October 2018 Homeschooling Month in Review

Everyone in my family loves October because it starts the holiday season for us. We love dressing up for Halloween and being silly, and Jeff’s birthday is in October. However, this month was lots of people being vaguely sick, and part of the way through the month I decided the kids were going to clean their room and threw all of our lesson plans out the window. Well, except for a few things I thought we were a bit behind on… So, this is our homeschooling month in review for October.

(oh, and I’ve got a few affiliate links in here for games and such)

Week 1

I think I might have messed these weeks about, like usual. That being said, our first week was made up of a movie night with the cousins. First Princess and I went out to see Christopher Robin with my Mom and the cousins. Then we had a cousins sleepover where we watched Swiss Family Robinson. While we were driving out to Universal Studios we listened to part of the book but didn’t finish it because Princess couldn’t handle them discovering a new animal, and then shooting it to see if it was good food. Seriously, every time they find a new animal, they kill it in a variety of different ways and then eat it.

The kids had a blast getting together, and the girls, in particular, were so cute playing together.

 

Week 2

As I’m looking at my pictures, I’ve got them out of order somehow, because I have a picture of me sewing on Princess’ AHG badges before the awards ceremony.

Well, this particular week we worked on finishing up our Geology labs for Real Science 4 Kids. This week was a demonstration on soil and how it can help with water drainage. I read the instructions and decided I had a much better plan than they did.

I was wrong. It didn’t work very well….. It did, however, make a spectacular mess on my table.

One night we started talking about personality types and all that, and so all of us took the Meyers-Brigg personality test. It was fascinating. The kids and I all test as NF. The boys are BOTH INFP, Princess was ENFJ, and I’m ENFP (though depending on how peopley I feel, I test as INFP). This particular version of the test added in A or T for Assertive or Turbulent. That part fascinated me. Batman and I are the only Assertive people in the family, everyone else is turbulent.

Hmmm, I forgot to put a picture in here, but we had another movie night for Journey to the Center of the Earth, which my kids were greatly amused by because we watched the Brendan Frasier Journey to the Center of the Earth which treated the book like it was secretly a true story. However, in the movie, they ran into slightly different obstacles, but most were true to the book.

 

Week 3

We had a problem with some food catching fire, so it smelled up our house, but Princess was quite happy to pose dramatically. We did another lab for geology, this time it was a success! We successfully magnetized a needle and turned it into a compass that was fairly accurate.

I continued working on my sketches for our notebooking pages, we started Rome this November, so that’s a picture of Virgil.

I switch Princess over to Life of Fred Math because while her brothers are thriving with Teaching Textbooks, it was a constant fight. I’ve been trying to convince her this is a great idea for years, but she thought it was going to be stepping back. Once I finally got it through her head, this is just as much a valid math as what her brothers are doing, just gear more for her, she finally quit fighting me.

The top right photo is of the park we went to for park day, all of us Moms were watching the bridge because the water level was rising rather rapidly. While we were there, it probably rose a good six inches. We all decided it was time to leave when the water level was just below the bridge.

 

Week 4

My fellow blogger, Samantha over at Creative, Clever, and Classy created a Guide to US History, and she wanted some people to look it over, so I had the kids look it over for me. It’s a nice reference sheet for your middle school kids. It’ll be useful when we head back to that time period (not so helpful when you’re studying events 2000 years earlier).

Princess and I had a blast working on art lessons from Sparketh. We’ve both figured out we’re not big fans of minimalism art, but we do enjoy doing the lessons together.

I picked up a couple of used games for Jeff for his birthday. We played one during his birthday weekend, it was a Dungeons and Dragons board game, it was a big hit. The second was a Pathfinder Card Game, that was not a hit. We’re debating if we want to keep the game.

The boys worked with Jeff to repair the drawer we broke from overloading it. Princess worked at an All Abilities Trunk or Treat Festival at a local hospital. It was much more enjoyable than the year before because it had more of the children (and teens) it was geared for, rather than just lots of kids trying to get more candy. I saw some truly amazing costumes transforming wheelchairs that night.

Finally, we took a chance to have a special night out at one of my favorite restaurants together, Batman enjoyed looking at another restaurant to add to his theories for opening a restaurant.

Week 5

We ended October with a field trip to a local pumpkin patch which was lots of fun and a stop by the library to view a friend’s coin collection on display. Princess has started looking ahead to what it takes to get the Stars and Stripes award from AHG. It’s a lot of work.

The last Saturday of the month, Princess and I joined hundreds of other volunteers throughout our town to clean local parks, help the elderly/disabled with their homes, clean schools, and whatever else people asked for help with. It was a fun day, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

Oh, and I managed to catch our toaster oven on fire. That was special.

And of course, we ended with Halloween. Batman was Genn Greymane from World of Warcraft. Princess was a tea fairy. Superman was a soldier.

 

How was your October? Anyone else glad October is over?