Homeschool Mothers Journal - Week 23

In my Life this week....

Have you ever noticed that simple little things can just make you feel horrible?  I have had a toothache for a few weeks, and it got worse.  I went to the dentist, only to be told....yeah you need a root canal.  YUCK!  Well I have been fighting the pain for a little over a week now and can I just say, it has taken it out of me.  I am constantly exhausted.

I am also working hard to get back into my fitness routine.  I got out of it when my fibromyalgia screamed at me "Stupid...you are doing too much."  It's hard to get back into it, like most things you know you need to do and don't really want to.

The goal of my week is to not fall asleep in the middle of the day.

What am I cooking this week.....

I made a beef brisket which we ate on for several meals.  We had turkey and salad.  I found this oven browned turkey breast at Costco and it's super yummy (and I can eat it!!).  So we had several meals off of this.  I used avocado, olive oil. lemon juice and raw honey to make a salad dressing one day....yummy!  We had Spanish Rice and tacos one day.  Oh and there is a HUGE pot of chili in the fridge now also.

I'm reading....

A recommendation from the librarian....Dawn's Prelude by Tracie Peterson.

My favorite thing this week.....

Actually relaxing and reading a book.

Kids favorite thing....

I would have to say that the girls loved getting to play uninterrupted at the Science Museum on Tuesday for an hour.  They love the baby hospital and grocery store area.  The boys probably loved getting Sonic after their doctor appointments.....they got soda, and boy could I tell it that day.

Helpful Homeschooling Advice....

No matter your personality type, try and remember to be flexible in your approach with your kids.  All kids are different and may not enjoy textbooks, some kids crave textbooks and worksheets.  Make sure to do what works for them, and not always what works for you.  I have huge amounts of curriculum that we use sometimes and not at other times.  Depends on the kids mood and what they want to learn.  I struggle with this all the time, and just have to keep reminding myself.

In our Homeschool this week.....

We worked on Atoms as a group.  I am really liking the Apologia Chemistry book that we have been using.  It's packed full of info.  So much so, that I need to weed through each weeks lesson to make sure the kids are able to understand all the info.

I started a "reading" time during the day.  Everyone must sit and either put together puzzles, draw, color in books or read.  If they do want to do one of the other options, they need to read at least 10 minutes of the 30 minutes.  We'll see how it works.  The kids were balking about it, but calmed down after a little bit of time.  I could've sat and read longer, but the kids were getting antsy....so I think 30 minutes will be max.

Lydia worked on learning about tide pools.  She is working hard on her DIY patches.  She made a model of a tide pool (or she is working on it...still needs to be painted) out of clay that she made.  These are projects for her American Girl club and they all count toward DIY skills.   She earned her patch in Ornithology this week and decided to earn her masters in that skill.  She almost has her pottery patch now and started her oceanology patch.

Using IXL has been a great help with getting Joey to try and master some basic math skills.  So we are going to keep working on that program.  He feels good when he gets a certificate or a virtual award for his hard work.

Brayden did really well on his division facts this week, so we are going to work one more week on them and then start adding remainders.  This seemed to confuse him a bit and frustrated him.

Caty is no longer loving Alphabet puppets.  Oh and she no longer loves Reading eggs or Math Seeds.  So I was able to sneak some school in with her playing some games.  So that will be our new approach next week.  I am pretty excited and hopefully she will be too.

Some pictures this week...

 The girls at their Imagination Station class on building roller coasters and learning about Isaac Newton.

They built atoms out of candy.

Our H2O atom

 Brayden eating parts of the atoms.

 Lydia is loving making bracelets.

 Lydia working on a Bolivian Craft project at World Travelers Club.

 We made Refresco to take to World Travelers Club.  It's a cinnamon drink made by street vendors in Bolivia.  It's cinnamon sticks boiled in water for 30 minutes and sugar added.  Very yummy.

 Lydia practiced so hard to read her report on the Pink River dolphin.

We had a good week this week.  It was more relaxed schooling, but we got stuff accomplished.

Hope everyone had a great week!  Linking up with other Homeschool moms at So You Call Yourself a Homeschooler.