness.  The girls have all had fevers at some point over the last 7 days.  Madalyn ended up with strep throat.  Annagrace had an episode of vomiting after going out to eat for her birthday.  Now I've had a cold and a sinus headache for the better part of the last two days. 

I was able to host a Mama's Night/Wii Dance Party on Monday.  It was so much fun (even though half of the invitees had to cancel at the last minute due to sickness in their own families!).  

I also enjoyed a Mom's Day Out on Wednesday.  Aaron took the day off work and I was able to go to the gym in the morning, out to lunch with a friend (a Thai place that was new to both of us...the Pad Thai was sooooo good), and then out shopping in the afternoon.  

In our homeschool this week...

it's been a low key week.  We've done some schoolwork here and there.  Madalyn learned about penguins this week.  Even if we didn't accomplish a lot "on paper" we did read a lot of books this week!  

Places we're going and people we're seeing...

Our field trip that was planned for Tuesday was cancelled because Madalyn had strep throat (and my friend Catherine, who we were suppose to meet up with, also had a sick baby that day).  However, I was blessed with four free tickets to a dance performance at East Carolina University on Wednesday.  Annagrace was having two friends spend the night (both homeschooled girls...hence the ability to have a mid-week sleepover on a school night!) so I took all three girls.  It was fantastic!  I envy those lithe dancers.  They are so graceful and they amaze me with their abilities! 

Today we finally made it back to the ECU library.  I had been avoiding going there because I owed a pretty hefty late fee!  I sucked it up and paid it today and then I remembered why we love that library so much.  The book selection puts our local public library to shame!  We checked out tons of books about kangaroos which Madalyn will begin studying on Monday!

My favorite thing this week was...

My Mom's Day Out.  Since I work weekends and then homeschool Monday-Friday it is rare that I actually get a day off and to myself.  I love my children but I think all mama's need a break from time to time!  I looked forward to this day for weeks and it was such a nice day to have some alone time!   

What's working/not working for us...

Well, we stopped using Teaching Textbooks for math recently and we are just now "gently" starting to add some math back into Annagrace's day.  I'm not sure what we need to do at this point so for now we are just doing worksheets off the internet, using math in the everyday (today we figured up how many passengers can ride the Loch Ness Monster at Busch Gardens each hour), and teaching Madalyn to recognize her numbers 1-100. 

I revamped my lesson planning book and started using a new notebook that holds only my lesson plans and unit study info.  I am using some forms from Donna Young that allow me to plan out six weeks at a time.  I also can write out goals for each three week segment.  It has helped me to be more focused on the here and now and not so overwhelmed about the future.  If I can plan three weeks at a time then I consider that success! 

I also have decided to go back to a four day school week (like we did last year) and we'll have school almost year round.  We'll take the entire month of July of and continue to have multiple week long breaks throughout the school year.  My kids don't really mind this and I love that we can take a day off on a whim pretty much any time that we like during the year.   

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

I've been reading two books this week about the education of children.  One of them is the very popular homeschooler's guide to classical education, The Well Trained Mind by Susan Bauer and Jesse Wise.  I tried to read it when we first started the homeschooling journey and honestly was not really a fan.  I've never subscribed to any one style of education and this is geared strictly to classical educators.  However, on my second read through I have gleaned some very good things and I'm planning to buy the book so I can underline and write thoughts in it to my hearts content. 

Secondly, I've been reading The Educated Child by William Bennett.  Though this book is geared more towards parents with children in the public (or private) school system, there are some really great guidelines for what children should be learning at their different levels.  I always worry, "Are we learning enough?" and this book has settled my fears as I realized that we are right on track with where we should be.  I'll be honest though...I think it would be rare to find ANY school (public, private, or homeschool) that would meet all the criteria that the authors put forth in this book.  

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

Someone posted this on facebook and it is just adorable!