Today...

 ...Twenty years...

...Two children...

...Lots of laughter, some tears, plenty of hugs, some arguing...

...Many more years to come!...

Monday Musings...

...Over the Weekend...

We headed to the coast for a sunset. One of my favorite things about living where we do is that the beach is only about 40 minutes away.

...Outside My Window...

It is really fall! We have bouts of rain, followed by days of clear, cold (for us) beauty. Sweaters, scarves, the occasional knit hat... all are coming out of storage at last. There is green poking up through the ground everywhere.

...In Our House & Kitchen...

I am really trying to be more on the ball with menu planning. And making good use of leftovers. For example, after our hike last week, we roasted up some turkey legs. The leftover meat went for turkey nachos after the beach visit, and then the bones will make a great stock for Friday's slow cooker soup, exact recipe to be determined.

And I'm having the kids do cleaning bursts every day. Even if they only spend 10-15 minutes at a time cleaning, it makes a huge difference. And while they're cleaning one area, I tackle another one. That reminds me, we need to clean out the rain gutters again while the sun is shining!

...In Our Homeschooling...

Yesterday we got off to a great start for the week. We read in our history book; read about the sun and seasons; and did math (The Boy got 96% on his first Teaching Textbooks test!). The Girl is making fantastic progress with Mastering Math Essentials (thank you Erin!)

The rest of this week, we plan to read another few chapters of history; start The Glorious Adventure; read some more of The Hobbit; do at least 3 more math lessons; and do some Brave Writer work. The Boy will be working on brainstorming for an essay/writing project, and he'll be crafting his thesis (I'll have him use Thinking In Threes for assistance with this); The Girl will do some copywork (probably poetry); and we'll do some freewriting. I also came across an old book in my bookshelves, called Practical Exercises in Basic English, that has some good exercises for The Girl.

...Art and Such...

Our artist this month is Pieter Bruegel the Elder, and here is what we have been looking at and/or will be looking at (as always, I just print these and hang them up on the fridge):

As far as art projects, I need to pull out a few of our instructional books, and choose something to do! I think we might make these Star Wars snowflakes to decorate the front windows for the Christmas season!

...Reading and Watching...
The Girl and I are just about finished with this lovely version of Cinderella. She's still reading The Marvelous Land of Oz, between nonfiction titles on various animals, and books of poetry. The Boy, in addition to reading his textbook for machine shop/tech, is still reading Dracula. As a family, we are reading The Hobbit, which I hope to finish in time to read Kringle before Christmas, then we'll tackle the Lord of the Rings trilogy in the new year.

We watched Dodgeball not long ago, when we all just needed something ridiculously funny. This week though, The Girl asked for the first installment of The Hobbit, "to compare and contrast it, Mom." And the kids discovered a new show on Amazon called The Olympians. Meanwhile, M and I are watching old reruns of The Practice... we do enjoy a good courtroom drama! And I am partway through season 4 of Parenthood. I only watch an episode or two a week, so it will take me a while to finish.

...Also on the Agenda...
Work, and work. No derby practice right now, so we're getting exercise other ways! The Boy is working on finishing an art project on his own for class, as well as a group project done on campus. The Girl is watching BBC videos (dinosaurs, I think) she found on YouTube (she was very proud and pleased that she found those!). I'm working on my seminar paper for the end of the semester. This week is we reach our twentieth wedding anniversary, so M and I will be heading to a dinner out!

Have a great week! And here's one last picture for you, from our hike last week...

Linked up over at the Coombe Mill blog

I Couldn't Stay Away Forever...

image courtesy of oakpointchristiancenter dot com

I decided I wouldn't let my own feelings get in the way of blogging the whole thing... the whole homeschooling experience. Besides, in the time I've taken off, I've been going through, removing some personal details, and I rekindled so much passion for what I'm doing through reading of all our adventures!

...What We've Been Up To...

The Boy is only a few weeks away from completing his first semester in junior college! He loves it, and is planning on another two classes in the spring, exact classes to be determined.

I'm almost done with my class as well, and am in the throes of figuring out my seminar paper.

The Girl is reading and writing of her own accord right now, and is studying amphibians and butterflies/moths. 

I've updated our Afternoon Basket

We've been working around the house. M put in half my new patio yesterday while the kids and I were at the park.

We hiked to the top of a local mountain. From the top, we could just see the ocean, about 24 miles away (it's the tiny bit of silver in the middle of the horizon).

  

We've watched some history documentaries, played some games, and truthfully spent too much time on our respective electronic devices. 

...Realizations...

In reading through so many of my old blog posts, I found that our homeschooling, etc., are lacking in the joy and interest we used to have. I am revamping things a bit, returning to some old ways, finding some new ones, because we all miss the connection we had then, when we weren't always all doing "our own thing".

image courtesy of plus google dot com

We haven't been reading much together, working much together, or getting a lot of our homeschooling done.

Part of it is the second job I took on. While the money is necessary, the time issues are bothering me. I need to make myself take more advantage of the time we do have to actually get us on track, and keep us there.

So I made up a goals sheet for myself for each week, and a log form for keeping track of what we do learn. Once I get homeschooling back in its place, I'll tackle housework again.

Baby steps.

image found on Pinterest

We may need to homeschool on weekends, or in the evenings. We may need to implement more audio books. I know we need to turn off devices more, earn the time playing computer games, get our hands dirty, gaze at the stars, go places, read books.

...How We're Planning on Homeschooling Now...

Math 4 days a week: Teaching Textbooks for The Boy, Mastering Math Essentials for The Girl

Writing 4 days a week: I am teaching The Boy about essays, and The Girl is working on general writing skills. Brave Writer is out main approach these days.

Read-Alouds 4 days a week: History (they're short chapters) daily; literature daily; Geography once a week; science twice a week; math reading once a week

Hands-on science once a week. This may line up with our reading, and may not, though I'm hoping to keep most experiments in line with our studies.

Art projects at least once a month. The Boy is taking an art class, and The Girl does a lot of art on her own, but I enjoy completing projects together.

...What We're Leaving Behind...

No computer based courses right now.

Fewer documentaries.

Fewer rabbit trails for the moment, although they are certainly free to explore whatever they want during their own time.

...Breathing Deeply...

I feel more focused than I have in a long time. The time away from thinking about homeschooling too much, and the re-reading of how much we used to enjoy learning together, really gave me room to get back to what we enjoy, how we learn best. Simplifying, cutting out the clutter, the noise.

I feel good!

Considerations...

Let me preface this discussion by saying that I feel this blog has become stagnant, a little forced at times. It feels cluttered and too multi-directional sometimes... I have too many thoughts going on. At the same time, I have so much history here, and I wanted, at least originally, to capture all our years of homeschooling here, especially as I have seen so many blogs fall by the wayside as the kids got older.

Right now I am unsure as to my plans for this blog. I may make it private (by invitation only), I may just post erratically... I am unsure. I am changing some information on it, bit by bit, to make it feel a little more private either way.

I am still keeping up with the blogs of others though!

Our lives at the moment have become a tad slower, and I am grateful for that. We're exploring learning in a more truly relaxed and, to us, more meaningful way, gradually piecing together how we want it to look and feel for us at this point.

Take care!