The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week...

I've been trying to de-clutter & clean; except my little re-clutterers & dirtiers are just as hard at work as I am ;)  LOL.  I am making a little bit of headway as long as I don't stop.  Also working on sewing more felt food.  I have a pattern to make hats from felted wool sweaters, but so far I have not been brave enough to try it. :)   We are buried in snow & we're in the middle of a snowstorm now (supposed to get up to 8-12 inches on top of the 3 ft we've already got), but I am getting excited about Spring.  We've been looking at chicken catalogs & marking what breeds we want to get this year.  Our hens are getting old & not laying so much anymore.  Chicken feed is way up, so something has to be done.  We're also hoping that it will soon be time tap our maple trees.  I SO love that time of year!

My husband is feeling better, but still can't pick up much yet.  Next week he can pick up 10 lbs.  He is driving again, though, so he's very happy.  He's taking 1 more week off of work, for which I am very glad.  He was pushing himself to go back, but I really didn't feel he was ready.  His boss told him to take another week. :)

 

In our homeschool this week...
We've had a good school week.  Everyone seems to be getting back on track.  The 2 older kids have been working hard & doing extra every day.  Jonah is doing extra work to improve his essay writing skills, his handwriting & spelling.  His spelling tutoring starts next week.  For Hannah it seems that a switch turned on for her regarding algebra-it's starting to make sense to her now.  Funny thing about Susanna-she didn't do any math other than some games for 2 weeks while we were back & forth to PA for Pat's surgery.  She was struggling with it 2 weeks ago & needed the abacus to add simple sums.  This week she's adding in her head!!   All of my kids have done this-whenever they're having a mental block with a subject (esp. math), if they take a break from it the brain wheels seem to get oiled & run much more smoothly.  I don't understand it at all, but it happens every time!

 

Places we're going & people we're seeing... 

We went to Latin class twice, art class, piano lessons, chiro appt.  Hannah(15) went to Youth group & hippology study session at a friend's,.  Susanna (6) went to the state farm show with my dh & 4 friends who all brought their kids, too.  She had a lot of fun.  Today another family is coming over here to have dinner with us & the kids will all play.  They are also neighbors & the husband has helped us a ton while Pat was laid up-starting fires for us while we were out of town & plowing the driveway & just being there.

 

My favorite thing this week was...

Having my husband home.  Every morning after breakfast he has done Bible reading & praying with us & that has been wonderful.  I've also been making a bigger deal about breakfast, so it's been more of a festive affair every morning.

 

What's working/not working for us...

I can't think of anything that isn't working right now.  Everything seems to be working pretty well.  I did just join a website for 10 dollars for the year called  I Can Write Online

I don't know yet how it works, but for 10 bucks I figured it can't hurt.  I'm going to use it with my 12 yr old son. I've had the little girls playing more games, also-boggle jr, playing with scrabble letters & blokus.  Alyssa learned to sort the different colors & name them.  Susanna is learning the rules of the game, which is math-related. LOVE BlokusAnother thing I'm doing is just simple, back to basic stuff-having the kids write letters & count money.  Nothing fancy! :)

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...

Thoughst I've had.  HSLDA has sent things about increased persecution of homeschoolers in this country.  That disturbs me.  I'm also disturbed by things I've read on facebook about people thinking it's funny & trivial for their kids disrespect their teachers in school.  I cannot imagine being a public school teacher in this day & age...not to mention the kids who want to learn but are disrupted by children with bad behavior.  Did you hear about the 6 yr old who was sent to the psych ward from his public school classroom??   All these things plus so much more make me glad we are able to home-educate. 

 

A photo to share...

I've been helping Alyssa to learn her colors, so I served up an "orange" lunch. It was fun-leftover home-made pizza, oranges & goldfish crackers, YUM!