My weekly notebook: not so many hours outside

Life last week...

Last week was a good week. I love the idea of 1000 hours outside, but I think I would make myself crazy trying to achieve that goal. But I do want to get my kids outdoors more, so I came up with a modified version for our family of the 1000 hours outside idea. I decided that we would just keep track of our outside time and see where we land. I kept track for most days last week and it was not as much as I hoped. A mere 2 hours and 10 minutes. And that was just mostly Alex and me. I think I'll keep going with tracking our time outside and be more intentional going forward. 

Alex on our walk this week at Graham Oaks Nature Park

Homeschool last week...

Alex and Aric have been hinting at how much they used to love Teaching Textbooks once upon a time, so I started a trial for both of them. We'll do the first 15 lessons and see if they want to go back to that curriculum. Alex started last week and Aric will start this week. We'll see how they like it before we change anything up. I personally like teaching math, so I'm not sure how I feel about Teaching Textbooks, but it would free me up to get other things done while they do math.

Mom-school last week...

A lot of my school this week was wrapped up in planning a lesson/lecture for my class at co-op. I had to do some studying and reading to make sure I know the material. I ended up not doing that lecture because I forgot my laptop, so we decided to delay it until next week. I think I'll have to do some more studying to make sure now that I have a few more days to prepare.

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share...

If you are finding it hard to get started in the morning find something that everyone will enjoy starting with and begin with that. I have been starting by listening to an audiobook. One that relates to things we are learning about. We are still making our way through the biography of Milton Hershey so we start with a chapter of that each day. It's a good jumping-off point.

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

We went to Defy after an appointment on our Tuesday adventure day. It's a new extreme sports place that's super fun with crazy slides. It was a good workout for him! 

   

My favorite thing last week was...

Going out on a lunch date and shopping before attending a baby shower with a really awesome friend. We shopped for our baby gifts and ate at The Cheesecake Factory. It was a much-needed getaway. Oh and the baby shower was nice. I think the mom to be enjoyed our gifts.

Something I accomplished...

I made this LEGO mosaic while listening to Harry Potter one night. It was more about the process than looking spectacular. It was pretty fun to make, and I tried really hard not to stress about being perfect.

 

Outdoor time...

We enjoyed a lovely day at the coast. It was kinda stormy, but there were moments where it was just nice. We walked along the beach a little and explored the marine science center.

 

I'm cooking/eating...

No picture of this one, but I made an Irish Stew and soda bread one night. It was delicious!

I'm grateful for...

The fun Alex and I are having listening to Harry Potter. I am catching a lot of things I didn't the first time, and it has been such a fun way for us to spend time together. Then getting excited at the store when we find stuff like this dragon statue, a deck of cards, and a glasses case holder for me.

 

That's a wrap!