My homeschool journal: Sept. 7 back to school

In my life this week...this was our first week officially back to school, and I can say I'm definitely glad that first day/week is over.  I made my mantle up in a back to school/fall-ish sort of theme.  It's not always this nice (or decorated), so it makes me smile when I look at it.  I made the pencil vase.  It turned out pretty cute, and was quick and easy.  I like quick and easy.  As you can see I still need to put a picture in one of the frames....




In our homeschool this week...For History we got through 2 chapters of Story of the World this week.  We all sit down to listen to it, then I have the 2 boys do their narrations while April writes hers on her own.  The boys also draw a picture to go with their narrations after I write for them.  I think I finally found a method that works for all the levels!  I may even have April edit her narrations, and hopefully she will write more as the year goes on.

Aaron's narration and drawing of Ch. 12, SOTW. 

Aric's narration and drawing of Ch. 12, SOTW

After that we made "Hyksos" gold bands out of TP roll tubes.  They loved this project, and it was simple enough.




And, apparently cool enough to do Life of Fred with them on.



For science April did her snap circuits this week.  I don't have her apologia science book yet, so it was an easy week for her in science.



I did a Download and Go unit with my Kinder this week.  I chose the Roller Coaster unit for the first week of school because it sounded fun, and we were planning to go to an amusement park at the end of the week for their "not back to school" homeschool day.  He only did 1 full day of the unit, and then we picked little pieces from the rest of the days.  It was too much for him to do it completely.  I think what we ended up doing was just right for him.  He also liked the lapbook part so we will definitely finish that.


One of the recommended things to check out along with the roller coaster unit was the Disney's Imagineering DVD's.  I was so happy to see that our library had a few of these, and requested Newton's 3 laws of motion.  We watched it the morning before we went to the amusement park.  My boys loved this.  I did too!  Such a fun way to talk about motion using amusement park rides and the science behind them!  I will definitely be checking out the others.  There's also gravity, energy,  electricity, pulleys and levers.  I'm excited to see the rest.  This was definitely my favorite resource to stumble upon this week.








This week we were also able to do a nature study about cattails, sketch Tuesday, 3 days of math, April's first online writing class and some tot school.  The theme for sketch Tuesday was sketch a school supply.  April chose neon green paint with random school supplies, very creative.



Helpful homeschool tips or advice to share...let things go when they're not important.  As we pick up our studies again this is so true, and it's true in life in general.  I've been really trying hard to focus on what's important as we start our school year.  I hope I can keep it up!  It's truly a blessing to just "let it go!"

Places we're going and people we're seeing... on labor day we took the boat out to the lake for tubing for possibly the last time this summer.  We dug out our mittens and jackets to go ice skating on Thursday.  The kids all loved that.  It had been years since we've gone.  Then, Friday we had a fun day at the Oaks amusement park homeschool day.

the kids all ready to get on the ice

Pretty much this was Aaron and Aric the whole time, but they made progress!  I was able to get them to let go of the wall for little bits at a time.

She completely forgot how to ice skate since the last time was 3 years ago when she had a few lessons, but she picked it up quickly!  She was showing me some turns here.

A fun and beautiful day at Oaks park.  They road almost every. single. ride. over and over again.  Give or take a few for each kid.  They all had their favorites.

We had a little treat at Jamba juice after we were done with school on the first day.  Yumm!

My favorite thing this week was...my 2 year old riding a bicycle without training wheels!  Seriously amazing.



Things I'm working on... getting our schedule figured out, and putting the finishing touches on organizing our learning spaces.  The biggest change being that I labeled all the workboxes so that they permanently hold each subject in them.  This has helped me a lot!

A little glimpse at some of the organization.  I hope to post "our learning spaces" soon.

I'm cooking...or April's cooking...she's cooking at least 1 night a week now.  Tuesday is supposed to be her night, but it hasn't actually happened on Tuesday yet :-)   She made spaghetti on Wednesday this week.




I'm grateful for...the new school year.  The chance to start fresh.  I'm grateful that I'm getting a little more organized, and that we are able to get a little more done each day because of that.  I'm grateful for the new adventures we will take this year.  I'm thankful for pumpkins growing in the garden.  I'm thankful for Fall, and that it's coming.  I love this time of year.

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

Love that we can learn wherever we want!


I am linking this up with The Homeschool Mother's Journal at:

Your homeschooling friend,

Desiree