My Weekly Notebook: river, lake, and blue raspberry syrup

 

Life this week...

It was a hot week. Like nearing and over 100's. Which meant a lot of inside time keeping cool or if we were outside we were (hopefully) in water. I wanted to go to the coolest place with water, the coast, but it just didn't work out.  We did go to the public pool, and of course we have our little backyard pool. Water and air conditioning were definitely the biggest needs of life this week!

Homeschool this week (summer edition)...

I am still very much in the planning for next school year and life lessons of summer season right now. We had some big things that needed to be done this week, so we didn't get much "school" done. I'm ready to get back to it next week though. Alex is in the middle of a science project that has been on pause for a few weeks, and I'm ready for him to finish it. We are also in the middle of reading Summer of the Monkeys that we need to continue.

Mom-school this week...

Not much for me either, but I did have fun trying out Alex's mini light bright. It's still kinda fun to see the little pegs light up when they go in the holes.

 

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

Like I said, we went to water, a lot. First outing was the river with our co-op friends for a park play day. We went to Dallas City Park. It has a swimming hole in the river, and it's a gorgeous park. I'd like to go back sometime and explore on a cooler day.

Alex enjoyed swimming in the river.

 

A different day we went to the lake and took the boat out. I only got one picture from that outing. Alex is ready to go boating. It was super hot, and we couldn't wait to get in the water.

 

My favorite thing this week was...

Attending a picnic with my clogging dance family. It was a clog-down show-down. I decided not to dance, but it was so much fun watching. I kinda regretted not even trying in the end. We also played a few fun games as teams. It was good. Being a part of this clogging studio has been so good, and such great people.

My kids' favorite thing this week was...

Alex  was super excited about buying his favorite syrup flavor to make his favorite "dutch" soda called Dinosaur Egg. Now he can make it whenever he wants. 

These are the 2 syrup flavors in the Dinosaur Egg. We thought we had a Torani Strawberry syrup, but turns out we didn't. We only have the Hershey's strawberry syrup, but it worked! We'll replace it with Torani when the bottle is empty.

 

Things I'm working on...

I am working on so many things, but I think for today I will say I am working on a stars and stripes quilt that I hope to finish before summer's over. I've only got about 1/15 of the fabric cut out. Guess I should get on that!

Random things the kids worked on...

Alex has been working on this LEGO boat this week. He decided to build the side walls with holes so the water would drain quickly. Then he had fun playing in the pool with it to see if it would float.

 

Something I accomplished...

I helped the boys clean their room and I finally got blinds and a book ledge up. They haven't had real blinds for a long time, and the book ledge we've had in waiting to up for a while. Their room looks awesome now, and we can finally walk in there!

New blinds up

A new book ledge for under Alex's loft bed. He's so happy to have that.

What we're reading...

I am reading Little Ford Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett to preview for this school year. It is one of the books that Alex is going to read. So many good books on deck for this school year. I hope to read at least a few before hand, but most I will probably just read right alongside them. This book is so good so far.

 

 

Outdoor time... 

I took a walk early one morning and really enjoyed all the beautiful flowers and lovely green grass of some yards. Oh and it's the end of July so I counted up our estimated hours outside this month. We have a total of 69 hours outside! I'm pretty happy with that number. It puts us well over 100 for our first 3 months of counting our outdoor hours.

Some flowers on my walk

I'm grateful for...

A new month. The month of August is a fun one for our family with so many birthdays.

Wordless Wednesday: art with light

Made with a mini Lite Brite

 

My Weekly Notebook: I spy printable, bike rides, and fanny packs

Life this week...

It was a good summer week that ended with April coming home for a visit and a boat ride through Portland. Of course, there were many things that didn't get accomplished and I always wish I had more time, but overall it was a blessed week. 

Homeschool this week (summer edition)...

This week we were able to get a little school done, and I did some planning for the next school year. I decided to give a new curriculum a try called The Good and the Beautiful. It looks like such a great curriculum, and I have been wondering about it for a while now. I decided to download the free PDFs of the course material just to give it a try. 

I also made some plans for books we will read and units that we'll do along with them. That included printing some lapbooks and other materials. I feel like I just did lots of printing and planning this week with more to come!

Mom-school this week...

I worked on this I spy nature study for some downtime this week. I also pulled out some of my books that had gotten buried under other things. I am hoping to sit down and study more on my own.

 

Helpful homeschool tips and advice to share... 

Need some incentive to get outside with your kiddos? The 1000 hours outside website has some free printables with fun outdoor ideas for each month of the year. I put this up on our fridge for inspiration, and I've put a lot of the books on hold. They look like some fun books to read!

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

We have gone on a few bike rides this week. We are working on getting working wheels for each member of our family and so that means bikes are being switched around as people have grown, or purchased. I was trying out Aaron's bike this week to see if it would be a good fit for me because April has my bike down at college. Aaron's bike may be a bit small for him so it looks like he's going to need something different. We also picked up a new bike for Aric who hasn't really had one for a few years. These things are expensive! But, we are on our way to getting everyone outfitted and hopefully, we'll be able to go do some mountain biking soon!

Our ride to Mcdonald's one morning this week. I said that anyone who went on a bike ride with me could have lunch from McDonald's. I had only 1 taker for that deal.

My favorite thing last week was...

Going to breakfast and shopping around with a friend.

Something I accomplished... 

I finally finished this 4th of July puzzle that I started about a month ago. Maybe more like 3 weeks. It was a fun one!

 

Outdoor time...

We have about 11.5 hours outside this week. It has been pretty eye-opening to track how much time we spend outdoors! It makes me want to spend more time outside. We went on a boat cruise through Portland that we spent most of our outdoor hours on, and a few hikes and bike rides. I do have to keep track in real time a bit better. These are just estimates that I make when I remember at the end of the week. 

Games we played...

We played Spot it! regular version AND Harry Potter version. I found the Harry Potter version while out shopping with my friend. We all really like Spot it! But the Harry Potter version rocks.

 

 

Something that worked out great or didn't work out for us this week...

I have something that worked out good! This fanny pack worked out great for bike riding. I was able to convince 2 of my boys that this is the way to go for carrying things while bike riding. I love this fanny pack, and it's easy to just slip on. Good for any outdoor adventure!

 

I'm grateful for...

As we head into a week with high temps, I am grateful for air conditioners.

What we're reading

I have to admit we haven't been reading much as we have been busy with summer fun activities, but I'm hoping we can slow down a little more now and get some good books in. 

We went to the homeschool bookstore last week for the first time in a few years and I was just reminded of just how much I love books. I'm not sure why we haven't gone in so long, but I immediately remembered why I love going to that bookstore or any bookstore for that matter.

I told Alex he could pick a book, and he picked Star Wars in Shakespeare! I was surprised and pleased. He said it looked interesting. This is the kid who hates reading. Guess what? He has really enjoyed reading this aloud to me so far. He's learning a lot of new words and trying to understand the Shakespearean language. I am enjoying listening to him read this too.

Star Wars in Shakespeare verse. Alex picked this book at the bookstore!

We are also reading Summer of the Monkeys and then we'll watch the movie. We are only a few chapters in but it's good so far!

Summer of the Monkeys by Wilson Rawls

I am trying to find activities that go along with Summer of the Monkeys, but there's not a lot for older kids! I did find some great resources on Walking by the Way's blog, including this idiom matching game. It was a fun game to play and discuss idioms like "monkey business."

We have some other monkey books in our library stack that I haven't gotten a picture of yet, so I will share those later.

What are you reading?