How is August already over?

I feel like it was just the start of August and already the month is over, how did that happen?

We’ve now had two weeks of full-time Illuminations work, and it’s been both good and bad.  I’m gonna go through the different subject areas to talk through what’s what in all of this.

 

Calendar Time/Math

Here’s the two tips I’ve learned this week for calendar time:

1. Write on laminated paper using vis-à-vis, not dry erase markers.  I’d always assumed the opposite, but I learned otherwise from the Ultimate Geography and Timeline book {affiliate link}.  Side note, my hand turns black by the end of the day since I’m left handed.  I’m re-learning the skill of writing without touching the paper.  It’s tiring.
2. Only erase things you won’t be re-using the next day (I wrote in different colors to make it easier to know what to erase or not erase).
3. We do not have to complete the entire calendar time EVERY day.  That was a big burden off my shoulders when I figured that out.

This does mean we might get behind in grammar, but I’m working on figuring that out.

Song School Latin {affiliate link} has been going great, the kids have been loving playing our version of memory, each chapter’s worth of word cards is on its’ own color, it gives them a bit of a hint, and makes it easier for me to pick out enough cards to play with.

 

History and Geography

I think the most popular part of history this past two weeks has been the coloring pages.  I originally wasn’t going to get them, but was convinced otherwise, and I’m very happy it is so, check out the super supplemental package (it’s everything all together, I’ve used almost everything from this so far in 2 weeks, afffiliate link).

Of course most popular of all was our inventing activity, just like Jubal and Tubal Cain.  My kids love to craft, and this was a chance to just have fun.

For geography we learned about hemispheres and map projections.  It was part of one of my big revelations this past few weeks, more on that at the end of the post.

 

Bible

To get ready for the new ministry year, where I was teaching this lesson, we went through how we got the Bible.  The kids enjoyed having their own book to color again, and I enjoyed getting to make use of old pictures for this story.  There’s not a lot of fun outside activities for it though, mainly working on putting books of the Bible in order…….

 

Science

We finished off our general introduction to anatomy, and the kids loved making their edible cells.  It cracked me up when they told their grandparents all about what they were learning, and they said……..  All about the ancient Egyptians and how they mummified stuff.  Then in Sunday School they explained to the whole class why did God tell the Israelites to wash their hands so much.  So, they learned, just not what I was expecting.

 

Life in General

Looking back on the pictures, I can see why I felt busy, here’s what’s not included in the lesson plans:

Our dog finishing off all the meat from our leftovers, but “oh so politely” leaving the mushrooms and broccoli behind.

Introducing Nana and Granddad to Carcassone (my tips on playing with kids) and reading to Nana.

A belated birthday celebration for me.  I got some lovely new dishes (my MIL hadn’t even known we’d managed to break 4 dishes in the past few weeks).

We went to the Umlauf Sculpture Garden, where the kids all suckered Jeff into carrying them (I don’t know if he’s easier to convince, or if I’m just mean and keep telling them to walk).  But, they weren’t super impressed with the sculptures.  They enjoy the botanical gardens more because there’s more space for them to run, and be silly.

The really big news, that I’ve been waiting to share because I was hoping my MOM would email me her pictures, but she hasn’t (SLACKER!),

Princess got baptized! 

It was pretty awesome because her entire Sunday School class was able to come in, and she told everyone how she became a Christian, and we had all of our family there.  We took up about a row and a half of people all there to see Wendy be baptized.  I forgot my camera, so I only have cell phone pictures, which explains the poor quality when combined with the lighting.  I love the big picture because she decided to sing and pray while kneeling, and it was soooo cute!

 

I ate the last ice cream cone………..

Not only is my dog a gourmet, he’s also a pattern weight.  A not very helpful one.

 

Back to serious matters.

What have I learned this week in my homeschool:

• My kids are not in junior high, just because they are in the age range for all of the activities for Illuminations, does not mean they are ready for it all.  So, I’m demoting the kids to the young learners geography.  We’ve already done one activity from that and it was a HUGE hit, so this is a good decision.
• I’m trying to decide if we should continue with English from the Roots Up, I like it, but I don’t know if I’m using it to its full potential and in all the ways it could be.  I’m toying with dropping it.
• It really helps me to look in more detail on Sunday night at our plans for the week.  I didn’t one of the weeks, and it killed me to keep up.
• Oh, and don’t plan too much for a week.  I planned lots of stuff for the last week before school started for public school, not taking into account play dates and swimming, that was a mistake.

Linking up over at: Homegrown Learners