In my life the last three weeks… I’m not sure I can even verbalize the craziness of the last three weeks. The wheels are totally off. Short of a hurricane or pneumonia, I’m not sure how things could get more disorganized, more stressful, or more, well, chaotic. The only things on track right now are work and the side project I’m working on for work. I have a huge deadline looming for that side project, and then my part of it is done.
In our homeschool the last three weeks… After the unschooling chat on #hschat, I realized that my little resister might enjoy a bit more control in the area of academics. So, we’ve arrived at a point where the only “required” material right now is Life of Fred for math. We’ve been doing a lot of reading and some math and science is covered by us, zoo school, and so forth. It’s very hard for me to figure out how to document all of this, but I’m working on it.
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… No idea is too crazy if you are committed to homeschooling. At this point, the only thing saving my sanity is that Ben is picking the topics that we’re working with.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… What a three weeks. Katie did some dance classes. Ben tried out homeschool gymnastics. Ben started soccer. We tried out the Glazer’s Children’s Museum and liked it enough that we got a membership. We tried the MOSI science class and Ben loved it. Katie will be old enough in December to take the class, so we’re going to get a membership to MOSI. I now have a dedicated pouch just for IDs for things. Katie will be getting her library card on her birthday and her zoo ID shortly thereafter and the little pouch will be close to bursting :). We had a great playdate with a friend of Ben’s (who Katie is very fond of, too) and Ben has tried, and decided he liked, singing with Mr. Matt at church, so he will be in his first official production of “something” this December.
My favorite thing this week was… Listening to Ben just bubbling over about his experiences at MOSI and how much he loved the class. Encouraged me to sign him up for more and to consider putting him in science camps there in the summer. If I can have a second, Ben singing me the chorus of a song we sing in church sometimes because I identified it as my favorite.
What’s working/not working for us… Dance doesn’t seem to be working for us. I don’t know what happened. She loved it the first few times, but the last few times, she’s just been a wreck and doesn’t want to do it. She’s almost three, and really doesn’t need to do anything she doesn’t want to do, so we’re going to stop and let her try again when/if she expresses an interest. Also not working? Homeschool PE/gymnastics. We discovered that all three of us are much happier if we can just go to a park and play rather than go sit in the gym and be bored.
Things I’m working on… I’ve been working hard on course design and I have Katie’s number shirt to finish.
I’m reading… Sigh. Okay, I’m reading A Mother’s Rule of Life: How to Bring Order to Your Home and Peace to Your Soul by Holly Pierlot; The Titan’s Curse by Rick Riordan (I blame my best friend’s son for this, by the way); The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande; and Classroom Assessment Techniques: A handbook for College Teachers by K. Patricia Cross.
I’m cooking… I’ve cooked a few times over the last three weeks. I made pasta with special sauce. I made the Marlboro Man sandwich again. I think I made something else, but I don’t remember.
I’m grateful for… That we’re almost at the end of the wait. By next Tuesday we should know . . . something. I called and confirmed my labs are there, so now I wait until Tuesday. Patience and I will be friends . . . soon.
A photo, video, link, or quote to share… Might have forgotten to mention someone I met in the last three weeks 🙂
Books referenced in this post:
To find out what’s happening in other homeschools, check out The Homeschool Chick’s post and link list!
*Links to books are ALWAYS Amazon affiliate links.I make virtually nothing for linking there, but maybe someday I can buy one of my books that way :).
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