In my life this week…

A chaotic but rewarding week.  This week was our first official week back at school.

We decided that due to our December being absolutely lunatic crazy with packing and moving house, that we would start school a bit later this year.  We wanted to give Mic the opportunity to settle into the new house, make friends with the neighbours kids, play with his new toys from Christmas, swim and just enjoy having a summer holiday.  That lasted about a week until he was nagging me and asking when we could start school again PLEASE?!?!?!  So we eased into it last week with some bible studies, reading, spelling and a science experiment.  Fun, but not enough.  My boy needs structure and he just really REALLY loves learning.

So basically this week has been all about getting back into the swing of things.  Working out his timetable.  Working out how to make things fun.

My writing course is almost finished – those 12 weeks *flew* by!  I’m feeling a bit more confident with my style of writing and the articles I have submitted – although it is still sooo stressful.  This week has been a review week, and the reviews I got back have been wonderful.  Great for the self esteem!  Now to edit and polish up the final article ready for submission next week.

In our homeschool this week…

We did Bible Study every morning, followed by discussion and then a bit of copywork – Mic is loving it – but that deserves a whole blog post on its own.

We learnt about antonyms, prefixes, suffixes, homophones and idioms!

Mic did an English comprehension and finished reading “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”.

He studied his spelling words everyday and got 19/20 for his test on Friday.

We learnt A LOT about Ancient Mesopotamia and made our first Lapbook.

As it was first week back, Math was a lot of revision this week and he got 100% for his tests on Friday.

In Science we read about different simple experiments that need long term investigations and how to display data.

Mic wrote all about our vegetable garden and how well it’s growing in his journal.

We had our fourth online keyboard lesson and now that he knows how to read the music, he played his very first song!  Lots of practice to be done before next weeks lesson though.

And finally, we did our first ever proper French lesson.  Wow.  I am obviously learning right along with Mic and to say that the French was frustrating is a total understatement.  We did land up shouting through the microphone at the software and laughing at each other – so it wasn’t all bad.  Here’s hoping we can actually get through next weeks lesson without breaking anything

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…

No tips or advice – just do what works with your family.  Don’t be too rigid with your planning – there will be days where Aunty Jenni arrives at 10am wanting to break up your planned school day to play RummiKub.  Go with it.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

We signed Mic up at the library this week.  Yes, I know he’s NINE years old and is only now a member of the library – shocking!  In my defence, he does a lot of his reading on my Kindle.  It was quite a process and takes a week to get a card, so we couldn’t actually take out any books unfortunately.  But Mic did get the chance to browse and see what he would like to take out next time we go.

My favorite thing this week was…

Reading Bible stories on a quilt in the sunshine.  Watching Mic take huge pride in the making of his Lapbook.  Transplanting some seedlings into our vegetable garden.  Afternoon swimming, running in the garden and watching both boys playing with the kitty.

What’s working/not working for us…

Mason is loving the fact that he is being included in our school days now, and sits down every morning at his little table waiting for his Busy box activities.  It seems to be working for the most part…  Except when he wants to shout at the French software when we are trying to perfect our pronunciation, or press the buttons on Mic’s keyboard when he’s trying to practice his music.  One of Mason’s favourite things to do is pull out all the books from the bookshelf and “read”.  I must put everything back at least twice a day.

Things I’m working on…

Finishing my writing course so I can get back to focusing on some crafty business.  I haven’t even unpacked my sewing machine yet and I’m itching for some creativity.

I’m grateful for…

The opportunity I have to stay at home with my boys and watch them grow.  I feel very very blessed that I can stay at home and homeschool them.

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