Remember a few weeks ago when I shared about finding the heart of homeschool? “…I have also made a purposeful change. I have been asking the Lord to bless us. Because He has shown me in many ways “…you do not have because you do not ask.” James 4:2
Today, along with Collage Friday photos scattered throughout, I’m sharing an update, an assessment of our homeschool before we head into the holidays.
Many Good Things
No, we are not going to hand out tests. But I have been spending time reflecting on what all we have learned and accomplished since August – and am working on updating some goals. First off, the good things I’ve noticed. See, asking for our homeschool to be blessed has opened my eyes…
1. First off, prayer – prayer specifics. I have been asking for math encouragement. And it has been answered. Hey – a hammerhead shark appearing in Eldest Girl’s math caused a huge celebration – because hammerhead sharks are Littlest Girl’s favorite! Not to mention we are studying marine biology…Hey, we can be thankful for hammerhead sharks during math!
2. Our weekly homeschool planning meetings are showing me where we are and what we might need to focus on a little more. It’s like a weekly homeschool assessment.
Above: 1. Apologia Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day science assignment | 2. Sister caught being sweet – Middle Girl helping sister with O Christmas Tree | 3. Ablaze with color!
3. More writing! Wow, that weekly civics and government class has kept us on our toes (reports, three point essay) and educated us on current issues like the Affordable Care Act, Common Core and more.
4. More math practice (sigh).
Above: Someone had a birthday! A picture by the favorite tree at church – it’s always full of beautiful fall colors right at her birthday. She also made some great memories on a first time trip to Build-A-Bear with a best friend. Yoo hoo is a special treat – one we usually only reserve for visits to great-grandmother’s house! Cinnamon roll cake to start of the big birthday!
5. Breaks! We need to get outside right after lunch or several times a day! We need breaks and then we are more productive.
Above: Lately, on a cool morning when we don’t have to head out anywhere, we enjoy a fire in the fireplace and have cozy school. Another morning, Lil’ Buddy needed to check out the rain. With our Handbook of Nature Study grid by the back door to prompt us – we were reminded to observe what rain smells like. This week the code practice key was a favorite. Hodgepodgedad took a few of the children to a Ham radio fest last weekend which inspired Lil’ Buddy. There was also a reunion of all the Cars vehicles – right along the edge of the step of the family room.
6. Flexibility, shiftability, and ‘take a deep breath and exhale, mama’. Yes, we can spend a little more time on William Wilberforce because we are very interested in him. Yes, we can combine a few things in order to catch up and maybe finish up this unit and get a good start on the next one before Christmas.
7. Watching a movie as part of our history studies is a truly wonderful thing! Especially Pride & Prejudice and Amazing Grace.
8. We are way ahead in Rod & Staff English – again this year!
Wednesday I shared this status update on the Hodgepodge Facebook page…”We’ve had one of those days where what we studied in science led to a project… which then led to writing a story…and now there are crayons and things spread far and wide. A satisfying sort of homeschool day even though there are still things left to do. And I think I’ll put my feet up for a minute before all the clean up. How about you?”
Join me at Passionate Purposeful Parenting today where I talk more about asking the Lord for a blessing.
Updated Goals
We should make plans – counting on God to direct us. Proverbs 16:9
We are aiming for a Thanksgiving homeschool celebration. With our Tapestry of Grace studies, the plans suggest a unit celebration to celebrate learning, offer closure and, quite honestly, to give ourselves a deadline on some projects! We need to move along past the War of 1812 in our history.
“A captive audience. That’s what you have in family and friends on Thanksgiving. Each year at this time we share what we call a unit celebration of our homeschool. Basically, we show off the best of our school work and projects while the side dishes are still warming in the oven. This four-year tradition is rooted in our Tapestry of Grace studies. But, we not only share what we have learned about history, our children also might…”
We will have a couple of ‘experiment days’ and enjoy even more marine biology. Plus we are headed back to the aquarium to see some aquatic herps, turtles and other swimming creatures of the fifth day.
Many thanks to our Friday hostesses!
- Collage Friday with Mary at Home Grown Learners
- Weekly Wrap-Up with Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
- Homeschooling High School with Connie at The Daisy Head
- Let’s Homeschool High School Blog Hop
How about you? Are you having thoughts of Thanksgiving? Have you been asking for a blessing on your homeschool?
I love Yoohoo and Cinnamon Roll cake!!! Thanks for linking!
looks like a great balance is happening! Huzzah to the season!
I just love the fun surprises that come up in our schoolwork. For us, it usually is a story or picture of an elephant…the youngest has a love for elephants and we always celebrate them when they show up! 🙂
I love your unit celebration idea, sounds like a good way to motivate everyone to finish things up and get excited about it at the same time!
What a fantastic idea. I think I will follow your lead (as I have many times) and have a mid-year assessment when we get there. Thank you for all your inspiration.
Yay! We are at mid-terms also. Woot! So happy we are making it through. We had lots of changes from the beginning of the year but now we are sticking with the winners. I also have realized I’m a bit of a curriculum junkie so I backed off of making more changes for this school year – maybe. I’m glad Teaching Textbooks is working out for you. We use it as a ‘math lab’. I do have to have the kids do the math on paper because my youngest one seems to get problems correct on TT but when writing them gets them wrong. Weekly I do check to see which problems they had to do 2 times or they missed or didn’t watch the explanation and we go over it. They really love TT and even though their other math program covers some subject matter more indept, they don’t mind doing the extra math lab.
Hi, it’s Jackie stopping by from your link-up at the November Let’s Homeschool High School Blog Hop.
http://tinyurl.com/ny8dqch
I am thrilled to see how God is blessing you guys. I know He yearns for us to ask of Him so He can give us what we want and need.
Anyway, I just wanted to personally thank you for linking up with this month. I look forward to reading your post in next month’s link up.
Joyfully,
Jackie
Let’s Homeschool High School Team Member