New Blog!

I'm moving my blogging over to a new blog. Come check it out!

Tending the Pumpkin Patch

MIA!

We are starting a new school year come Monday morning. I'm excited and even though the boys won't admit it they are too! This is one reason for not posting.

I also have a slightly new vision for my blog and changes are coming. Actually I decided to start with a clean slate and create a whole new blog. It should be ready the beginning of August.

I'll let you know when it's ready. I won't be doing any post here while preparing the new blog.

Five Random Thoughts For The Week

I've been wanting to join one of the many link-ups post with other blogs, but my random blogging schedule makes that hard. I think I just may create my own. That's usually what I do anyway.  : )

1) We have less than two weeks left of summer break. It has been a good break. I'm looking forward to starting a new school year, but I wouldn't mind an extra week just to read. If I play my cards right I will get all of next week to read and rest for the upcoming school year.

2) My summer reading has included Real Learning: Education in the Heart of the Home by Elizabeth Foss. Which is a favorite of mine, but this time I have my own copy of this book and didn't have to borrow it. I'm also taking some great notes this time to help with implementing. I've picked up some of my Charlotte Mason original writings and I'm trying to read those.

3) A wonderful series the boys and I have discovered is Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. We started it as a read aloud and I knew this was going to be an amazing story but it was rough to read aloud. I asked our local library to buy the CDs for the first book and they did. Tyler and I loved it and just couldn't wait to see where the adventure was leading the Walker family children. I order the CD for the second book, Swallowdale, and it arrived today. We can't wait to start listening.

4) I'm starting to think the speedometer in the car isn't working correctly. I'm getting cars stacked up behind me even when I'm going over the speed limit. Several times on the highway while driving to my allergy doctor, that is about 50 minutes away, I end up playing cat and mouse with the other drivers on the road. My speedometer is staying steady and I'm really making sure it's not me because I HATE playing this game. The typical slow down or speed up to either get way ahead or behind these people isn't working either. Is the speedometer not working?

5) In my last post I mentioned I was working hard to get our school year planned out . . . . . I'm STILL working on this. I'm close to done, but I've been saying that for over a week. The last book order arrived today so I think I can finish up a couple of holes I have. I'm planning some posts on the books we are going to use.

Please share your random thought with me this week. You know you want to!

School Planning

This is my week for school planning. If cleared my schedule during the day and have (almost) nothing else to do but get the majority of the school planning done for our school year that will start July 22. It's overwhelming even though this will be our seventh year of home schooling.

I just wanted to share some resources I'm using this year. I've got a new homeschool planner from Mardel and I'm super excited to use it. It has more school planning pages than the Well Planned Day that I used in the past. Plus it's much cheaper. For my non-school everyday planning I use a family calendar hanging on the frig and I use The Catholic Daily Planner. I need list and I use this planner to plan out our daily activities. I don't use it for any school planning besides writing "school day" on days we have school.  I need a physical book otherwise I ignore things;our life style doesn't require electronics to manage our time, at least not in this stage of our life. I bought each boy Crusaders for Christ planner from All The Saints. Last year they offered these as a free download and I enjoyed using them when I remembered to download and print them off. I don't mind paying for them already printed and bound together (they are in color and very pretty manly. I will write in the boys daily independent work so that they know what they need to get done while working alone. Last year we used the free download, scrap paper, another planner, or the dry-erase board. It wasn't organized and that makes our day harder so I'm looking forward to the boys being organized better during our school day.

I do our everyday lesson planning on paper in the homeschool planner. I do type up a full year of lesson plans on the computer and use those sheets to plug into the homeschool planner. Using the computer for this stage works best for me. I refuse to do all my planning on the computer simply because I hate being on the computer all the time and it doesn't save me any time (trust me I've timed myself). I prefer to have paper and pencil in my hand. It just works for me!  : )

I still have a lot more planning to get done, so I'm off to get back to work. I'll post our plans for the school year in the near future.

Tell me about how you plan your homeschool! What are your favorite resources?

Meet the New Member of the Family!

Tyler bought himself a hamster with his birthday money. He named her Hammy. We aren't too original with pet names around here. I really had doubts about getting a hamster.

Hammy is a doll! She is friendly, easy to handle, and just a wonderful hamster. We sure got lucky with her. She does try desperately to get out of her cage every evening around 9 pm and the sound drives us all crazy, but it usually doesn't last too long. When we get her out of her cage she has been known to go back into her cage when she has had enough. Seriously (see picture below of proof)! We all are guilty of talking to her including some sweet talk. She always stops what she is doing and pays attention to us, so we know she likes us.  ; )



Sorry about the bad pictures-moving target! But, she was going back into her cage after playing with Tyler.

Tyler took this picture. I actually found many on his camera today, lol! She will just sit and watch us. This is why we talk to her all the time; who could ignore that!



Nature Study-Summer Vacation Edition Week 3

This week's nature study was moved to Saturday in celebration of Tyler's birthday. It was mostly just playing in nature rather than studying it! We took advantage of the nice weather and the boys took a swim in the lake and did some boating. The lake wasn't warm enough for swimming yet, but the boys didn't care. We even held a fishing derby with family for Tyler's birthday. 



Poles ready!



It's follow the leader out on the lake.

 

Caleb measuring his fish for the derby.

Tyler with his Great Aunt Chris with the prize winning fish (and Tyler's little one).

 

Brothers fishing.

 

 

Tyler learning how to kayak.

Is anyone missing these? Nature study finds-hub caps in the lake. Lake owner will be questioning possibly involved parties!

Nature Study find-a field almost ready to be cut. Side note-see those two discolored spots? Almost all my pictures had that on them. Perhaps my lens needs to be cleaned? Any ideas?

 

Tyler's Birthday