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 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!

 

Carefree Break Days

Days around here have certainly been a little carefree, yet still full.

Priorities are different and this is much needed break from the ordinary school days. We are enjoying these particular days!

Out-of-door has been a big part of our days. More than typical. The weather has been pleasurable for the outdoors, which is unusual.  My allergies have been allowing me to play outdoor. I'm loving this awakening of being outside. I've had to lock myself inside for the last several years because of allergies.

I've been practically in engaged in Charlotte Mason and studying, researching, learning all that is possible.  My favorite resources that I'm currently immersed in include Learning and Living: Homeschooling the Charlotte Mason Way DVD set, free e-books from Simply Charlotte Mason, and Charlotte Mason Teaching Tuesdays. 

Not directly Charlotte Mason, but Sarah's Teaching From Rest goes along with CM because two our her audio companions are with Charlotte Mason home educators.

The pictures in this blog post where taken last Friday. We had some read aloud time outside and the boys played afterwards.

 
Now, today we start out summer term. Just a half day. It went well! The boys are now free to spend the afternoon in play. Caleb is moving rocks from an old flower garden and Tyler is helping. I get to finish laundry this blog post. I'm sure Charlotte Mason would be proud!

I wonder how long these splendid out-of-door days will last? (Said from the deck under the shade of a pine tree!) I'm getting use to sitting on the deck, listening to some wonderful pod cast, and watching the tea brew. Sure wish I had a hammock.