The Home school Mother’s Journal began as a single post on a Friday morning over at The Homeschool Chick, and turned into a link-up for homeschool mothers across the blog-O-sphere to share a piece of their journey with one another each week. The link party is open from Friday to Monday so join me in The Homeschool Journal and lets encourage one another on our homeschool journey.
In my life this week…
In our homeschool this week…
- This week our rhythm started to fall into place and Sir N (Can you see my smile?)
- We took out our timeline book and coloured in some time line figures and added them to the book. I love Amy Pak's drawings and thanks to Sonlight the figures are pre gummed so all we had to do was colour in, peel and stick.
- We worked on skip counting by 10's and we are practicing our numbers between 10 and 20.
- There are many little kits available at Spotlight at the moment, as a treat after each days completed work we have made something.
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
- Find a few things that work really well for you and stick with those. It is far better to do two or three things with excellence than ten things with mediocrity.
- Some really simple home made decorations and craft ideas for Christmas
- We went to a friends to celebrate his 7th birthday yesterday.
- Visited Granny and had lunch with her.
- Catching up with a new friend and her son today after lunch.
- Tonight we are going with a friend to see Medimime presentation of The Grinch who Stole Christmas.(update: This was super Fantastic We enjoyed it so much. photo and video to come)
- Tomorrow we will be going to a surprise birthday party for a cousin / nephew. Can't wait to see his face !
We made some pink, green and purple cupcakes and went to visit a friend to celebrate the children achieving their swimming certificates and progressing to the next level. Well done E for getting your Maxi Pink, great job L for achieving your Maxi Green and well done to Sir N for achieving your Swordy Green. Proud of you three !My favorite thing this week was…
- Watching Sir N's excitement about going camping with his Dad and some friends for a Father Son night away at Mount Franklin Reserve. It's been wonderful watching his enthusiasm and joy at helping to pack and prepare.
What’s working/not working for us…
- Using our five finger mission AM / PM chart is working well and Sir N is thriving on having his own list to work from.
Questions/thoughts I have…
- I have been pondering the structure of my days and thinking about character training, instilling excellent values and how to make this a natural part of our day.
Things I’m working on…
- First Time Obedience for Sir N and training myself to stop being a repeating parent. I am quite surprised at how often I repeat requests / instructions. I think I am the one in need of more training rather than my children.
- I also want to redo the chore list and make one with pictures that Sir N can use by himself.
- I would also like to have a regular time each week when the two of us can invest in a Nature Journal. I have been looking around Handbook of Nature Study Blog and have been inspired to make this a regular part of our homeschooling.
- Have not managed to read much this week. I have been playing with my latest gift from Paul. He has blessed me with a Kindle. I have been putting off purchasing one of these as I really love the feel and smell of a real book especially a brand new book. I love the weight of a book in my hand when I read. I must confess though that I am impressed with my Kindle and loving the free books on Amazon.
I’m cooking…
- Gluten Free Pizza.
- Kransky Potato Bake
I’m grateful for…
- The faithfulness of friends.
- The joy of giving and sharing new knowledge.
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
I love this photo because of the pleasure Sir N took in drawing in his nature journal.
Blessings
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Love the handbook of nature Study. We dont journal much, need to dothat more. We do the lessons but just end up drawing and stuff on paper I need to go get journals fpr the kids, HMMMMM! maybe a stocking stuffer!
ReplyDeleteKindle ? for you... Can you put ebooks on it that you already have saved to your computer? Was considering this purchase but would want one mostly for that reason. I have some wonderful living book resources in ebook form that I don't want to pay through the nose printing out.
ReplyDeleteHello Mama Bird. Welcome :) I have looked over the handbook site often but so far have not managed to make it a regular feature of our home school. I am not quite sure when and how at the moment as I find having teens means that we are super busy on the go and it's not that easy to get the rhythm going each week.
ReplyDeleteHi Amy
ReplyDeleteYes the Kindle is for me.
You can put any eBook on it accept for ePub format. There are a few free programs online to convert ePub into Kindle format.
I am still learning my way around the thing.
On a side note I recommend you get the one that has a full keypad. On the kindle you can highlight parts and type notes and save them. The keypad makes browsing and searching stores so much easier.
So far I am impressed because I strongly dislike reading books on my computer.
On a side note: What are the titles of the living books you have ? I am looking for some ....
LOVE the timeline! (I clicked over to see how you set your notebooks up.) I might have my younger ones keep an American history notebook/timeline next year. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteThank you we had so much fun making it. I have enjoyed the pleasure it gave Sir N to finally use it this week. Let me know how your time line goes :)
ReplyDeleteI really like your homeschooling advice, and I need to take that to heart. I tend to feel guilty about not doing enough, instead of focusing on doing what we do more effectively and with more passion. I hope you'll post some of your nature journal pages. :)
ReplyDeleteHi Stephanie.
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog :) I really struggled for years with trying to do it all, ticking every box, trying to incorporate every great new home school thing that was out there and I wore myself out to the point of exhaustion and mediocrity. My kids often speak of their favourite home school times being when we did less with excellence. One day a friend kindly gave me those words of wisdom and when ever I feel over whelmed or exhausted I think about them and it helps me achieve a better balance.
I will endeavour to post more on the Nature Journal. This week was our first week.
Thanks for the encouraging words
Hi! Thanks for visiting my blog! I'm glad you enjoyed the photos. I didn't do a regular HMJ post this week since we are away for the holiday. But, the kids are certainly learning a lot!
ReplyDeleteWe also do Sonlight and you have inspired me to get out the timeline as soon as we get home-- especially with everything they have learned about the Colonial American time period while here in Virginia.
Hope you have a great rest of your weekend!
Many blessings,
Lisa
Your homeschool advice is excellent. Need to keep that around me as a reminder.
ReplyDeleteThat Kransky Potato Bake looks good. I may try that!
ReplyDeleteThanks for stopping by my blog. I love visitors :D Have a great weekend!
And I *love* my Kindle! I've had it for about 1 1/2 years :)
ReplyDeleteHello Blossom Thanks for stopping by. I love your Book Gaurdians Blog what a great idea :) Hope your family enjoy the Kransky Bake.
ReplyDeleteBlessings
Hi Becca.
ReplyDeleteIt is great advice I just need to remember it more often :) Especially when I see some thing new and think That would be good to use.
Blessings
Hi Lisa
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome :) Let us know how the time line went.
Great to meet another Sonlight Family. :)
Wow, you've had a very busy week! I, too, am working on 1st time obedience. My oldest is pretty easy but lately he's testing the waters a bit. My youngest is a different story ;). Thanks for stopping by my blog. To answer your question, the Bible studies we do are from Devotions for the Children's Hour. I have a link to it on Amazon on last weeks review post (http://sonshineclassicalacademy.blogspot.com/2011/11/in-our-homeschool-this-week-math.html). You might also be interested in A Child's Book of Character Building. I have a link to that also. We really like both and My oldest has learned a great deal from them thus far. I hope I've been helpful. Blessings!
ReplyDeleteHi Kristie
ReplyDeleteWelcome to my blog. Great book. I love Kenneth Taylor books they are always encouraging.
A Child's book of character looks interesting as well.
Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.
Blessings
Oh, your tip for encouragement could not have come at a better time with the holidays in full swing. I needed to hear those words. I had done decided we are going to slow down until after the first of the year & just focus on just a few things. Then I thought, do people really do that so my mind began to sway. Your words has pulled me back on course. Thanks, & thanks for stopping by my blog.
ReplyDeleteI have a Nook on my wish list, but won't be getting one anytime soon due to cost. I agree with how you feel about books though - the feel of it in my hands, the smell of brand new books ... it's magical.
ReplyDeleteExcellent post. You must continue to offer excellent resources and content like you have been offering. I will most likely stop by again in the future.
ReplyDelete