Our FINAL Summer Week: August 27 - September 2

 

In My Life This Week

How can this be?! Our last week of summer vacation is almost over! It's been fun, but B-U-S-Y! Yet not so busy that I missed the first signs of Autumn! The cooler evenings, showers of dry pine needles falling around the chicken coop, and that one broadleaf out back with red leaves have announced Fall's arrival. Soon we'll be sporting jackets and actually wearing sneakers again. Another season finishes with the hope of an exciting, wonderful school year ahead!

Red Leaf Found By the Garden

Red and  Yellow Leaf Stuck in the Elderberry

In Our Homeschool This Week

Weather! On Friday we started preparing for Hurricane Irene. Hurricanes of ANY strength aren't a common weather phenomenon here and add a little excitement to our weather watching. Irene left behind lots of tree branches scattered around the yard and 34 hours of no electricity. The kids were AWESOME during the power wattage! Very go-with-the-flow! Me? Not so much so! Sometimes I learn the best things FROM MY KIDS; this time a lesson about positive attitude and patience!

Clouds ROLLED in Saturday Afternoon

Totally GRAY on Sunday

Crack! Tree Branch Snapped, Resting on Garage and Power Lines

Another Angle of Cracked Tree Branch

S and C Ready to Face the Storm

C and S found a BEAUTIFUL White Admiral butterfly on the road while biking. With a damaged wing, it's unable to fly. We researched on-line and created a butterfly habitat. Butterfly lived for 3 days. The kids LOVED watching its proboscis!

Top Side of Our Rescued White Admiral

Bottom Side of Its Wings with Damage Back Wing Flopped Over

C's flower garden continues to sprout BEAUTIFUL blooms! I think her Glads are a little confused! Aren't they spring and early summer flowers? LOL

Her First PINK Glad

C and J finished up their 4H Outdoor Recreation/Education club posters for the agricultural fair in early October. They came out GREAT!

Backyard Botany

Square Foot Gardening

J has spent an INCREDIBLE about of time doing this:

And we reviewed WonderMaps! from Bright Ideas Press from Timberdoodle. Check out our review by clicking here!

 Places We Went and People We Saw

• S and C, the sons of our "old" neighbors, came over to visit again Saturday afternoon. It's nice seeing them again!
• Lunch at Applebee's! (I wish they wouldn't put the calorie count of my favorite SALAD on the menu! Yikes! But S ate most of the chicken and I didn't finish it all. Phew!)
• C, S and I went to the PO (where I couldn't mail my package because they still didn't have electricity back), the hardware store (for pine shavings) and the library (for new books). 
• J's friend C came over Wednesday afternoon to "hang out". They shot A LOT of hoops, biked and watched a movie.
• B and C, J and C's friends, came over on Thursday and they went froggin' and biking and built with Legos. 

My Favorite Thing This Week Was

Returning to our MOSTLY unplugged-under-scheduled-outside play-few sweets-and-earlier-bedtimes routine! While my family visited we didn't follow what we've called "our detox" of the previous 2 1/2 weeks and within a couple of days the kids' NEGATIVE behavior changes were incredible and QUITE obvious!

What's Working/Not Working For Us

We had a blast playing Uno, Sorry!, Yahtzee, Trivia Pursuit, and Skip-bo by candlelight during our power outage! It was hard to even see the cards or boards, but it was a GREAT way to end our evenings!

Photo(s), Video, Link, or Quote to Share

S hasn't had a hair cut in a few months. The vibration from trimmers bug him. But combing out those curls was poor torture! (Things that seem "every day" for us aren't so for kids (or adults) with SPD.) Out-of-the-blue, DURING Irene's arrival, he asked for a hair cut. I LOVE the curls, but he's cute either way!

No More Curls

Linking Up With:

 

As the Garden Grows

Our weather has warmed in Maine. The 60s have returned (sometimes) and night lows are above freezing (most nights). Our seeds and bulbs have arrived. Time for planting!

But, before we sowed some of our seeds, we needed to do some "construction". We added another 12 inches depth to J's raised 12x6 veggie bed and we made C's new 6x2 flower bed. This meant lifting and hoeing 2500 pounds of soil and peat moss. The muscles were achy that night and the kids headed off to bed early!

C Sitting on Soil While her Raised Garden was Built

A Nailing Together C's Bed

J Putting Together the Frame for the Veggie Bed

C Removing Grass from the Bottom of her Flower Bed

J Getting Ready to Add Soil to the Veggie Bed

C planted a variety of bulbs in her garden - Winter Hardy Glads, Dutch Irises, Daffodils, and Lilies - and Blue Delphinium and Jester Blue Bicolor seeds. 

C's Flower Bed

We didn't have enough soil and peat moss to finish filling J's veggie bed, and, since we were tired and C needed to get to softball practice, we decided to call it a day and get more soil later this week. 

Not Quite Full

Our "Dirt Digger", S, decided to transplant 2 little pine trees he found in the shadow of a large rock and made divots all over the lawn looking for worms to add to the garden. And did he ever need a long, sudsy bath!

This was Just the Beginning!

Weekly Wrap-up: Days 124-126 - The One With Cardboard, Fever and Survival

Nothing like cardboard, blue packing tape (because I still haven't bought another roll of Masking) and imagination to occupy C and S on a rainy Saturday afternoon. C became a robot with a coin slot. Insert a quarter (that falls into a punch behind the costume) and the robot (C) talks! And S grabbed a 2 liter plastic soda bottle  from recyclables to create a cardboard train engine complete with 4 ride-on cars. Choo choo!

C the Talking Robot

Engineer S and His Train

Cardboard Binoculars

Monday arrived with heavy rain, washing away some of our snow - there's still plenty left! - and the oldest woke up with a "bug".  By mid-afternoon J had a moderately high fever that continued through early Wednesday. Fortunately this wasn't a "BELLY BUG", just fever, aches and pains and coughing.  C and S continued with their daily assignments and activities (for the most part).

On Wednesday the kids saw a REALLY COOL demonstration on wilderness safety at 4H. The Winter Rescue Team shared their Lost But Found - Safe and Sound presentation on surviving outside while lost in the woods. We even headed outside for a few experiments to show how we should keep ourselves warm, comfortable, dry, and visible while waiting for rescue to arrive. A GREAT thing for the kids to see since J goes on scout camping trips and we take strolls in the woods during warmer months. 

On Thursday we went to Eco-Kids, a library program to teach kids about the importance of plants. The kids listened to stories, drew a group picture, discussed plants, and planted 2 kinds of beans to bring home.

And Friday started much like Monday - with pouring rain - but without any illness! We did some basics, but spent most of our time studying SQUIRRELS for this week's Nature Study. Check out our photos, observations and notebook pages here!

Gray Squirrel in Our Yard

I also started a new math curriculum with S (who has struggling with Horizons for the last couple of months). I printed out the first 2 units of Houghton Mifflin Math and he seems to be doing better with the more hands-on approach.

J's Accomplishments

Teaching Textbooks Pre-Algebra Lessons 82-84

Apologia General Science Module 9 Test (100%) and Module 10

DK World History Chapter 19-20 FINISHED

Rowe College Business English Grammar Lesson 2

Creative Composition - Mystery

Dance Mat Typing

Anatomy Arcade

Resting on the Couch After a Shower

J's General Science Mini-books

C's Accomplishments

Saxon Math 54 Lessons 67-70

Daily Grams Day 24-29

All About Spelling Level 2 Steps 9-10

Apologia Zoology III Chapter 10

History Pockets: Native Americans Review

Handwriting Without Tears Cursive pp 23-26

Teacher's Cafe - Sentence Speedway, Noun/Verb Rats

C Doing Daily Grams

C Watches Her Math Lesson

S's Accomplishments

Handwriting Without Tears Y and Z

Kumon Mazes 26-28

Readers - The Fat Cat, Nat Ran, Ann Ran, Pig Wig Can Hit, and Pig Wig

Horizons Math K Lessons 90-92

Houghton Mifflin Math 1 - More, Fewer and Same

100s Grid 1-55

Starfall Calendar

Hooked on Phonics: Learn to Read pp 1-45 Review

Spelling with Tiles CVC /a/ and /i/ words 

US State and Capitals Sticker Workbook

About Me Lapbook - My House and My Family Mini-books

Will Looking at it CLOSER Make it Easier?

S Didn't Like Dan so he Wrote in Dad all on his Own

S's Family Picture - L to R J, Dog, A, C, Me, Cat, and S

S Doing his Kumon Maze

S Showing You His US Geography Sticker Map

S Reading Nat Ran, Ann Ran

 That's our week! How was your week? Check out other Weekly Wrap-ups at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and link up to the Friday Blog Hop and Hip Homeschool Hop to share ideas!