April 1st - Homeschool Mother's Journal

It's wrap up time for this week's Mother's Homeschool Journal. 

In my life this week...
I'm getting excited for the homeschool conference that commences next Thursday. It has been a week of researching the different things I want to look at during the curriculum fair. 

Our conference is only about 25 minutes away but I'm staying in a hotel, just for a little get away. This year I invited another homeschooling friend to stay with me. Two mothers with no children, no responsibilities, no dinners to cook, no nothing. But seeing as we're working hard to plan next year's homeschooling for our broods, its a small well deserved break from the norm. Don't you think?!

In our homeschool this week...
It's hard to explain my feelings about our homeschooling this week. I'm feeling... energized, on track. Usually by April we're so done with school. We don't want to look at another book, another video, another anything. 

I really think the change in plan this year has made all the difference. Knowing that we have eventual burnout after February, I planned lots of time off. We work hard Monday through Thursday so we can have Fridays off. Still, on those days the little one reads a lot and we usually have a day out with grandma which includes the farmer's market, baking, game playing, antique shopping (lots of history discussions going on there, ) and occasional visits to the museum and such. 

We also have been doing school for 6 weeks and then taking a week off (you can see the schedule I made up here.) This has worked wonders for us! Love it. I will continue it next year. 

Places we're going and people we're seeing...
Today, Friday was our day off school. Hubby ended up back at home by 830 am saying the little company he works for had closed down due to most of the people being sick. So that's the nice thing about working for a small company. A bonus was that the teen did not have work. So we had a lovely day of being together, one we haven't had in a long time. We went to Lowes, bought wood for 4 more raised beds, stuffed a wheelbarrow in our car, cut wood and managed to put together 2 of the beds so far. The kids went to the park, walked to McD's for ice cream and hubby and I spent some quality time together outdoors. It was one of the best days in a long time.

My favorite thing this week was...
Listening to the little one practice memorizing Romans 12. She says it like she is a southern bible thumpin' preacher with vim and vigor (this is how hubby memorized it years ago and we find it so funny. Helps you remember it.) I swear, when she has it all memorized, I will be taping her. So funny. And what a good lesson Romans 12 is.

What's working/not working for us...
Right now most everything is working for us. I'm crossing my fingers, eyes and toes that it stays that way until our school is done for the semester.

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
If anyone else is a Charlotte Mason follower, we have tried to do things her way this year but we did almost nothing with nature. Until now. We're planning and executing the garden, getting chicks in a few weeks. I'm wondering what we can do to make this nature stuff we're doing more meaningful and more in line with Charlotte Mason way. Any suggestions? I'm thinking we need to start Nature journals. The little one loves to draw so she can draw things as they start to grow in our garden.

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

Today while outside building raised garden beds, the sun was peeking around clouds and was just stunning. Had to take a picture. You can kind of see how big our yard is. See the fence WAAAAAYYYYYY back there? Yup. About 200 feet. Time to clean the yard up. Spring is here!