Friday, October 28, 2011

Homeschool Mother's Journal - 8

In my life this week.... I got to meet Mary from Homegrown Learners and Melissa from Joys of Home Educating!  I will be posting all about this fabulous day tomorrow on Three Thinking Mothers!


In our homeschool this week.... Honestly, there was not a whole lot of school...On Monday, the girls managed to finish math and grammar before heading out to the fabric store with my mom and spending Tuesday at my mom's house making Halloween costumes.  

We took a break from our regular writing program this week to write some awesome Pumpkin Poetry (click for download).  

We also began reading From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg, about a young girl who is exactly A's age who takes her brother who is exactly P's age and runs away to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  This is great prep for our upcoming trip to the Met (A's choice of how to spend her birthday!).  We have been exploring the Met's website and the girls have been prioritizing what they want to see when we are there.  They have also been enthused about reading about children's lives in the late 1960's (not so different from my own childhood, but waaaay different from the technology-driven childhoods of today!)

We did begin our study of China in history, the girls were awe-struck by the description of medieval Chinese fashions and we took a detour to illustrate women's skirts with feathers from a hundred different birds and men's shirts with weighted sleeves. The girls also managed to finish another chapter in Math --not bad for two days of schooling!

(Today we are off to a literature-based play with our homeschool group!)

Helpful homeschool tips or advice to share...  Don't be afraid to take a little break from your curriculum to explore a good book or seasonally themed unit!

I am inspired by...

Places we are going and people we are seeing... We had a busy, active week...the hubs and I went out for a nice dinner (at a place that doesn't serve chicken nugs) on Monday and the girls spent the day shopping for Halloween costume stuff.  Tuesday I was in the city with Mary, while the girls were sewing their hearts out with my mom!  Thursday night was the annual Library Halloween Party and today we are headed to a play (and out to lunch, and then maybe a playdate) with our homeschool group :)

My favorite thing this week was... meeting Mary!  When we started Three Thinking Mothers, since Mary lives in Atlanta and I live in New Jersey, I never knew if we would ever get the chance to meet in person!

What's working/not working for us... 

Questions/Thoughts I have...

Things I am working on...

I'm reading.... I am still reading Guerilla Learning by Grace Llewellyn, but I am also reading Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos.  I adore Marisa de los Santos.  Seriously, after reading this book I am convinced that we would be friends in real life!  First of all, the characters in this book HIGHLY resemble a connection that I had in college, except there were four of us and there are only three in the book.  Secondly, these characters listened to the Replacements in college - I love the Replacements - actually 'love' is not strong enough - the Replacements characterized my college years.  Lastly, I just love Marisa de los Santos's style!

I'm cooking.... Don't judge me, but honestly, we were hardly home for dinner this week...it was fine dining, pierogies and fresh keilbasa from Haphanowicz's at my parents' house, cereal and canned soup this week...but the girls and I did manage to make pumpkin-cranberry bread and pumpkin-chocolate chip cookies!

I'm grateful for.... the opportunity to meet Mary from Homegrown Learners.

I'm praying for.... our country, our economy and our leaders.  I am praying for honesty and integrity.  I am praying that our leaders consider what is best for the middle class and are not influenced by special interests.

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

This weekend I am looking forward to.... we are finally taking that %#*&@ dead tree down!  Yippee!  I am also hoping to make "try" some of the recipes that I am planning to make for Thanksgiving!