Helpful Homeschool Habit: Celebrate

We are still pressing on in our homeschool but we have also had reason to celebrate this last week.

Nice way to finish out the high school week – in the backyard in your ENO.

The calendar flipped to May (!) and the younger children are down to their last lessons in all of their subjects. So…

Celebrate with a Field Trip

We went to Zoo Atlanta to see all those Land Animals from our Apologia textbook – up close! 1. How cool is it to feed a giraffe?? Our Land Animals book told us all about these ruminates and their sticky tongues. You can feed one too at Zoo Atlanta. | 2. Checking out Chilean flamingos. | 3. Those faces! Ready to ride the train. | 4. Scaly Slimy Spectacular at Zoo Atlanta – amazing new reptile exhibit.

They also got to go bowling at a cousin’s birthday party. I can’t believe we haven’t been bowling with these two before. They were thrilled! Plus, last weekend, when the spring rains finally ended, we headed outside for a spring spruce up. A little digging in dirt always does us good.

Celebrate with Standardized Testing??

Yes, really! How? Testing week that means we are towards the end of third grade. Standardized testing is required for homeschoolers in our state of Georgia in 3rd, 6th, 9th and 12th grades. And this ends up being an easy going sort of week because we set aside the regular school work for those testing. It’s really not bad at all. I shared about our Helpful Habits for Standardized Testing last year when we were testing sixth and ninth grades.

Celebrate the End of a High School Course

Our high schoolers have also finished up 25 lectures of that wonderful course, Constitutional Literacy. We agree this is “The history you never knew. The training you need to reclaim liberty.” By Michael Farris of HSLDA, “To the future leaders who love the Constitution and its principles of liberty.” My full review of Constitutional Literacy at The Curriculum Choice. We celebrated with a bowl of ice cream  🙂

Celebrate with an End of the Year Program

We also celebrated the end of children’s choir, puppets ministry and chimes at church this week. Our elementary children earned trophies and Middle Girl was recognized for her volunteer work in the puppets ministry (she loves it!)

Family arrived from out of town and we’ve gotten to spend time with them. In fact they arrived just in time for the choir program! Still to come, the drama troupe production of Aladdin and piano recital.

I have been over at The Curriculum Choice a lot this week sharing about some resources that have blessed us. The giveaway of Learn Math Fast is open until next week. And there are still discount codes too!

• Learn Math Fast – Review, giveaway and discount code. Let me tell you about an answer to a prayer. Just when my high schooler started really struggling with Algebra, I heard about Learn Math Fast. Yay! We have been using Learn Math Fast for a back-to-basics, refresher type learning. Well, maybe it is a ‘finally learning it for real way’. Either way, it is always, always good to learn a concept in a different way. Maybe you are looking for something like this too?
• College Test Prep for Homeschool – Review – and discount still valid through 5/16/15. With both a rising senior and a rising junior in our homeschool, we are in the thick of college test prep and planning. Enter REA Test Prep with resources to help us be prepared! Lately, we have been using CLEP Biology and ACT Strategy Smart from REA. Just how to use College Test Prep for Homeschool from REA with your homeschoolers? I’m sharing how we have worked them into our routines.

Nana shared a spring art tutorial! Geranium Chalk Art

And we have a sale through 5/8/15 because You ARE an Artist!

—>Today we are off on our very first college visit! Nana is holding down the fort and has some projects planned. We’ll share more about that next week!

I’ll leave you with a wonderful scripture I have turned to often this week…

Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ‘ancient paths’. When you find them, walk that way and you will find rest for your souls. Jeremiah 6:16

Many thanks to these kind hostesses (I’m linking up!):

• Collage Friday – Homegrown Learners
• Finishing Strong – Homeschooling the Middle & High School Years
• Weekly Wrap Up – Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Are you starting to celebrate yet?

(and have you subscribed to Hodgepodge?)