Weekly Wrap Up - Weeks 2 & 3

This post may contain affiliate links. 

It's been a few weeks again but here I am!  I guess better late than never!  I'm going to update on Weeks 2 & 3 with a little vacation thrown into the middle.

Week 2 

I've been making good use of my old Ultimate Homeschool Planner.  It had so many boxes left blank that I just couldn't bring myself not to add more.  The last 3 sections are from this year.  I use the little sections to add in each child's subject work.  The 3rd section is where I am planning the subjects we are doing together.  The sections are small so I use my own form of shorthand and it works out just fine.  This will be my 3rd year using this same planner!  I never used the monthly sections much anyway so this works for me.   I also color code my students for a quick reference.

Stephen started Friendly Chemistry and so far it is another curriculum that we can add to our love list!  All of my children love experiments and hands on science and our choice of this and Exploration Education have been the perfect fit.  Here he is testing out several white colored substances to see if they had any starch.  He did a great job guessing what they were too!

Sarah finished up The Little House series last year and has dived into Anne of Green Gables for this year.

Back to School Vacation Fun

For several years we would always take a back to school beach getaway break when most children were headed back to school as rates drop tremendously at that time.  Since we've taken a few bigger vacation trips the past few years, it had been a while since we had been back.  It is just as peaceful and refreshing as always.  

The water was a little chilly since it was cloudy most of the time but hey we saved on sunblock.  😅

We decided to take in the Pirates Voyage show and also did not disappoint! 

One of my all time favorite activities is to watch the sunrise over the ocean.  Since it was so cloudy, I was afraid that we might not get to see it.  However, it rose with full majesty and splendor!  Praises to my Creator - the maker of the heaven and earth, sky and sea.  Oh what beauty!  

It reminds me of a verse I read this week in James. 

James 5:13 - Are any of you suffering hardships? You should pray. Are any of you happy? You should sing praises.

We also took in a little mini golf.  This was a fun place as each hole had excerpts from Treasure Island to read.  So a little literature while golfing screams homeschool field trip, right?

Sarah celebrated her 14th birthday at the end of the week.  So hard to believe that my baby is 14! For many years, she has wanted to make her own birthday cake but this year she wanted someone else to do it.  Wal-mart received the job bid and they provided a beautiful tie dye cake!   

Week 3

Vacation over...birthday over...

So, it was back to home and school for week 3.  Currently, in Chemistry Stephen is experimenting and familiarizing himself with elements.   Here, he is burning a marshmallow so that it was a hollow shell of carbon when he was done.  

Sarah continues to do experiments with the racer she built in Week 1.  She is currently learning about speed, distance, displacement, and velocity.  

Our sweet Sarabeth also celebrated a birthday!  She turned 1!!

And that, my friends, is another few weeks to add to the record books!

Coming soon - 2018 Budget Calendars!

I'm linking up with Homeschool Highlights and Weekly Wrap-Up.

Homeschool Highlights | Week 10,11,&12 | Let's Catch Up

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is next week and that I am 3 weeks behind in catching up here with our life journal!

So here goes...

First up a little at home Halloween fun.

First time voter and a little election fun!

We had the Geography Fair presentations - Stephen chose Chile.  

Sarah chose Canada. 

Life is full of basketball until February and Sarah hasn't even started yet!

Okay, so there are no school pictures here but believe me we did have school! Same old same old. :)

We're taking a break next week for Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends!

I'm linking up with Homeschool Highlights. Click the button to link up for yourself and to find out more!

Also linking up with Weekly Wrap-Up.

Homeschool Highlights | Week 9 | Let's Go Camping!

We took 2 weeks to complete our Week 9 school work and threw a camping trip right in the middle. Oh, the flexibility of homeschooling. We can work around my husband's schedule which is different each week and take a mid week camping trip to soak up some rest and relaxation. Roasted marshmallows for breakfast - oh yes I did!!

So this week's pictures are all from camping. I have to tell you about this tent. (affiliate link) It advertised that it could be set up in 30 seconds. Well, it may have taken us a whole minute including reading the instructions - no joke!! Sarah, Stephen, and I set it up ourselves in less than a minute. Taking it down is just as easy. I cannot recommend it enough!

It was nice to have Jonathan join us too!

Some of the trails and campsites were still a little flooded from Hurricane Matthew.  

Playing cards is always a favorite camping past time for us.  

No words needed!

Guess who did a little carving?  :)

If you think you would like to be a part of the Homeschool Review Crew, applications for the 2017 school year are currently being accepted but hurry they are ending soon! It is such a blessing to our family to be able to try new curriculum. You can read more about applying here.

I'm linking up with Homeschool Highlights. Click the button to link up for yourself and to find out more!

Also linking up with Weekly Wrap-Up.

Homeschool Highlights | Week 8

Week 7 came in with a bang - literally. Our town and surrounding areas suffered some major flooding from Hurricane Matthew. We did really well during the hurricane but the day after as Jonathan was on his lunch break, this happened.

No one was hurt so we are feeling extremely thankful and blessed.  To top off our blessings, less than a week later he found a car in his budget and is back in business.   God is good...ALL the time!  

We drove by there yesterday and walked up to see how it currently looks and this is what we found.  It's probably going to be a while before this road opens back up.

Ironically, I took this picture as he was passing by the day before as the rains were already starting to worsen.  I was a happy mama to see him heading home.  

This funny was passed around social media outlets for a few days.  Although the flooding was nothing to laugh at, this brought some fun to our day.  

In our homeschool, Sarah and Stephen are still plugging along and finished Week 8 so we're almost 1/4 done already!  As I've mentioned before, this is my 3rd time going through Apologia's General Science and I finding it to be quite boring at this point.  Sarah was struggling with the reading so I decided to add in a little outside help from The Virtual Homeschool Group.  Seeing the visual slides and reading the information in the book together seems to be helping her.  This week she was learning about levers and pulleys.  This is a free resource so be sure to check it out if you haven't already.  

The country were are currently working on is Canada and that is also the country Sarah chose for the Geography Fair coming soon in November.  Stephen chose Chile.

We've been enjoying our freezer meals still and I need to work in a day to make a new batch since it worked out so well for us this month.  

Our read aloud is Cameron Townsend.  We are a little behind schedule on this book and I think I'm just going to create a new schedule instead of trying to catch up at this point.  Sarah is reading These Happy Golden Years, and Stephen is reading about his favorite historical figure, George Washington.  

We've been slacking on our weekly review time too!  I must get my act together and make that a priority for the upcoming weeks.  I am about to tackle this pile after posting this.  

Currently, we are loving this game, Commissioned.  It has a temporary spot on our dining room table at the moment because every spare moment we get we gather around to play!  Stay tuned for a review coming soon.  

Here is how the "done" book pile is currently looking.  

If you think you would like to be a part of the Homeschool Review Crew, applications for the 2017 school year are currently being accepted.  It is such a blessing to our family to be able to try new curriculum.  You can read more about applying here.  

I'm linking up to a brand new linky this week started by a fellow crewmate, Homeschool Highlights.  Click the button to link up for yourself and to find out more!

Also linking up with Weekly Wrap-Up.