Homeschool Highlights

We've gone through three months of school and I've been taking pictures.  I've just been bad about keeping the blog updated with what we're doing.  We've been adjusting to having three kids at work, rather than just two, and Katie Mei has brought an added dimension of entertainment to our day.  So far it has worked out very nicely, since I have Merrilee and Jacob sharing their history, science, and Latin curricula, so Katie Mei has had some one-on-one time to practice her phonics and reading.

We've had an awesome time with science this year, and we've put the microscope to good use.  The book we're using has a focus on life sciences, so we've been studying botany and biology.  We have covered both green seed-producing plants as well as spore-producing plants, and so far in the animal kingdom, vertebrates.

Studying roots

Making a spore print.

Looking at mold on an orange rind.

I also like to let the kids have some fun with school, so I sometimes just let them play games that reinforce what they've learned.  It lightens the day for them, and gives me a bit of a break.

I've never been good at art projects and it's just not a subject I work into our week.  But in the name of science, Katie Mei did have some fun doing what she called "the best craft projects I've ever done!"  Don't know if it was as much a craft project as it was an activity to keep her busy.  But in any case, she enjoyed it.  I've also made her keep a notebook just like the older children do, so I've got some record of her work.  I love that she enjoys school so much.

 

One of the more exciting, but messy, parts of science this year has been dissecting fish!  Mindy's husband John supplied us with several kinds of fish and the children were able to get a close up view.  It was a bit messy, but my kids loved it and even found some reasons to smile and laugh.

It will be interesting to see how our daily routine changes once we have two itty bitties in the house, but I think we'll make it work just fine.  I guarantee nap time will take on a new meaning for me though!

Beach Weekend

In the interest of still trying to catch up (and I'm not happy that it's a post-a-month going on here), I'm going to spread our September activities out a little more. The highlight of the month was our quick overnight trip to Destin Beach in Florida with Mindy and Blake. Both Mindy and I had husbands out of town, so we decided to surprise the kids with a trip to the beach. Mine hadn't been since we went to Jacksonville, FL back in January, so this was a real treat!

We let the kids have a sleep over at Mindy's house the night before, and in the morning the kids were treated to a big breakfast of waffles, eggs, and bacon. Not the norm at my house, so my kids now think Mindy is a domestic goddess. I'll let them keep thinking that, so she's the one they go to for sleepovers.

We did not tell the kids we were going to the beach, so Merrilee and Jacob were pretty upset about missing their soccer games Saturday morning. Jacob was especially worried and when I told him we had a surprised planned that was even better than soccer, he was skeptical. It was initially kind of funny the way he worried that he was missing the game, but as the trip wore on it was a little less entertaining. Fortunately, he came around once he found out it was the beach.

We stayed at a hotel within walking distance to the beach, and everyone was eager to get in the sand once we got there. We made the kids have a quick sandwich first, then headed out. We had a wonderful time, but we all agreed time went too fast. We headed back to the room to clean up and change for dinner, went to Joe's Crab Shack to eat, and then took our exhausted crew back to the room for bed. They had way too much fun bouncing around and we thought they'd never get to sleep, but the excitement of the day finally overcame their enthusiasm and they zonked out.

We had so much fun, and I am convinced we need to make this an annual thing. But one day is just not enough. At least a weekend is required to really get the right amount of sand between our toes. And the fact that women can talk and laugh way late into the evening makes a best friend weekend all the more fun!