In my life this week… we were happily busy. We did a lot of homeschooling. Since it was a sunny week, we gardened everyday. We made music, went walking, caught frogs, admired flowers, enjoyed birds, ate lots of sausages and watermelon, attended a prayer meeting for the March for Life, and slept a lot. I pondered 168 Hours, learned about eye exercises from my optometrist, and started two books: a moving and thought-provoking narrative, Evidence Not Seen, by Darlene Deibler Rose and a fluffy novel, An Unlikely Suitor, by Nancy Moser.
In our homeschool this week… Since we’re six weeks from the end of the school year, we’re all eager to stop. So on Monday I told the children what they’ll need to do to be finished their school years. There are certain things we do, like picture study, nature walks, reading, and music, that are open-ended and cannot really be ‘completed,’ but textbooks and workbooks can. The idea is that the open-ended requirements will stop when we’ve met our other goals.
With that motivation, here’s a list of what was finished this week:
- Canadian Handwriting C
- Canadian Handwriting D
- Key to Percents, Workbook #3
- Living Together reader and workbook from Pathway Publishers
- Jacob’s Geometry
Finishing up the year next week looks like an attainable goal for Miss 10, at least.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… Miss 13 wrote a University of Waterloo grade 8 Gauss competition. We walked along the river in the dusk, since black flies go to bed at night and there are not many mosquitoes yet. We all attended a prayer service for the March for Life, and the children went to judo and the library.
My favorite things this week were…
- Looking for Mr. 16 at his computer, at his desk, and in his bed (where he likes to study chemistry), and finally finding him outside, bent over our spring flowers with his camera.
- Watching the Little Misses catch frogs, make a home for them in a pail, separate the big ones (with yellow throats) from the littler ones in case the big ones got hungry, name them after the characters in the Littles series of books, and finally put them carefully back into “good froggy homes.”
What’s working/not working for us… We hate black flies. We love flowers. We are getting tired of formal bookwork but can’t wait to get to our photography, nature study, novel-writing, music, and reading.
Homeschool thoughts I have… I’ve been making my own tests and lesson plans for some of the resources we have. Perhaps I will post them so that others can take advantage of them. Currently I have
- tests for Singapore NEM 4a,
- tests for Jacob’s Geometry, Second Edition,
- some lesson plans for The Writer’s Workshop.
Since I will need to learn how to make PDF’s and how to allow downloads on my blog, it will take a while before these will be available to you…but if anyone is in a rush, contact me and I’ll email preliminary versions to you.
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
“Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant; and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success….” (Mrs. March in Little Women)
This post is linked to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal and Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
I hope the next six week fly by! Love that quote from Mrs. March.