Notes for January 18th-24th

Saturday we finally started to see improvement in Samuel. The day was pretty laid back for most of the family. Emma and I headed to the city to drop off her art piece for the gallery mid-morning. In the late afternoon Emma, Joseph, and I went to see the new Dolittle movie. The kids buy their own tickets and then decide if they want to invite a parent along. They bought tickets a couple weeks ago and wanted me to join them. The movie was better than I expected, though I didn't always enjoy the humor.

Sunday we kept the whole family home from church to rest. Our low-key activities included playing Dutch Blitz, baking fresh bread, and having family scripture study. I was able to get a solid hour in of homeschool curriculum research for next year. In most areas we will simply continue using the same curriculum, changing levels as needed. However, I will have two high schoolers in the fall, and in high school our kids get a lot of input into which materials they use for courses.

One area they have options in next fall is language arts/writing. They can do the next level in The Good and the Beautiful Language Arts. It is a solid mix of literature, writing, grammar, spelling, geography, art appreciation that we like a lot. Or they can choose to do a writing focused year with a side of literature. I'm looking at three courses from the same company. The company is Clear Water Press and what I love about them is they take writing and provide interesting video lessons to draw you through the year of learning. Makayla used one of these courses during high school and enjoyed it.

• Cover Story - Writing a variety of pieces that combine to create a themed magazine at the end of the year. 
• Byline - Essay writing with a side of journalism that creates a newspaper at the end of the year.
• One Year Adventure Novel - Studying about and writing a novel. Makayla did this course. We would simply need to pick up new student materials.

Monday was 17 degrees of cold when Daniel and I headed out the door to do a grocery pick up order. Then the last two eye doctor appointments happened, followed by lunch, and then three of the last four dental cleanings. Daddy also had an appointment with his vein surgeon. He has some problems, including clots, and will be having surgery. They are doing updated scans and they will schedule surgery.

Tuesday we started the homeschool week with math for everyone. The oldest two had biology and are beginning a study of genetics beginning with Gregor Mendel. I love genetics, which they found hilarious. Then they had fun looking for evidence of some of their own family genetics based on traits like the ability to roll your tongue, attached or free earlobes, etc. History was learning about the beginnings of the last two American colonies we had to discuss - Pennsylvania and Georgia. For language arts various books were read, essays worked on, sentences diagrammed, and so on. We tossed in a quick trip to the doctor for Caleb to check on some illness symptoms he's dealing with.

Wednesday was the last day with a doctor's appointment this week, a checkup for Samuel. He is recovering nicely from pneumonia. The morning was school work, of course. In the evening the oldest 3 had youth activities. There were communication exercises, giving speeches, and doing family history research between the three groups.

Thursday morning I got desperate. Rebekah was in a mood and was just unhappy unless she had my undivided attention and was on my lap. This makes teaching some subjects a challenge. I finally pulled out some sensory bin materials I had gathered weeks ago. It was a hit, and various kids gravitated to the bin as they finished school subjects. We started studying forest fires, ecology, and firefighting in science.

Late Thursday afternoon I headed to the library with a couple of the kids, while Daddy held down the fort at home with the rest. We found a nice stack of books for various people's interests.

Friday is here and I'm listening to one child practice piano, dictating sentences to another, and just having a steady morning of learning. The kids also let me know it is National Peanut Butter Day, and that they plan to make no bake cookies this afternoon to go along with it. Yum.

Tomorrow is a special day. I'll try to get pictures and share more about it soon.

BOOKS

I try to share updates occasionally on the books my kids and I are reading because I look back at this blog when updating homeschool records. Here are some of the books happening around here lately, not including picture books or school assignment books :

• Maria's Many Colors (Mason)
• Dr. Seuss books (Samuel)
• The Tale of Peter Rabbit (Caleb)
• Grasshopper on the Road (Caleb)
• Childhood of Famous Americans: George Washington (Mason and Oliver)
• The Mysterious Benedict Society (Daniel)
• The Falcon of Eric the Red (Daniel)
• Race for the Prairie (Joseph)
• Trials of Apollo (Emma)
• Hawkeye Comic Books (Emma)
• Keeper of the Lost Cities (Me) - I'm on the 4th book in this series and it is fantastic. LOVE!
• Divergent (Joseph)
• Inheritance (All boys)
• Dragonwatch book 3 (Joseph)