Weekly Wrap-up: Homeschool Journal

I thought I would try something a little different this week for our weekly wrap-up.  Every week Sue at The Homeschool Chick  posts The Homeschool Mother's Journal.  Since I seem to have lost the ability to focus my attention on anything lately (including housework, homeschooing, and blogging) I thought her ready-made format would be perfect.

In my life this week...

I am officially one year older this week than I was last week.  Not telling how old that may be, but I had a really great birthday celebration at home.  I got to sleep in and had coffee in bed while watching the morning news.  Darling Hubs did some vacuuming and Ms. Q cooked dinner.  It was a wonderful day of relaxing.

In our homeschool this week...

We started our week on Tuesday instead of Monday this week due to the above mentioned birthday celebrating.  This is really only a problem for me and my need for control and organization.  I felt like we were a day behind all week.  

Ms. Q has been doing really well with her writing assignments this year.  She still struggles with really putting effort into the assignment but this week's assignment "An Interview with Mr. Popper" was great.  She started out by creating a list of questions she would ask Mr. Popper (Mr. Popper's Penguins is the book she's reading for language arts) if she were interviewing him for a newspaper or magazine article.  Then she answered all the questions in a lovely article.

Little M is doing a fabulous job learning to read.  He surprises me each day with what he is capable of.  We were lucky enough to receive the first set of BOB Books through Paperback Swap a few weeks ago and he just can't get enough of these!  It's so wonderful to see how excited he is about learning to read.  I'm so glad that I have the opportunity to share this with my son.


I am inspired by...
My husband.  Last week he started a weight loss journey.  Losing weight has been on his mind for awhile.  He was displeased with his appearance and shrinking wardrobe but it was the effect the extra weight is having on his health that really pushed him to seek help.  I'm so very proud of him for taking these first steps.


Places we're going and people we're seeing...
We are going to visit my parents this weekend and kids will get to see their grandparents and their uncle.  We will have birthday celebration part deux.



We have a field trip with our homeschool group scheduled for Monday to the Absecon Lighthouse.  Ms. Q and I were there early in the spring with the Girl Scouts and had a great time.  We are all looking forward to this trip.


My favorite thing this week was...
Delicious chocolate birthday cake!


What's working/ not working for us...
We are having a bit of a hard time with our school schedule.  Baby C just can't seem to decide on a nap time.  Although he goes to bed and wakes up around the same time each day his napping is not consistent.  Some days he's exhausted by 9am, others he still won't go down at noon.  

Ms. Q does a lot of her work independently with only minimal assistance from me except for History and Science.  We try to schedule these subjects when Baby C is napping so we can have quiet but it's impossible to know when that's going to happen.  The problem is when Ms. Q finishes her independent work and gets free time then I have to reign her back in for a lesson.  She has difficulty transitioning and focusing and we both end up frustrated.  I guess we'll just have to wait it out and see what happens.


Things I'm working on...
I'm just about finished with Halloween costumes.  The boys are going to be pirates and Ms. Q is going as a black cat.  She was a tough sell this year on a homemade costume vs. store bought but I think she will be very pleased.


I'm cooking...
Pita Bread.  Little M and I tried using our regular bread dough recipe for pita bread and it worked out wonderfully.  They baked up fluffy and crunchy.  This is definitely a keeper.  See the picture below.

I'm grateful for...
the opportunity to be home with my children.  We had a little visitor to our homeschool this week because her mom had to work and her sitter was unavailable.  I was reminded of how difficult child care arrangements can be when you work outside the home.  When Ms. Q was small I worked full time and I remember the difficulties that arose when she was sick, her day care was closed, or her sitter cancelled.  I'm grateful that I no longer have those difficulties and I'm glad that I could help my friend when she needed it.


A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

Yay for Pita bread!!!