We had a strong week in our homeschooling, which is good because we have some pretty major events happening in our lives soon (more on that in a later post), and I need to stay on top of the schooling as long as I can.
We did the letter C in The Peaceful Preschool this week. One of our projects was sewing a button just like in Corduroy (which we had to watch on YouTube rather than read because our book got torn up and I haven’t replaced – yay, YouTube!).
The children also bandaged their stuffed animals and learned about cuts and scrapes and how to treat them.
Related post: Printable Bible Verses for The Peaceful Preschool
We also read and watched Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (a family favorite!) and made alphabet trees.
Related post: Review of The Peaceful Preschool
We are finally getting a good rhythm down with our Morning Basket, but for the life of me I can’t seem to call it that when I’m calling the kids to school each morning. I always end up calling it Table Time, so while Morning Basket sounds so much more romantic, I have to stick with what comes naturally. Table Time it is. (I’ll be writing about our Table Time soon!)
We made it through the first week of The Precious People! The kids are loving All of a Kind Family (the current read aloud)! I’d never even heard of this book, so it’s been a treat for me too! I’ve been really amazed by the results of the Art Study! The kids spent a lot of time recreating the Garden of Eden painting, and they are really learning an eye for details. I print the art study pages off and laminate them so the kids can easily pass them around.
Related: Review of The Precious People on YouTube
This week, I took some time to look over my daughter’s General Science notebook from Apologia. I was thrilled to see all the work she was putting into it, and when I asked her about it, she rattled off a bunch of scientific facts she’d been learning! I am now officially SOLD on the Apologia Notebooks!
Related post: Using Apologia Science with Multiple Ages
My oldest daughter has been having a little bit of trouble getting into the groove with her new school work, but this week, she finally got started. She is doing Ambleside Year 12, plus finishing up Geometry from Teaching Textbooks and moving from Apologia Biology to Advanced Biology.
Related post: Why Teaching Textbooks is Perfect for our Family
While Year 12 isn’t rigorous in the amount of reading required in one setting, it is rigorous when you consider the material being covered. I am anxious to see what questions and thoughts come from her readings as she digs deeper because right now, she’s just getting her toes wet. I think I mentioned before that she keeps all of her books in a basket along with a folder that has all of her assignments in it where she can check them off as she goes.
She did download the Where Is That? app to work on her Geography skills, and realized she’s pretty deficient (as most of us are!). I’m hoping she becomes much more adept at geography as she takes the quizzes on the app.
I did want to share a little tidbit with you when it comes to homeschooling with little ones underfoot – sometimes the playpen is your best friend. Mercy does great until we read aloud. It’s like a trigger for her to become clingy and noisy and grumpy. I could wait until her naptime to do the read aloud, but I just haven’t managed to make that a part of my workflow. So, I take her to her playpen with some toys during read aloud time. She plays happily (initially, she gives me the “what for,” but that doesn’t last too long), and as soon as I’m done with the chapter, I get her back out and she toddles off to play.
Related post: How to Make Read Aloud Time More Peaceful
Are you homeschooling this summer? Gearing up for next year? Leave a comment below and let me know how it’s going!
Jodie says
We are just having our two-week term break in New Zealand. Our homeschooling follows the school terms because we have three at high school, so the homeschoolers (five of them) are having a bit of a break as well. Although it does give us more freedom to do some AYOPS activities with the younger two. I take this time at the halfway point of our school year to review. This year I’m pretty happy. I thought we were lagging behind but we’ve kept on top of the basics. I always find the extras suffer when we have interruptions which is frustrating as the extras are usually some of the fun things which keep everyone’s spirits up. In the second half of the year, my goal is to rectify this . I think the morning would suit the extras for us so I’m going to give that a try and loop through the list. It will require some good discipline (on my behalf!)
The other thing I’m grappling with at the moment is setting up a little routine for my four year old with Down syndrome. We are doing AYOPS with him but there are some specific developmental exercises (for speech, and fine motor, for example) that I want to sit quietly with him and go through. Once he knows the routine he will be okay but it’s just finding the right time in our day where it can be a constant that he can take his cue from (that it’s quiet learning time for him.)
I always find your posts encouraging and inspiring. There are always little gems of great advice – thanks Amy!
Amy says
Hi Jodie! Any chance his therapy could be a first-thing-in-the-morning thing? Then you know you’ve done it. Enjoy your break!
Jodie says
I think you may be right – I’m leaning towards clearing some time straight after breakfast. It is usually the most predictable part in a sometimes unpredictable day. I hear what you’re saying – if we do it first, I don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day, and we’ve already accomplished something, which is a great feeling. Win-win. I’m just thinking that I may have to ‘train’ his siblings to leave us alone during this session. Something fun but work-alone might be a good thing.
Thanks for your thoughts, I appreciate it.
E says
Why not do it before breakfast? While the other ones do some morning chores/get ready.
Jodie says
Actually, you may be right. There is wasted time before breakfast. If I keep my youngers in their rooms (dressing/tidying…ok, playing) while the high school kids are getting ready to go, that does give me the opportunity for some quiet time with my little one. Thanks for that suggestion!
Diana says
Thank you for this! I love your “week in review” posts – I get so many good ideas!
I am going to try the playpen trick too – my toddler also treats read-aloud time as “time to get grumpy and clingy” – ack! 🙂
I would love to hear more about your use of Ambleside. I absolutely adore Ambleside, but for some reason I find the thought of using it absolutely overwhelming. Perhaps it is because there are so many resources that one has to gather in order to do it. I’d love to hear how you guys use it, and how you like it.
And I love “All-of-a-Kind Family”! I haven’t read it in years – I need to find a copy!
Amy says
Ambleside has always overwhelmed me too (even though I’ve always been fascinated by it!), so I will definitely talk more about this as we ease into it. Year 12 is very different from any of the other years; however. And All of a Kind Family is pretty cheap on Amazon, so check there!
Brittany Sanchez says
Is your daughter still learning ASL? My daughter is showing an interest and I’m not sure where to start with her.
Amy says
Yes! My favorite resource is Lifeprint. She can work through the lessons there free of charge!
StaciE says
Hi Amy,
I’m wondering where you get your Art study material? I can’t seem to find anything near as beautiful and perfect for my cause as what I see in the above picture.
Thank you!
Amy says
Those prints came with The Precious People curriculum. I just printed them off and laminated them.
Savannah says
Totally switched up our curriculum, as what we were working on last year it was just not working for us. We had come to a natural pause (we school year round as well) at the beginning of July, and decided to take off for a few weeks to regroup and set up the new curriculum.
Natalie says
We had a great week with our year-round school this week too! My kids’ foreign language tutor was on vacation, so I cancelled a Monday appt I had so we could jump in with extra momentum and it really carried through the week! We’re still finishing up last year with the older two while giving the new kindergartner a head start. Good idea with the pack’n’play. The hour before lunch seems to be hardest for my toddler (despite having had a snack).
Amy says
It’s always nice when you can keep up the momentum!
Kaci says
Love the basket idea!
Leslie Lewis says
Hi Amy! Saying a prayer for your upcoming major life events! Planning to start our 4th official year of homeschooling in a few weeks. We’ve never really had an entire summer off so far, but I’ve not been very good at structure overall. I’m aiming for a major overhaul this year, as our annual testing reiterated that we REALLY need to focus on all aspects of language arts. But I also had to admit to myself that our history and science curriculum weren’t really working. I hate being wrong, even though I second guess myself constantly. Since I know we need a lot of work on spelling, writing, grammar, etc., I made the decision to try out Mystery of History and Apologia Science for my 8 and 11 year old boys together. Math will be computer based for each, SOS for 3rd and TT for 6th. We’ll finally start working on memory verses (a good way to work on handwriting and spelling, I hope) and a free typing program. I’m a little anxious about scheduling it all in a way that we can stick to ( we have 1 desktop) and beginning preschool with my 4 year old daughter. I know she doesn’t have to “do school” but she’s smart and seems ready to learn. All while keeping an eye on our sweet little boy, 11 months now. I hoped I’d be more skilled at juggling and balancing this by now, but God is gracious to keep allowing me to do this. Just looking for some encouragement, maybe some ideas what to do when? Thank you!
Amy says
Hi Leslie! The best way I’ve found to do it is to schedule all the subjects that are “do the next lesson” (meaning you don’t need to assign or anything – just do the next lesson) in one block, and all the other things around that block, so you can put some kids on autopilot while you work with others. I think God doesn’t allow us to totally “get it” so we’ll stay sharp and on our toes! 😉