Tag: Weekly Review

Peek at our Week: November 21-23

Grace-Filled Writer

You’ll notice the shortened week. I’m sure quite a few of you take off the entire week and we have done that before. Recently on our off weeks we have been learning, just not with the intensity of study we do the rest of the weeks. I have collected all sorts of wonderful books, unit studies, and activities throughout the years so I’m finding ways to utilize them better. This was the perfect week to really delve into the lives of the pilgrims! There are some great resources we used. I’ll list the books here and some links if I can find them, but no affiliate marketing is contained within those links! Click on the pictures of the books to see where you can purchase them.

All week we listened to Adventures in Odyssey through the Odyssey Adventure Club app which were themed to Thanksgiving. This is such a great program that I listened to when I was a kid in the 80s and now my kids can enjoy it as I did! We are huge fans of this production and we absolutely LOVE being part of the Odyssey Adventure Club! If you want to give it a try they have a 2-week free trial offer.

Easy Make & Learn Projects: The Pilgrims, the Mayflower & MoreOne of my favorite places to find unique activities for elementary and middle school is Scholastic Teacher’s Express. I have purchased quite a few pdf books from them and use them frequently to supplement our regular curriculum or for units like this. This week we used this book. The girls made fold away Mayflower ships, maps of the Mayflower’s journey, and a comparison of old world and new world life. You’ll want to get on their mailing address because there are periodically $1 ebook sales. That is how I’ve amassed my collection from this company!

Here are some of the books we enjoyed during the week
Product Details 
Magic Treehouse Research Guide: Pilgrims
Product Details
The Pilgrims of Plimoth
Product Details
Three Young Pilgrims
 Product Details
Giving Thanks: The 1621 Harvest Feast
 Product Details
On the Mayflower
 Product Details
…If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620

These  have all been given to us by friends, grandparents, and retired teachers. What a blessing it is when people give us goodies like these! I have several others, but this is what we used for this year.

We also used several wonderful resources that I pieced together to complete our unit of study!

Draw to Learn Psalms

While I read the girls worked on their project by coloring, cutting, or taping.

 
They loved the detailed coloring of their projects and Grace only needed a little help with the cutting.
  Learning in this creative way is so much fun. All three girls have studied the Pilgrims extensively through Heart of Dakota so much of what we talked about was review. Still, there were some new things the girls learned especially about how difficult the voyage really was, that surprised them. 

We had an enormous Thanksgiving feast with my parents and then decorated the tree. My girls are so sweet to pose for me! I couldn’t get a good picture in action because there was soooo much action with the decorating! So they very sweetly posed and giggled for my picture! 
I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving week and are excited as we head into this most joyous season of celebrating Christ’s birth!

Peek at our Week: November 14-18

Grace-Filled Writer

One more week until we get a break for Thanksgiving! I have mentioned before we follow a 6-week schooling schedule, but we do take special breaks for holidays! Thanksgiving is coming and I have some fun stuff planned for the week!

The girls are at their grandparent’s house for the weekend. They get to visit with them about every 4-6 weeks. It’s wonderful for them to spend that time with them and nice for us since we are around one another 24-7 it does us all some good to have a little break. My mom is an amazing cook and has been teaching the girls about baking and cooking. Dad plays a lot of games with them and Rose especially enjoys playing basketball against him. I am spending the weekend decorating for Christmas! We will save the tree for the girls to get home though.

Here are a few highlights from the week!

Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 32

I’ve just realized almost all of my pictures of Beth are of her working on math! She really does other work, but this is one of her favorite subjects because it come easily. She does frustrate us sometimes because she hates to do extra steps which she feels are unnecessary, like writing out the operations she used for word problems. Since she rarely ever makes a mistake it is very difficult to explain the reason why she needs to do this!
We are edging nearer and nearer to the end of the guide. I asked her what her favorite part was and she responds, “All of it!” That is honestly how we feel about this particular guide and really all of the Heart of Dakota guides. I do know that one of her favorite portions is poetry. She really enjoys the writing and practicing rhyme scheme (which I assign every week). Interestingly enough, as much as she enjoys and genuinely understands the poetry, she much prefers to create prose for the writing assignments. Even so, it is quite creative and full of beautiful imagery. 
Grace: Bigger Hearts for His Glory Unit 24

 I’ve been working really hard recently to make sure I get the extra activities in for Grace. Because she is the youngest and my older girls have more in depth studies sometimes I would forget to do these with her. It wasn’t intentional, but I realized I just wasn’t giving her all that she really needed and I’ve been striving to do this better. I reworked the days we do some of the activities and that has helped tremendously. We are all over the place with completing the guide in that we do not follow the strict day-by-day scheduling anyway. So all history activities occur on Tuesdays (usually) and all science activities on Thursdays (usually). 
She read about King David hiding in the caves this week to correlate with some of her history readings about the early years of our country. Here she is using oatmeal to create some of the different rock formations mentioned in Scripture. There is something so very meaningful and creative about learning through touch this way.
Rose: Resurrection to Reformation Unit 16
Rose has very much enjoyed the maps she works on every week. I love that Heart of Dakota utilizes the Map Trek maps from Knowledge Quest. They are assigned in the older guides, but I purchased all of their sets one year when the were on sale one year and we use them with all of the guides when I can. I also love their biographies and often supplement with those as well. 
We are very close to the half-way mark in the guide which is very exciting! Math continues to be her least favorite subject, but taking time away from our main curriculum to solidify the concept of fractions and how factors/multiples relate to them has been incredibly beneficial. I truly believe that second to the discipleship training I am able to give my girls this is the best part of homeschooling. I can make sure the girls can master the concepts they struggle with in any subject and help them to grow at a pace which is most beneficial to them!
We are beginning to focus more on reading classics with Rose. This week she began Anne of Green Gables and I am on the lookout for classic stories she can read. She devours the written word so other “fun” books are easy for her to get into. This will help stretch her vocabulary and prepare for harder works of literature in the coming years.

Here are our sweet pets! Lucy and Penny love laying in the sunshine when I open the front door on these cold days. We live in the south, so I know cold is very much relative!
I’d love to hear how your week has gone!

Peek at our Week: November 7-11

Grace-Filled Writer
 Our routine is pretty much down and the girls are doing well with that. Our six weeks schedule (6 weeks of school and one week off) has done so much to settle our year and the girls’ attitudes in general. If you are struggling in your year to make things really mesh I’d suggest you give this a try. 
And onto our week!
Grace: Unit 22 Little Hearts for His Glory
 

 As always little miss Grace eagerly dives into everything we do no matter what it is. All of my girls loved this guide and I’m sort of sad to see it come to an end this third time! She absolutely loves poetry and though sometimes she doesn’t understand it, she is excited to learn! 
We used the tile number board for math this week to practice odd and even numbers. A dear, dear friend n our church is a retired 2nd grade teacher. She has blessed us with a wonderful assortment of manipulatives, curriculum, folder games, books, and more. Such a blessing!
Beth: Unit 32 Preparing Hearts for His Glory
 

As we continue to creep to the end of the guide, it just keeps getting better! It has been a little harder to get through since we finished up Grandpa’s Box. I’ve never been very happy with A Child’s History of the World, but haven’t found an age-appropriate replacement that we aren’t using in a different guide. I’m currently searching out options as I think ahead for when Grace gets to this guide in another year-and-a-half or so. 
Beth is much more patient these days with herself and understanding that as she gets older she will have more work. That was incredibly frustrating for her at the  beginning of this guide. It has taken nearly the entire thing, but she has resigned herself and even jumped on board with the idea of maturing in her education. 

Rose: Unit15 Resurrection to Reformation

Rose is growing up so quickly. Those around us notice it and I hear about it all the time. I have moments where my heart squeezes so tightly as I realize my oldest baby is growing up. Even though I’ve seen this many times over as a teacher of middle schoolers, it’s a strange feeling to watch it unfolding in my own house. She’s becoming more independent and I’m giving her a few more freedoms. It’s beautiful to see her growing into the young lady she is becoming, but also difficult. I know other mamas reading this can relate! 
She has absolutely loved studying the medieval period. She made a coat of arms online with the recommended website in the guide. This was great except for the fact that our printer decided to start acting up and we couldn’t get it to actually print. I’m hoping my husband can help out with this and we can get it printed soon.
We’ve hit a little hiccup in math in studying common denominators. So we’re taking a little break and working through the process through Math Mammoth. Hopefully this will help cement the concept for Rose. We’ll be right back into Principals for Mathematics when we finish this side unit. We own the entire Math Mammoth program and I love that I can use it as grade-level or as units. 
As the week ended we spied the super moon!

 
I hope you all had a great week! 

Peek at Our Week: October 31-November 4

Grace-Filled Writer

I had two very exciting opportunities open up this week! I was invited to be on the 2017 Old Schoolhouse Review Crew and to be on the Creative Team for the digital scrapbook designer Libby Pritchett Designs! I was on the Review Crew in 2013, but had to step away from that for a season. I was also on a digital scrapbooking creative team several years ago, but when the designer’s stores closed I never really actively sought out another team. Both of these opportunities were a great encouragement for me this week! I was feeling inspired and finished quite a few pages in the evenings after the girls went to bed.

For the most part school went well.We completed my list so that means it was a good week!

Rose: Resurrection to Reformation Unit 14
We finished up the Middle Ages and are anticipating moving into the Renaissance period. This is really such a rich program for history and it only gets better as the kids grow. Rose is learning independence also means accountability in a different way and she’s growing in this area as well.

Applying her love of art to creating a replica flag from the Middle Ages

 Math is still our most difficult subject to wade through together. We love Principles of Mathematics, but when we get to something that is a more challenging subject we review through the topic again with Math Mammoth. I like having this freedom. I wish I could find a magic solution, but I’m finding that since this is not a subject she enjoys we just have to keep moving and have patience. My husband helps out in this a lot as I don’t always know how to explain a mathematical concept in a way she will fully understand, especially if the way the book presents it doesn’t quite take. 

Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 31
Beth is becoming more focused in her studies and wanting to dive more deeply into what she is learning. Up until recently she completed her work without much complaint (usually!) but just did the minimum I asked and never offered to ask any further questions or see out anymore information. Now, it’s very different. We have a shelf of history books that are arranged by order or historical period. I’m finding her more and more asking more questions and seeking out information on her own. She’s also picking up more books on her own beyond the reading I require. 

Creating a Medieval Pendant out of clay. She then colored her design with Sharpie Markers
Beth continues to enjoy the projects and is really progressing with her narration both oral and written. It’s been so fun to see her growth from when we paused at the beginning of the summer to now. Math comes very easily to her and for a kid like that Math Mammoth is wonderful. She usually understands the teaching without much input from me. I have her explain the concepts and she always seems to know what she is doing. My theory is the reason for this is Beth has been homeschooled from the beginning, so her math had a more natural flow upwards rather than the every-kid-in-the-same-box traditional schools tend to follow. I can’t prove it, but it seems to be the reality for our kids. 
Grace: Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 22
Grace is excited every week: The end. What else can a parent want besides a child who jumps at the chance to learn, no matter what the subject. This girl loves rabbit trails! 

Daddy helps out with school on Mondays and in the afternoons if we don’t finish everything.
She is very patient and understanding that I can’t always give her my undivided attention. I do make sure I give her enough time, but since her guide doesn’t take as long it isn’t difficult. I am excited that we are moving on into the Revolutionary War period of history. She’s learning about Boston and many of the historical places connected to the birth of our nation. I hope to take the girls on a trip in the next couple of years northward so we can see some of these places in person. 
Some other things we did this week: 
1. Voted Early 
2. Watched Annie (The original)
3. Dressed up and played pretend

What fun things did you do this week?

Week of October 24-28

Grace-Filled Writer

The start of this week was the end of my husband’s parent’s visit with us. They are from Florida so it’s  pretty big deal when they get to come and stay with us, which means school gets modified a smidgen. Often times we do our basics (English and Math) on modified weeks, but this week we stuck to history and Bible as well as their Wednesday morning science class.

Rose: Resurrection to Reformation – Unit 13 
I have no idea why, but I missed snapping a shot of Rose being her studious self this week. This is probably because she’s mostly independent in these subjects. She checks in and we discuss what she’s learning, but I’m not as hands-on in her actual learning process. It’s beautiful really. One of my main goals is to teach my girls to love learning and become independent in their learning. This is still a process, but we’re on the way. We did have to have a conversation about being careful to following all the directions and completing her notebook correctly. These are good conversations that were bound to happen and I love that I get to have them with her in a more gentle environment. 
Grace: Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory – Unit 21
To keep our schedule manageable we are squishing her 5 day units into 3 days. This really isn’t that hard logistically or academically for either of us. We’re continuing through the early colonial days of America and she loves it. We don’t always follow the sequence, but we get through the units at a manageable pace and Grace makes the connections beautifully.

Grace reads a small portion of her history now. She is reading well above grade-level and this is how I start to teach independent learning. Little by little they become ready to take on a bit more. Currently Grace only reads a page or less. Eventually in the next guides we’ll move to where she is reading more and more until she is ready just like her oldest sister was.

I’m trying to do a better job of completing the science. Because the girls take a class science isn’t always the priority, but this little girl loves science and has a passion to become a nurse. Yes, I know she could change her mind, but I also want to guide her in her passions as much as possible. So I’m striving to fuel this desire.

Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory – Unit 29

We’ve used through 7 of the 13 guides available from Heart of Dakota. Although Preparing Hearts has been my favorite so far, it is also definitely the most challenging. The great news is I’m confident Beth will be completely ready for Creation to Chris in a few short weeks.

She’s really growing in her writing, not handwriting so much, but the content of her writing. She’s learning to write main points of her reading in her own words that are quite creative. Until this year she hasn’t really made effort in her writing beyond the minimum requirements I gave her. Now she’s creating beautifully crafted sentences and more of them than the requirements.

 So there is our week. Just the basics!

Week in Review: October 17-21

Grace-Filled Writer

After a couple of weeks  away from normal we were ready to be back at our regular routine. I’m pleased to say that our week off did everyone enormous good and school was so very easy. We accomplished everything quickly each day and we all stayed focused for the most part.  It is really nice when something we choose to do is validated! Now, let’s see if I get the same validation after the next break…because if I can just find that one perfect formula homeschooling will suddenly become a breeze, right? Right…

On a more realistic note, the sun is shinning more brightly now and I’m ready for the time change. I love the fall time change, absolutely hate the spring one. I never feel like my body ever actually adjusts to the spring forward thing. We’ve adjusted our desks a bit this year and that has helped some, but my girls often wander away from the designated school room to study which suits me just fine.

Here’s a peek into what we were up to this week…

Grace: Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 19

My sweet girl is going to be so disappointed when we leave Beyond Little Hearts behind! She loves all of the activities and although will be excited to move on up into Bigger Hearts, there is something about this particular guide that all of my girls have loved dearly. Here she is studying poetry and drawing a picture to go along with her poem for the week. We are continuing to learn about the early American settlers with lots of opportunities to talk about how some did this in a good way, and others not so much.

Math is going very well and she is thriving with using both Math Mammoth and Math Lessons for a living Education from Master Book. Since she is a full grade ahead in this subject I am trying to keep her from getting to mathematical concepts which she is not developmentally ready for. She’s still xipping right through and is on track to finish second grade math early.

Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 27
The end is in sight! Not that I’m anxious to leave Preparing Hearts with Beth, but there is something exciting about accomplishing what we set out to do. Since all the girls are in different stages of their guides, I get to have that start to the new year feeling more than once a year! 
Beth loves her math and story problems in particular. She forces herself to get through the rest of her math assignment just to get to the story problems. 
For history we are moving towards the end of the Middle Ages and are charging ahead into just a few areas of history after that. She is very excited to begin studying the beginning of time again when we finish this guide. 
Do you see how she is sitting? I can’t figure out how she is comfortable, but she is constantly sitting in odd ways. For whatever reason this is comfortable to her and the beauty of our environment is that it is ok. I don’t think traditional schools would be so quick to allow her to throw her leg up onto the neighboring chair! 
Rose: Resurrection to Reformation Unit 12

We are diving right into the period of the Reformation now. Rose is telling me frequently now how excited she is to learn about so much history. She realizes our focus is unique compared to most school settings in that she has had a lot of history up until now. Unfortunately from what I hear from our friends with kids in traditional schools it is becoming harder and harder for teachers to include meaty history in the elementary years. I can understand having taught full time in the past. She is grateful for the opportunity and tells me often. 
Rose is happy to work independently as much as she can. We have a few subjects which are still very much the both of us studying together, but quite a bit of her work is on her own and she just checks in with me.This is excellent for her as she is learning to budget her time and balance how to get it all done. 
We also carved pumpkins and are participating in an online literary pumpkin patch. The girls loved this! Unfortunately our pumpkins started rotting after two days.Here are their entries…

Rose – Glimfeather from The Silver Chair

 Grace – Wishbone’s pawprint from The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde

Beth – One of the orange tabby cats from The Cats in the Doll Shop

Another great week went into the books! 
And then Grampy and Grammy came for a few days along with my husband’s sister and her five kids! We had a houseful, but it was such a fun weekend! 

2 Weeks in Review: October 3-14

Grace-Filled Writer

This year I am following a very strict 6 weeks of school, 1 week off schedule unless we have vacation week sooner than 6 weeks for some reason. Our week off was October 3-7 which coincided with Grace’s 7th birthday. My baby is 7…wow…

We have had fun doing “light school” with Life of Fred and books of the girls’ choosing. We also have been taking some fun field trips.We had a lighter week this week as well because we tagged along with my husband for District Conference with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. It was fun to get away!

The reason for this is because I noticed after about 6 weeks we all just need a break. The refreshing is so good! Little did I know that this is actually a “thing” already called Sabbath Schooling. I was explaining what we were doing to a friend and she told me they had thought about Sabbath Schooling too. My facial expression made it clear I really didn’t know what she was talking about! So I googled and found out this is a practice others follow as well with the mindset of 6 weeks of work and one of rest is a biblical practice. This isn’t why I picked the numbers. Honestly I don’t know why I picked 6 weeks and then off a week. Either way, it’s working for us! 

Here are some pictures of some fun field trips…

 
SC Zoo and Acquarium
 
Above: A field organ from the SC Military Museum
Below: Trying out different uniforms at the SC Law Enforcement Hall of Fame

Above: The world’s largest fire hydrant!
Below: SC Fire Museum

It was a really fun couple of weeks off from our regular routine filled with may learning opportunities. Next week we are back to whatever normal the week brings. At the very least we will be schooling more normally. 

Week in Review: September 26-30

Grace-Filled Writer

It has been quite a while since I completed a week in review! I’ve been trying to keep everything going around here after some health stuff with me surprised us. We are back at it and have been since late-August. I’m grateful to be feeling well and this has been an unexpectedly smooth start to the year. If you follow us on Instagram you have seen little glimpses of what we’ve been up to!

Here is the run down of grades:

Rose – 11-years-old in 6th grade

 
Beth – 9-years-old in 4th grade

 
Grace – 7-years-old (tomorrow!!!) in 1st grade-ish 
I know all the homeschool mamas out there understand the “ish” part! Grace has an October birthday so we keep her grade level  as it would be in traditional school for the purposes of outside activities, but in reality all of her work is 2nd grade or higher. What can I say? It’s complicated! Really all of the girls should have an “ish” beside their grade levels. Homeschoolers…sigh…
A Few Changes with Master Books
We are still sold-out for Heart of Dakota! The girls still take a science class on Wednesdays. We have a new math curriculum for Rose and we all love it. Grace is way ahead in math so this year we are adding another curriculum to what we are continuing to use with Math Mammoth. 
We have a new writing program that has all of us excited! I reviewed the entire Writing Strands program from Master Books. Wow! I loved what I was seeing, but I know from experience that sometimes what we think will be great doesn’t always work out that way. This has turned out to be the highlight of everyone’s day. I can’t say enough good things about Writing Strands! 
Here are some individual guide highlights…

Rose: Resurrection to Reformation Unit 11
Rose is really thriving this year in this guide. We are currently in the throws of medieval times and she is fully engaged in all she is learning. Her independence is growing almost as fast as her height and I love that she still loves learning. She often is found reading her history assignments here in the living room. 
Beth: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 26
Beth is becoming more willing at being independent with her learning. I was trying to gently push her towards that direction last year, but she wasn’t quite ready. This year she is completely on board with the level of independent learning I have her doing. When she moves in to Creation to Christ later this year she will be fully ready. She is also studying the medieval time period which is fun to see. 
Grace: Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory Unit 18

There is nothing this little girls doesn’t love. Everything is an adventure to her and she jumps and down with a, “Yay!” at just about every subject we do. She is currently learning about life in early America, particularly what it was like for children. She adores her history activities above all else. In this one she was finding her way by sniffing cotton ball scented with essential oils just like a couple of dogs in her history story were able to find 2 lost young boys. You can see our sweet puppy was enjoying this activity too! 
As I said before, this year has been incredibly smooth to begin. We were all ready to get things going and the eagerness with which the girls began their work made me be able to really enjoy this start instead of feeling stressed. The girls are engaged in their studies and we have only had a few moments of, “Do you have to do that?” 

 One of the neat things about this year is how much they are engaging together. Yes, they are all in different guides, but they don’t mind pausing their studies to see what one of their sisters is doing, sometimes learning alongside, sometimes adding information they remember from studying the same thing, and sometimes helping the learning process.

We are taking this week off from our traditional lessons. I’m following a 6-weeks-on and 1-week-off type of schedule this year. During the off week we will still do math and language arts, but include some of the other things we don’t always have time for. We are looking forward to the break.

I’d love to hear from you and how your year has started! Has it been rocky or smooth? 

Remember: God’s grace covers it all!

The past few weeks in review…What I’m learning about expectations

Grace-Filled Writer
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9

This post has been sitting in the “draft” section for several weeks. God is teaching me a lot about His plans vs. my plans, but it is hard to know how much of that to share in this space. I’ve been wrestling with the idea of walking in faith during uncertainty. There have been some unexpected things in our lives over the last year, none of which I welcomed. Lost friendships, medical “drama” (for lack of a better word), the death of my husband’s grandmother…and other stuff.The one thing I know to be true is that nothing takes Him by surprise, and in that I find rest and peace. 

My husband has been preaching through the Book of James and the last several weeks have challenged my perception about trials and expectations. I’ve read through the book of James multiple times, but this is the beauty of the living and active Holy Word of God. So as we start out this year I’m making plans, and holding them as loosely as I can with an “If the Lord wills,” kind of attitude. I’ve always said I believed it, but I’m not convinced my heart fully aligned with my words. By the grace of God I’m working on that.

This is all very good to talk about in an abstract way, but how in the world does this work practically? Here is my list. Everyone’s will and should look differently as you begin to pray and seek out what God has for you. I love reading how-to books and getting ideas for various things from Pinterest, but other than the Word of God itself, there isn’t another book on this planet that has the perfect answer for everyone. So take this list as something I created for me. I do hope this encourages you to evaluate your own life, but that is all I hope for.

1. Consistently spending time in God’s Word  ~ Currently I’m reading through the Bible chronologically. I’ve been at it for a while (over two years), but not as consistently as I would have liked. I read 1-3 chapters a day depending on how much time I have in the morning. I’m currently up to Solomon’s reign. 

2. Organized to-do lists ~ The bullet journaling craze is just too overwhelming for me, but I took a few tips from the few blogs I looked at and created an organized to-do list system. So for now it looks like a pretty little journal and I have a separate page and pen color for each list I need. This includes my jobs, church responsibilities, this blog, and home. I work better with organized lists and I have a lot! I also just used a blank journal and pens I already had so this was a free, but fun new tactic. So far I’m enjoying this. 

3. Saying Yes ~ This has been the hardest. My husband and I both have been trying to say, “yes” to as much as we can with the girls. This means we are spending more time together, playing more games, enjoying more smiles and giggles. There are times we can’t answer with yes, but we are aiming to make sure the no is out of necessity, not just because we don’t want to bother with whatever they are asking. 

4. Planning ahead ~ I’m a chronic procrastinator. My parents could tell you all about it and then my husband continue the story. I’ve tried to say I work well under pressure, but that isn’t really true. I’ve been told it is a classic perfectionist tactic. I seriously don’t see that as true for me either. My self-diagnosis is that I become so overwhelmed when I have a big project or long list that I procrastinate to avoid those feelings…which is ironic because if I would just do the thing, that wouldn’t be there. So I’m working ahead when I can and aiming to be the opposite of a procrastinator. Is there a word for that?

5. Putting my family first with the right attitude ~ Now this is a little tricky, because I don’t agree with the very popular mentality that time for yourself is something you deserve. My first ministry is to my family – my husband and my daughters. Not me. I need to take care of myself which I do think includes doing what you need to do for both physical and mental health. At the moment, because of the health issues going on with me personally, I’m taking a nap in the afternoons.This is a need and I’ making sure I fulfill that need. I don’t deserve pleasure time. I’m grateful if I get it, and yes, I get time for myself! I read for pleasure, scrapbook, and walk with my neighbo, among other things. The difference is I am looking at this time as a blessing, not allowing myself to believe it is something I deserve. 

6. Extending more grace ~ Irony, right? The name of this blog was created because I know we need grace! It is so much easier to say than to do. So I pray in the morning that the Holy Spirit would help me extend more grace to my family, to those I encounter in my day, and to myself. It’s so easy to get irritated at the small things…there are a lot of small things that go wrong in a day! 

There are probably more things and this isn’t going to turn into a series or a book, don’t worry! I just want to encourage you to be willing to evaluate and make changes in your own life if you need to for either yourself or your family.

Week in Review: Week of April 25-29

Grace-Filled Writer
We had fun this week with my husband’s parents from Florida here visiting with us for a couple of days. They and my parents, who live about an hour away, got to see the girls’ art work displayed in the art show at our Homeschool Learning Center. They were very excited to have both sets of grandparents be able to see it! 
Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory
Unit 11
 Even though it is not scheduled in the guide we have continued on with the ABC series from Rod and Staff. It is such a sweet set of workbooks and all three of my girls loved them! Grace will be starting the last one in the series next week. I love to see how she is growing and learning!
  P1060953
 Grace illustrated a beautiful picture to go along with her poem for the week. She is really beginning to enjoy the poetry. She missed the straight forward nature of the poems in Little Hearts for His Glory at first, but she’s now really enjoying listening to the new poem each week and trying to come up with a title for it!
 Preparing Hearts for His Glory
Unit 19
 
 During the typical week my husband teaches the girls on Monday while I teach my English class and the girls have a science class on Wednesday mornings. We also really like to only have an hour or so of work on Fridays so we work very, very hard during the first four days of the week, fitting all the days of the unit into Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Beth has started reading some of Grandpa’s Box on her own. We still discuss the chapter, but this helps us stay on target. She really enjoys it and as we are drawing near the end I know she will hate to say goodbye to this book!
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Beth is becoming quite a little artist! When we first started the timeline activity last year she just wanted to rush through, but now I’m seeing a greater effort and love for what she is creating. 
Resurrection to Reformation
Unit 3 
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 Every year when I keep thinking homeschooling can’t get any better, we enter into a new adventure with Rose in a new Heart of Dakota guide. Seriously, I can’t believe how rich my kids’ learning experience is! It is way more in depth (And fun!) than I could ever plan on my own. Rose has kept her same Common Place Book since we started it in Preparing. I don’t have her do every single one of the copywork activities, but she does enjoy looking back on it every now and then. She is now beginning to copy her new chapter she is memorizing this year from Scripture.
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Who knew the Byzantine Empire could be so fascinating? One of the fun thinks about homeschooling is enlarging my own understanding of history. I’m as engaged and interested in what they are learning as they are, maybe more sometimes! The writing assignments are a lot of fun for Rose. She looks forward to them every week. I’m continually impressed with her beautifully constructed sentences and look forward to seeing how she progresses in writing this year. 
How was your week? Post a link from your blog if you have one in the comments or just share a little below!