My weekly homeschool journal: Aug. 9

In my life this week...my head is swimming with curriculum choices as I read all of the blogs linked up at curriculum week.  My oldest went off to girls' camp for a week (her first time), and while I'm happy for her, I miss her.  My chickens are gone to a new home this week (a good and sad thing).  We have 2 days to pack up for our camping trip next week.  I need to plan a menu for said camping trip, and get to the grocery store.  ....Sigh!  Feeling pulled in a lot of different directions this week!


In our homeschool this week...lots of field trips, and reading.  I am trying to focus on just reading this summer (with some science and math mixed in).  Especially for my boys.  Aaron is using this reading chart from Walking by the way.  He has 4 books that he gets to choose from each day to read.  He breezes through the Elephant and Piggie choice, those are easy for him.  The Dr. Seuss ones are not so easy.  We've also been reading through more Magic Tree house books.  Aric has started All about reading level 1.  I wanted to try it with him, and see if he's ready.  He is through lesson 4, and it has been pretty easy for him so far.  I'm going to have to get creative with word play for him though.  He gets bogged down reading words over and over again, and seems to forget how to sound them out each day.

Our new reading center.  The left box is for Aaron's book choices, and the right is Aric's all about reading books.  The white board is for all the word building tiles.

Places we're going and people we're seeing...lets see

• we went to play with our co-op friends at the water fountains.  
• OMSI
• Wilsonville library to turn in summer reading and science charts. 
• Red Robin birthday dinner for Miss April.  
• Swimming at our local pool.
• A.C. Gilbert's Discovery Village--they had chocolate day, and we got to see and eat lots of chocolate.

My favorite thing this week was...homeschool picture day.  I can't wait to see how our pictures came out.

My kiddos favorite thing this week was...playing in a giant bubble.  A pinterest success!  It only took us all summer to get this going (ran out of tape the first try :-)  It has been sitting in our school area waiting to be finished, and we finally did it!



Things I'm working on...figuring out what we are going to do for school this year. I'm taking it slow on purpose.  I really want to be sure before I buy anything because I need to get a lot for 3 kids/levels.  Not sure when we'll be starting up.  Most likely beg-mid Sept.  Guess it all depends on how long it takes me to figure out the curriculum!

I'm cooking...a cherry pie with some fresh cherries.  I'm not very good at pies, but it was still delicious!  I also made chicken alfredo, and the kids seem to just go nuts when I make that.  I can never make enough!  Actually, that's the case with most meals these days.  3 little boys can pack away a lot of food, and they aren't even teenagers yet!  Yikes! 

I'm grateful for...a library card, and the resources we can find at the library.  I'm also thankful for a new home for our chickens, and that they are gone this week before we head out camping.  I'm thankful that I don't have to find someone to take care of them.

I rewarded my kids this week by...letting them pick out a Wii game at the Redbox on Friday.  They picked out Wreck it Ralph.

A photo, vidoe, link, or quote to share... my new planner.  Love this thing!  It's very rare that I find a planner that has exactly what I want all through out.  It even has a lot of extras like attendance records, report cards, and homeschool class plans for each child.



Here is a great video of this planner in action.  Planning the whole school year.



Linking this post up to So you call yourself a homeschooler for the weekly homeschool journal.

Desiree