Our Homeschool Journal: Paint and Mud

I didn’t have a single picture of school-related activities this week!  It was a sort of odd week.

Monday was 60 degrees.  For those of you not in Maine, that is really odd for November!  I had to take the opportunity to spray paint a free bed we were given for my son.  It was one of those now-or-never jobs.

I had to share this picture of “swamp dog.”  Martha is our four year old yellow (nearly white!) Lab and is the sweetheart of our family.  But…she just loves mud and swamps.  She doesn’t want to walk through, she must immediately flip over and roll delightedly in the gooey mess.  I would like to note that a mere 24 hours before this picture I had given her a bath.  Before this walk she had lovely, fluffy, white, sweet-smelling fur.

Thursday should have been a normal school day.  Then Daddy returned from an overnight shift and said, “Hey, let’s go out to breakfast!  The cafe in town has new owners!”  You know what I said?  “Yes!”  (Thanks, Mary, for reminding me not to be the drill sergeant mom!)

I got a new electronic device this week.  Normally I’m afraid of new technology, but the tablet is so much like my much-loved smartphone (that I initially fought changing to) that I wasn’t afraid, just excited!  I like being able to bring the tablet to bed instead of my laptop to catch up on blog reading and Pinterest.  Also of note is the theme in the other items in my cart–cat litter, litter box liners, dog waste pick up bags, and toilet paper.  Very glamorous.

In our homeschool this week…

Other than spray-painting, dog-bathing, and playing with my new toy we accomplished a fair amount of schoolwork.

I’m happy with all that is happening in language arts in our schoolroom.  My son’s reading skills are really expanding and it’s rewarding to watch him.  He’s finally seeing that he can read and tries reading words outside of his reading program more often.  He was writing a letter to send to a soldier this week and I used the “Friendly Letter Boogie” to teach him the parts of a letter.  Writeshop’s blog is full of great ideas.

The ability to be so flexible with my daughter is wonderful.  In Writeshop Junior D she is working on an adventure story and expanded well beyond the few paragraphs that is expected.  I like that I can hold the new lesson and work with her for a longer time on this lesson.  I also noticed that although we’ve covered the frequently misused homophones (their/they’re/there, to/too/two, your/you’re) and she knows the differences, in her own writing she isn’t careful to use the correct one.  I’m now doing dictation with her daily just working on homophones.  I simply open one of our current books and find a sentence to dictate for her to write.  I love that I can see an area that needs work and target that area specifically for as long as it takes.  Individualized education is easy in homeschooling.

Places we went and people we saw…

The usual: book club, Boy Scouts, piano lessons.  We had our last geography club meeting on Egypt.  I’ll share a post on that soon with the resources I used and activities that were shared at our meetings.

Things I’m working on…

Christmas!  I’m planning our school-related activities, crafts, gifts, and our family Christmas card.

We’re reading…

• The audio version of By the Shores of Silver Lake from the Little House Series.
• American History Stories by Mara L. Pratt from Heritage History on the iPad. You can read my review of Heritage History.
• I mentioned last week that our homeschool book club title is The Hobbit and none of us are in love with it so we switched to an audio dramatization.  My son fell asleep during it again.  I know it’s a classic and millions of people love it but it’s on the list of our least favorites.
• Our current poetry readings are from It’s Thanksgiving by Jack Prelutsky.  What a fun book, and both my kids have chosen a poem to memorize.  My son chose “If Turkeys Thought” and my daughter (who is about to get braces) chose “I Went Hungry on Thanksgiving.”
• My daughter is reading Masterpiece by Elise Broach for her library book club.  We’re looking for a new personal choice selection for her.  I had filled up her reading time with history selections last month so I’m giving her a little break to choose a book she wants to read just for fun.
• I’m reading Charlotte Mason’s original books from Ambleside Online.  It’s not easy reading that I can sit and do for hours, but I’m digesting a little bit each day, taking notes as I go, and rereading some sections in the modern English version.

Last year I planned a literature-based unit study for the week of Thanksgiving.  This year we’re taking the whole week off!  We’ll fill the week with reading aloud, cooking, extra time in nature and enjoying time with family.  Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you to the wonderful hostesses with fun link-ups on Fridays. Be sure to join the fun and see what other homeschoolers are up to!