Quick Week

Friday Daddy worked again and the campers and I did lessons really quickly. Review for language arts with adverbs and verbs for the girls, ECJ wrote a poem based off of the one he read for his assignment (he really doesn't like doing poems), then fractions/shapes/and algebra for math, Peanut reviewed body parts for science and YCJ worked on her report about rabbits and the differences and similarities between the two. ECJ worked on his story that he's writing about Minecraft and his character's life. On Saturday Daddy got called into work (he was going to go in for about an hour or so to tape and sand the walls in one of the apartments) and ended up there for several hours. The campers and I did a language arts lesson to finish up all of the review work at the end of each chapter that the girls were on and ECJ worked on another poem and his story. After which we all just relaxed and did our normal weekend fun stuff like crochet, play inside and out, use electronics, etc.


Sunday we got up early and went to mass, then Daddy had an appointment in the next town over, followed by a visit to Grandma and Papa's. We took them some leftovers that we knew that they'd enjoy and ran and errand for them and then had a wonderful visit. After which we went to the park and went scrapping afterwards. We noticed when we got home that the tomatoes and some of the herbs have sprouted in their little pots!

On Monday we did our lessons right after Daddy left for work. Pumping some music through the house while we did Language Arts and Math. Dancing and singing while doing lessons can really get the day, and the week, off to the right kind of start. YCJ struggled a bit with fractions today ... she's not grasping that 8/8 (for example) = 1 and vice versa. We'll get there I'm sure in time. Peanut is still enjoying doing ABC Mouse each day and she looks forward to it as if it were just a game and not something that is teaching her to read better. ECJ helped today by doing some read a loud for YCJ in American History and helped with her math a bit as well to just give her a different person to growl at about fractions. We also did a retake of the bouncing egg experiment and did get it to bounce a bit before it accidentally got smashed right into YCJ's lap! After Daddy was done with work he and I went to the scrap yard and then stopped at the grocery store for some steaks. We'd smelled BBQ steak in nearly every neighborhood Sunday night and got a craving for some ourselves, so that's what was on the menu for supper Monday. And of course the day was ended with more scrapping and then Daddy driving his buddy to work before he and I went to bed.

Tuesday we got up in the morning and Daddy went to work. While the campers did their chores and ate breakfast I prepped supper and got it started in the crock pot. Then we did lessons on adjectives, nominative and objective use of I/we/me/us, algebra, poetry, shapes and separating other shapes out of bigger shapes, and fractions with a touch of converting cm into mm. What a quick day it was getting lessons done in less than an hour! Which was a good thing because Noni came over and we did a take out lunch and some movies from RedBox. The original plan had been to go to the park but we had that misty rain so we switched gears to movies. We watched Sing all together and also rented three other movies to watch during the evening: Fantastic Beasts, Pete's Dragon, and Patriots Day. The last of which we rented for just Daddy and I to watch during the evening after the campers go to bed. After Noni left the kids chose to watch Fantastic Beasts together while Daddy was still at work. The girls had their last catechism class for the year in the mid-afternoon where YCJ had a pizza party and Peanut got candy as a reward. Then the girls, Daddy, and I went scrapping for a bit before coming home and eating a late supper.




On Wednesday Daddy left for work before the rest of us were even awake. By 10 AM the rest of us were up for breakfast, chores, and coffee (well, I was up for coffee). By 10:30 we were doing lessons, including measuring the seedlings that have sprouted in the containers; the tomatoes grew 2 cm overnight! It's great to see the campers finding an interest in seeds again this year. I have the containers ready for our container garden but you can't plant anything outside here until after Mother's Day if you want to be fairly sure that the frost won't get them. Even though we're having a really warm spring I'm not going to chance it. Lessons were done, including the computer lessons, well before one in the afternoon. Peanut got introduced again to fractions of 1/2 and 1/4 and she flew through her math lesson because we talk about these fractions on almost a daily basis when we cut things to eat. As in do you want your sandwich cut in halves or fourths? After lessons I went to work on a second garter for my sister to wear at her wedding (I'm making two so she can wear one and keep it and have her new hubby toss the other one), I completed the first one on Monday. Working with thread to make things is a little tricky when you're used to working with much thicker yarn than the thread that is on your hook. After Daddy got home from work we ran to the scrap yard and then did a couple little things around the house. Followed by more scrapping and a stop at a playground that we found while we were out.

Thursday Daddy went to an appointment in the next town leaving ECJ to break down the scrap that needed to be broken down. ECJ applied himself to the task instead of doing lessons during the morning and made them up at night (he really can do his lessons any time of the day, usually he just does them while the girls do to have something to do). The girls and I did lessons really quickly and then Peanut took a quick bath to get her temporary tattoos off before doing her online lessons. I did next week's lesson plans while the computer was being used by the girls. When Daddy got home he finished taking apart the scrap and then we were all off to the scrap yard after lunch. After the scrap yard we came home and relaxed for the rest of the day. Netflix and crochet with lots of giggles was just what we needed for the night.

This week Peanut began learning about fractions: 1/2, 1/4, and 1/3 ... she also began the dreaded sentence diagramming (which all of my kids hate). YCJ worked hard at decimals and angles during math and did work with pronouns for review. ECJ flew through his algebra work this week and struggled still with writing poems. We finished lesson 5 in Notgrass: America the Beautiful this week and YCJ finished her other History text as well. We'll be leaving off doing history again until the beginning of next school year, touching on it through movies and cartoons off and on throughout the summer. We're also doing less for science now with Peanut  just working through her science workbook (this week was nutrition) and YCJ picking a topic each week to research and write a report about. ECJ still has several weeks worth of science to complete to get his credit. Our major science project for the rest of this school year and throughout the summer will be our veggie and herb garden.

We were so busy this week that the week just seemed to fly by. Everyone is on allergy medicine now and still struggling with allergies already due to the warmth we've been having. But, we're getting tons of hours outside thanks to it being so warm so it's a trade off.

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Posts you may have missed this week:
Notgrass: America the Beautiful review
The Privilege of Youth - book review

Linking up this week for the weekly wrap up and homeschool highlights. 

Winter Playtime

With the weather getting colder and our rule of not allowing the children outside if it's under 30* (and really I prefer above 32*) we loose a lot of our time playing outside. This makes the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge a little harder when you live in a northern climate. The trick to being able to spend as much time as possible outside during cold weather is layers. UnderArmor or long john's under pants and a long sleeve shirt, thick coat, boots, gloves, scarves, and hats are a must. Snow pants are recommended for the younger children. 

While we personally average between 20 and 30 hours a week outside during the summer, during the winter months some weeks we barely get an hour or two. Striving for that 1000 Hours Outside can be challenging. However, sledding and building forts are always good winter distractions. Snow ball fights, snowman building, tracking animals through the snow, making snow angels, and measuring how long it takes something to freeze outside ... all these things are wonderful distractions and can quickly turn into a science lesson (ie. What animal could have made that track? Does that animal change it's behavior in the winter? Does the animal's appearance change from season to season?). To entice the campers to play outside more during the winter time we *ahem* offer (read bribe) them with hot chocolate when they come back indoors.

Since we keep track of our hours outside from Labor Day until the following Labor Day sometimes it feels like we're climbing a completely vertical mountain to try and reach our goal. Some years we make it, some years we don't, and some years we blow 1000 hours out of the water! I add our weekly hours every Saturday evening around sunset (so the time varies every week depending on the time of year). I'm writing this on a Thursday on a week that we're only getting two days above freezing and this week we've only logged about 45 minutes so far (I'm publishing it next week though lol). We only have 262 hours as of last Saturday and I doubt that we'll reach 265 hours total this week. And that's OK! It doesn't matter if we get the most hours outside every week so long as we're healthy and get some hours outside every week. The whole point of getting outside is to get away from all the screens that surround our children every single day everywhere you go ... except for outside!

I'll admit that it's a lot easier to get the hours adding up when the weather is warmer. Usually you don't even have to do much to get the kiddos to head out of doors when the sun is shining and it's warmer. The first few snowfalls it's pretty easy to get the kids outside as well, but the novelty of snow wears off rather quickly in the north and you find yourself basically booting the kiddos out the door to play. But, while you're doing that remember that children learn best from watching us. Don't just boot them out the door, go with them! Help them build that snowman or snow fort, fall down and do a snow angel with your child, mount a full on snowball battle! Enjoy every moment you can in play with your children.

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Why Outside

So, why do we participate in the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge (link is to their Facebook page)? Well, once you realize that the average American child spends somewhere around 1200 hours a year with their faces in some sort of electronic device or eyes glued to the television you begin to remember that when you were a child you spent most of your time outside of school ... well, being outside. Somehow along the way we've lost this. Instead of sending the children out to play in the yard or in our neighborhoods we simply allow them to turn on the TV, flick on the computer or tablet, turn on the game council and completely veg out!


Not only is this not healthy because they're most likely snacking during that time and not burning the excess calories so you end up with over weight children ( check out some statistics ) but we're also not nourishing their minds and letting them expand their imaginations. Oh, sure, those games are entertaining, TV has become everyone's standard past time, and information is no farther than a click away on most electronic devices. My children would actually ask, prior to us starting this challenge, to go outside and play and if the weather wasn't what I had predetermined to be perfect I'd redirect them to an inside activity.

Then I learned about the 1000 Hours Outside Challenge and it opened my eyes! This is the fourth year (I believe, it could just be the third) that we've done this challenge. The goal is to get at least 1000 hours outside during the course of a year. That averages out to be something like 20 hours a week of outside. And yes, I can hear some of you now ... but, we have homework to do after school (most non-homeschoolers and some homeschoolers) there's no way we can get 20 hours outside during a school week! But you can get some hours no matter what your afternoon activities are. 1000 hours seems like a GIANT goal but it can be reached. We even passed the goal one year.


The first year that we started the challenge everyone started on Labor Day and ran until the following Labor Day. That year I didn't make 1000 hours because we had such a harsh winter that I literally could have been harming my children since the temperatures that winter here in Michigan were well below zero even before the wind chill. Even still, we did spend time outside that winter ... building snow forts, igloos, and sliding down the mountain of snow at the end of our street. 

The dates to start have varied since that first year but I still go from Labor Day to Labor Day (it's easier for me to remember). And some years we make the goal, some years we pass it, and some years we fall short. But it gives us a goal to work towards and ensures that at least some of the time we won't all be on our electronic devices. I keep track of the hours we're outside each day in a notebook and post our new year to date totals (along with our weekly total) on our Facebook page each Saturday evening between 6-9 PM depending on the time of year.

And since we started this you'd be amazed with what my children will find to amuse themselves outside with. Of course that's changed as they've gotten older as well, but at least they're outside each week for several hours. They're enjoying nature and learning about it. They're spending less time on their electronic devices (which seem to accumulate more each year) and certainly less time in front of the television. We've gotten rid of cable because the only time of year we'd even really use it was winter! That's a hidden money saving bonus that we hadn't thought about at first! 

Just give it a go. Start whenever you want. Strive for even five hours outside each week and watch your children bloom.