7 Quick Takes Friday~January 31, 2014

1) Since we took Caleb out for pictures on Sunday we tried to get some family pictures too. I'm not too happy with them.  Here are the two "best".

2) Busy here with Caleb's birthday celebrations. Being blessed with a small house means we have multiply birthday celebrations to prevent the seams from bursting. I made dinner for family last night and again tonight. Going with easy Mexican food. Saturday night Caleb is having two friends over. He has requested pizza, chips, soda, and cupcakes. I got frozen pizza to avoid having to run the errand of getting pizza on Saturday. I feel guilty feeding those teenage boys junk food while staying at my house! I wonder if I can get them to have a salad with the pizza?

3) Tyler demanded to get on the ice and have his pictures taken last Sunday. Scott called it safe and I surprisingly agreed since the water was only about a foot deep where they were standing.

4) We are suppose to get some winter weather today and tomorrow. I'm wondering if it will interfere with our birthday celebrations or Scout Sunday.

5)I've been enjoying using Google+! I really just keep up with my online fellow homeschoolers. Come and join me if you use it or are thinking about it. I really don't know how to use it, but I'm slowly figuring it out.

6) I have enjoyed the Cranberryport books (Thanksgiving and Christmas) and bought the Valentines Day one this week. I had enough Amazon reward points to get it for $3.15! It should be arriving today.

7) Planning next year's school books has been weighing heavy on me lately. I'm still in the beginning stages of planning. I started a Pinterest Board and I also have a wishlist on Amazon going too. As you can see I'm not getting very far. We are doing Ancient history (starting in Genesis and through Ancient Egypt). I'm thinking for science we will do weather and maybe Geology. Perhaps a bird study if we don't get to that this year. I really want to do botany again, but I need to decide how much of that Caleb would cover in 9th grade (biology)before making that decision. We will continue using Math-U-See. Slowly making list!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

The Celebration of 13!

 

It's hard to believe my first baby is thirteen! This poor baby teenager never gets many pictures taken on his birthday, so this year we had a photo shoot to make sure we document the milestone birthday. Pictures were taken on an old bridge on the road that my parents live (and I grew up) and at the family farm. I've been eying this bridge for pictures for a long time now and when I noticed the 13 on the sign a few days before, I knew it was time to visit the bridge for pictures. This is the first time we took pictures at the family farm when there was ice on the lake. The boys insisted to get on the ice for some pictures! We took the pictures ourselves so that explains the quality.  ; )

 

 

Project Snapshots @ Everyday Snapshots

I'm linking up with Pam at Everyday Snapshots for her Project Snapshot Mondays. She encourages us "to share a moment from your week that you do not wish to forget".

 

While in the car on our way home from our bi-monthly visit to get fresh bread and eggs from our local bread lady . . . .

Tyler hollers from the back seat, "Put the speed thing to the ground Mom!"

I believe he meant "put the pedal to the metal" as he was in a hurry to get home to play a new game. LOL! I love that boy's sense of humor! And, no I didn't race home!!

Keeping the Company of Saints {The Boy's Current Saint Books}

I'm linking up at Sweetness and Light with the Keeping the Company of the Saints series.

My boys just started reading new saint books that go along with the history period we are currently studying (Middle ages-Renaissance).

Caleb is reading Francis and Clare: Saints of Assisi and this is his favorite saint book this year. We have read many books on Saint Francis so he is a favorite in our home.

Tyler is reading Saint Ignatius of Loyola: For the Greater Glory of God and loving it! There is a lot of adventure, action, and danger which is what most boys like to read about. I'm getting unrequested narrations from him, so I know he is enjoying this book. The chapters are short (3-4 pages)which makes it a quick read which also appeals to Tyler (who doesn't like to sit and read for long periods). He is reading one chapter twice a week in this book.

My current saint reading is The Story of a Soul by St. Therese of Lisieux. I have this on my Nook and I've been reading it for almost a year now. I usually read on my Nook when I'm out and about and this is hard to read because it brings me to tears which makes reading in public tough. I hope to be done with it soon. It is a very touching story and I hope to do more reading about St. Therese after I finish this book! Any suggestions?

Daybook {Late January}

Outside my window

It's cold out there! That's all I have to say about that.

I’m thankful for

a chiropractor! I went last week for the first time and I'm amazed at how much better I feel. Now it has been a little up and down, but I my aches and pains were all down the two weeks before I went, so this is an improvement and I'm looking forward to complete recovery!

I’m thinking about

high school . . . . just a year and a half away. It's time to make some plans. I find this terrifying! I do have a game plan and it's time to start working on it.

In the schoolroom
I'm afraid to say too much. It's going very well at the moment! I'm hoping this last as the upcoming month is usually burnout time. I keep the idea that I need to make list for next year and come up with a budget rattling around in the back of my mind. 

From the kitchen

I really need to go grocery shopping!

I am working on
organizing my online time better . . . . it's not going well.

I am reading
I purchased Pope Awesome and Other Stories by Cari Donaldson
for my Nook. I'm not too far in the book yet, but I'm enjoying it and looking forward to reading more. At the moment I can't relate to her at all, but I know I will enjoy it. 
I also started a book that I got for Christmas, today called The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens by Debra Bell . I'm reading this one for some high school at home encouragement. (I hope it works!) I've been reading Swallowdale! Have you read any books in this series? If not, I highly recommend you get them and read them to your children. They are amazing!! For my local friends and family, our library has the books and the first book on CD.
I have a big stack of other books I want to start (and finish!) so I need to work in some more reading time during the day. 

I am hearing
recorders! Caleb is getting there and Tyler is just a few steps behind. I really thought I would have to learn to play again, but they can teach themselves!

Clicking around
The Extraordinary Ordinary is a short writing about the meaning of ordinary . . . . which I have completely misunderstood.

I truly expect Amongst Lovely Things: Teaching From a State of Rest to be inspiring!

I enjoyed this series from Everyday Snapshots on building your own homeschooling tribe.

Around the house

I don't have any big projects planned for around the house. Really just survival mood. Just do the littlest needed to keep the house clean! I'm comfortable doing this because we did lots of deep cleaning in December. My carpets need to be cleaned though . . . . I've been talking about getting that done since this summer.

A few plans for next week
Thirteen birthday plans! And yes, it was hard to type that!

A picture
from a Harlem Globetrotters game that we went to this week. This is what Caleb wanted to do for his birthday. I was disappointed in the seats that we got (see the benches and not real seats!) and my back wasn't too happy with me either! The weird thing is there was plenty of open "real" seats. I also didn't take any pictures that I had planned. 

 

12 Days of Christmas Gifts!

We started a new Christmas tradition this year. The boys received a new book for each of the days of Christmas. The first day they received two books, but the remaining days they received a book to share. On the last day the got a pile of CDs from Holy Heroes that I had been collecting thanks to their Deal of the Day specials.

Someone had asked what books they received and here is the list. Sorry for being so late to answering this question! (I'm not going to list the Holy Heroes unless someone is interested.)

The Nativity by Ruth Sanderson
Saints: Lives and Illuminations by Ruth Sanderson
House of Hades (Heroes of Olympus series) by Rick Riordan
Adventures According to Humphrey by Betty Birney 
The Ruins of Gorland (The Ranger's Apprentice series) by John Flanagan 
Extreme Dot to Dot Legends and Lore by Mind Ware 
Friendly Gables by Hilda Von Stockum 
Canadian Summer by Hilda Von Stockum 
Note-Note Recorder Method by Penny Gardner 
Marcy Watson: Princess in Disguise by Kati DiCamillo (Tyler loved this series a couple of years ago and we never bought him the whole collection. This was the book missing from his collection and he requested to have all the books for the past couple of years. I finally got around to ordering it. He was a little surprised to find it a "princess" books!)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Hard Luck by Jeff Kinney 
Saint Felix and the Spider by Dessi Jackson

The Homeschool Path {Year Round Schooling}

It's about that time of year for homeschool moms when our thoughts turn toward the next school year. Each year I get later and later in the time I start making my list. I seem to always research items as I come across them. Using Pinterest makes this a little easier. I seem to save books to my Amazon wishlist throughout the year too. I haven't gone beyond these means yet in my planning for the upcoming year.

One thing that I have been rolling around in my head and pondering is a year around school schedule. We have been using a modified version of this for a few years now. This really has more benefits to us and it's something we want to continue to use. Although, we make adjustments every year as we haven't found the perfect school schedule or at least one that works from one year to the next. 

What is going to work for us in the 2014-2015 school year? That is my biggest dilemma in my planning at the moment. Our biggest (and I think only) obstacle to schooling in the summer is the fact that the boy's friends have the traditional three months off. It's hard to do school when you know your friends are at the pool or playing video games. I do know that we started back to school towards the end of July last year and that was too early. We had to take an unplanned week off in August to have some end of summer fun and a last chance to meet up with friends before they started back to school. Which was completely fine and turned out to be a wonderful last minute decision.

I also know that we have to be done with the school year mid-May. We've tried many times to make it through May and it's an impossible task. I won't try it again . . .  I know our limits.

Right now I'm looking at being done with our fourth term on May 16th and being off the rest of the month of May. I plan to start our summer term on June 2 and do three weeks of school. Half days is all I see us doing. The last week of June is already scheduled so we will have that week off and all of July off. I see us starting the new school year on August 4th. This gives us a total of 8 weeks off during the summer. Another idea that is floating around is doing some school in July and taking a couple of weeks off in August.


I really want to see what other homeschools are doing in this area. Please share with me. I would love to have a big discussion about this topic! What works for you, what doesn't, any ideas you want to try out?