Homeschool Mothers Journal - Week 24

In my life this week......

Trying to be positive, but suffering from massive lack of motivation.  My mouth has been in pain all week.  Even today my teeth are still tender, but my gums are making slow improvements.  I tried to make sure to rest some this week, but mainly just kept sticking with homeopathic treatments to help my gums and increase my immune system.

I feel like we are in kind of a rut, not making progress in some areas.  Things are going fairly well with school, but other areas of life seem to be like an emotional roller coaster.  I would love the dark cloud that keeps hanging over us to just go away.  But so far it has not left.  In fact that dark cloud likes to throw some lightening at us occasionally just to make sure we don't forget it's there.  I hate really opening admitting that even though there are lots of smiles in the pictures we post, there are just as many tears of frustration.  It's a vicious cycle in our lives that Joe and I just keep chugging through.  There is a lot of repeating of ourselves, which is very frustrating.  Some things though we can't change without just keep repeating and praying that it clicks.  It makes each day just a bit more stressful.

This funk though needs to change.  So I am making it my goal to try and break parts of the cycle that I know I can keep from repeating.  It's difficult because most days we are both physically and mentally exhausted.  But I just keep praying for help in digging back out of this large pit we have been backed into.

In our homeschool this week....

We had our turn with the Homeschool Blessing Box.  The Homeschool Blessing Box was started by a mom in our local group.  She put unused curriculum in a box and we all signed up to have a turn putting something in and seeing what we could find our own use.  I found a Saxon Math book that is working out wonderful for both Joey and Brayden so far.  And also a vocabulary/spelling book for each one of them.   They both did not mind or complain about any of the lessons this week.

Lydia and Caty both are trying a trial of a new reading program that we found online, Essential Skill Advantage.  Caty is flying through several of the sections.  So far I really like that there is not an avatar that they can sit and play hours with, instead of doing their work.  Lydia whines about doing her work on there, but once she gets on the program she loves seeing her progress on the line chart.  But she is whining about everything lately.  Seriously....she's only 8, what is she going to be like when she's 13??!?!?

Lydia did start working on her story about a mermaid.  Next week she and Joey will be working on their Birds of Northwest Ohio Books.  We didn't get them done this week.  They stayed plenty busy, I think I over planned all the writing activities.

In Ohio History we talked about the French and English Explorers and Settlers of Ohio.  They made their own Inspiration Rocks like the rock at Kellys Island, Ohio.

What I am reading......



What I am cooking......

Just about everything.  I love cooking, but hate cleaning up and planning.  For the most part, we ate the meals planned.  I did make Homemade Mac and Cheese.  I actually made chicken gravy twice this week.  It was a huge hit.  One meal I made it with rice, and the other with noodles.  It's pretty quick and easy and there are no leftovers.

I am pretty excited, we ordered a yogurt maker so that I can make dairy-free coconut milk yogurt.  Should be in this next week.  Can't wait.  I did make a vegan caramel dip that was super yummy!!!  I will blog the recipe with my adjustments.   Tonight I made the family chicken wings, one of their favorites.

Projects I am working on.....

Lesson planning, cleaning some cabinets and closets and now just basic cleaning since I didn't get much done this past week due to not feeling well.  Our house if horrible!!

My Favorite Thing this Week.....

I don't know.  There were lots of little things.   I liked watching the girls at the dance class.  Lydia is working really hard on her dance for the recital.  She gets to make up her own dance to a song.  I was also very proud of Lydia trying to read the questions during our American Girl Book Talk.  I know how hard she worked to read (and type) those questions almost completely on her own.

Something I am oogling and dreaming of.....

A Vitamix !!!  I so need to figure out a way to save for one of these.  I use my blender and food processor constantly.  One of these would be awesome!! (Oh and I do enter every contest I see for one of them too.)

Photos from our week.....

Lydia started writing a new story about a Princess Mermaid working to save the Seaweed Fields from big industry.

We worked on a art project that a friend found on Sparklebox.  We started learning about the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.  They have many colorful houses and streets.  So we worked on trying to create one-point perspective art.

This was very difficult for the boys, it was a very hands on project.  But they did well.

 Joey's work.  He worked with Watercolor crayons to add the color.

Brayden does not like art projects.  So he needed help and wouldn't use watercolors either.  Go figure.

 For some reason, Lydia only wanted to use colored pencils that day.  I like her rainbow though.  I really think the project looks better with the watercolors.

Caty is in stick people mode...it's rather comical.  She draws stick figures all the time.

We are still learning early Ohio History.  We are planning a fun field trip in a couple weeks to the Ohio Historical Center in Columbus for more visual displays.  But for the time being we discussed the impact of the French and English settling Ohio.  We discussed more about the Natives that lived here and the impact the Europeans made on them.   

For a hands on project to go with our textbook, I had the kids make their own Inscription Rocks.  

I had these flat rocks I bought on clearance from Hobby Lobby.   They are similar to these.

Joe had made fun of me for buying them, but I knew they would be used someday.  Well these flat rocks worked out perfect.  After a discussion about how the Natives didn't have a written language the way we do, we created our own Inscription Rocks, just like the one found at Kelleys Island, Ohio.  The kids thought this was fun and drew on the entire bag!

The girls and I had a long day on Thursday.  We had zoo class in the am.  They learned about fish and even were able to touch a Chinese Alligator.  Lydia's teacher asked their help on her school paper about Gorillas, so we went over to the habitat with her after class.  Lydia loves this big gorilla on the wall.

Then we had Scouts and American Girl Club.  In American Girl Club we read the book Kailey this month, so the girls have been learning about Tide pools.  This is the tide pool craft that one of the moms brought.  The girls loved this.

Caty liked making the Jellyfish :)

We had two "bigger" projects we didn't get started, but we'll work on those this next week.  They are projects for DIY Club, so that is a work in progress.

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