My Homeschool Mother's Journal - January 25

In my life this week… I chopped 4 inches off my hair! I was bummed no one noticed until I said something. *sigh* I've never really been a long hair girl and now I have long hair and I am really not sure about all this. But my husband likes it [which I didn't know until 3 years ago] and so I've got long hair and I'm trying to get used to the mass of stuff.  It's been a rough week. I am pretty sure part of it is hormones; mine this time. But it's also the relentless pressure of DS and his schooling. He manages stuff in such a manner as he has to school 7 days/week which means he starts sneaking in frivolous activities while he's schooling giving us yet one more thing to discipline. This child has always required constant parenting and it is unbelievably wearing. So part of it's hormones and part of it is I am tired of DS/school. Part of it is the realization that as healthy as my husband is right now, we're not back to normal and each week there are signs I am not back to normal. I lost my keys for 5 days this week; I never do that. I found them finally in an out of character spot. So part of it's hormones and part of it's DS/school and part of it's I'm still not back in my groove. I would like to say I am tired of not being in my groove.

Today I am going with 5 friends to a homeschool mother's tea at a church about an hour north of us. We're all going in 1 van and we're having dinner together after and I am excited.

In our homeschool this week… we're getting stuff done! Monday I was a little nuts with girlies not listening very well, so I changed plans for the day and we worked on this notebook page all day:

YDD's page comparing Judaism, Islam and Christianity. She still pretty well hates writing, so I printed out her facts and let her design the page. I really like her idea of separate trees with common roots for this.

ODD's Abrahamic Religions page. She thought about a tree page, but decided to go with this simple chart instead. As the older student, expectations for her project were higher hence the handwriting and a few more facts.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… do not be afraid to rework how an assignment is done to lower stress. Usually my girls narrate history after I've read it aloud. [ODD written and YDD orally.] I don't guide the narration at all. With Wednesday's reading, I had several particular points I wanted them to focus on, but I did not want to frustrate all of us by hoping they came up with those points on their own. We talked about the points and then I wrote out the points on our white board for them to copy.

Favorite resource this week... Rosetta Stone Spanish. I realized my girls have passed me up and so this week I've been intentional about taking my own time on Rosetta Stone. I am loving how I get done with lessons [as opposed to laundry which I am never done with] and I love getting grades for each section [which also doesn't happen in motherhood]. I love the tangible feedback.

I am inspired by… all the art journal ideas I've found on Pinterest. It's helping me stretch and try new things. The girls and I wrapped up our world religion comparisons with an art journal page each.

This is the start of my page. I used oil pastels because I never have.

 Our midway points:

ODD wrote in each of the 5 religions' golden rule. She patterned her project after some we've seen online

YDD and her finished project

She used crayola water colors

ODD and her finished project

She used tube water color paints like she uses in art class

And my finished project. I learned that even Sharpies don't write well on oil pastels.  I ended up cutting this apart and putting it in my Smash book.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… last weekend we spent lots of time with my side of the family. We celebrated my youngest nephew's 1st birthday on Saturday.

My favorite thing this week was… DS completed his semester's work 3 days early!!!!! Never in the history of his high school has he ever not be frantically working the last 2 weeks desperately trying to get work turned in by the deadline. We now get to enjoy a 5 day break from classwork. YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!! This is totally my favorite thing this week!

We're reading…

I started reading this aloud to the girls this week.  Within 3 pages I was hooked; I love the word play.  We're reading it for discussion with our homeschool book club in February.

ODD finished this and gave it 4.5/5 stars. It is the 2nd book in the Emerald Atlas series. She said the only thing she didn't like was the major cliff-hanger ending because now she has to wait for book 3 to be published. She's also thinking of rereading The Emerald Atlas to make sure she has all the details straight.

YDD gave this 5/5 stars. YDD says awesome. Immediately wanted book 2 of the series. I am so pleased she read it and liked it because it's a book my mother read and I read and now she's read. So cool to share a book among generations.

I’m cooking… thyme lemon chicken in a pot. It's a new dish and my family LOVED it. They raved about it so much the first night that I made it again since I had all the ingredients on hand!

I’m grateful for… Thankful Thursdays. I've worked very hard to participate in this each week. Taking the time to write out my thanks each week went a long way towards keeping me sane during the crazy last 14 months. Yesterday, I sat down with my girls and we each wrote our own list of thankfulness. It's something we're going to do each week. I was in my 30s before I learned of the discipline of thanksgiving, and I want my girls to learn it younger.