Homeschool Mother's Journal ~ Drama and Some Love

In my life this week…
the first week of school, getting back to a regular schedule, and drama at home that had me in tears. That is not hard to do for this menopausal mamma with a hubby that has been laid off for 16 months. I am so stressed feeling all the time that a little thing will set me to crying... actually... like my big sister said... nothing can happen and I will be crying!

In our homeschool this week…
new to us science curriculum, another G.A. Henty for Historical Fiction, and my son Christopher starting High School... for details see my Weekly Wrap-up ~ First Week of School 2011-2012.

I am inspired by…
my Bible Reading this week in Isaiah. I chose these verses because in Science class right now we are studying the Origins of the world.

Isaiah 48:12b-13b "I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, And My right hand has stretched out the heavens;"

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
I may be going to the mall for a couple new candles from Yankee Candle. Hubby and I may also be going to shop at a store about an hour from home called BB's. They have discount food and we shop there a couple times a year.

My favorite thing this week was…
watching Shane as a family (well most of us watched) for our new Language Arts study Movies As Literature from Bright Ideas Press.

What’s working/not working for us…
Chores were not working and I redid things today. I will post our new chore chart later this week. We will see if the new way we are doing chores will work... well it may work for a while anyway... with chores it is good to make changes once in a while.

Questions/thoughts I have…
I still have things from my summer list that I did not get done that I must work on but at the same time I have current school stuff to do also.

Things I’m working on…
Porfolios from last year, planning our History for the year, reading (see below), and planning the details and workboxes for each week of school as we go.

I’m reading…
Back Home Again by Melody Carlson
and
How to Have a Heart a H.E.A.R.T. For Your Kids by Rachael Carman (a TOS crew review product)

I’m cooking…
I am not sure what I am cooking this coming week. I need to meal plan.

I’m praying for…
a couple of friends with problems that I can't discuss and my hubby that he would start a home business and/or get a job after 16 mos. of unemployment.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
after the drama and tears that I experienced earlier in the week and my sweet sister calling me to see if I was ok, after she saw my posts on Facebook about how upset I was, she sent me a sweet gift. It was totally unexpected and made me feel even more loved than just the phone call had.

Here is what she sent me

 the sentiment was perfect

 This is where I put the candle for now

on a small bookcase between my living room and dining room

the little book is on my desk in my bedroom

love you Sis

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Weekly Wrap-up ~ First Week of School 2011-2012

For Bible I was not sure what we were doing, even on the first day of school I was not sure. I had thought I would do a study of the heart from the Bible that I was making up as I went. Day one I read a part of a chapter from my book Instructing a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp. On Tuesday I had them look up a couple words in the concordance and fill out a Bible study sheet and my son Nathan told me he was not getting anything out of our study. So Tuesday I started looking for something else to do. I found the Book of Virtues study that I had downloaded a while back and decided to do that. On Tuesday or Wednesday I got another review product for TOS. We will be reviewing Rooted and Grounded  from Deeper Roots. That will be our Bible for this year... it looks really good! The boys will keep doing the Virtues study as part of Building Life Relationships - character building is so important and my boys could use some more of it.

For History we are continuing our study where we left off last year we are finishing up the 1600's. This week we covered John Locke and the witchcraft in Salem, MA.

For Historical Fiction we started reading: A Jacobite Exile by G.A. Henty. This Henty was exciting from the very first chapter. We are all enjoying it. See my Read-Aloud Thursday post for more info.

For Science we are doing a new curriculum from Answers in Genesis. For details about the whole curriculum please see my Resources for the 2011-2012 School Year page. For this week we read chapter 1 of Evolution Exposed: Earth Science and  the first 5 chapters of Laying a Creation Foundation: Building Blocks in Science.

Today we viewed our first science movie for this curriculum - Unlocking the Mystery of Life. It was really detailed and well done. I learned a lot... I think the boys did too.

For Language Arts this year the boys are doing Movies as Literature. My daughters, Rachel and Jessica, did this same curriculum in 2003-4. We really like this curriculum from Bright Ideas Press. It is great for teaching skills in analyzing... this time of movies, not books... and the essays are challenging also. Thanks to IEW last year the boys are solid on their essay writing and this will expand and perfect those skills. The first movie, which we viewed and did the discussion questions for this week, was Shane. The boys had never seen this movie, we got it from the library because we don't own it. The boys like it so much they want to own it. So far so good with this study.

Besides these main subjects one or both of the boys are doing Geometry, Easy Grammar, Reading books they (sometimes I) choose, Home and Life Management, Educational Foundations, Building Life Relationships, Computer, Phys. Ed., Health, Artist Study, Composer Study, Hymn Study,  and Poetry. I will give more details about these "extra" subjects in the weeks to come.


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