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.

Back to Homeschool | Week 1

This post contains affiliate links. 

Okay, so last year I fell off the weekly updates at about week 12 - maybe I can make it to week 13 at least this year!  ☺

I had big plans to share curriculum choices with you before we started school but we all know how my plans work out sometimes!  So, instead of not forging ahead because I am already behind, I will just ignore the fact that I haven't done that yet.  

How about an all high school homeschool - say what?!  Yep, all my babies are in high school now.  This year we have a 9th and 11th grader homeschooling.  We still started with our normal first day traditions of coffee, doughnuts, pajamas, and a few simple goodies.  

We're trying out a lot of new (to us) curriculum and going back to doing Bible, History, and Geography as a family.  I asked both children if they would prefer to do that or on their own and they both wanted to do it together so we're using a mix of Simply Charlotte Mason and Mystery of History for this years Ancient World History study.  

Sarah is also a very crafty hands on learner so I knew she would want more projects to go along with her curriculum and we all were growing quite weary with Apologia's high school science courses.  They served a purpose in our family for many years but we were ready for something new.  Sarah is completing physical science this year using Exploration Education and they have such cool projects to complete. 

 She loves it so far!

This was her first project to complete - an electric racer as she studied about forces. 

Stephen is really enjoying Don't Check Your Brains at the Door which was on his reading list for last year but the school year ended before we could complete all the books I had for him to read. Here he is reading It Couldn't Just Happen.

 Another reason for no posts or random ones is this little precious one who we have had the pleasure of keeping since she was 4 months old!  She will soon be turning 1!!  We had to let her in on all the school fun too.  I can't explain how much joy she brings to our family!

Stephen, 11th grade 

Sarah, 9th grade 

I added these slaying the giants bookmarks to our school board.  There are 12 of them and they include 6 Bible verses to help you overcome each topic!  Turning point is offering them for free right now.

Overall, week 1 was a success.  I was a little frazzled on day 1 but found my footing by day 2.  I had to step out of my own comfort zone a little too as usually I purchase curriculum that is pretty much laid out for us.  Some of my choices for this year have their own schedules but I needed to do more tweaking than normal so that they would fit into ours.  So far so good!

We also can't forget our about our first homeschool graduate - see more on his happenings here.

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.