In my life this week...
We have made HUGE progress in the basement project this week. The carpet was laid, a new sectional couch was delivered, and D and I completed the new foam tile floor in the school area! We are starting to carry things back down there that have been junking up our pretty living room for a month since this whole thing began! The only problem is that now our 21 year old air conditioner is on it's last leg and not really working, so we are waiting to hear back about that.
In our homeschool this week…
We did begin school, yet it was an abbreviated version and it still felt like summer to me because we were mostly working on our basement re-modeling project to get the school area ready. It feel weird to not have a teacher's manual guiding me through almost all of my subjects and have them planned out for me, but there is also freedom in that. We will begin Classical Conversations, but not until September 12! So, I am taking advantage of this time and trying to ease my two students into their school year instead of hitting it full force with every subject on Day 1!
We began with Bible and scripture memory, cursive handwriting, math review, and some English grammar. We have also been reading aloud "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" in the evenings and we got books at the library last week about castles and knights because J wanted to learn about them before we move onto American history for the year. So we mostly did review and the English grammar is new information that I am introducing them to before we begin our CC Essentials class in September. We have done a conversational English approach until now, so I thought we should begin talking about parts of speech.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
I had a great evening last Monday getting to know my fellow Classical Conversations tutors and visiting the church we will be gathering at on Mondays for our CC Community. We took a tour of the facility, figured out our room assignments, and shared teaching demonstrations with each other for the first six weeks. It was a long night, but we got much accomplished!
On Friday, D and I went with friends to our monthly Supper Club. It was a place called "The Farm" and I had never been there. Although it would appear to be "in the sticks" by name, that restaurant is actually in a large college town and is in an artsy area. It was decorated with more farm-ish types of things, like quilts hanging from pipes to divide dining areas. We had great food and lots of laughs, so it was a fun evening! Saturday we mostly worked in the basement, but in the evening we attended a local fundraising event at a friends' home with some live music and BBQ. Sunday we had a good morning at church, got a few more things done at home, and then decided to go see Spy Kids 4. It was another cute kid flick! Whew, what a busy weekend!
My favorite thing this week was…
It was fun that at least one of my children was excited for the first day of school and we ready and waiting at the desk before I got there! My heart is always stirred when I look at the newest "First Day of School" photos and then compare them to last year or the very first day we took them in 2006. Wow! The kids look so much older - again- somehow this happens every time?! I posted Not Back to School Blog Hop: Student Photos about how we take student photos at the beginning of each school year last week, if you want to see more!
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| August, 2006 - so sweet! |
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| August, 2011 - still sweet, just a lot bigger! |
Questions/thoughts I have…
I'm just figuring out our routine and schedule for school days this week and hoping to implement it!
I’m reading…
I have also been following the Not Back to School Blog Hops at Heart of the Matter Online. It has been really fun to see what other families are doing to get ready for home education!
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
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| B wanted to so some "splatter painting" and we actually made time to do it! |
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| Her splendid creation! |
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| I LOVED seeing these bright paints again in our paint palette. We need to paint more often! |
Especially loved the splatter paint - very cool! Hope the basement project ends soon - sounds like you've done a great job!
ReplyDeleteMay the Lord bless your school year!