Weekend Ramblings {August 9, 2015}

I know it's been quiet around here and that's because my favorite things to write about are school and nature study, which we have not been doing. I also like lots of pictures in a blog post and I haven't been taking much lately.

We did enjoy getting back into the school routine this week. A gentle approach was much needed and we did half days this week. Even with half days I was able to do some evaluations and I had some projects for the weekend. We will continue with half days for this week too.

Tyler got almost all his work done with half days (and I mean a full weeks worth). Of course, there is still math and Latin to do but other than that he only has about a day of work left. I'm not sure how to fix that, yet. Caleb on the other hand hardly got anything done. I'm not sure how to fix that either. Perhaps just a full day would help or I have scheduled too much or Caleb hasn't found his daily groove in the schedule. There has been a lot to think about this weekend.

Surprisingly, Caleb enjoyed one of his history books (The Birth of Britain) even though it's a tough read. And unsurprisingly, Tyler does not have a favorite book for the new year, yet. 

I'm still planning on doing a post of our book list for the year and I'm hoping to have that done soon (meaning a week or two since we need to take some "formal" back to school pictures).

Saturday was a lazy day. I did watch a training DVD from IEW on how to teach their writing program (the overview one that comes with the Student Writing Intensive program). I didn't finish it and plan to do that this evening while the boys are at a swim party (will be quiet here). I was glad to work on this project and get Caleb's writing figured out for the year (a gap I had in the lesson plans).

 

Summer project goals were not achieved this year. I never get it all done which maybe means I need to rethink and plan accordingly. The main problem was not having the time all at once to dedicate to a project. I had the time to do it overall, but I couldn't make it work all at once. I don't like unfinished projects so they didn't get started.  Not started projects bother me too, so sooner or later they will get done. ; )

I'm planning on a much longer spring/Easter break in 2016 so I think this will help with the summer project list. I could possible get one or two done in the spring instead of the summer. This is the most natural time of the year to do it anyway. This is could be a great solution except for the fact I still have to get it done for 2015. 

Caleb has been saving up his money to buy a new toy. He got very lucky and a kind man at our church found him a good deal on a used guitar and has offered lessons at a reasonable price. Caleb has been saving up money for the lessons too. Today he has been searching youtube and watching first lessons in guitar playing.

Cross country practice has started. We were unable to find a team for Caleb to run on this year. Tyler will be running on the same team that both boys ran on last year. Caleb has been practicing with the team though and I've been logging the hours for a PE credit. 

Friday 7 Quick Takes {July 17, 2015}

1) Reflection . . . . there had been a lot of that lately. Finishing up the last details for the new school year has been extremely difficult this year. I'm checking things off the list, yet coming up with new things to add. I'm almost there though and looking forward to moving ahead with our new year very soon.

2) Enjoy some Fourth of July pictures. I didn't take any of the fireworks this year.

 

3) Last weekend the boys braved flooding and went on a fishing trip at Roaring River (state park in Missouri-close to Arkansas). By the time they got there the flooding was over and the park was back open. I think they had a good time.

Lucy and I stayed home. I worked on school planning and relaxed via HGTV on Netflix. Lucy destroyed toys!

4)How's that summer to-do list going? you ask. Well, it started out great . . . . . and that is about it. All the bedrooms need a good deep cleaning. The kind of cleaning when you move the bed and sweep under it. That is something that is not done much here since we store stuff under the bed. The boy's closets needs a good cleaning too. I just keep putting it off! 

5)I talked earlier about how difficult planning this school year has been. Planning for Tyler has been much easier than usual. Caleb was tough this year. Most of my difficulties come from not being able to focus on our goals for high school. That is because our goals are completely different than most. You can feel yourself starting to drown at times. I've talked about this in other post, so it's something I've struggled with a while. I think the best thing is prayer. It really helps. It's a constant thing or otherwise I start to sink and once I start sinking I forget about praying with all the clamorous disorder that I've sunken to. Prayer must be constant and never ending. 


6) I've been reading some books that the boys will be starting soon for school. I've also been reading Charlotte Mason's sixth book. I'm getting towards the end and hope to finish it up in the next two weeks. I have read this book before and parts of it several times. I always pick up new things. I'm really just reading it for some inspiration of the upcoming new school year. As usual, my to-read pile is over flowing!

7)I know I haven't been blogging much lately and I think that will change next month. We've been keeping it pretty simple around here (in other words not much is going on)and I haven't felt pulled to write. Thanks for checking in on me though! I plan to pick things up next month.

 Just sharing 7 things I'm thinking about. What about you?

School Planning Progress {sort of}

Things are moving along here. A bit of an odd summer for us, but all is great.

Thursday evening before the storm. Those ruts were a foot deep when we came out Sunday.

We enjoyed two trips out to the family farm on last Thursday evening and Sunday afternoon. Pictures are from the family farm visits.

Very wet at the family farm!

Thursday night we just needed to get the dog out to run. We had to pay close attention to the weather since we were expecting severe weather, but we had a couple hours before it was in our area. (We were in the basement later that evening under a tornado warning.) Lucy got to practice retrieving in the lake. It wasn't her first time, yet she was uncertain at first but then was thoroughly enjoying it afterwards. She tends to run, full speed, crazy like, after she is done swimming (I assume to dry off). Of course, she was darting around us and ran into me. Thankfully she was mid turn so I didn't get knocked over. But, my leg was throbbing the next morning. Some pain reliever and it was all fine the next day.

It's hard to take a picture in a moving car, with a moving puppy, and no one would look at the camera.

This was the best one!

On Sunday, we went out to the farm with my parents, my aunt, and my nephew. My nephew spent the night at my parents for the first time by himself and this was his first fishing trip at the farm. He caught his first fish and ate it too! My aunt caught the biggest fish (she always does), a catfish, even though her pole broke. I didn't get a picture of that. Scott caught the smallest. I sat in my hammock and read and almost fell asleep . . . . almost as with a 4 year old nearby makes it tough to fall asleep.

I've been steadily working along to get ready for the start of school. It seems never ending! I've hit a few snags and I'm not sure what to do about them . . . . so I put them off. One is Spanish for Caleb and the other is science for Caleb. Tyler has been easy!

Waiting for someone to catch a fish.

Summer break is tough on us. It seems everyone's brain turns to mush. We enjoy the freedom but fail at staying organized because we don't have that dependable schedule in place. This works fine the first couple of weeks but at this point it is miserable! This is one reason I think a short summer break is mandatory for us. Yet, it is so hard for me to get started again and those boys have been brain washed  and they really don't understand why they can't just run wild for three months. ; )

Lucy loves fishing!

She was so excited to go fishing that she fell head first into the lake. She wasn't sure what to think of that.

I'm the only one who knows it, but we are going to start back to school next week. It will be a gradual thing but we need the schedule in place to function. We will just have about an hour of Morning Basket next week and around Thursday I will add back in grammar (because I have a new program that I want to give a test run). The next week we will continue with those two and add in math about mid-week. The week after that we are going to half days. My goal is to be done with school around lunch time each day and get a weeks worth of school done in two weeks.

Other homeschoolers do this gradual thing and I've always wanted to but didn't know how to do it. It came to me that I needed to start with subjects that were independent of other subjects and that is why I picked the ones I did. We will see how that goes!

My goals to have completed by Sunday include having Morning Basket ready to start along with grammar and math. I need to finalize our daily schedule . . . . I'm thinking a simple schedule this year term. I'm using Celeste's @ Joyous Lessons weekly schedule template for the boys to keep track of their lessons. Of course, this has the weekly lessons (not broken down into daily) and I'm curious to see how this plays out. Easier for me! I'm hoping it's not a fail for the boys though. I also need to get some papers printed, things arranged, notebooks arranged, and really what seems like an endless list of things to get done. It always comes together in the end though.

Some post I have been enjoying while planning include:
Celeste @ Joyous Lessons As mentioned above and she had some more planning post.
Brandy @ Afterthoughts has several new planning post. 
Ambleside Online  forum and really their whole site has been outstanding in helping me to get our first year in AO under control.

Weekend Daybook {June 27, 2015}

Outside my window . . . . 
cloudy today. Much cooler than it was all week. Weeds have taken over . . . . I would pay someone to pull them for me. I had a few minutes to pull weeds while the dog was playing outside and I got a rash. I need to remember to wear gloves! It was the ragweed! I'm allergic to it and get a rash when I touch it.


Pictures . . . .
are from scout camp family night. This was Tyler's first year. They had a crate stacking activity. The pictures are of Tyler seeing how high he could stack the crates. Scott did it too and got 13 high. The other pictures are from Tyler's birthday party at the pool.

What I'm hearing . . . .
not much. It's the last few minutes of being home alone since last Sunday while the boys were at scout camp. There is the sound of Lucy whining a little at the window. I guess a neighbor is outside and she would like to say hello.

Thankful for . . . .
some down time in the calendar! There was nothing outside the home on the calendar this week besides going to family night at scout camp. I really enjoyed staying home. 

I'm very much thankful that Lucy's separation anxiety problems were almost nonexistent this week. I think it was all in the send off. I will have to remember this for the fall weekend camp outs!

Also, I'm thankful for a wonderful, supportive, online, homeschool community who is always there when I need advice or help (just finished my annual planning week). 

Around the house . . . .
My days are normally spent in mostly domestic duties . . . . and I hardly did any those this past week! What a difference when you only have to clean up after your self and the dog. I did maintain the sweeping schedule since that is mostly due to puppy fur. 

With all the rain we've had it has been a reminder that the back yard needs some work to get the drainage under control. It gets put off because it's going to be a big job and we forget about it unless we get a lot of rain. 

This coming week . . . .
Oh! I haven't even looked at the calendar. I'm in denial that I have to go back to the regular schedule. That's not a bad thing but I've enjoyed the "holiday".

What I'm reading . . . .
or what I have not been reading and that would be the boys books for the upcoming school year. I'm not making any progress on this. I did finish Harry Potter this week after putting it down for a while and the boys will be happy to watch the final movie of the series sometime this weekend. I have picked up Charlotte Mason's sixth book a few times. I have a big stack of started and haven't touched books. : (

And they all fell down.

I am working on . . . .
school planning. It's almost done.

I had hoped to clean out the boy's closets but that project remains on the to-do list. More about that below (yes, under the I am struggling section).

In the school room . . . .
Planning season, as I mentioned above, is about done. This is what I did most of the week. I think I wasted a day going back and forth on history decisions. I went back to the original plan in the end. I'm hoping to have the last details in place very soon so that I can enjoy a week (or two) off from all school related stuff before school starts back up. That start date has not been determined yet.

I'll have a post sometime in July with all our plans for the upcoming year. We have switched to Ambleside Online. I usually plan our school from scratch since I'm not good at following other people's instructions.  ; ) AO is different in that regard. Tyler will be doing year 5. I picked to start him there because of the history. Caleb will start AO in year 7 mostly because of the history. This program is well advance and since we didn't use it from the start there is no way we could go in at "grade level". Year 7 is high school level work! More later on all of this!

I am struggling . . . .
with storage and too much stuff. We don't a clutter problem here. I've downsized our house in the past and I'm selective in what I purchase and I always get rid of stuff as soon as it has served it's purpose. I don't have the typical American too much clutter problem. What we have is a small house that can't handle the amount of stuff we need to function. It hard to get all the males in the house people to realize that even though we use all this stuff (or may use it in the future) it doesn't mean that we can keep it. It has to have a place in the house and if you run out of places then something has to give. LOL! And why is it my stuff that always has to give? Our basement is overflowing with camping, hunting, and taxidermy stuff. 100% of it is used.  This is a big struggle at the moment. I am beyond overwhelmed with the lack of organization in the basement. On a related note, does anyone need a tent? I think we have an extra old one. Seriously!

 

I am pondering . . . .
temperament lately after hearing a talk at the KC Catholic Homeschoolers Conference. I got a recording of the teen talk on temperaments and Caleb really enjoyed listening to that. I played it in the car and everyone heard it. Tyler goes around labeling everyone he knows. It's hilarious when he says that so-and-so does that because they are a (fill in the blank with one of the 4 temperaments). So true!

I've also been pondering high school at lot lately. Trying to decide if and what changes need to take place in the homeschool. It seems the popular notion is that high school is a different ball game. I just think of it as the same path as the previous years but a little deeper. It tough to stay focused on that when you feel pushed to make changes.

Day 5 of scout camp. Someone was begging to go home . . . . . and I reminded him that he drove there and had a vehicle and could leave at any time, lol!

7 Quick Takes {June 12, 2015}

1) I have high hopes that things are going to settle down for the rest of summer break. I haven't done a 7 Quick Takes Friday in a while so I thought it would be a good way to catch up. Mostly pictures!

2) Tyler turned 11 this week . . . .  I try to get a pictures taken on birthdays and that didn't happen this year. We celebrated the day by going out to the family farm, dinner at Steve's (local restaurant that serves fried chicken, which is Tyler's favorite), and a family movie (Night at the Museum). We have the local community pool rented out in a week for a party with family and friends. Surprisingly, it's not too expensive and since I won't be serving a meal it won't cost any more than his usual party. Tyler got a kayak from us. He bought a bike a few weeks ago since his broke and he couldn't wait for birthday cash. So, he has a loan to repay. I haven't decided if I should charge interest. ; )

3) The boys had a Scout camp out at the end of May. I stayed home, which turned out great because it rained and was cold. But, bad because the dog was sick. : ( 

On the way out. The float trip part of the camp out was canceled due to flooding. Tyler did get to try out his new kayak on a pond instead.

4) Just some pictures from a few visits to the family farm. We made it out again today but it was a short visit just so Lucy could run around. (She isn't so naughty when she is tired!)

Picnic lunch by the lake.

Lazy boy fishing.

5) More fun at the farm!

Lucy loves to swim. She does NOT love to swim with the boys. She refused to get in once they were in and was one anxious puppy! The boys expected her to be playful in the water and wore life jackets in case she was a handful . . . . but no need.

6) Tyler's new hamster has turned out pretty well mannered. Humphrey hasn't given us any trouble. He is more concerned about getting out than the last hamster though. It's a little weird when those red/pink eyes are staring you down!

7) The new curtains for the living room arrived last Friday. I was able to take back two panels since they were very full and we didn't need four panels for the double window. I still haven't hung up pictures in the living room. Hopefully soon! I'm just not sure where I want to put them and I think I would like something new to add. We really need to work on some outside projects now! It's going to be a sad day when the massive pine tree is cut down in the back yard!

Have a good weekend!

 

Year in Review {2014-2015}

I intended to write this post the day we finished school . . . . I know I even sat down to do it . . . . yet there was no draft so I guess I somehow got distracted. This will be short because it's been summer break too long now. ; )

Here are some post with the material we had planned to use: Term 1, Term 2, and it doesn't look like I did a post about term 3 (but I think I talked about it in other post). Tyler completed 5th grade and Caleb 8th grade this year.

I have the boys fill out a survey during our last week of school. There is a rating system for all the books we used and a page of other questions. It's not their favorite thing to do but I find it certainly insightful every year. The following is from that survey and my thoughts on the year.

Tyler's Favorite book/subject was Cuthbert Joins the Bush Boys. His favorite activity was nature study at the farm. His least favorite thing this year was written narrations. His hardest subject was math and his easiest subject was free reading. When asked if school was too hard, too easy, or just write he replied just right.

Other things that Tyler enjoyed and ranked high on his list were Life of Fred, Story of the World 1, St. Joseph's Baltimore Catechism #1, dictation, Fix It, weather study, and morning basket.

Caleb's favorite book/subject was history (20th century). His least favorite was LifeWork: Finding Your Purpose in Life. He complained about the author's tree comparisons. Tyler has requested NOT to read that book in the future, lol.

Other things that ranked high on Caleb's list were Seton Science 7, Winston Grammar, morning basket, nature study, and Xtra Math.

We had many changes compared to the book list in the previous posts. Too many to talk about! Yet, there were some great changes. Saxon math was a hit. Switching Caleb's history and science were very favorable, too. 

I saw great improvements in both the boys independent work. I had some much needed "free" time during school hours. It was just enough of a break that I needed to get through our day.

Keep in mind that these were our positives and to respect the boy's privacy I'm not going to discuss any goals not meet.  : )

Weekend Ramblings {May 30, 2015}

 The older I get the less things I can have going on at once. Some would say this a negative of aging. I think perhaps it's a gift of maturity. I work on less, spend more time working on one project, and those projects turn out much better. Anyway, that is my wishful excuse of why I have not been blogging (but you shouldn't expect an awesome post).  ; )

From green to gray blue.

What's been going on around here? Finally got some painting done! I'm excited about it. The kitchen color didn't turn out the gray that I thought it was going to be so we decided not to paint the rest of the house that color (living room and hallway to bedrooms). I love the kitchen color though.

Lucy gate to prevent her from licking the walls. At least that is what I thought she would do. Turns out she will lean against them.

We just went to Lowes and pick a color on the spot for the remaining painting. When I got home I realized that it wasn't as dark as I wanted but too late at that point. It turned out pleasant though. Lighter than before so it has really brightened up the place (don't need lamps in the evening as soon as we use too) and feels like a new place. I loved the color we had before (dark, warm and cozy kind of feeling) but I'm loving the change . . . new season of life.

Caleb was a big help. Love a teenager in the house!

It's not white but a boring beige instead. Lighting is horrible in this picture. The hallway is the about the same color as the new color and what is being covered up is much darker than that hallway.

We have yet to hang anything back on the walls. I want a different arrangement and haven't thought about that yet. I think I'm going to have to purchase something new too. There was a lot of blank space before painting. I have these curtains from Target in navy blue on order. I wasn't expecting to replace curtains but a blind broke and I decided to replace it with a curtain which then led to all new curtains so they would match. I did have coupons and got a good deal. 

It has been rainy here this spring and we have not made it out to our favorite nature study place very often. We did go during our first week of summer break and took along some friends. Fishing, metal detecting, and games were all enjoyed (all share more pictures in my year end review post). The geese are no longer at the lake and I didn't get a picture. Maybe next year?

We've had two weeks of summer break and it's been busier than expected (and wanted). I'm worried this is going to be the norm, which would be my fault for putting off appointments until summer break. I think it will clear up the end of June and into July. 

Iris blowing in the wind.

We did make it out to the farm last Saturday to play around a little. Scott took his duck boat to make sure all leaks have been fixed. They have. Now he just needs a spot to store it until next duck season (it currently sits in the yard . . . .).

Lucy insist on going for a boat ride but they make her nervous.

Weekend goal: Finalize book list for next year and order books. Completed!!! This has been a long time coming. Next is to start pre-reading those books. I have a whole week in June planned (nothing on the calendar!!) to sit down and plan out those book readings, make a schedule, put dates on the calendar, and other details. I'm waiting until then to pick our school start date (mid to late July). Anyone want to make some guesses on how many snow days the public school will be using next year so that I can plan our end date too? My boys insist of ending the same day as them. It's the least I can do to give them that since we start much earlier. 

Iris blooming was here and gone. I struggled to get any good pictures. It was either cloudy, windy, raining, or all of the above. I thought I would share a few since I always do. Day Lily season will be here very soon!

More blowing in the wind!