Tag: off routine

Week in Review: May 22-26

Grace-Filled Writer

Our week was incredibly low-key…and by low-key I mean I forgot to take any pictures it was so relaxed! We spent time cleaning and organizing some much needed areas, celebrated our 15th anniversary with the girls at Cracker-Barrel, and listened to it rain… A LOT! This is what “weeks off” typically look like for us with the exception of staying inside most of the time because of rain. We did get to take a few hours at our local children’s museum with friends and that was a lot of fun. Since I didn’t get to take any pictures, here are a couple from our wedding. Be on the lookout for a field-trip review and some fun highlights of this upcoming week in the next Week in Review!

Week in Review: May 15-19

Grace-Filled Writer

This was an EVENTFUL week! I planned to have school for the first three days of the week. I had great intentions and we did get a good amount of work accomplished on Monday. Really, it started off rather calm, but in the middle of the night on Monday I was awakened from a nightmare to a horrible crashing sound. I started screaming, my husband tackled me trying to calm me down (it didn’t work), and it took us a little while to actually wake up.

When we finally did come into full wakefulness my husband began searching the house for what could have caused the crashing we heard. He soon discovered our closet system (think hanging bar, shelves, etc.), which had held up fine for the previous 9 years, had snapped off the wall. In our barely awake state we panic thinking the cat may have gone inside and was buried under the mound of clothing, games, school supplies, and tax papers. While I searched the house looking for the cat to no avail, my husband frantically began digging through the disaster and pretty much throwing things out of the closet to try and find our poor kitty. She wasn’t there. We found her hiding under one of the girls’ beds.

So the next 2 days were spent cleaning, organizing, and purging, something that was absolutely necessary and I was planning to do this summer anyway. It just happened sooner than I expected! This then led to more rooms being organized and purged.We also had the great seasonal clothing swap of 2017 Part 1. Part 2 will occur in October.

All of this had to be accomplished before Thursday morning because we already had a little mini vacation planned for the weekend! We traveled up to Hershey, PA and had an absolutely wonderful time. Grace’s favorite candy in the entire world is Hershey’s Chocolate. She will specifically ask for this brand when requesting candy, so she was over the moon. We had a great time and the girls even went on some decent sized roller coasters…and liked them! Beth and Grace stayed with the smaller ones which did not go upside down, but Rose ventured onto the Super Dooper Looper and braved the upside down coasted and loved it!

That was our much-too-eventful week! How was yours?

Week in Review: April 17-21

Grace-Filled Writer
We took a bit of a break this week from Heart of Dakota and just focused on the basics. Our week was going to be a little busy in the evenings because of Global Focus Week where we hear how God is working through our denomination and international workers around the world. I had to finish post production of the radio drama my Junior High English class creates every year. We were also excited to have my in-laws come in at the second half of the week! So as you can see, this was rather a busy week. One of the incredible blessings of homeschooling with Heart of Dakota is that when we have an “off” week my girls are still working hard, just not as hard as normal. They always keep working through their mathematics and language arts, so we stay on track with those. 
That being said, very few pictures were taken this week!
Playing Catan with Grampy and Grammy! 
Global Focus Friday evening meeting
 
A quick view of my radio drama editing. This is just the initial edit using Audacity. When I got through the final edit there were 10 or more layers of what you see here! 

Week in Review: February 27-March 3

Grace-Filled Writer

It was our break week! For over a year now we have been following a 6-week on, 1-week off schedule for school and it is working beautifully for us. This is our break week. Here is a little peek at what we did.

Played
Read

We of course had other things going on, and I didn’t get the week off work, but it was a much needed break from the ordinary.

Next week Rose and Beth will continue in their guides and Grace will being Bigger Hearts for His Glory! We are opting out of one of the history texts this time as we try something new. I’m excited to see how she likes it.

I hope your week was great too!

Peek at Our Week: January 30-February 3

Grace-Filled Writer

So last week I came down sick. I already had the week planned so it wasn’t too big of a deal. My weekend, however, was derailed from feeling pretty bad and I didn’t get our full school week planned for this week. So we did a week of “fun school” as my girls like to call it.

When we do “fun school” I try to find all the things I would love to do but don’t get to fit into our days because they are so full. I’m toying with the idea of doing this every Friday. I struggle with changing anything…ever. I just need to jump in and go for it.One of the new things I did this week was have the girls study current events. We have a subscription to World Kids, World Teen and God’s Big World, which are Christian news magazines. They remind me of the news magazines I used to get in school as a kid, but with a Christian worldview. They usually read these just in their spare time, but this week I gave them a current events printable I’d found on pinterest to use to report about stories from the magazine. They really enjoyed this and I plan to make this a regular part of our week.

 We also enjoyed some other fun things like Signing Time and some educational shows I’ve had stashed away, but haven’t had a chance to show them. We also were working with some curriculum we are reviewing so you’ll see more of those in the weeks to come!
So we had an off-routine week, but it was a good week. Learning occurred and Mama recuperated!

Peek at Our Weeks: December 12-23

Grace-Filled Writer
‘Tis the season for FUN SCHOOL! 
As the days creep closer to Christmas I have found our family functions better without our traditionally structured schedule. So we still filled our days with learning, but much of it was what I normally don’t have time to fit in! 
First we had our piano recital! I teach 36 students including my 3 girls. It was absolutely beautiful and although I was a bundle of nerves everyone performed beautifully! 

 Taking time for art! We all get out our art supplies and worked some more with our See the Light art curriculum given to us by a dear friend! 
The same friend who gave us the art curriculum also bought us Signing Time! We now have the full series two and the first part of Signing Time Sentences! We are so very blessed! We spent some time each day learning new signs.

Our neighbor purchased two ginger bread houses and blessed us with one of them! It was already put together thankfully because I’ve since been finding out that getting these things put together is a headache! So we had fun decorating and then eating our creation!

The weather has been quite mild so there was a lot of outdoor play. Our neighbors were all in school part of the first week, but the girls enjoyed time with Penny (our puppy) and just playing outside. 

Finally we celebrated our first of 3 Christmases several days early. With all of the traveling we do we like to have our family Christmas early so everyone can enjoy it. We spent the day in our jammies playing with our new things and just enjoying one another. I know a lot of families have been trimming down Christmas. We do not buy the girls much during the year that isn’t needed and while I do not think we go overboard, we enjoy experiencing Christmas like this with them. This year they each were given one larger toy and then lots of books and games.
My sweet husband bought my a new iPad which was just a HUGE surprise for me! My old one was so old it no longer updated and many of the apps I use for homeschooling, teaching my English class, and teaching piano just weren’t working well anymore. I’ve had a grand time getting it all set up! 
My next update will be post-Christmas! 

Week in Review: May 18-22

Grace-Filled Writer

This was actually a week off of school for us. I’ve been loosely following a 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off type of schooling schedule. It has been a great way for us to stay steady and not get burned out. Sometimes the week off falls a little early or a little late just based on our needs, but this week was perfectly on schedule!

One of the reasons this week worked well for us was it was also my spring recital. My three daughters played and so did my two nieces whom I’ve been teaching piano over Skype since the fall! It was a great recital and so much fun to have all five of the girls participate.

These 5 are super close and had so much fun being together for the recital!
In all I have 32 students and 28 played in the recital this year. The three adults I teach never participate and one of my school-aged students was not able to attend. Our recital was titled Animals on Parade. Rose played Feed the Birds from Mary Poppins, Beth played Rubber Ducky from Sesame Street, and Grace played The Mickey Mouse Club March. My oldest niece played Shepherd’s Song by Beethoven and her younger sister played Winnie the Pooh. They are such sweet girls and I’m always proud of all my students, but there is something extra special about having the privilege to teach your own family something you love. 
My husband and I escaped for a weekend away and had a grand time! Grace, Beth, and Rose spent the weekend with their grandparents which is always exciting! 
My sweeties chose matching dresses while out shopping with Grandma which just made my heart smile. I dressed them matching when they were much younger, but have never forced them to do so. Rose (my oldest) came up with the idea and I thought it was so sweet!

My husband and I enjoyed touring Fort Fisher and the USS North Carolina. We both love history and this is usually what we do on our trips even when the girls aren’t with us. My favorite souvenir from our trip was one of the navy issued hymn books from World War II.
So next week it is back to the books and on with school! Summer is approaching and we may have a lighter load, but we will continue with school around all the other fun of summer like Vacation Bible School, vacations, field trips, and swimming. We are very excited for the summer and the break from the usual. 

2 Weeks in Review: February 10-21

Grace-Filled Writer

We’ve been continuing our fun Olympic study. You can see our first update by clicking on the picture below!

Here are a few spinets of some of the other fun we’ve been having…

Wii Olympics…this is actually the game from Vancouver four years ago, but we have had SO much fun with this! It has also been a really great way to explain some of the sports.

Anyone who has been following this blog for a while might just fall over with this next statement…I’m finally enjoying math! Seriously, this is huge! I can’t exactly pinpoint what the difference is. Maybe it is the shorter time? Maybe it is the big smiles over math from all my girls? Maybe it is because the teaching instructions were right on the page? I think it’s a little bit of all of this. No matter though, I’m very confident we’ve found out “Mathematics Home” with Math Mammoth…yay!!!!!

Little Miss Grace had a little cold and enjoyed a couple of pj days! She is always begging to stay in her jammies so it was fun to give in for a couple of days!

Beth used her alphabet stamps to practice spelling words from Beyond.

Moving forward with grammar! Rose took her second grammar test of the year and did fabulous. I’ve been so pleased to see how much she remembers from previous lessons with Rod and Staff. It isn’t fancy and there aren’t any gimmicks, but this is the most solid grammar program I have ever seen. She also took another test with Vocab-U-Lit. I love this vocabulary program. I love the use of classic literature to teach vocabulary and it really is sticking for her this year in a way it wasn’t with Wordly Wise.

A-B-C dot-to-dot!

We are getting so close to finishing up Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons! Grace is doing fabulously. Our only issue now is instead of actually reading the words she wants to make up her own ending of the story. Silly girl!

Our sweet kitty Zoe is always excited for lessons!

Moving ahead with Rod and Staff ABC series! Grace will be on a little bit different schedule than her sisters. She has an October birthday so we won’t be rushing into Little Hearts for His Glory next year. My plan is probably to start her in this guide after Christmas next year. I love the flexibility of homeschooling!

Beth finally believes she is ready to read chapter books. She’s been reading them for a while, but not BIG chapter books. It’s exciting to see her developing and growing in maturity! She’s reading Ralph S. Mouse right now.

Another math picture. Yay! Rose is doing so great! She’s thrilled to move so quickly with division. Once she realized it was reverse multiplication she was all set! I really like how word problems are used and introduced early.

And next week we’re getting back to our regular Heart of Dakota studies. The girls have very much enjoyed our little deviation from the normal, but they both were excited we’ll be doing history again next week. Both asked a couple of times this week when we would be back at it!

Until next week! 

Week in Review: January 21-25

Grace-Filled Writer

This was our last week of being off schedule! I’m extremely ready to get everyone back on track. Our family has been off routine for much too long. I can’t wait to start back with Heart of Dakota again next week. I’ve really missed the structure of our regular days.

Just because we’re not having our regular school doesn’t mean we aren’t learning! Rose received Word Rummy for Christmas and we had a good time playing this game! Not only did she and Beth practice their spelling and learned a few new words, Rose also practiced her addition by adding up everyone’s scores! It was good for her to feel confident in adding the scores because she is less confident in math.
To improve geography skills we played Ticket to Ride. This is currently one of our favorites! Rose really loves this game and I think it’s a great way for her to work on map skills as well as strategies on how to get the different cities to connect. 
One last game we played was Lego Creation. I’m not sure what category Lego’s fit into, but Grace really enjoyed finding matching pieces and then building the design. I have since learned this game is not available anymore to purchase and am thrilled that my in-laws found it at a yard sale! 
Before we left Florida a good friend gave us a tour of the Hollywood Fire Department! Click the picture to read all about our fabulous trip! 
Okay…so there really wasn’t anything educational about our trip to Dairy Queen, but boy was it yummy! 
Because of bad weather headed our way at home we had to cut our trip short, but when we got home we were greeted with some wintry weather. I would have loved more snow rather than ice, but the girls had a great time with our neighbors. 
Yay for a much needed break, and double yay for being back on routine next week!
Now if I can just get the house back in order from being off routine…