Weekly Wrap-up: Week 5 - The One that Begun Summer Studies

Our Summer Studies began this week. After 4 weeks off, it's time to do a little focused learning. I wouldn't call us "year round" homeschoolers, but some extra work on areas of struggle, a little math review and lots of reading give us a jump start for the fall. And why not EARN those ice cream cones (that I'd get them anyway but don't tell)?

I found this printable years ago, using it on and off as a summer studies incentive chart. When the kids complete 12 lessons of Math and 12 days of Reading and/or other Language Arts, it's ice cream time! (As the teacher, I get an ice cream cone too! It's only fair, right?) If you can find ice cream STICKERS for the squares (unlike me) it definitely adds to the chart.

Incentive Chart Source

Both kids will be participating in the Every Hero Has a Story summer reading program at the library and doing Khan Academy math, but Cati will review sentence diagramming with Grammar Revolution here, a struggle from last year, and Sam will learn cursive using Handwriting without Tears. Just for fun, Jake, my oldest who attends a STEM high school, plans to study Finance on Khan Academy. (Yeah, for fun.) He wants to get a jump start on his year-long project that includes designing, building, marketing, and selling a product.

Now, don't feel too badly for them. We're only spending 2-3 days a week on our summer studies (unless the kids decide they want ice cream sooner or more often), and only when we're not at the lake swimming or fishing, off to camps or enjoying time as a family. Summer studies are just a little something to keep us thinking through vacation.

In the meantime, Tom and I are enjoying fishing together, sometimes with family and the kids. We went to my sister's favorite fishing spot this past weekend. Chris, her friend, caught a sunfish and a perch, and my husband caught his first fish, a large mouth bass.

But anyone can catch a fish with a fishing pole with enough patience. It takes REAL fishing talent to catch what I did...

I snagged a FRESH WATER CLAM, folks! Who catches a CLAM with a HOOK? I have yet to actually catch a FISH...

Sam decided to join us one evening. It was his first time fishing! I taught him to cast, avoiding trees and lily pads, mostly. We saw fish chasing our lures, but no strikes.

Another sister got married this past weekend. I was the official photographer, taking about 2000 snaps. I left the SD card with her though, to go through the photos. I did get a few of the wedding location on my cell phone. What a backdrop, huh?

The sun hasn't been out much this week, but we did enjoy an hour near the lake between raindrops, reading, watching the boaters and paddle-boarders go by.

Happy Independence Day! 

As always, special thanks to these bloggers for their weekly homeschool blog link-ups. Click on over to see what other homeschoolers are doing!

"When one teaches, two learn." - Robert Heinlein

Weekly Wrap-up: Week 20 - 13 Inches, 90 Days, 26 Candles

PILING UP AND NO WHERE TO GO

Yet MORE snow fell over the week. :sigh: Winter 2015 is shaping up to be one of our coldest, snowiest seasons ever. How many days until spring? 

Snow is AWESOME for some things though! It's the perfect time to wrap up in cozy blankets and read, crochet or watch movies, to bake banana bread to go with hot cocoa, to simmer beef stew in the crockpot for dinner, and take a long nap. Quiet days at home! (And sometimes I NEED those days...)

Cuppa Cocoa

QUICK MUNCHIES
There are just some nights were NONE of us are up for cooking dinner.  Sometimes you just need something super quick-and-easy. Cati and I whipped up quesadillas on Wednesday and served them with chunky salsa and baby carrots. Everyone loved them! And there was little effort or time involved in prep!

Ingredients: Light Whole Wheat Wraps (6), 2 c shredded Mexican blend cheeses, 1 # boneless chicken breast, sliced into thin pieces and sprinkled with taco seasonings, salsa

Directions: Place 3 wraps onto cookie sheets. Sprinkle with cheeses. Add chicken. Top was remaining 3 wraps. Bake for 10 minutes at 350 degrees or until cheese is melted and wraps are just a tad crisp. Serve with salsa.

How about dessert? I found a recipe on Pinterest for chocolate-dipped cherries and thought it would be super fun for us to make. (No, not healthy, but it IS dessert...) But I'm a lazy cook so I took the easy way out...and didn't follow the recipe tweaked the recipe. Both Sam and Cati helped with these yummy creations.

Ingredients: 2 jars Maraschino cherries with stems, 1/3 bag milk or dark chocolate chips, 1-2 T milk (optional), jimmies (optional)

Directions: Drain cherries and place on paper towel to dry. Melt 1/3 bag of chocolate chips slowly in microwave, stirring every 20 seconds or so. Add milk to thin a bit if needed. Dip cherries into the melted chocolate then sprinkle with jimmies. Place on waxed paper. Chocolate will harden after a few minutes.

(And if there's any chocolate left, don't waste it! We smeared the leftovers onto banana slices and froze them. A favorite treat around here!)

LEARNING CONTINUES

Although public school kids are off for February break this week, the younger Mountain kiddos were homeschooling. Somewhat. (Jake worked on finishing up his bedroom redo.) We've taken off a number of days "just because" so our school year is bound to go into June if we don't "buckle down" and get our days in. (Maine homeschoolers are required to complete 175 days of school.)  We definitely like to enjoy as many days possible of summer vacation. So, we did a bit of schooling this week...

Stripe, our cat with a 'dude, likes Saxon too! She joined Cati one morning for Algebra...

It'd been awhile since I read from Story of the World (Vol. 1) so I made a point of getting to it this week. We keep a history timeline on the wall in the diningroom/schoolroom and label maps to go along with our reading. It's our 2nd time through this series, but it'll only reinforce our learning. (Truth be told, I'm ready to study American History. I enjoy it so much more!)

Our wall timeline the first go 'round. We're using the same cards this time too.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Years ago I pulled our library card from the local library. Just 4 miles away, it was frustrating to borrow items from another library further away, but a library volunteer mistook another patron for me and allowed her to borrow under my name. Unfortunately, this patron wasn't timely about returning those items for which I became responsible for. Now that that volunteer is no longer volunteering, I signed up for another card and we're enjoying a "new" selection of books and movies.

Downtown. Yes, DOWNTOWN. LOL Our library, Rec Center and Post Office in WARMER, LESS SNOWIER times.

BIRTHDAY BOYS

Not that we didn't enjoy some "off" times this week. My boys celebrated birthdays! All my kids are in DOUBLE DIGITS now. :sigh: Where does the time go? Sam turned 10 and Jake turned 16. (Would you believe that they were due on the same exact day 6 years apart?) We celebrated with a red velvet cake topped with chocolate frosting and Heath, M&M and Kit Kat pieces. And on Valentine's Day, between their birthdays, we went to our local ice cream parlor for FREE ice cream sundaes with Thomas and his kids.

Flashback to younger years! Jake, age 11, and Sam, age 5, at the lake. Look at all that hair!

As always, special thanks to the these bloggers:

Don't forget to read my other blog posts this week:

Friday Four Fill-in Fun: Week 200
Six Word Saturday: What Hits the Spot
Wednesday Hodgepodge: The Government Edition

Happy Homeschooling!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Days 87-91

S makes his 1st shot

We've completely just over 1/2 of our legally-required "instruction days"!

 C's 2nd Rummikub Game

Over the weekend J had his first basketball game. Although his team played hard, they weren't a match for a bigger, more experienced team and lost 24-40. C learned to play Rummikub...and doesn't want to stop! (And yes, she beat me! ((sighs)) LOL) S had his first Basketball Skills and Drills and LOVED it! 

Accomplishments over the week:

J's Herb Garden Terrarium

J - 

• worked on his January Pond Press newsletter
• finished up Lesson 8: Measuring Length in Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra and got a 83% on his chapter test
• completed Module 6: Foundations of Geology in Apologia General Science and got a 100% on his Module test
• finished Lesson 13 in Wordly Wise 3000 Level 6 and started Lesson 14
• created his Chapter 10 World History Timeline notebook page and started Chapter 11
• worked on past and irregular verbs at The Teacher's Cafe Middle School Grammar

C-

C's Sand Art

• completed Lessons 50-52 in Saxon 54 and got a 80% on her test
• finished Lesson 7: Rodents and the Rest in Apologia Zoology III and created 6 notebooking pages
• completed Step 2 in All About Spelling Level 2 and started Step 3
• continued working on her History Pockets: Native American unit study
• reviewed possession nouns with Grammar and Writing Handbook and wrote a story about camping
• made a loaf of French bread in the bread machine

S's Emperor Penguin

S-

• read paged 18-25 in Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read Level 1 and read "Rag" (Reader 2)
• completed Lessons 70-74 in Horizons Math K
• finished 5 dot-to-dot and 5 Kumon mazes worksheets
• continued working on his Winter lapbook
• did Handwriting Without Tears pages on K
• built CVC Short A words using Boggle Jr

Click on this link to see our 2nd Winter Wednesday Nature Study on backyard feeder birds and finding color in winter and this link to read about C and S's Unit Studies on Native Americans and Winter.

J's World History Timeline

We were INCREDIBLY busy on Tuesday! Phew! Not only did we get school assignments completed (mostly) in the morning, but we headed into the city to get new library books and videos, grocery shopped, mailed out a package at the P.O., and had basketball practice (C) and Boy Scouts (J) in the early evening. (S didn't make OT as he was feeling sick.) And A made a turkey dinner!

Snow-covered Spruce Tree

And then the snow came on Wednesday and all our outside-the-home activities were canceled for the afternoon. We were able to spend a fun, relaxed couple of hours on our Winter Wednesday Nature Studies, playing outside in the snowstorm, and watch some new movies from the library. With S and I still feeling "under the weather", we needed a day at home.  

J had Not Math Math class in the morning on Thursday after we shoveled out. They made abacuses during class and will learn how to use them next week. J also had basketball practice on Friday, but otherwise our week wrapped up right at home.


Check out other fun Weekly Wrap-ups at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers or join the Hip Homeschool Hop and the Friday Blog Hop by clicking on my sidebar buttons!  And don't forget nature studies at the Outdoor Hour and Winter Wednesday!