This year we started into our school year early, with just the basics – back in the hottest, most mosquito ridden days of summer. We went five weeks, still going to the pool in the mornings, building in subjects. Then, last week, we took off for the beach!! (We stayed in a beach house called Hodgepodge Lodge! and brought the rains of Tropical Storm Lee back home with us). So, this week, it was definitely a bumpy time getting back into a routine after a beach vacation and the Labor Day holiday. Here are a few highlights via camera phone photos…
1. Weather alert radio with tornado watch on Labor Day | 2. Tuesday surprise lunch with sandwich wrappers from Ann Voskamp’s printable | 3. Littlest Girl’s 1st day of Saxon Math K!! | 4. No Bake SunButter Energy Bites | 5. The lovely rains of Lee on front yard hydrangea | 6. Tapestry of Grace Church History | 7. The Wise Old Owl – 4th grader’s Rod & Staff English lesson | 8. Sing the Word – A New Commandment | 9. a frito in the shape of a goldfish! | 10. Playing with the ball contraption at orthodontist appointment – Eldest boy only has to wear retainers at night time! |11. Living Math Day – Math Fact Cafe | 12. Dance Mat Typing – Free and Fun! (You can click here to view the photos larger).
Many thanks to Camera Phone Friday hostess Dawn Camp @ My Home Sweet Home. You can learn how to do neat photo collages from Dawn. She has a tab entitled Camera Phonography.
A few homeschool highlights of the week:
Nature: we had some severe weather Labor Day afternoon. The weather alert radio continued to send us seeking shelter. That offered plenty of weather nature study! Plus…
Our window hummingbird feeder (a gift from Mama Ann for Middle Girl’s birthday) is a joyous and busy place. We placed it on the first family room window. Right next to the kitchen table. “There’s a hummingbird!” someone will alert us in a loud whisper. We’ll all freeze, turn and watch. They are migrating through our area right now. Perfect time to enjoy these beautiful birds! We also discovered a family of squirrels are nesting in our kestrel box. And, this afternoon we went on a Creation Club nature walk with our friends.
Helpful Habit: keeping up the habit of sharing a helpful habit on Fridays. This week our days have gone well with me focusing my attention on the two little ones first thing while the older three are starting their day. All it really takes is about a half an hour of time. Handwriting, Rod and Staff books, math meeting and some fun activities. Another helpful habit for the older three was updating their schedules with a free planner I downloaded from Money Saving Mom.
Pre-K and K: Can you say – keep them busy?? It’s September and someone was excited to start her Saxon Math (happy face in top photo collage)! This week Kindergartener explored pattern blocks. Of course, Lil’ Buddy joined in too! Plus, she had a very fun time cutting and pasting with her Rod and Staff G,H and I books.
This girl is still plowing through the good ol’ basic Alphaphonics.
Lil’ Buddy had a good time practicing galloping – one of his Slow and Steady Get Me Ready activities, coloring his Read to Me Bible Stories and taking a photo of his favorite train set (by himself!) with my phone camera.
Visual Latin: One of the highlights of the week was definitely our time watching the first few lessons of Visual Latin. It went like this… “Ok children, I know we’ve tried a couple of Latin studies before. But I’ve heard some really great things about Visual Latin. So, let’s give it a try.” After we watched the first short lesson, 7th and 8th graders asked,
“Can we watch another?” Then after that lesson they asked, “Can we watch just one more?”
You can download the first few lessons for free and try them out yourself. Just click over to the Visual Latin site. We also completed another English from the Roots Up lesson.
Tapestry of Grace Literature: Digging further into our Year 2 medieval history studies, we also made some ‘spring greens’ with a variation of a recipe from the Medieval Cookbook. Eldest is reading Door in the Wall…and both 7th and 8th graders are learning church history.
Independent Unit Studies: At the start of our school year I asked the older three children what they would like to learn more about. What type of electives they’d like to take. So, this week, 8th grader started Amanda Bennett’s Digital Photography unit study. Ends up all three of the eldest are going to do this study.
Medieval Art/Music – Harmony Fine Arts + Mark Kistler’s Draw Squad: Seventh grader is just scratching the surface of this study but is mostly spending this time with his new Draw Squad book. This study compliments our Tapestry of Grace medieval studies.
Piano Unit Study from CurrClick: Already a piano student, fourth grader is learning a little bit more of the history of the piano, as well as its parts.
It is a gorgeously beautiful day in Georgia today. Eldest girl decided to finish up her studies next to the open window. The family cat enjoyed the sunshine too. Be sure to see what other homeschool families are up. Click over to Kris’ Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
How was your week, friends?
It looks like you got back in the groove of school alright! Yes, we love Visual Latin! Much of what you are doing looks familiar to me. 🙂 Love the hummingbird photo especially!
Loving Visual Latin!!
What a fun week. Can I come homeschool at your house? 😉
I keep saying I’m going to do the camera phone Fridays thing, too, and have so far been unsuccessful. Great idea to incorporate it into your weekly wrap-up post. Maybe I’ll try that next week!
Jamie – the hands on learners make us have to keep busy around here. Whew! I’d love it if you’d join in Camera Phone Fridays.
Thanks for letting people know about Visual Latin, it’s new to me!