Two Week Winter Wrap-Up

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In my life this week… Winter has arrived, stormy and dangerous with heavy snowfalls and freezing rain.  Dangerous if you want to go out, that is, but perfectly fine for those who stay at home, inside.  Since the previous Thursday and Friday were too stormy for me to go grocery shopping, that’s what I did last Saturday morning instead of writing my weekly wrap up.  Now I remember why I don’t shop on Saturdays!  People were waiting for shopping carts, and we stood in line at the checkout for half an hour!

 
In our homeschool this week…These past two weeks have been good, but very busy.  We made some changes so that I now have a fair bit more work to do, but we’re all thriving and learning.

Miss 11 had spent a year and a half with Daily Grams, learning the basics of grammar in 5 minutes or less a day, and then two weeks with a little diagramming book.  Now she’s started the Rod and Staff Grammar series and is whizzing along at the rate of a chapter a week (instead of a chapter a month) since it’s all review for her.  She has even written the first two tests of her life!

Miss 9 is busy with ALEKS, her online tutor.  What a difference that is making!  She has two more weeks and if she keeps on at the current rate she will be ready for Key to Fractions after that.  Finally.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…You, personally, get out of it what you put into it.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… This is the at-home time of year.  Even so, in the past two weeks we had a birthday party, judo, catechism, a baby shower, shopping and library trips, and supper guests.  Mostly we travelled virtually while reading Kon Tiki and watching Edwardian Farm.

My favorite thing this week was… Oh, there were so many!

• When I explained the errors on his French test to Mr. 16 in French, and he not only understood but responded in French!
• Reading aloud after lunch:  The Secret Mission and Kon Tiki.
• Watching the Little Misses play outside in the sunshine all afternoon, sledding, ‘mountain climbing’, making snow and grass forts, and entertaining the dogs.
• Finding wild turkey tracks in the woods.  At first they looked like ski-pole tracks, where the turkeys had sunk through a layer of ice on the snow.  We thought we saw a porcupine track, with a dragging tail, but when we checked a guidebook, we learned that it was most likely a coyote track, since coyotes drag their tail as well but have very different tracks.
• Seeing the ice diamonds in the tree tops at sunset.
• Hearing my teens discuss books and ideas at the supper table.

Questions/thoughts I have… So much literature and so many classics are garbage from a moral point of view! I’m having a hard time deciding what to allow and what to omit in our Omnibus study.  I’m so thankful that my husband is involved in these decisions.

Things I’m working on…

1. Spring cleaning.  We did not finish the fall cleaning, but now we just call it spring cleaning.  Hey, it’s one way of getting ahead! Every day we do a little bit.
2. Homeschooling–teaching, reading, marking, supervising, and keeping track of high school grades.
3. Preparing for company.
4. Trying to walk 6000 steps a day despite the bad weather by walking inside.  Although it’s not the same, inside is a lot less slippery!
5. Getting my desk organized.  Each time I get a little ways, but I never have enough time to finish it.

I’m reading…
Luke. I finished Mark,  EntreLeadership by Dave Ramsey, You Can Farm by Joel Salatin,  The Maid of Fairbourne Hall by Julie Klassen, and  7 Money Rules for Life by Mary Hunt.  I also read an abridged Epic of Gilgamesh and most of The Code of Hammurabi for Mr. 16’s Omnibus studies.  I’m reading Chosen by God by Sproul, Four Letter Words by Giovannetti, and Fit and Fabulous in 15 Minutes by Teresa Tapp.

With the kids, we’re reading Luke, By the Shores of Silver Lake, Rozemarijntje Naar School (a Dutch book), and Kon Tiki.  We finished The Secret Mission.

I’m grateful for …  Happy children, a warm fire, good food, health.

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This post is linked to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal and to Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.