December Homeschool Happenings 2016

iHomeschool Network is restarting the Homeschool Mother’s Journal as a monthly linky, and since I’m trying to write up our happenings about once a month or so (this coming year my goal is to publish on the last Friday of the month, we’ll see if that happens).  I figured this would be a great way for me to get it done every month.

 

In my life this month…

It’s been all Christmas all the time, only it hasn’t felt quite right, and I need to take some time figuring out just why that is.  But as to what we actually did……

We made lots and lots of cookies, both for our Christmas in Mexico, and just because cookies go with Christmas.  I also got to try out a fun new pattern called Wonder Unders, and I’m contemplating making the slip in a slightly larger size as a dress for the summer.  I absolutely loved it.  I also want to get her other patterns.

In our homeschool this month…

We learned all about Christmas in Mexico.  Princess went to her American Girl Doll club and learned about Hanukkah (or I should say relearned), but the end results was her obsessively lighting the candles in her menorah.  The kids finished reading Inkheart (with some panic on Princess’ part because she hadn’t taken the deadline seriously), and we watched the movie with many snacks.

Honestly this month wasn’t much homeschooling, but more of…..

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…

Visiting friends and family.  We have three Christmases we celebrate (hey that is how you make that word plural), so it’s a lot of traveling about.  I also got to see a friend of mine from high school.  We live in the same city, but aren’t in any of the same functions, so it’s always a bit of an arrangement to get together, but that makes it extra special.

My favorite thing this month…

 

The first present of the morning #christmaspresents

A video posted by Ticia (@ticiam) on Dec 24, 2016 at 5:21am PST

Seeing the kids get their uber huge stuffed animals.  One day while shopping at HEB we saw these ginormous stuffed animals, and the kids all begged for them for Christmas.  I of course said no, and then later Jeff and I were talking about how fun it would be to give them.  And we were right, the kids loved them.

Also, we got the kids lap tops (hence why they essentially had giant stuffed animal and lap top as their only presents from us), so we have all been playing World of Warcraft together.  Yes, we are that family.

What’s working/not working for us…

 

Since they now have laptops we gave the kids new guidelines for them.

1. You cannot play on the computer until your area is clean (we’ve been a little lax on that this past week).
2. No technology time until schoolwork is done.
3. You may play for an hour at a time, but then you have to spend an hour not on the computer.
4. No more than 2-3 hours total on technology (special dispensation given occasionally, like your first week of owning it, as we are all binging this week).

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…

I’m starting to think about next year, and how I want to make it work.  I’m also trying to think of how to step up what I expect from them.

1. I’m thinking of making their assignment sheets digital (I’m really loving Asana for keeping my blog organized right now).
2. I have a Texas history curriculum I want to try, but am nervous because I can’t see a physical copy.  So, I’ve been asking around if anyone’s tried it, but not gotten any answers yet.

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

We have been watching these videos quite a lot over Christmas break.  It’s fun to see how the different materials react to the hot knife.  It probably says something about our family that we watch these so much, and his other videos……

On my blog in case you missed it…

The top posts for the month were not too surprisingly Christmas related.

• Christmas Story Bracelet and Poem
• Tips on Teaching Highly Distractible Kids
• Christmas Story Sunday School unit
• Movies for World War 2
• Christmas Story Ideas