Catching Up & Moving Along...

Summer has flown by so quickly! Next week, we'll be back in the thick of things, though we did manage to have a lot of fun the last couple of months.

Catching Up...

There's been fishing, hanging out in scenic spots, and -- for me -- trail running:

And a day at the local fair, thanks to a set of free tickets I won from the bank! We went on some rides, ate funnel cakes, gazed at the amazing flower show, and visited the animals!

I even have a classroom now! There's been continued truck work, and some random fun moments along the way.

Moving Along...

The Boy starts a stellar astronomy class next week, so we're shelving chemistry for now. The Girl has a new volunteer orientation coming up at the local wildlife rescue center, so fall will be spent studying and rehabilitating animals.

I start my new career next week! I have my first day planned, my syllabus written, and a few writing assignments designed/under design. And I start my own classes.

We'll start our full-on homeschooling after Labor Day. Our first read-aloud for literature will be Watership Down. For animal studies, The Girl will be reading various selections from our collection of vintage books, alongside numerous library books, and I think she and I will enjoy The Tarantula in My Purse and 172 Other Wild Pets. She and I will also work on turning our habitat plans into reality.

Hope your summers have been going well!

Whoops! Time Does Fly...

Lazing by a small river

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."
 ~ John Lubbock

Summer is fully upon us, and so I've been too busy to post! Not necessarily busy with practical things, but with enjoying life right now.

Swimming hole

Puppy petting

Fishing

Canoeing

Beach play

More beach play

One of the best places to be

We've also...

Gone swimming at one of my former co-worker's pool

Watched fireworks

Enjoyed a few movies

Eaten popsicles and crazy amounts of watermelon

Listened to a lot of music

Spent time playing games at the park with friends

Talked about planning and ideas for next fall

Skipped math lessons/practice too often (need to get back on the wagon here!)

It's been very, very good so far! I hope your summers are going equally well!

It's Friday! A General Wrap-Up for the Week...

I'd say this sums up pretty well how I'm feeling at the moment!

Overall though, it's been a good week. We made some good strides in homeschooling; I made it through both jobs and school once more; I didn't have a crazy appointment of doctor's visits (for my dad) on top of everything else; I kept the kitchen counters clean all week (yes, sadly that is a victory for me) and kept up on dishes; and I am having a blast planning out my front yard!

...Homeschooling Report...

This week, as part of our Downton history studies, we moved into season two, and so into World War 1. We watched half of World War 1: Cause and Effects, taking us up to 1916, which is where we are in the Downton timeline. We also read about the start of the war in The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia.

This weekend, I hope to get in one more episode of Downton, and perhaps the first episode of World War One: The People's Story.

Mathematically, we are doing quite well! The Boy completed 4 lessons in algebra this week, working with equations, variables, the order of operations, and more. The Girl did 3 chapters in Life of Fred Fractions, and two lessons from Math Essentials. 

The Boy completed lesson 2 in writing, and The Girl worked diligently on a new list of spelling words. She had to write a sentence for each word, and instead wrote sort of a This is the House That Jack Built tale (though not as long) about a chicken that went a bit crazy. 

Yesterday, I had them each read something scientific while I was at work, and then narrate it to me when I got home. The Girl talked about chameleons, and The Boy about eyesight. He and I also watched an episode of Through the Wormhole, about black holes.

Next week's plans:

More math (at least 4 lessons for each kid)

 Lesson 3 in writing for The Boy; another spelling lesson for The Girl

Some freewriting for both

Another couple of Downton episodes

More free-range learning in science, plus a (short) hands-on science lesson with a book I just ordered

More on World War 1 and the Romanovs

And finishing up A Wrinkle in Time! 

...Household/Gardening Report...

 I wrote the other day about gardening plans for my front yard, and wasn't quite sure what to do with the larger "half" of the yard, except that I want it to tie in with the smaller half, which I can already picture as complete. Then, I thought about my mom's front yard, which my sister re-did for her last year, putting in a fabulous dry stream... In case you're not familiar with dry streams, this is what they look like...

Pretty, isn't it?

So I think I will do that, kind of winding through, past the two boulders. On either side, I'll have a crazy-quilt patchwork (large-scale patches) of creeping thyme, lamb's ear, etc. Around the fenced corner of that section, I'll keep the rosemary and French lavender I have now, though I'll be removing the overgrown and shabby-looking Spanish lavender (my brother-in-law planted them, and they're not my favorites). Maybe some more French lavender, maybe some fern-leaf lavender (which I love), some bulbs tucked in here and there for spring blossoms, and a few other pretty things. 

I know it sounds like a lot, so here's my 5 minute sketch...

I think this could come together really nicely.

I hope.

And then, this weekend I'm tackling the first task in
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, which is clothing. I was going to do books first, but M will be at work tomorrow (new job!), so it seems a perfect time to drag all the clothing in the house together.

...Odds and Ends...

I need to come up with a menu plan for the upcoming week, and grocery list. I plan for Monday as a crockpot day, Wednesday as a quick and easy dinner day (stir-fry works well), and I generally do something like a casserole on Thursdays, as M or The Boy can pop it in the oven while The Girl and I are at her roller derby practice.

I'll be figuring out what to read aloud after A Wrinkle in Time.

The Girl and I will almost definitely be petting puppies again tomorrow. 

I'm going to try to get the kids out for a bike ride too. And I need to do some strength training. I'm down almost 15 pounds now! I had lost a bunch of weight a few years back, but in the fashion typical of crash dieters, I gained almost all of it back. Grrrr. This time, I'm simply eating healthfully, and exercising. What a concept!

As to M's new job, you remember he went into cooking quite some time back. And has sadly found, after several layoffs, that the culinary world is unpredictable (at least in terms of employment), and that it is less enjoyable than he hoped. He still loves cooking, at least at home, but needs full-time, steady employment. So he's returning to an earlier profession, and will start a trial run tomorrow at a wholesale nursery, working with plants, and gardeners, and the like. We are all really hoping that this works out well for him... he needs something he can depend on and enjoy! And he does miss working with growing things, and the smell of dirt, and being outside.

II think that's it for now. Happy weekend! I'll leave you with a totally random picture of one of my favorite things in my kitchen right now...

linked up over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

This, That, and the Other Thing...

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

The weather has been all over the place. Monday had a high of nearly 90 degrees! And today it is pouring. We did take advantage of the gorgeous weather earlier in the week to walk and bicycle...

And of course there has been some homeschooling. We've been enjoying reading about Rasputin and his strange ways (The Family Romanov: Murder, Rebellion, and the Fall of Imperial Russia)...

I even caught M listening in from the other room, when he said "I didn't hear that last part. Can you read louder?"

The kids have changed math up a bit again. The Girl was bored with just Math Mammoth/Math Essentials ("Can't math be at all fun?"), so we added in Life of Fred Fractions. I think a general Life of Fred/Math Essentials combo is fantastic, with Math Mammoth for any weak spots. The Boy was having issues with the explanations in Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1, so we're trying out TabletClass Algebra 1 (I think we should have gone with TC in the first place). TT works for a lot of kids, just not mine so much. Yes, switching now means a longer amount of time spent on Algebra 1, but we're okay with that.

Speaking of The Boy, he's developed a fascination with black holes. All week, he's been spouting off information about gravity, the collapse of stars, event horizons, etc. So I turned to my trusty library for some supplemental reading for him. Titles for him to browse through include:

A Briefer History of Time, Stephen Hawking 

Black Holes: A Very Short Introduction, Katherine Blundell

 and

Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide, Clifford Pickover

There are, of course, plenty of other titles on the subject, but I don't want to overwhelm him. And while I was searching through those, I found this title: 

 Death By Black Hole: and Other Cosmic Quandaries, Neil deGrasse Tyson

This last title looks fascinating for the whole family, though I may have to fight The Boy for it! Despite the title, it's really about a plethora of information on cosmology as a whole.

And thanks to a Kindle game, The Girl has followed in her brother's footsteps and is now fascinated with disease, so we'll be reading

Outbreak!: Plagues That Changed History

From there, maybe we could go into DNA, or ??? I had intended reading to the kids from this particular title (the Plagues one) anyhow, in regards to the Spanish Flu (and our Downton History).

I also found this gorgeous book at the library, just to thumb through for entertainment...


And we were given this amazingly awesome book by a friend...

...Besides Homeschooling and Exercise...

We're prepping for The Girl's THIRTEENTH birthday! Yes, soon I will have only teenagers. Geez, it goes fast!

I'm getting better with meal planning and prepping. I was very proud of myself for preparing components ahead of time for yesterday's crockpot turkey-three-bean chili!

The Girl and I will be heading off, in a couple of weeks, to the first baby shower she's ever attended. My cousin (10 years younger than me) is expecting her first child in April.

I entered a twelve week fitness challenge that starts the same day as the baby shower. I'm nervous, but excited!

Work is going well overall. I love working with students, and am looking forward to some possible changes in the fall (more on that later).

The Boy is really enjoying his auto internship. They spent the last two workdays sanding various parts, and taking things apart to sand them. Next week, I think they get to start putting things back together again!

And there is a new litter of puppies ready for some petting, so The Girl and I will have to head off and do that!

And there's derby practice, and fencing practice of course.

And I know I wrote a big post on scheduling, but I really, really love this schedule best (with longer time frames for math these days). Maybe, just maybe, I could create a mishmash of the two?

So that's what we're up to, and what we've been doing. I'll leave you with some wisdom I got yesterday from a simple tea bag...

A Wordless Wednesday... Volunteer Work...

Monday Musings... Done & To Do...

Outside My Window...
The rains have stopped for now, though they were record setting! Instead, it is now quite chilly, especially at night. The trees are mostly bare, but everywhere I look I see fresh green, thanks to the rain. Almost time to start dormant pruning (apple, cherry, olive)!

In Our Home and Kitchen...
We're working on creative leftover use a lot lately. Right now, we're slowly eating our way through the large ham that M baked up on Christmas Day. We've had ham in our scrambled eggs, a ham-and-potato hash, etc. Time to freeze the rest, I think! This week's soup is The Girl's favorite - potato leek.

I am prepping the house for the New Year. Some more decluttering, some good cleaning, all to get ready for the 52 Weeks To An Organized Home challenge!

What We've Been Up To...

Rainy day walks with some flooding

Solstice celebration with our park day friends (missing a few here)

Puppy petting volunteer work

A tour of the Christmas street... tons of lights, figures, music, and more!

And a Boxing Day hike on a nearby mountain

In Our Homeschooling...
I am slowly getting ready to start back up next week (Sunday actually). I have The Boy's math and writing stuff in place (simplifying once more!), and am putting together The Girl's materials. Her math is ready to go, but I need to order the writing book I decided to try with her (done!).

Reading...
We're ready to start The Hobbit at last! I decided, as we seem to have a harder time this year doing our read alouds, that we would drop all the extra ones and just focus on the books the kids actually requested, which specifically would be The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. If we can work in the extra books -- ones that inspired Tolkien, etc. -- then those will be a bonus. The Boy is still reading Scorch Trials, and The Girl is set to start The Hunger Games. I am reading Intuitive Eating and The Total Money Makeover. I may start His Dark Materials soon, as I have had that trilogy for some time, and have never read it!

Doing...
I am finishing up my scarf at last - yay! The Girl got 3.75 pounds of Sculpey clay for Christmas, so she has been very busy creating. The Boy is working on a new model car, and both kids are absorbed in the Wii Lego world of Harry Potter.

On the Agenda...
No fencing until next week, and no derby until late January. I'm still on vacation, so just my side jobs -- craft sewing and typing -- this week, in addition to cleaning, getting the budget done, etc. I'd still like to go see The Hobbit, and the kids and I are going to a musical over the next weekend!

A Week of Service...

This wasn't a week of math, science, and writing/reading. Instead, it ended up being a week of work and service, which I think was an ideal thing to happen the week before we give thanks for everything we are lucky enough to have.

On Tuesday, the kids helped my mom at the food bank, setting up Thanksgiving food bags for those who need them. The Boy said it was a lot of hard work, but both kids assured me it was worthwhile. They helped cart around flats of cans, boxes of dried goods, bags of fresh produce, and so on, getting everything set up so that the volunteers could all fill bags easily for Sunday's donation slot.

And yesterday, they assisted my sister's class with ice skating. You see, my sister is a teacher for a small class of severely disabled kids (medically fragile), and as part of her approach to teaching, she loves to take them out to enjoy various activities, one of them being ice skating. We are fortunate that the local ice skating rink is willing to set aside some special time for them to enjoy this activity. This time, my kids went, and helped push some of the students around on the ice, getting a free skating session in return...

As you see, many of the students are in wheelchairs, so classroom assistants (and my kids) pushed them around the rink! The students love it. The Boy and The Girl loved it too. They said they genuinely liked hanging out with all these (older) kids, and they'd love to help my sister again. Plus, a student's mom bought everyone lunch from In-n-Out Burger, and my kids almost never get fast food, so that was a bit of a treat for them!

And this morning, my kids are back at the food bank, finishing sorting/moving produce for the Thanksgiving bags. Then, this afternoon, The Girl has her orientation for puppy petting!

While we may have gotten very little book work done this week, I think what my kids have accomplished is just as good and important. And we did get a little schooling done -- we read Andrew Lang's version of the story of Sigurd and Brynhild, as well as East O' the Sun, West O' the Moon for our cultural/geography studies. We read about the Renaissance period and Revolutionary times in Poop Happened, and got through another good chunk of The Marvellous Land of the Snergs. The Boy [re]watched the first episode of Cosmos, and The Girl watched another episode of Life in the Undergrowth. We did math one day (yes, one).

And this weekend, The Girl will help me make Swedish meatballs, a cucumber salad, and an almond cake, to enjoy while we watch The Golden Compass (okay, I know it is not truly a "Scandinavian" film, but it has many aspects of Scandinavian fairy tales and folk lore). The Girl at least, if not all of us, will watch Families of Sweden too. And the kids are ready to settle down to a few days of book work in the upcoming week!

Monday Musings...

Another month is flying by! I swear I don't know where the time goes.

What We've Been Up To...
Yesterday, The Boy tried out volunteer work at a local community bike shop. M took him there (on bicycle, naturally) and hung out/volunteered too. The Boy came home looking like this...

So I think it was a success! He also smelled of grease -- apparently he spent the hour and half taking apart hubs.

The Girl found out yesterday that she made the roster for the teen derby team. She may or may not play in the game later this month, since she is new to the roster, but just being on there made her a happy girl! She and I also watched 13 Going On 30, which was a lot of fun.

Outside My Window...
Cool, overcast mornings lately, and then fairly cool afternoons with some sunshine. The apple tree is still blooming, but the cherry tree has finished. There's no rain showing up in the extended forecast, much to my dismay.

In the House and Garden...
Our dwarf peach has baby peaches already! The Swiss Chard also made a sudden comeback, and my artichoke plants, put in last year, are thriving. We're cleaning out the garage these days, and I am getting myself mentally prepared to clean out more of our books. We're hoping to put in tomatoes, peppers, and maybe some squash over the next couple of weeks. I also want to get going on building a salad box for mixed greens.

In Our Homeschooling...
We'll be reading about Buddhism this week in The Human Odyssey, and I have a couple of Demi's beautiful books to compliment this chapter. We did start The Adventures of Rama, but it wasn't quite what we hoped, so back to the library it went! We started enjoying a fairy tale each day from The Blue Fairy Book, after I read this post. And starting with a fairy tale is a lovely way to start each school day! The Girl will be moving on in Knowing Mathematics, and I have to say, if you want/need to make sure a child's 4th/5th/6th grade math skills are pretty solid, this is a great, and fairly quick, way to make sure they are! I can actually see the facts getting cemented somehow. The Boy will keep going with Challenge Math, though he also wants to work with Alcumus this week. And there will be writing, and reading work, etc.

Reading and Watching...
Of course we'll watch the next Cosmos episode this week, and I want to start watching our HHMI videos. We're continuing with The Wind in the Willows, an absolute delight, and perhaps finally finishing those biographies. I think we might watch Little Buddha (again) for family movie night.

What I Am Thinking About...
Getting ready for fall! Well, homeschooling in fall specifically. I am looking longingly at Journeys Through Bookland, specifically volumes three and five, and am trying to decide if I really need them or not. Would that just be too much?

On the Agenda...
I have only five weeks of classes left this semester. while I have certainly enjoyed this semester more than the last one, I am also relieved that my break is coming up soon! Fencing, school, maybe more derby practices (she should be going twice a week soon)... the action never stops!

Have a good week!

Being Involved...

As my kids (gulp) get older, I think a sense of community involvement is important. So recently we started looking for volunteer opportunities that would suit each of them. Yes, I know many schools around here don't require community involvement until high school, but when there are great opportunities, why wait?

So for The Girl, whose dream since age 2 has been to be a veterinarian, I found a service-dog, puppy-petting project. What animal-loving child would not want to pet puppies? I emailed them immediately, and we've been placed on the list for the next litter or two, which may not be until summer, but it is still something to look forward to! And yes, since she's under the age of 16, I get to pet puppies with her (no complaints there!).


And then for The Boy, there was no interest in petting puppies, which I understand. He likes animals just fine, but isn't the type to get all hyped up about them. Instead, M suggested he try volunteering at a local non-profit, which offers bicycles and all their parts at low prices, along with training in bike maintenance. We went in, and talked to the owner in person, and he said The Boy can just come in any time they are open to volunteer! The Boy is really excited about this, and has been studying bicycle repair ever since, with the aid of a library book.

Do you volunteer in your community? Is community involvement part of your homeschool plan? Eventually, The Boy hopes to do some automotive-related volunteering/an internship, when he's older, and The Girl would like to volunteer at the local wildlife rescue facility. We've done some work at a food bank, baked cookies for a women and children's shelter, donated clothes to homeless shelters, and been Secret Santas most years, but this feels different, more targeted at what my kids love while still helping out.