Three-Week Wrap Up: Harvest Time

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• Sumo

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In my life these weeks… We harvested and put up food for the winter.  The pantry is full of canning, the basement floor is covered with pumpkins and squash, our freezers are almost full, the garden still has one picking of raspberries, our whole leek crop is still growing, and we have hundreds of tomatoes, gallons of apples, and dozens of hot peppers.

We also did a fair bit of schoolwork, and most of the children are up to week 3 day 4 in their work.  Mr. 17, who took some time off to do roofing, is a bit behind.

We’ve also celebrated a lot (wedding, anniversary, fall-time, and various harvesting milestones), and now we’re enjoying a visit from grandparents.

In our homeschool these weeks … We just did the best we could.  Fortunately, all the other things that went on involved educational experiences or life skills; learning does not come only from books and bookwork.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… There’s a difficult balance between life and book learning.  At our home it seesaws depending on the garden.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

One special place we visited:  Lake Ontario on a very windy day.  The waves were enormous, blue-green topped with white, and so majestic.

Some of my favorite things these weeks were…

• Getting some schoolwork done
• Warm weather and sunshine
• A successful harvest and the energy to preserve it
• Water, waves, and sand dunes

Questions/thoughts I have… Although we’re behind where we wanted to be in our schoolwork, the children are still learning.  Life skills are every bit as useful as book learning…up to a point.

Things I’ve been working on…

• Putting up the harvest
• Keeping up with the kids’ learning
• Remembering to walk, eat well, and relax adequately

We’re watching… Nothing.  Life has been too busy these past three weeks.

I’m reading… Numbers. I read the last half of Christie’s Death on the Nile (along with Miss 14) and reviewed What a Difference a Mom Makes, Embracing Obscurity, Taming the Wind, and Work Shift. Right now I’m reading Debt-Proof Your Christmas, and The Power of Habit. I’m trying to decide whether to read a book about Bede or a book by him to accompany Mr. 17’s work, and am still working on Roger Lancelyn Green’s Tales of Ancient Egypt as well as Ancient Mesopotamia along with Miss 12. The atmosphere of these Egyptian stories is so different from those of Greece!  And did you know secret doorways with springs are an old, old idea?

With the kids, we are reading Exodus. We finished The Home Ranch, and while we’re waiting for the next book in the series to arrive we’re enjoying Favorite Poems Old and New and Worthy is the Lamb, a collection of Puritan poetry. When Mr. 17 is off at his before-school babysitting job, the girls and I read Famous Men of Greece from Greenleaf Press.

When my husband is home for meals, we’re reading Ezekiel.

I’m grateful for … A full pantry and the energy to keep up with the harvest.

Quote to share… “Mom, did you know that the people of Mesopotamia worshipped pick axes?  Even their gods sang praise to their pick axes!”  From Miss 12 while reading Ancient Mesopotamia.

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