Homeschool Week 7 and 8 Notes

 Week 7 was our lovely break week which brings us to week 8 already. Here's how it went:

Monday was the first day back after a break. It's often hit or miss on how that will go, trying to get back into routine, facing math again, and so on. This was a pretty successful Monday! Over the course of the morning I gave six new math lessons. Makayla and I conquered the portion of lesson 5 in Algebra 2 that had us stumped before break. I spent an hour figuring it out myself over break so we were able to walk through it together today. We will practice lesson 5 all week to solidify things.

Joseph, Emma, and Daniel all started a new history read - Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin. I had offered them all four different books and let them each choose which one they wanted to read. Everyone chose the same book, so they're taking turns with our copy until the library gets us an extra copy. I also read aloud to everyone a chapter about Leif Ericson from A Child's First Book of American History.

I did Latin with Makayla. I went over writing options with Joseph, Emma, and Daniel. Each chose a writing prompt to work on this week. There was reading with Caleb and Oliver.

In the early afternoon I went for more thyroid bloodwork (things still look great). Mason and I headed to physical therapy in the middle of the afternoon. By the time we came home dinner was ready. I love crock pots! We put green beans and ham in the crock pot this morning so all we needed to add at dinner was some biscuits.

After dinner the girls and I made a quick trip to the grocery store for thing we are running low on (milk, bread, lettuce, etc).

Tuesday was a lovely morning working with my kids on their learning goals. Usually a day has at least a few complaints or a child who is less than chipper about getting their work done. Today was one of those rare won't-happen-again-for-months days when everyone peacefully worked through their assignments without grumps. I helped when needed, cycling through listening to beginning readers and doing math with each child as well as some chemistry review with the oldest.

Makayla did her usual shadowing at the veterinary office. The rest of the kids and I baked magic cookie bars with some changes just for fun. The basic idea: graham cracker and butter crust, chocolate chips, sweetened condensed milk, coconut. Our version today had a graham cracker and butter crust, chocolate chips and Andes mints pieces, sweetened condensed milk, and crushed pretzel topping.

Right before bed Mason and Samuel decided they wanted to do some more reading practice with our All About Reading level 1 activities. Mason is sounding out CVC words pretty well and Samuel can identify letters and sounds but isn't blending yet. Samuel is also not doing ANY formal lessons but he likes to take a turn sometimes.

Wednesday was another writing day for Joseph, Emma, and Daniel. Joseph and Daniel each chose the same writing prompt on Monday, where they tell about an experience from the point of view of an appliance. Emma's choice was to write and illustrate a 4 frame comic and today she finished up two frames. Meanwhile Mason practiced writing capital letters and reading, Oliver and Caleb read to me, and all the usual subjects happened. It was a straightforward day. Nothing terribly memorable, good or bad.

Thursday had me wishing for Friday. Math with two children had me biting my tongue to keep from sharing my frustrations with their forgetting past learning or repeated mistakes due to not writing out their work in a readable way. Ugh. Once math was finished for the morning I celebrated by baking two loaves of banana bread and two loaves of pumpkin bread. We demolished over half of those for lunch. Yum!

Friday we got off to a good start, got derailed by a visit from grandma, and then picked up the pieces when grandma left. We had a great visit and then finished out the school week with a solid effort. Our afternoon was quiet, with a movie and snacks in the living room. Daddy was home in time for dinner tonight (yay!) and then the girls and I headed out to the stores to get started on fall clothing shopping. That was exhausting! I'm not a fan of clothes shopping but it must be done. This year the kids over age 9 have a budget and after going through their clothing are given the reins on their shopping. They get to make the hard choices about what to buy and where to save money. It's interesting watching their shopping processes.

That's it for our week!