Thankful Thursday: great kids

I am thankful for my 2 youngest boys getting to hang out with their group of homeschool friends at 2 different activities today. Such fun kids! Also thankful for homeschool friends that my boys have all over.

 

My Weekly Notebook: Just a few days late (last week's edition)

Life this week...

Well, this is last week's post that I never finished, so that is how busy things got by the end of the week! April came home for the weekend for one last visit before she is back in class. It was nice to have her home for a few days, and I wanted to spend as much time as I could with her.

Homeschool this week...

We are finally getting some of the kinks of the new school year worked out. Classes are all figured out now, and the curriculum is ready. 

We are slowly getting to each book as we go along. Sometimes getting things going for the first time takes a little bit longer.

Alex's stack of work one day this week. It looks like a lot, but some things are very short assignments.

Alex's first lesson in his science book has him working on taking a small electronic device apart. It's absolutely perfect because I had set aside an alarm clock for him to take apart before I knew about this project/experiment. He had a good time getting into this project.

The alarm clock is all taken apart time

Some pretty colorful wiring was found inside the clock.

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

Our local homeschool group had a sidewalk chalk day for our Friday library meeting. We drew pictures of our favorite books.

I drew Elephant and Piggie of course...

 

Alex's class at church had their Wednesday night activity at a bouldering place. He enjoyed trying it out, but says it's too high for him.

We went on a hike with a new to us homeschool hiking group. We hiked from Lower Macleay park and past the "witches castle." The picture below is Alex walking out of the castle.

We picked apples with some friends. 

Things I'm working on...

I am working on being still. Taking time each day to slow down and see what Heavenly Father is trying to tell me.

Something we accomplished...

It took some work, but we were able to get our garage cleaned out good enough to get all of our bikes in there. We've acquired some new bikes and the new ones weren't going to fit without a good cleaning and organization session. 

 

What we're reading...

This is part of Alex's curriculum. He read through this really fast, and he really enjoyed it. I've read the first 2 stories and now I want to finish them. I don't particularly like graphic novels, but I want to read the stories so I am reading it anyway.

 

Movies/TV we watched... 

April wanted to watch a movie while she was here over the weekend, so we watched Anne of Green Gables. An oldie but goodie. It was fun to watch it again even though I've seen it at least 100 times. 

Games we played...

We played Scattergories and Apples to Apples while April was home

Other thoughts from the week...

Some more fall decor may or may not have found its way back home with us. I love pumpkins.

 

I'm grateful for...

Here's my Thankful Thursday post as well! I'm thankful for the stew that I managed to get into the crockpot and the bread that I baked today so I could come home from clogging with dinner ready to eat.

Wordless Wednesday: Bowling and games at Langer's

 A fun game of bowling and then sitting by the fire while the boys played some arcade games.

My Weekly Notebook: Week 1

Back to school LEGO mosaic made by Mom

 

Life this week...

There were many back-to-school events this week, so it was a big back-to-school week for us. Including our charter school starting back on Wednesday. Which means check-ins, meet-ups, and new curriculum. I love back-to-school time. It's an exciting time.

Homeschool this week...

One thing that was worked on this week was this new book for Alex. My 52 lists project for kids. He has really taken to this book. So far he has done the first 2 lists and has written a list of his favorite characters and what he wants to do this year. It's really hard to think of these things on the spot!

 

Mom-school week...

I decided to knock out list 32 in my 52 lists project and listed the things that get me energized. By the end of the list I was feeling very energized and ready to go do something.

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

• We went to the Oregon Garden.
• We went to Oaks Park not back to school day.
• We went to our local homeschool group's ice cream not back to school kick-off.
• We went camping last weekend for labor day.

Oaks Park with a friend:

Not back to school party. This is the only picture I took. It is Alex sharing his fingerboard with a sweet little girl who asked to play with it. I thought it was such a sweet moment. I just love that homeschooling allows kiddos of all ages to interact and learn from each other.

 

My favorite thing this week was...

Sharing boxes of elementary curriculum that I'm not going to use anymore with friends. I took this to our ice cream party and the moms were all so excited to look through and pick what they wanted. I know how much of a blessing this can be, especially at the beginning of the school year.

Things I'm working on...

I decided to take my stitching to the skate park one day. It was nice to sit there and have something to do with my hands. This project is going to take me a really long time though! It's huge.

 

Random things the kids worked on...

Aaron has been working on growing some avocados. He's actually getting pretty far on this project. These have been in a jar on the windowsill for a while. He's got roots and shoots. It has been fun to see these grow. He's doing a good job taking care of them and keeping them up. I have only provided the space. He's also growing mushrooms.

 

Something I accomplished...

I finally dug into my micro puzzle kit. The theme of this one was art. I put the puzzles together at camp with some help from April and Kimmy.

 

Movies/TV we watched... 

We finally finished book 6 so it was time for the movie!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie night

Outdoor time...

As of the end of August we are at 176 hours outside (out of 1000) since we started counting in April. I am enjoying counting the hours, It'll be fun to see what we hit in a year. 

Games we played...

No games this week, but I bought Upwords at Walmart on clearance yesterday, so I'm looking forward to playing that next week.

I'm cooking/eating...

I'm cooking with these new fall themed oven mitts. I couldn't pass them up. I'm such a sucker for holiday themed junk.

 

Other thoughts from the week...

I am also loving my fall themed shower curtain.

I'm grateful for...

I am grateful for all the plans and preparations we have made for the new school year, and that so much has come together in ways I didn't think they would.

Oregon Garden through the years and today

We went to the Oregon Garden today for their annual homeschool day. It has been a few years (2 years of covid restrictions) but before that we went almost every year. At least I thought we had. Turns out we only went 4 other years out of our 15 years of homeschooling! (at least that I have pictures of). I was curious how many times we actually made it to homeschool day so I did a little digging through pictures and found 4 other documented times we went.

The first was 2012. My kiddos were 1.5, 4, 6, and 11. 

2012 at the Oregon Garden Homeschool day

The next year was 2013. All kids a year older so 2.5, 5, 7, and 12

2013 at the Oregon Garden

 

Then we skipped several years and went again in 2018. I hadn't realized we missed like 5 years in between! This time we went with my sister and her kids who were homeschooling at the time.

2018 at the Oregon Garden

 

And then, the last time we went before the world shut down, 2019. 

2019 at the Oregon Garden

 

I am kinda glad I have these past pictures. It goes to show that we didn't go as many times as I had thought, but we did go!

That brings me to this year. We went today and met up with some friends from our local homeschool group. It was great. I really enjoy just walking through the garden. They always have fun stations for the kids, but they really need some older kid stuff. Alex is almost just too old for it now, but I would still like a reason to come on homeschool day.

Oregon Garden homeschool day 2022:

I wanted to get some back to school pictures, so Alex is on the tractor. I was hoping for some nice garden/nature scene, but this is what he wanted.

The flowers were gorgeous. Can you see the big kids in the background there? They mostly just walked around talking. Fine by me! I'm glad they were there.

For the first time we discovered the slug water fountain. A friend pointed it out. We had never been in this area, or maybe we just didn't notice it? I don't know, but it was a fun photo op.

 

Of course, that's all the pictures I took. I am wishing I had gotten more. It was a lovely day at the Oregon Garden!

Wordless Wednesday: Curriculum box day!

 Timberdoodle 6th Grade Curriculum