A Tale of Ten Homeschoolers- We Start Monday!

Image courtesy of Ohmega1982 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Well, this will be my last post when everyone is still on summer break. Yay! School starts Monday for all my non-teens, and we couldn’t be more excited. In fact, when the copy paper and ink arrived in the mail a few days ago, the kids asked if we could start right away. 🙂 I love it. Unfortunately we couldn’t, though, because we’ve had a fairly busy week.

On Sunday we invited my mother and our oldest son over for a 4th of July cookout. Yes, I realize that was the 3rd, but I wanted to have it on a day when my husband wouldn’t have to wake up early for work the next day, so Sunday it was!

We didn’t do much on the real 4th of July. The kids and I did try to watch the fireworks from our front porch…but when my 5 year old went into the house to use the bathroom, the front door got stuck, and she had to wake my hubby up to get the door open because we were all locked outside. (Apparently, the heat had made our door expand. Interesting.) We ended up missing the vast majority of the fireworks then because we had to go inside so my husband could go to bed in case the door got stuck again. Bummer.

We had two birthdays this week. Bailey turned 9 on Tuesday and Caollin turned 12 on Thursday. Gosh, I’m getting old!

Bailey on his 9th birthday

Caollin on her 12th birthday

Six of my kids on Bailey’s birthday

 

On Tuesday, Caollin and I had fun reviewing a make-your-own game on PA state parks. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to handle it because I am NOT crafty, but it was simple and fun- my two favorite ingredients!

 

Wednesday was our “deep clean day.” It’s a day of organizing, throwing things away, and basically doing a better job of cleaning than we normally do. *sheepish grin* We usually do this about once every six weeks, or before a major holiday or a new school year. It’s always nice to look at everything while it’s fresh, clean, and organized…until two hours later when it’s a mess again. Seriously. It happens every time, although the mess is more manageable.

After we were through cleaning on Wednesday, I printed out all of our notebooking and copywork we will be using next week. For now, Caollin, London, and Bailey will be notebooking for our read-aloud, Peter Pan, and for our Konos unit study on the scientific method. Luke, Ireland, Summer, and, possibly, Kenzie will be lapbooking through Five in a Row. We will be picking up where we left off with A Pair of Red Clogs.

Since the older kids and I will be learning about the scientific method, their independent reading books will be:

Caollin (12)- Giants of Science- Isaac Newton

London (10)- Who Was Albert Einstein?

Bailey (9)- Who Was Isaac Newton?

I really relish using living books as the core of our learning. Combined with hands-on activities and, now, notebooking, I think we’re going to have a great time.

This week, however, we’re still participating in Simple Homeschool’s  #GiveYourChildtheWorld summer book club. This week’s focus has been on Africa, so these were this week’s selections:

Caollin (12)-  Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales

London (10)- National Geographic African Critters

Bailey (9)- Elephants of Africa

Luke (7), Ireland (6), Summer (5), Kenzie (3) read-aloud- Jambo Means Hello Swahili Alphabet Book

 

Friday looks to be another busy day with two doctor’s appointments, grocery shopping, and taking the birthday kids to spend their money from Granma. Fun.

What’s your week been like?