Weekly Wrap-up: It's arrived!

EVERYDAY LIFE

Spring arrived this week! Ah-maz-ing! With warmer days, the snow melted fast creating a new 'pond' right where our driveway used to be...and I found out that Sam's rubber boots no longer fit by the dripping wet, winter boots lined up in the foyer. (What 9-year-old can resist a big ol' puddle to wade in.) But I'll take it! There's nothing quite like opening windows, even briefly, to let fresh air flow through the house after being shut up for months.

Even 'the girls' got to stretch those wings. Olive and Opal, the ducks, went swimming in the frigid brook, and Ony, Speckles, Musty, Sassy, Lil' Rhodie, Rhodie, Ava, Nutmeg, Butterfly, and Amber found the only patch of visible brown grass to scratch up. They rewarded us with finally laying eggs again.

But oh my! the road is a muddy mess. I'm going to need an alignment!

Total Bag Count: 14

MENU
✿ Hamburgers & Pasta and Veggie Salad ✿
✿ Scrambled Eggs, Hickory Smoked Bacon, Fresh Pineapple & Biscuits ✿
✿ Spaghetti with Ground Chicken Meat Sauce & Steamed Green Beans✿
✿ Marinated Beef Strips with Broccoli & Baked Fries ✿
✿ Boston Cream Pie Ice Box Cake ✿

SCHOOL SNIPPETS
Sam does "van school" while Cati is at Jazz and Concert Band and her clarinet lessons. I keep most of his work in a binder, slipping Easy Grammar inside and his current reading book. (I keep pencils and a hand sharpener in the van.) Do you ever do school-on-the-road?

Cati wrote Name Poems and Word Patterns poems this week. She's getting close to finishing up her study of basic 'formula' poetry. (I'd share the unit with you, but it's something I have from my student teaching in 1998 and it was OLD then.) She's also only 12 lessons away from finishing up Saxon 76.

In U.S. History we watched NROC on WWI and Woodrow Wilson, and FDR and The New Deal. We skipped art study this week and spent more time outside...and began to 'spring clean'.

At STEM school, Jake switched his Physics research topic from 4D to antimatter, continued to build a steam-powered power plant, focusing on the turbines, commuted projectiles for Math to get a ball into a basket without practicing, and "learned the things he hasn't" in Astronomy. (I'm not sure what that means!)

BOOKS
Mom- Seeing A Large Cat by Elizabeth Peters
Cati - The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
Sam - Invisible Stanley by Jeff Brown 

PEOPLE & PLACES
✿ Jazz and Concert Band & Clarinet Lesson (Cati) ✿
✿ Cub Scouts (Sam & Jake) ✿
✿ Wayback Wednesday at Movie Theatre: Back to the Future (All) ✿
✿ Boy Scout Camping (Jake) ✿

FAVORITES

I got a chuckle out of this Lego Pain Scale from Facebook. Those of you with Lego enthusiatists will understand all too well.

ON THE 'NET

How to Have a Perfectly Clean House
50 Best Unschooling/Self-directed Learning Posts in 2013

As always, special thanks to these weekly wrap-ups:

Over the Long Weekend and Short Week

I was SUPER excited that we had NOTHING scheduled Friday through Monday. When does that happen? Never! I guess I'm a homebody at heart, and enjoy having days at home to catch up on projects, spend time with the kids...and, yes, sleep in a little.

Over the weekend Jake's best buddy T__ stayed with us. Can I tell you how AWESOME his kid is? He spent HOURS cleaning and organizing Sam's bedroom, just because. (Even I haven't been brave enough to tackle that!) He and Jake moved some household things into storage, fixed the back door, and finished winterizing the flock run. I'm grateful to have handy teenage boys around to help tackle projects!

Our Wellies are not longer chicks. They're beautiful brown hens with golden heads and red combs and wattles. They're laying teeny, speckled-tan eggs now.

Having the boys around gave ME time to plan meals, shop for this week's groceries and get some quick snacks and meals pulled together for the week.

● Breakfast: Oatmeal with Different Fixings, Egg, Turkey Bacon and Cheddar Breakfast Sandwiches, Cold Cereal with Skim Milk and Fruit

● Lunch: PB and J or Turkey and Cheese Sandwiches with Fruit and Veggies, Leftovers

● Dinner: Soft Beefy Cheddar Tacos with Mixed Greens and Rice, Chicken Cordon Bleu Casserole with Broccoli, Chef Salad, Homemade Cheese Pizza with Herbed Crust

● Snacks: Fresh Fruit and Veggie Sticks, Hard-boiled Eggs, Nonfat Greek Yogurt, Wild Maine Berry Muffins, Air-popped popcorn

● Dessert: Almond-Orange Cake, Chocolate No Bake Cookies, Frozen Non-Fat Yogurt

Jake also had Tuesday off from B__ A__, so both his week and our homeschool week were short ones. A much needed recoup (for me) around here! A friend even came over with her daughter for hot mint chocolate, cookies, Skip-Bo, and Rummikub one rainy afternoon.

Jake received his first grades. They're not like other public school grades as they're based on projects goals, personal improvement, community involvement, understanding of the material, non-tested, cooperative teamwork...and ongoing. (Low scores are only an indication that the project is "in progress".) I'm pleased with his effort even if they weren't all 4s, the highest "grades"!

Homeschool? Well, we completed 2 1/2 days this week. Cati started a Life Science Experiment on the effects of fertilizers on fish tank water. (Special thanks to Sam's tropical fish for the water samples.) We already know what THAT effect will be, but it'll be interesting to see anyway, right? Sam flew through MUS lesson 13 on measurement (inches).  The boy who can wield a tape measure knows his inches! We skipped on through to lesson 14. Both read, reluctantly completed some grammar, and studied spelling words, and we even watched some NROC U.S. History videos about the War of 1812. (See my free resources tab for the NROC link.)

People and Places

● Clarinet Lesson and Concert Band (C) ● Boy Scout Court of Honor (J) ● 

Something to Share

As ALWAYS, linking up to these WONDERFUL blogs:

A Peak at Our Week: The One that Begun

Welcome Year 10!

In Our Homeschool This Week

On Wednesday, Jake woke up early (for him), nibbled a quick breakfast, grabbed his backpack and bagged lunch, and for the FIRST TIME EVER set off for public school with a friend. Not your TRADITIONAL public school, but a hands-on STEM charter high school without grades. And then Cati, Sam and I started our new year, right at the diningroom table.

So, How Did the Day Go?

6:15-7:30am Getting a Move On, Sort of

Jake and I got up and got moving at a snail's pace. I'd never consider us MORNING PEOPLE. Staying up late doesn't make the early hours appealing, but we'll adjust...eventually. I woke Cati and Sam before driving Jake 7 miles to meet up with a friend driving him to the school (which isn't nearby). 

7:30-9:00am Language Arts Block

I'm trying out a BLOCK SCHEDULE this year. Something new. Yeah, always tweaking. The kids started their new reading books, Bridge to Terabithia (Paterson) and Dinosaurs Before Dark (Pope Osborne), filled out a Who Am I worksheet (for their portfolios), started Grammar, and took their :groan: Spelling Power placement tests.

9:10-10:00am Math Block

I snagged a couple of Mind Bender books for FREE earlier this summer. Have you seen them? They're wonderful critical thinking puzzles. Anyway, we started Math with a "Bender Warm-up" and then plunged right into our text books, Saxon and Math-U-See.

10:00-10:25am Science Block...and a Shower

We're focusing on Life Science with notebooking and experiments this year. Cati is working out of a middle school Prentice Hall textbook and on-line website, and Sam will be doing Mr. Q's Life Science on-line free here. Cati took a shower and got dressed then did a few minutes of independent Science reading while Sam and I worked together on-line.

10:25-12:00n Band and Nibbles
We hopped into the van and headed off to the public middle school for Cati's first band practice. But while there, Sam and I got hungry so we drove to Subway, then back to the school for a picnic lunch on the grass. Cati ate her sandwich on the ride home, while reading her Language Arts book.

12:00-12:30pm Science Block Continued
We finished up our Science, notebooking information on the scientific method, and biotic and abiotic things.

12:30-1:15pm History Block, but Running out of Learning "Steam"

Looking for something video-based for U.S. History this year, I decided on the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC). Definitely for older students, we'll focus on just the videos and record people and events on our wall map from here, adding in Netflix documentaries and "America: Story of Us" videos (History Channel). It's a perfect, less focused way to end our school mornings.

1:15-4:30pm Free Time, Mostly
After chores, tidying up the livingroom - Ugh! Legos! - and catching up dishes, the kids biked and played with a friend that was in the neighborhood. And MAMA had some Facebook and Words with Friends time before vacuuming and sweeping and folding laundry and pondering what to make for dinner.

4:30-7:00pm Everyone's Day Wraps Up
I picked Jake up at his friend's house at 4:30pm. He was tired, but happy with his first day at B____. Today, the entire school went to a state park (with a BEAUTIFUL light house) and did team-building exercises. Not your typical public school!

I Rewarded By Kids This Week By

Having Chinese take-away to celebrate our first day back to school and going to Zeb's General Store for "penny" (i.e. QUARTER) candy!

7:00-10:00pm TV/Video Game Time and Off to Bed
After a productive, busy day, the kids and I settled down for SCREEN TIME before showers and climbing into bed. 6:15am will come much too soon again!

What about Fine Arts?
Did you notice that our schedule is "stream-lined" this year? and it didn't include fine arts? Oftentimes I over-schedule and over-complicate our day-to-day schooling. I have come to realize the VALUE in SIMPLICITY and allowing the kids more unscheduled learning and exploring time. I'm not ready to go UNSCHOOL though. :wink: Fine Arts will be accomplished on Fridays through a homeschool co-op starting in October. This Mama is concentrating on Core.

Our Favorite Thing This Week

Our FIRST Wellsummer hen egg! The "baby girls" are FINALLY laying! (Just in time too as 3 of our "old girls" are molting and have shut down egg production.) Just for comparison: L. to R. Pekin duck white egg, Ameraucana-Barred Rock hen pink egg and a Welsummer hen tan egg (which will get bigger as she lays more).

People and Places

On Tuesday we hopped into my friend's van with her and her kids and we headed to New Hampshire for some WATERFALL FUN. Diana's Baths is SUCH a cool spot to "hang out" and get wet! But the water is downright CHILLY!

And you know I would take my own photos too, right? LOL

As ALWAYS, linking up to these WONDERFUL blogs:

The Homeschool Mother's Journal: My Birds Return to the Nest

In My Life This Week
All my baby birds have returned to the nest! And the house looks "lived in" again.  (Should I mention the water dripping down from the livingroom ceiling? Accidental WATER GUN squirt from Sam of course! :wink:) But, after 2 weeks, I welcome the mess and noise! I think.

As the Garden Grows and Clucks and Quacks

Well, our garden is starting to produce veggies, beans mostly and a few peas. I'd share some photos, but the weeds have ALSO been "producing". :sigh: It's a jungle out there!

We also go a MONSTER EGG while the kids were off visiting family. I chose the BIGGEST duck and chicken eggs from the frig to show a comparison. The MONSTER EGG is in the center. (Keep in mind that our duck eggs are JUMBO size.) HUGE! It turned out to be a double yolker!

In the Kitchen
Soups and salads! It seems kind of CRAZY to have HOT SOUPS in the middle of summer, even in Maine, but they're easy, filling and a BIG pot is enough for 2-3 meals. (I'm ALL FOR cooking once, eating twice! LOL) Add a salad and we're eating lots and lots of veggies. Nothing wrong with that, right? 

Lasagna Soup with a Spinach-Romaine Tossed Salad and Fresh Homemade Crusty bread (from a Bread Machine)

I'm Grateful For
Seasons! Autumn, my favorite season of the year is just around the corner. I ALWAYS look forward to warmer weather after a LONG winter, but I'm ready for cooler days and pretty foliage and a new school year.

Things I Worked On
• Putting in a Smaller, Rounder, Deeper "Pool" in the Run for the Ducks • Moving Furniture Around •

My Favorite Thing
Fans. Without AC, fans have been a life-saver with these muggy 90s!

Homeschool Happenings
*I* read. Does that count? LOL

Did you know that "Wild Kratts" is on Netflix now? The Kratt brothers explore animals around the globe and have Creature Power Suits. We've been spending some HOT afternoons watching it.

Sam did BEGIN to learn to roll coins. We've been saving our change for a while for our August trip. He soon found that rolling change isn't so much fun. :wink:

Homeschool Helps
I noticed that school supply sales have started! Don't forget to compare ads for the cheapest prices! (And most sales flyers can be found on-line to make a list beforehand.)

People and Places

• On the Island With Grandpa and Nannie Lobster (All) • Noodle's Birthday Party (All) • Dentist (All) • Band Camp (C) • Rec Center Lunch (All) • Lake (All) • Clothes Shopping (All) •

Something Silly to Share

As ALWAYS, linking up to these WONDERFUL blogs: