Seven Quick Takes {May 20, 2016}

1) School is done! Now is the season that I will be working overtime to do the planning for next year. I hope my efforts will afford me a few weeks of nothing school related before starting back at the end of July. We shall see!

2) Blog business! I have many blog post ideas floating around in my head, but I just can't get them down on "paper". I'm hoping that I will be able to put this on the top of my list after this weekend. I had time this week, but my weekend projects were really taking up all my thinking space.  ; )

3)I've been spending so much time online with "teacher training". There are so many wonderful things out there for the homeschooling mom and dad! Too many! All wonderful! Overwhelming, but did I mention wonderful? This is why I can't write! Too much brain energy on learning. I plan to watch Restful Teaching from Circe this weekend and can't wait! This one is not free, but it's only $10.

4) My calendar for the the rest of May and June has really exploded. I'm working really hard to keep it under control and to keep stress levels in check. As long as nothing unexpected comes up all will be well. LOL! I'm looking forward to a quick overnight trip with Scott and the boys, a homeschool conference in June, Tyler's 12th birthday, a scrapbooking day with family and friends, and a whole week with nothing on the calendar but school planning.

5) Nature study/hikes have been put on hold for the summer. Ticks are so thick this year! We tried to go out to our usual spot last Friday and gave up because all we did was pull of ticks.

6) I've been eating a gluten and dairy free diet since March. My stomach was always upset and I decided to do something about it. The good news is I feel so much better, I've lost a little weight, and my blood sugars have been much lower (type 1 diabetic). I'm still not sure *exactly* what was causing the stomach issues as I'm still experimenting and adding things in to see what happens and it's not always consistent. The good news is I can eat ice cream (I've only had just vanilla or chocolate with no added ingredients), but the bad news is butter is a big no-no. Cheese is still up in the air. I can handle a little bit of gluten, but more than a little (or with dairy) upsets my stomach. Staying away from over-processed packaged food seems to be a key point too. It's been a interesting experiment. It's been a strain on the budget and I'm still fine-tuning what and when I purchase to make it work in the budget. As long as I eat at home I don't have any problems eating gluten and dairy free.

7)Weekend plans: school clean up! I'll be rearranging all the books, bookshelves, and school items. Going through papers for the year and filing away is also on the list. I also plan to gather up books needed for the next school year and finalize the book list and see what else needs to be purchased. If time permits I will finalize all the high school records and maybe start that transcript . . . . . I will mostly likely put the transcript off another year. Ugh!

Will be back soon after a little break!

I can see in my stats that people are visiting my blog, but I haven't been able to get post out. I have many ideas for post, but I can't get those down in writing. I'm hoping to work on this in the near future and have the blog busy again by the end of the month. I had hoped to be able to do regular schedule posts, but I just can't seem to keep up with a writing schedule. I'll be checking in soon. Contact me by email if you want to chat!

Wednesday With Words {April 27, 2016}

I thought I would try linking up with Dawn @ Ladydusk Blog for the weekly Wednesday with Words.

I was reading the most recent Newbie Tuesday, a resource that Brandy @ Afterthoughts produces, and ran across a quote from Charlotte Mason from her fourth volume, pg 78:

Upon the Knowledge of these great matters- History, Literature, Nature, Science,Art-the Mind feeds and grows. It assimilates such knowledge as the body assimilates food, and the person becomes what is called magnanimous, that is, a person of great mind, wide interest, incapable of occupying himself much about petty, personal matters. 

I don't have much to say about this besides that this would be my perfect world. ; )  

I had more to say, but decided to delete it because I felt like I was getting judgemental. I would love to discuss it if anyone wants to do so in the comments or in person.

 

School Ramblings {April 25, 2016}

There is just 5 more weeks to go! Rumor has it that the boys would like to work a little harder and cut that down to 4. It is completely possible since the boys are starting to finish some books and can put that extra time towards extra readings on those books still to finish. Tyler finished one science book last week. Caleb could finish a book this week. We shall see.

We ended out of the house more than normal this past week, but still the school work got completed. I feel myself getting lazier towards the end, but the boys are pushing to get it done. I like their attitude!

When nature decides to study you.

We made it out to our usual nature study spot one evening last week. We wondered around looking for wildflowers and mushrooms. Mushrooms were sparing and ticks were plentiful! Pictures in this post are from that visit.

We found the goose nest.

What's in the Morning Basket?
All I have to say is that Swallowdale is finished! We've been working on this book off and on for two years. It's a great book and we just got distracted by other great books along the way.  ; ) 

Looking for mushrooms, but only found ticks.

What's this? (improvement needed)
I sent an email to Math-U-See to get some suggestions on a math issue that I had for each boy. They sent me back a wonderful email with great suggestions and even suggested I call them and for Tyler to call them to talk to them directly about it. Tyler said no, but I was impressed with the customer service. I went over the suggestions with each boy and one has already seen improvement.

Caleb found his first mushroom.

Cassie's favored book!
Caleb has been reading Fabre's Book of Insects as one of his science reads. Surprisingly, this has been a wonderful book to read. I wasn't looking forward to a book of insects! Fabre is a wonderful naturalist with a beautiful writing technique that makes insects interesting. We do have to google all the insects to see what they look like and compare them to their American version. (Fabre is French and some of these insects are from France.)I picked this book out at a homeschool conference last year as my door prize and I'm glad I did! 

Luckily we didn't get wet!

Looking ahead (teacher duties).
At this point, so late in term 3, I'm just making sure we are staying on track to finish what we had hoped to finish this year. I'm looking towards next school year and reading over new books and deciding what kind of teacher trainer that I need over the summer break. I've also decided to move our summer cleaning jobs to spring cleaning to free up more time during summer break. It seems like I'm always pushing our start date back because I'm not ready. 



 

Seven Quick Takes on School Planning for 2016-2017

I won't have a School Ramblings post this week. I've started planning for the 2016-2017 school year and I wanted to share what I'm working on. Maybe this will help someone or maybe a reader can help me.  : )

The crab apple is blooming! It's a feast for all the senses. It looks beautiful, is full of fragrance, and you should hear all the bees doing the pollinating . .. . Lucy says the crab apples are yummy in the fall, and if I was brave enough to get my hand near the tree I'm sure the petals would be soft. I think that covers all the senses!

1) Here are the main resources I'm using for planning 10th and 7th grade (there are many more wonderful ones too!):
Ambleside Online 
Mater Amabilis-A Charlotte Mason Style Curriculum for Catholics 
A Delectable Education (AWESOME podcast for teacher training on Charlotte Mason methods!!)
Sabbath Mood Homeschool (this has a living books science list)  

2) We changed the way were doing history at the beginning of this year and we have been very pleased with the changes. We will keep doing history this way in the future. It does make using AO difficult and AO will just be a resource next year and not used as our curriculum. My feelings are mixed on this one, but the joy of the wonderful history we have enjoyed since January finalizes that decision! We will be continuing along with many titles for history that were in our term 3 plans.

 

3) I'm 100% convinced and no longer question my decision to do an integrated science with Caleb in high school. I came to this conclusion after watching A Delectable Education Podcast on middle and high school science. I was really struggling with that decision before hearing from someone else that this way would work. I don't know what else to say about it, but listen to the podcast and all my reasons for choosing an integrated approach to high school science is in there.  ; ) I'm using many books already on our shelf for Tyler's science. I did purchase this middle school biology guide (and book). I'm leaving some wiggle room for science plans in case I really need to purchase some of her future guides.

4) I may have placed a Rainbow Resource and ordered a couple of books from Amazon today. Just a few books for me to start reading. My nitty gritty lesson planning session is scheduled for late June, but it's helpful to have most of the books picked and purchased before that time and some I need to start reading. 

5) My books to purchase list is much shorter this year. I'm focusing on using resources we already have. This is cutting down on some stress and making decisions easier (not to mention the budget likes it too and we are running out of bookshelf space).  

Lucy sitting very still so she doesn't get stung by the hundreds of bees pollinating the crab apple.

6) I have not sat down with the calendar to plan out dates. Some do this first (and I use to) but I've been doing it last and I like this approach. I assume we will start at the very end of July. This allows for much needed weeks off during the school year. I also like to keep summer break short.

7) We are still classical Catholic homeschoolers using Charlotte Mason methods to meet the education goals of our family. We are still learning and tweaking. I'm very grateful for all the resources out there for self education on CM and classical methods. It is all wonderful!  

School Ramblings {April 9, 2016}

Since the last School Ramblings we've had a shorter school week followed by an Easter Break (Happy Easter!!). I can't recall what happened two weeks ago! That was very apparent when we picked up some books this week and had to page through the previous readings for a quick reminder. This week we were back at a regular school week. We are counting down the last eight weeks of school with now ONLY 7 more to go! (That sounds way better than it feels!)

Tyler working on math and happy because I let him use a calculator for the first time.

What's in the Morning Basket?
I changed up our daily schedule for the remaining weeks and put Morning Basket right before lunch. This sounded perfect when I did it, but it's not been too welcomed by the boys. I don't have any intentions to change the schedule again so they are stuck with it until the end.  ; ) We had only 2 (maybe 3? why can't I remember?) days of Morning Basket (out of a scheduled 4). This is something we still need to work on! We listened to Swallowdale, learned some more about da Vinci and studied his The Annunciation painting, said our prayers and read the daily Gospel reading, and worked on memorizing the poem April by Elsa Beskow. As usual we didn't get much done during Morning Basket.

Cassie's favored book of the week.
I finally sat down and read Splendor of the Saints  and really enjoyed it! Caleb not so much. It is a little too much for him and we will save that for when he is older. I think I will continue reading it though. The book was exciting and gets you all fired up over the Saints.

Tyler, there's something flying above your head!

Tyler's favored book of the week.
This is a really hard question for Tyler. He responded with Old Sam, Dakota Trotter and couldn't give me a reason why.  ; )  I do mentioned it because Bethlehem Books is having 40% off and free shipping until the 10th. Tyler would like the sequel, Old Sam and the Horse Thieves so I placed an order. 

We've got this!
Tyler is very close to finishing Math-U-See Epsilon. I thought I would go ahead and order Zeta and start that, but that seems silly since he would only have about 4-6 weeks before school would be done. Yet, I could still be easily talked into starting it! I decided to have him do some of the enrichment and application pages that were missed when we went through the book. I'm not sure why we didn't do that to begin with. I'm very happy that this math book was completed in great time this year. (That doesn't happen every year.)

A pair of geese at the family farm. I'm looking forward to the little ones to follow.

Looking ahead.
I have the usual weekend duties of preparing for next week's school work and pre-reading a few selections. (I'm already behind on this because I decided to deep clean a bedroom and it's taking longer than expected.) 

I've been really thinking about next year's books and went over the list and edited it a couple of times this week. I even made a list of books to purchase and compared prices. I'm deciding if I feel good about purchasing them now or waiting another month in case I make a change or two or three or the whole list! ; ) I do have a couple of books to decide on and I hope to do that this weekend too. I have 4 spine books picked out for Caleb's history and we just need two . . . which will it be?

How was your week of school?

School Ramblings {March 19, 2016}

The last two weeks have been for the most part smooth sailing. I really thought we would get behind this week. Even Caleb kept saying he wasn't going to get it all done. I just looked over the weekly lesson sheet and everything was completed. : )  Next week will be a four day school week and then Easter break. Just 8 weeks of school left after that!

We made it out to the family farm on Wednesday afternoon for some nature study. I took Lucy for a long walk while the boys helped my dad plant potatoes. The boys did a nature hike after their work was done. There isn't much to see right now (so no pictures). Things are greening up and a few trees are blooming. Lucy and I did scare up some wood ducks on one of the creeks.

Stopping at the creek so Lucy can get a drink. She always has to go into the water.

What's in the Morning Basket? 
Not much! I have been inconsistent with Morning Basket this year. Mornings are not my favorite and we have struggled with starting on time. I tried a few things to fix our lack of morning time but have not been successful. This week we did listen to Swallowdale (and hoping to finally finish this before the end of the school year since we have listened to it off and on for two years now). We also read some poetry and had a drawing lesson.

What's this (improvements needed)?
As I mentioned above, we really need to work on our morning routine.

I noticed I was missing a lot of narrations from one boy in particular and I will need to remind him that it is his duty to make sure he gives those to me.

We've got this! (improvement made, stuff mastered)
At the beginning of the school year (and a few months in) I thought I would never get Tyler writing a proper sentence. Written narrations were a real struggle for him. I think that goal has been met! I think the key with him (who can give a really long and detailed oral narration) was telling him his written narrations could be on just one part of what he read and it does not need to be as long as his oral narrations. Another key step was having him read his narration out loud to me. This allowed him to hear the awkward sentences and fix them. (I also didn't need to see his horrible handwriting, which caused me to not be encouraging of his work.) 

I've been impressed with improvement that Caleb has made to his drawing. He is slowing down and paying attention and giving some effort. Now if I could just get Tyler to do that.  ; )

Cassie's (and Tyler's) favored book.
I've been reading out loud Carry a Big Stick: The Uncommon Heroism of Theodore Roosevelt to Tyler as a history biography. We are really enjoying it! I chose to read it to Tyler because the vocabulary makes the book almost arduous. It makes it a tough read aloud too, but it would be a challenge for Tyler to read alone. I'm hoping even with all the tripping around all the adjectives that Tyler is picking up on the challenging vocabulary. We do recommend this book if you are reading this era of history.

Looking ahead (teacher's duties).
I'm very slowly starting to plan for next year since this year is wrapping up. I've got grammar and foreign language heavy on my mind at the moment. I think history will easily come together for next year (perhaps a first for once!!) and I haven't even thought about science yet.  

I do have a ton of pre-reading to do for next week. I'm averaging getting all but one book done each week. I think I plan to skim one book to help getting them all read.  

How was your week?