The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week...

This week has just flown by.  Wow!  I can't believe its already Friday!!  I attended a Classical Conversations Informational Meeting Tuesday night, which was very interesting and I met lots of great people.  I also attended the Open House Wednesday, and while I was just as impressed as I was the night before...Im just not sure the program is for us.  I don't really follow the classical method of homeschooling, but I am inspired by it and find myself being drawn to certain aspects of it more and more.  I just don't know if I can justify the cost of CC for my girls to go and try to work it into our school day as well.  I am still praying about it.

In our homeschool this week...

We are wrapping up our migration unit this week and will be moving into Backyard Birds of Winter next week.  We finished watching  Winged Migration on youtube and read several books about migrating birds.  The girls are very excited about participating in  Great Backyard Bird Count  in February which seems to be so fun.   Really?  Did I just say February...that is like next week!!  Time is just flying by!! 

Karsyn learned interjections this week.  Those sentences are always fun!!  Kamryn is still working on prepositions...I think we will be here a while, there is so much to know about those pesky critters!!!  She is enjoying the time alone with me though, that is for sure!

In Math, Karsyn is finally beginning to really catch on to subtraction with borrowing.  She is beginning mixed numbers and even did a little bit with the 13 subtraction table!!  That one is never fun to learn.  Kamryn has been learning about acute, obtuse, and right angles and triangles.  We will review that some more next week and her test on them will be Thursday!!

We are still enjoying our new Bible curriculum from Positive Action and have memorized 1 Corinthians 13:1-5.  They will know all the way to verse 7 by the end of February and I couldn't be more proud.  I strongly recommend this Bible curriculum. 

We joined a field trip group this week as well.  I am so excited! We are getting to be so social...LOL!!  We are looking forward to meeting up with these friends once a month for a fun day!  Our first field trip is to a cupcake shop in town.  The girls will get to make their own cupcakes and learn about operating a cupcake business.  So appropriately fitting with our new obsession with Cupcake Wars!

Places We are Going and People We are Seeing...

This weekend is Karsyn's birthday so we are going ice skating!!  She is very excited!!  We also have a cancer benefit for Jamie Navarre, a dear friend of my sister who was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon, rectal, and liver cancer a week after Thanksgiving.  We are praying and believing that God has this under control and that whatever happens will glorify Him.

My favorite thing this week was...

Going to the Classical Conversations Open House.  I think my girls would say the same because they got to pack up their school work and go to Mrs. Kayce's for school.  Maw Maw Genny came as their substitute teacher and Mrs. Kayce has a hammock in her school room!  SCORE!!

What's working or not working for us...

Do I need to tell yall again how much I LOVE our Bible curriculum.  I really can't emphasize that enough!!

Homeschool Thoughts and Questions I have...

This week I am really trying to figure out what we are meant to do next year in the form of weekly outings.  Do I want something as elaborate as Classical Conversations or would your standard Co-Op work for our family?  We have a group of 12 kids that are homeschooled and we are very close to their parents already.  Could we form our own group that meets once per week or should I join something already in motion?  Lots of wheels spinning in my head right now as far as that goes!!

A Photo to Share...

This has absolutely nothing to do with homeschooling, but look what arrived in my mailbox from my BFF Amazon this week...

I'm so excited to start this book {which I have cheated and read a few pages of already}.  I am participating in the Bloom Book Club's study of this book beginning in just a few days!!!  Its not too late to join!!!

** This post is inspired by Sue at The Homeschool Chick, who has begun keeping a journal of the happenings in her homeschool.  She has inspired me to do the same.  Im linked up at The Homeschool Chick with other moms who want to document their days.  I love the idea!!

1000 Gifts...and the list goes on

Each week I sit and reflect on all of the many blessings we are given each and every day.  I jot them down here because I never want to take them for granted.  Today, I'm a day late, but the list goes on...


0040
cold air and warm fires

0041
electric blankets

0042
afternoon coffee with my favorite man in the world

0043
early morning rising

0044
a God seeking body of believers in a tiny little country church full of love

0045
best friends who can finish your sentences

0046
conversations that never end where they begin and contain very few breaths

0047
lamplight in the evenings

0048
bedtime kisses from sweet smelling little girls

0049
warm socks for bed


0050
Holy Spirit convictions

0051
knowing that the battle for me is already won


0052
doors that He opens...and closes.

Menu Plan Monday...what's on our table

Last week, we didn't really stick to our supper menu as good as I would have liked.  My husband ended up having to work nights several nights, so the girls and I ate very simply.  Because of that my menu is going to repeat a little bit.  Sorry, its a boring week!!!

Monday  January 24th
Breakfast - Waffles and milk
Lunch - Grilled cheese, chips, cookies, oranges
Snack - Chocolate Pudding
Dinner - Fajitas, Refried beans, Southwest Salad

Tuesday January 25th
Breakfast - Blueberry bagels with cream cheese
Lunch - Turkey Wraps, cubed cheese, grapes
Snack - peanut butter crackers
Dinner - Roast, Rice and Gravy, Green beans, Potatoes


Wednesday January 26th
Breakfast - Fried eggs and sausage
Lunch - Chicken Quesidillas, cheetohs, strawberries
Snack - caramel popcorn
Dinner - Subway night {in between gymnastics and church}



Thursday January 27th
Breakfast - French toast, milk
Lunch - Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, applesauce, graham crackers
Snack - Homemade Oatmeal Cookies 
Dinner - Mexican Tostadas

Friday January 28th
Breakfast - Oatmeal and toast
Lunch -  ravioli with marinara sauce, granola bar, grapes, goldfish

Snack - Goldfish, Applesauce
Dinner - Tortilla Soup

Saturday January 29th
Breakfast - Eggs and Grits
Lunch - leftovers of something
Snack - Free Snack day!  
Dinner - Eating at Cancer benefit

Sunday January 30th

Breakfast - Pancakes and bacon
Lunch - Eat at Moms after church
Snack - At Mom's
Dinner - Karsyn's birthday party...PIZZA!!

I'm linked up at orgjunkie.com with lots more menus!!  Head over there and get planning!!!

Figure Life Out - One Thousand Gifts

When I first began reading Ann Voskamp's blog A Holy Experience, my soul just burst wide open. Her blog is a place to be filled. To be emptied. To laugh. To cry.

I find so much peace and comfort there, and when I heard she was writing a book, my heart skipped a beat. Her book One Thousand Gifts is on shelves everywhere and is definitely cheap at Dayspring and Amazon. I got mine for $10! $10! I am already racing through each page, and then I learn that Bloom is going to be doing a book club with this book, and my heart skips a beat again. In just two more weeks Angie and Jessica will be starting their online book club going through One Thousand Gifts with Ann!!!

If you have not gotten this book, watch the trailer below and then get the book. You will not be able to see it any other way, I promise!!! See you in the book club!!!

The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week...

This week has been a very welcoming "back to normal" sort of week.  Our weather here was actually a little bit warm {its Louisiana, 20 one day 80 the next}, so the kids were able to get outside and work off some of that late January energy on the trampoline.  I have also been spending alot of time going back and forth to Baton Rouge because my grandmother had surgery 2 weeks ago and is still requiring alot of attention from the family. She is seeming to be doing a great deal better this week though, which is music to my soul.  Karsyn's birthday is next weekend, so I am busy starting to plan doing last minute preparations for her party.  She will be 8 and I can hardly believe it!!  Most of my spare time has been spent on my new MacBook Pro {that the big daddy got me for Christmas}, which I love like another child.  I am a huge Mac fan and have had our desktop for a couple of years, but I hated being confined to the school room to play research on the internet.  It is nice to plan for the next school week from my bed after everyone is asleep.  LOVE!  In addition to planning for school, these days have been spent planning for something else.  Something big. Something that I really can't talk much about right now because its too new, but that I will be talking about ALOT really soon.  Like you will probably get sick of hearing me talk about it.  But for now, its tucked away in my heart until things become more clear.  

In our homeschool this week...

We are still getting into our groove from the holidays.  Finally this week has felt normal and both girls told me how happy they were to be back in school.  We have begun an amazing unit study for science on bird migration that is just unreal to say the least.  We have been studying about why birds migrate, why some don't, which ones do and where they go.  We have watched the documentary Winged Migration on youtube that I would recommend for everyone, even if you aren't studying bird migration.  It is a great movie.  We will be participating in the Great Backyard Bird Count  in February which seems to be so fun.  Science has proven to be our most loved subject.  This year we are doing Apologia's Exploring Creation: Flying Creature's of the 5th day, and it is great!!  This semester I want to make sure Science doesn't get pushed to the back burner, like it sometimes did in the fall.  

This week we also took the week to learn {Karsyn} and review {Kamryn} liquid measurement conversion.  We had lots of fun measuring beans and water and kool aid and playing a very fun game that I found online.  If you are doing liquid measurements it is a must for those visual and kinesthetic learners!!  Comment and I will be happy to email it to you.  

In language, Karsyn is memorizing the poem The Year.  She is also learning about interjections!

Kamryn is diagramming like a mad woman and has just started PREPOSITIONS!!  

We started a new Bible curriculum after the holidays after seeing it here and I am in LOVE!!  There are no other words.  This is exactly what I have been looking for in a Bible curriculum that I just couldn't find, until now.  I ordered it immediately and the girls love it.  Plus they do the majority of it on their own which means they are looking up scripture and interpreting scripture and all that good stuff.  There is also a scripture memory program with the curriculum that we are also doing.  So far the girls have both memorized 1 Corinthians 13:1-3.  They will know all the way to verse 7 by the end of February and I couldn't be more proud.  I strongly recommend this Bible curriculum. 

Places We are Going and People We are Seeing...

We didn't have any field trips this week, but we are now going to gymnastics every week and the girls LOVE it!!!  I wish I would have enrolled them years ago!!  They go to a fantastic gym and have an amazing teacher, and we all love to go!!!  They are also still in piano every week and continue to love that as well.  It is so wonderful to begin to see your children come into their own and find their likes and dislikes.  They are certainly loving what they are doing now!  

This weekend is the first LSU girls gymnastics meet at home, and we will be going to that.  I think the girls will love it.  

We are also finding time to get together with friends.  In this cold weather, a play date will save some sanity...QUICK!!

My favorite thing this week was...

By far the Winged Migration movie.  It was fantastic and we enjoyed cuddling up on the couch with hot chocolate to watch it.

What's working or not working for us...

I am definitely going to go another route for history next year.  While we are having fun on our around the world journey, creating your own curriculum week after week is exhausting.  I never thought I would say this, but I'm gonna need history to come in a box next year!!  LOL

I am also finding myself drifting farther and farther away from my traditional side and becoming more and more Charlotte Mason-ey!  I like her.  Alot!

Homeschool Thoughts and Questions I have...

I am really searching for history curriculum.  I am looking for something with good living books, and something simple.  I like Winter Promise {but don't know anybody who actually uses it} and Sonlight {but some of my mentors in blog land are not going back to it next year}.  I think I need a Homeschool Moms Blogging Conference so I can meet all of these ladies that I look up to and that inspire me and pick their brains in person.  That is really what I want!!  Like before I need to order history curriculum.

A Photo to Share...

Because of the cold weather, we spend alot of time a few minutes playing on PhotoBooth!!  Here is one of our favorites this week.  We laugh so hard we cry!!

** This post is inspired by Sue at The Homeschool Chick, who has begun keeping a journal of the happenings in her homeschool.  She has inspired me to do the same.  Im linked up at The Homeschool Chick with other moms who want to document their days.  I love the idea!!