Weekly Wrap- Up: The Week We Changed Our School Plans

We were supposed to be starting school in October this year.  My boys have continued working on math, reading, art and a few other assorted subjects all summer long so I was going to give them the whole month of Sept. off and to finish up any loose ends with the subjects we started over the summer (or subjects we dropped when summer began)... but then I sat down and talked with the boys.  We decided our Thinking Tree spelling journals were NOT working and we needed a "real" spelling program for them each.  I started writing out a rough outline of our weeks for the upcoming year and knew that we were going to moving so far away from unschooling and back to a more traditional style of schooling that we were going to have a tough time adjusting.

 Can I admit that I am having the hardest time with this??  The thought of having math, reading, spelling, some form of language arts or writing and one more additional subject each day (like science, history, geography, etc.) has me reeling and my skin crawling.  I am so worried about being consistent with their spelling and math and writing and reading that I am stressing over all our field trips, fun days, and hands on learning that we enjoy oh so much.  I thought it might help us all if we just dove in this coming week and started adding subjects in gradually..... so our whole schooling plans have changed!  I think we need this though, my boys are all struggling with writing & spelling and we need to add these into our days.  We just have to suck it up and do it!  Wish us luck!!



At least our summer went out with a bang.  We had such a fun week!  We had three different groups of friends over to play at the lake with us three different days this week and enjoyed each day tremendously!  We celebrated one of my nephew's first birthday's and enjoyed spending time with our family.  The boys all got their hair cut and Alec had another Pokeball shaved into his head while Evan decided to dye a portion of his head crimson.




Science:  Alec read World's Fastest Animals.  Evan read I Love You, ZooBorns! & Welcome to the World, Zooborns.  He is just loving this zooborns series; the pictures are so cute!




Spelling:  Ian and Alec finished up their spelling workbooks and I started quizzing them (just 20 words a day) using the 150 words they were supposed to be learning through these journals... they did not do well AT ALL! (Hence our last minute scramble to come up with a new plan for the upcoming year).  Evan completed another two pages in his spelling workbook.

Math: We've pulled out Alec's 5th grade math workbook & Ian's Key to Percents book 2 for them to finish up over the next few weeks; they've each been completing one to two pages a day.  Evan has no unfinished workbooks but we're not quite ready to break out this coming years work yet so he's been working on one page a day in Mystery Picture Math.



Reading:  Evan has been reading up a storm this week.  Together we finished up Henry and Mudge The First Book and then he's been reading (ON HIS OWN! In his head!) Marvel Avengers, Wolverine, and Ironman.  Alec read Key to Rondo, Marvel Avengers, and Steven Universe, A Guide to the Crystal Gems.  Ian finished up the Bald Bandit and is reading the Deadly Dungeon.  We read  a few more chapters in the 39 Clues book and listened to a bit more in our Heroes of Olympus CD.

This just made my week!  Seeing Evan all curled up reading...  


History:  Alec and Ian read the History of Fun Stuff: The Scoop on Ice cream.


Eating cereal while reading... it would have been pretty neat if he was eating ice cream
while reading about the history of ice cream!

Geography:  The boys and I read P is for Palmetto; learning a bit about South Carolina.  We also read Circle Unbroken learning about the sweetgrass coil baskets; the history and importance in South Carolina.


Health/ Nutrition:  We had an orthodontic appointment and a physical appointment this week.  The boys also got to hear all about my husband's eye exam.  We talked a lot about nutrition as we pigged out and ignored all those nutrition rules (even eating dinner for ice cream and cheesecake for breakfast!).  Sometimes you've just gotta let go and say to heck with it!

We ended our week with a fun nature hike and a new activity: Letterboxing!  A local mom organized a group to get together a few times each month to go letterboxing and this was our first try.  We had such a great time and met a lot of new and friendly families. Then we had a lovely picnic lunch by the pond.

Our lunch views (better than any classroom!)


Reading the next clue 

Stamping our journals 

Comments

  1. Looks like you all had an amazing week! It is hard to jump back into the homeschool year. It sounds like you have a good plan with adding in the subjects gradually. I love the Pokeball! That is so cool! Hope you have a wonderful week :)

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  2. I love the Pokémon hair!!!
    Try not to stress about the change to your homeschool. I've learned that homeschool is bound to change and evolve as our children grow...their needs change and grow too. That's OK! We were unschoolers for years, but our son's needs changed and shifted. Do try to add in subjects slowly so you don't overwhelm the kids or yourself...you CAN do this! *hugs* 💗

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    1. Thanks! I'm trying not to overwhelm any of us...

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  3. We used to do a lot of letterboxing a few years ago. A great way to explore new places. Lots of fun.

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    1. It was so much fun! And I am so glad we had a few persistent moms that kept looking and found the letterbox so it was a successful hike for all the kids.

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  4. This is our 18th year of homeschooling. We have changed several times to meet the kids needs. You may be able to return to unschooling later on. We have used unit studies, workbook style for part of a year, Charlotte Mason, and a combination of all of the above through the years. It is one of the wonderful benefits of homeschooling that we can change to meet our kids needs.
    Blessings, Dawn

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    Replies
    1. So very true! We tend to ebb and flow each year..

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