Weekly Wrap Up: Another Week of Partial School

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Enormous Chard Leaf

In our life this week…

This was another week full of extra-curricular work.  We froze mountains of tomatoes and a mountain of chard, and we made another two batches of applesauce.  And we did all of the fall cleaning except washing the windows and going through the homeschooling books (which was a left over from our July housecleaning).

Now we are ready to relax and enjoy a weeklong visit with grandparents, although there will still be some harvesting to do while they are here.

In our homeschool …

We studied math most days, as well as French and Dutch.  We also fit in some typing, writing, Omnibus, science, Bible, music, career exploration, and so on.    Of course, we cannot skip scheduled activities such as babysitting, judo, soccer, and catechism, and everyone’s happy about that.

We’ve decided that when the grandparents are here, everyone will still do math and music and that we’ll squeeze in learning in spare moments, much as we’ve done these last two weeks.  But of course, we’ll spend most of our time playing games, chatting, and hanging out together.

In our garden…

We’re still harvesting apples (we need a ladder now, except for the windfalls), raspberries, tomatoes, peppers, chard, cauliflower, turnips, beets, carrots, leeks, and herbs.

We finished the beans (they are still producing, and it’s October!) and plan to start the leeks next week and kraut the cabbage the week after that.

In the kitchen… Cauliflower soup.  Applesauce.  Gluten free biscuits.  Ham, precooked, with the bone still in.  Scrambled eggs.  Turnip mashed potatoes.  Raspberries.  Chicken a la King. Sausages with gravy. Apples.  French fries.

Some of my favorite things were…

• Miss 15’s enjoyment of math.
• Reading Carry on, Mr. Bowditch with the younger girls.
• The arrival of my Mom and Dad in law.
• Our fall-cleaned home.
• Beautiful weather.
• An almost-full freezer and almost-full pantry.
• Getting a package of Simonetta Carr`s gorgeous Christian Biographies for Young People.  I am thrilled to review this series for you over the next half year.
• Seeing the beautiful nature photos Mr. 18 takes with his amazing new phone/camera.

Questions/thoughts I have…   I’ve learned–and am constantly relearning–that it’s the love in a homeschooling family that counts most of all.  Love and kindness and encouragement improve the learning enormously, too.  I suppose it makes sense that creativity and deep thinking flourish when a child feels secure and loved.

Fitness… I walked 10,000 steps some days, a good deal of them in the kitchen and in the raspberry patch.  One evening I set up the treadmill again because it’s getting too cold and dark for walks after supper. I took a rest most afternoons and, with all of us fighting a cold, that was very necessary.

Some of the things I’ve been working on…

• Harvesting and preserving.
• Fall cleaning.
• Fitting schoolwork in around the corners.
• Finding gifts for birthdays and Christmas time.  One of our favorite publishers had an amazing sale, and Homeschool Freebie of the Day did, too.

I’m reading… Isaiah.   I finished A Bride for Keeps, and am still reading Your Body’s Many Cries for Water, My Beloved and My Friend, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, and Saving Leonardo.

Reading Aloud… The girls and I are reading Psalms and are continuing with In de Zoete Suikerbol and Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.

When my husband is home for meals we read Romans.

I’m grateful for …. The neatness that comes after fall cleaning.

Quote or link to share….  This is one of the reasons homeschooling works:  homeschooled children are more influenced by adults than by peers.  I’ve read the book, but if you prefer a video, here is Gordon Neufeld talking about Peer Orientation:  Why Adults Must Matter More than Peers.

This post is linked to Kris’s Weekly Wrap Up .