Tag: Weekly Review

Week in Review: October 22-26

Grace-Filled Writer
Well we were back at school, but a lighter version of it. We took last week off from school and this week eased back into things. I’m learning we need some weeks like this, especially since we are ahead of things! Generally that means we complete literature, math, and read biographies for history content. This week we worked through some more Take Time for Art projects and the girls also still attended their science class so the only difference is the intensity of how much we do. My girls are bright and I like to challenge them, but this only benefits if they also have some down time. Their brains work better this way! 


What I found happened was even though I didn’t assign more work, they chose to do some other things on their own. I found my girls playing games together than increased strategy and math skills, working on their novels, creating more art, and just playing like sweet little girls should have the time to do! 


Then we enjoyed some time with my nieces and nephews later in the week. I sure do love these kids! Our church had a fall festival on Saturday too which was a great way for our church to show love to our community. We had some great conversations with people and saw how the Lord is using this fun event to build His Kingdom!


I manned the slide all day and I’m happy to report there are no injuries! Well, except for my voice. You have to be a bit loud to make sure the kids listen and stay safe! 

What were you up to this week? 

Week in Review: September 24-28

Grace-Filled Writer
  
This week was full of focused work. The girls are getting used to heavier work loads and I’m trying to figure out what extras to throw in. With their diverse interests I’m wanting to let them explore more on their own. 

This week was also a little stressful. One of my girls is struggling with what we think may be an autoimmune disease, but we cannot pinpoint which one. A hospitalization last year started this process. While I’m not excited she is exhibiting new symptoms, I am hopeful as we slowly…oh so slowly…slog through this process. Through it all trying to keep things as normal as possible. So these sweetly normal photos mean a lot to me. Our days really are running smoothly, but in the background I am watchfully trying to pinpoint what is going on with the one. We have a fantastic pediatrician who encourages me to research, answers questions, and is looking for answers with me. The Lord has provided her at the perfect time. 
We also had a fun family photo shoot you can take a look at if you click on the picture below! 

What were you up to this week? 

Peek at Our Week: September 17-21

Grace-Filled Writer
We started off the week a little differently… Hurricane Florence did not affect us over the weekend as much as we expected. It did however cause some flooding in our area that kept me home from teaching my English class. It was very strange to be home on a Monday! 


The main road leading from our neighborhood into town is now closed until a repair can be made, but that is the only lasting inconvenience. Every time we see the detour sign and have to drive about 8 minutes out of our way I take a minute and pray for those so much more affected. We are grateful that we are not currently in recovery mode, but are praying for those who are. As I said last week, we’ve been there. We know how hard and frustrating it can be. 

Photo Credit: NPR
 So last week my kids were all about making the jokes because we didn’t take off from school like our neighbor’s kids did! They had all of these, “Mommy makes us do school even when….” statements. We all laughed, but they aren’t wrong most of the time! We have school unless we have a reason to miss. 


Here is the rundown from our year so far with Heart of Dakota…

Grace: Preparing Hearts for His Glory Unit 2
We are currently running half-speed and will finish unit 2 next week. I’m thinking this will be the last week of half-pace for her. She’s doing great and is ready to handle the guide full speed. 

She has chosen Anatomy for her personal study time and loves it! She has wanted to be a nurse since she was 5 and wanted to pursue this a little more. She’s reading one of the Chronicles of Narnia for literature and is learning about larger place values. 

Beth: Hearts for Him Through Time – Creation to Christ Unit 33
Beth is soooooo close to finishing! We are working hard and will be done really soon. She’s ready to move on and I think the next guide will be really good for her. She’s worked through ancient history more than once now through the various guides and she is just ready to get to some new things. 

Beth is reading A Wrinkle in Time for literature. She’s enjoying it, but I don’t plan on watching the movie with the girls. I’m not thrilled with what I have heard about the changes made to the original story. I don’t usually like the film version of books! She’s learning about converting units of measurement. 

Rose: Hearts for Him Through Time – Revival to Revolution Units 21-23
Yes, you read that right. We got slowed down last year for a variety of reasons and she really wanted to get through this portion of history. So we decided to go ahead and shift our way of doing things. We are skipping a lot. Yup. I’m not following the guide letter-by-letter! The important thing for me is that she reads all of the books, and she is. 

Rose asked if she could study a high school English course this year. I told her yes and we would see how it went. She is THRIVING! I’m so glad I listened to her and moved her into this course. She’s writing excellent essays every week and devouring books like Beowulf and Macbeth. In math she is continuing through our Pre-Algebra course. 


We had the chance to visit Old Salem! Click on the picture above to read more about it! 

I would love to hear more about your week! How was it? See what my Crewmates are blogging about here! 


Peek at Our Week: September 10-14 aka Hurricane Week!

Grace-Filled Writer
There has been quite a lot of hullabaloo around here! 

Here in central NC, we don’t see much more than a tropical storm or two. Then there was Hurricane Fran in 1996. It was stronger, bigger, and faster than it was believed to be when it made landfall and was still a hurricane when it came over our town. Lots of damage, power out for days…definitely a memorable thing! And because of that, whenever there is the threat of a storm people get concerned. 

My husband and I don’t feel quite the same way. Having lived in Florida with hurricanes where we prepared like this…

October 2005 – This is me!!! And Rose when she was 2 months old!

And have turns life upside down like this…

October 2005 – Crop Duster’s air field with a sugar cane factory in the background.
We weren’t too concerned. We know how to prepare and we did. We didn’t board up our windows or anything, but we prepared all around the house and made sure we had what supplies we might need if the power was out for a few days. The hurricane from the previous photos left us without power and a boiled water order for 11 days. 

So far, we have not had much more than a nice breeze. We shall see what else will come…

The girls started their science class on Wednesday! My first class teaching English was Monday. It’s going to be a great year for all of us! 


Week in Review: September 3-7

Grace-Filled Writer
 This is the week before I start my job teaching at a learning center for homeschoolers. Sooooo… I’ve learned from past experience to take things easy. This does not mean no learning! We spent most of the week working with Take Time for Art! We ADORE this art curriculum! Even more wonderful is that it was created by a very dear friend. She used to teach with me at the learning center. They watched some wonderful history videos and then step-by-step art videos. Their projects were fantastic and you will get to see the finished products soon!

One of the art projects was actually more of an engineering project! The girls are trying out their catapult and had a ton of fun launching marshmallows off the front porch! 

We have a dear friend who is coming over every other week to tutor Rose in art! She is attending a local college to be an art teacher and will graduate in December. She is such a blessing to our family and such a sweet, gentle soul! She was also a homeschooler which is really cool for my daughters. She’s such an amazing role model for them all! 

What was your week like?

Week in Review: August 27-31

Grace-Filled Writer
Second week of school…and we have our new printer! Yay! We were quite impressed with Epson’s customer service and intend to stick with this brand in the future because of it. 
We are still trying to get our routine in place. It is a little hard because so many other things are gearing up, like the English class I teach, AWANA at church, piano lessons…school is happening, but pictures are not! Here is a little of what the girls did this week… 

Rose helping Grace put together a skeleton model!

Beth is very interested in zoology and is working through an activity book about ocean animals! 

Week in Review: August 20-24

Grace-Filled Writer
We’re back to school…mostly! 

My girls were totally ready to get back to work, but I wasn’t quite there yet. We started school, but I didn’t have all of my ducks in a row. They did a lot of work. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out why my printer wasn’t working right! I have to say, I’m hugely impressed with Epson customer service. The error indicated a hardware issue which I found out after an hour of unplugging, re-plugging, holding down buttons for specified times, doing a little dance, holding my breath while I stood on one foot…etc. It took a simple phone call with a really nice gal to get a new printer sent! It definitely put a kink in our week since I wasn’t fully all set to go. Anyway, here are a few pics…

Week in Review: August 6-10

Grace-Filled Writer
Our learning this summer hasn’t been as focused as usual because of our many trips away. I didn’t assign the girls anything to do, but all three had fun with learning games and being creative. 


We have enjoyed a rather mild summer in my opinion here in the South. Not everyone would agree with me and we have had a few hotter days, but generally we have all enjoyed more time outdoors than we typically do! 


As for me, I’m determining to study and feel more comfortable with mathematics. My plan is 3-fold. You can read about it here!

We also celebrated this little sweetheart…


…turning 13! She asked for lemon bars instead of cake so we made a delicious gluten free version!

What was your week like?

Week in Review: July 23-27

Grace-Filled Writer
See how tanned my girlies are? (Well, not the puppy!) They are tanned and tired after our week in Florida, so we did some schooling-lite… reading, math, historical biographies…and video schooling! One of my favorite tools this year has been using our Ruko device to access some great educational programming. We stream from a variety of apps as well as with my husband’s Chrome Book so we can access the videos on SchoolhouseTeachers! It’s a great way to supplement learning, especially when the summer afternoons are so hot and everyone is feeling just sort of drab. 

I also taught Grace how to play the game Carcassonne. She loves new games. Rose found my to-do list one day and added “Play Games with the girls” to the bottom of it. Sometimes I need a little reminder to have some fun and just relax. These three sweeties are good to remind me! 
My girls will be spending this coming week with my parents and they are really excited! 
How was your week?