In My Life This Week
Mini Family Reunion! We visited with my husband's family from Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio, Illinois, and Pennsylvania on Saturday and Sunday. We went swimming in the ocean at a state park, saw a baseball game in the city and splashed around at a waterpark. The kids had a blast with their cousins!
I had a recheck with the doctor - NO MORE SINUS AND EAR INFECTIONS! Phew! She thinks I might be allergic to pine and grass and so I'm awaiting results of testing. Having such allergies would be interesting since pine and grass are EVERYWHERE around here!
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| As the Garden Grows |
In Our Homeschool This Week
The rest of our books arrived! Happy, Happy Box Day! (You homeschoolers know what I'm talking about! LOL) I'm VERY happy with our new curriculum! And now to wait for one final item (back-ordered) and to finish my "loose" planning for the start of Year 8 on September 6th!
Our favorite book this week is Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. This WONDERFUL story is about a girl who struggles through school ridiculed and feeling "stupid" until a supportive teacher comes along and recognizes her Dyslexia and Dysnumeria. A must read for anyone with kids struggling with a learning difficulty and their siblings!
S and I continue to plug away at Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read Level 1. The end is in sight! Only 4 more readers (including 2 "extra practice" readers) and 6 more worktext pages. But C's Spelling has gone to the "wayside" and J's typing left sometime in June. (I found this cool typing site on another blog. It has lessons, tests and games.) I guess we'll have to pick it back up in September.
Places We're Going and People We're Seeing
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| Our Current Curriculum Desk and Hutch |
Places We're Going and People We're Seeing
- Red Cross swim lessons at the lake
- Free Rec Center lunch and dodgeball with friends
- Baseball game in the city with family
- Waterpark with family
- J hung out with D for the day, playing video games and basketball
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| S Splashing in the Lake |
The return of my oldest son from his week-long Boy Scout camp! (He should've left his dirty laundry THERE though! Phew!) We missed him!
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| J in his Scout Uniform This Spring |
Making the decision to limit activities this year by staying closer to home and using community sources for learning, social and health experiences! We'll be sticking with Scouts and Sports ONLY, deciding on additional experiences as they come up. Over the years it's been hard for me NOT to sign the kids up for EVERYTHING that comes our way, but it's left us NEEDING to stay home more to enjoy free, relaxed time. We're exhausted and annoyed with "running"! I've simplified our curriculum and now I'm simplifying our extra-curriculars!
A Photo, Video, Link, or Quote to Share
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| J and S Hanging Out by the Coop |
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| Some VERY Happy Chicks Enjoying S's Dying Pea Plants |
Linking up to:
Looks like a great week! Enjoy! We are starting on the 6th also...
ReplyDeleteLooks/sounds like a great week :)
ReplyDeleteHave you read Junkyard Wonders by Patricia Polocco? We liked it very much!
I agree with you that simplifying is a key to family happiness :)
Yours is the second post I read this morning with chickens! I am missing out, I've always said we should try chickens but I doubt my neighbors would like it! For my sanity sake, I limit my kids to extra-curricular activities. My standing rule is dinner together as a family and it isn't easy to find activities that don't interfere with that. Enjoyed your pictures!
ReplyDeleteLOVED, LOVED, LOVED that book!!!!!
ReplyDelete(and isn't it funny how a China Hutch filled with homeschooling books looks prettier than a dainty china cup any day? LOL)
I know what you mean about signing up for too much--I've made the same mistake in the past. Everything sounds so FUN until you realize that you've made a huge time commitment! We're trying to simplify, too.
ReplyDeleteLove the picture of the kids by the coop! Looks like fun!
Yes, I know that Happy Box Day feeling! Love it.
ReplyDeleteLike you, we have decided to limit outside activities to a few chosen things. It's hard to resist the temptation to sign up for everything, but when I did that, it was very, very hard to keep up with daily living because we were on the run so much. Less is more! :)
I love it when curriculum arrives, it's so thrilling! We also limit activities, we try to stay at one thing a piece, otherwise we would be in the car every minute and that would make me crazy. I'm thinking about bagging my weekly wrap up linky, I've been thinking about it all summer. I may just end up linking up with another blog. Let you know for sure!
ReplyDeleteHooray for box day! I love seeing all the books waiting on the shelves, but what I love even more is the way my children think it's torture to have to wait to read all the neat looking titles. Hehehe.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you and Sparklee. I know the homeschool joke is "but we are never home!" But we are the kind of family that needs to not have anything going on to really get into things...it just doesn't happen when we have an eye on the clock to get to a lesson!
ReplyDeleteI am going to have to check out that book!
We just ended our summer term and I have been ordering books for our fall term...getting excited for all those boxes!!!
I'm glad that someone had a good week. Ours, not so good. It's an interesting read though. Even if I did use the tame version. LOL
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed your post. And I know about that smelly camp laundry!
ReplyDeleteIt is always a struggle to figure out how much to sign up for. We need to be home more too. Great week.
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Dawn
We live far from activities and so we don't sign up for much. It's nice to have a good excuse NOT to be involved in everything... I wonder how some homeschooling families "do it" with soo many of their mornings/days running from activity to activity. I wouldn't have time for our work:) But each family works differently!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to get on the ball about ordering my stuff for this year!! So far I"ve ordered NOTHING... I have a plan and have been waiting to visit my parents who have an Awesome Homeschooling Store... so I'm hoping to get some used before I purchase the rest new... we'll see??