What This Summer Holds

Okay, so here's the thing... we school year round. September through until the end of August each school year, starting the new school year in September. So, our year looks a bit different than other peoples and that's OK.

Our summer schedule is kind of laid out with three weeks on and one week off of lessons each month (we do much the same in November and December). Usually we do the first three weeks of the month doing lessons and the last week of the month taking a break. This year we're doing a summer reading group using the book Give Your Child the World and each week is a different area of the world, we'll be doing this all summer long with no break weeks and are counting this as our History and Geography for the summer. We'll also be continuing with Exploring Nature with Children as our main Science/Nature spine this summer as well as using The Good and The Beautiful arthropod science unit (two lessons a week). We're going to be playing a few board games to keep the logic side of our brains happy. Those games include: Apples to Apples, Sequence for Kids, Scrabble Junior, Junior Trivia, and Brain Quest Presidents flash cards (to freshen our memories). 

Math will be done five days a week on the weeks we're doing lessons. Language Arts (other than free reading and read a louds) will be done four days a week on the weeks that we're doing lessons. We'll be switching some curriculum come fall so we're just working with what we currently have.

It's already June and that means that we're in our first week on for this month! Two more to go and then a week off ... unless we get really caught up in what we're doing and then we won't take a break week this month.

July is the first three weeks on and the last week off unless family comes to visit from Texas ... then we'll take off whatever week they're going to be up here off.

August is pretty much always the first three weeks on with the last one being off ... and school not starting back in September until after Labor Day. This means we'll either have a four day first week back in September, or we'll take the first week off entirely and hit the books again after that. 

Also in August ECJ will be finally taking his Driver's Education course!

Not a complicated schedule and with pretty much everything being touched on during the summer. ECJ still needs to finish Algebra 2 and Physics this year, YCJ needs to complete her Saxon math book, Peanut is finishing up her Seton math book and getting ready to go into Math You See next year at probably a lower level just so that she can build confidence and adjust to a new program. Next fall YCJ will be doing another round of Saxon but also working through the Life of Fred books that we have until pre-algebra (I still have to buy those and plan on her using them in eighth grade). ECJ will be working through more Life of Fred books, Discovery K12, Easy Peasy, and probably some dual enrollment classes with the college come fall. 

Weeks 13 & 14 Christmas

Tablet before it cools.

Christmas Eve and the day before were spent cooking large amounts of food, making a Scottish desert called Tablet, and having the girls make their own butter as part of our Little House unit study. They didn't much like the taste of the homemade butter, but they enjoyed jumping around and shaking the jars until the heavy whipping cream turned into butter before their very eyes! My tablet didn't turn out exactly as my grandmother's used to and so I'll have to play with the recipe a bit until I get it right. It tastes right but it's too runny and more like a caramel instead of a fudge. We were supposed to have guests over for supper on Christmas Eve, but they were ill and so they stayed home. So this year we had two Christmas meals! One on Christmas Eve: stuffing, turkey, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, and tablet for desert. The other was made on Christmas Day by Grandma: ham, lasagna, mashed potatoes, cheesy potatoes, rolls, veggies, and more! Not to mention the pies and cookies for desert!

Butter, and buttermilk, in the
bottom of a jar!

Christmas Day we all woke up early and found that Santa had arrived to give gifts that were waiting for us under the tree! The campers and grand-campers had a blast opening their gifts. Then we all got dressed for church and drove two vehicles (eight people do not fit into any of our current vehicles) down to Grandma and Papa's area to go to church with Grandma and hear Papa sing. We then spent the rest of the day helping get supper ready and visiting with each other. It was a wonderful day and we spent a lot of quality time with family that we don't see as often as we wish. One of the Aunt's was there along with her husband and her children (the cousins) so it was a full house of sixteen people, most of whom were children ages 17 and younger. Lots of love and happiness abounded.

The rest of Christmas week literally went by in a blur. Not much time was spent outside due to freezing cold temperatures and even more cold wind chill factors. Many electronics (including a few new ones) were used during the week. Toys were played with. Baby toy explosions happened to where you can certainly tell when walking into the house that there are babies in the home. So, in short we had a lot of fun!

Sunday, New Year's Eve, we had a quiet supper at home and then let the older kids stay up to watch the ball drop on TV from New York. SweetPea woke up shortly before the ball dropped so she got to see it as well and Little Man was already awake. I'm sure that they didn't really understand why everyone was so excited but they sure did smile a lot for sleepy little babes. 

On Monday we had probably the most chill day of them all during our break. Video games were played, naps were taken (by myself and Daddy included), books were read, and a bit of laundry was done. We had roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy along with some green beans for supper. All of the campers and grand-campers went to bed early ... and that had been Daddy's and mine plan as well, but we ended up going to bed closer to midnight.

Tuesday we started the day off with several errands being ran to take care of some things with health insurance and other important things. Both SweetPea and Little Man weren't feeling well, so we called the doctor and got an appointment for that afternoon. Poor Little Man was puking up just about as much formula as he was drinking, both had fevers, and SweetPea was not her sweet little normal self. Both babies had a stomach virus, which is probably what Peanut is suffering from as well without the vomiting ... and Daddy isn't feeling too well either. 

Wednesday through Saturday were literally spent dealing with running errands and taking care of sick babies/children/campers. Being that it's a virus there's really nothing we can do but let it run it's course. Thankfully it didn't seem to spread through the whole household and stopped with the four people affected by earlier in the week. So much laundry was done this week that I think my washer and dryer never stopped even over night. And most suppers were fend for yourself all week long as all of the adults in the house were busy dealing with the campers and grand-campers that didn't feel well.

We start back to our lessons on the 9th (Tuesday) of January. We're having a three or four day week depending on how it goes because we'll be going shopping with Noni on the 11th. ECJ turns 16 on the 8th! (Where has all the time gone?!?!?!) Here's to a great year in 2018!!! 

*I had over two hundred pictures from Christmas Eve until January 6th! I chose just a couple to share in this post because the mayhem of opening gifts I'm sure happened at every house, and there were several pictures of sick babies cuddled up with well people over the course of the week... No outdoor pictures this week because with the wind chill factors we've been well into the negatives most of the week!*

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Joined up for Homeschool Highlights this week!

Carousels and Candy

Goldfish

Minion

This past week has literally just flown by. We did little over the weekend. Spending each day relaxing and working on the things that we enjoy. For ECJ this meant that he played games on his tablet, YCJ watched Netflix with Daddy when she wasn't researching (it's Chinchillas this week instead of guinea pigs), Peanut spent her weekend drawing and doing an awesome job, while I crocheted my days away. Each of us happy to be doing out own thing and equally happy to be doing out own thing with family. Peanut's skill at drawing is really improving and I thought I'd share a few photos of her work with you...

Rabbit

Squirrel

Monday we didn't do school lessons. Instead Daddy and I took Moragon to the vet for her two week check up after surgery and to get her staples out of her stomach. Then we ran two quick errands on our way home. We could have done lessons but having given the campers the choice of starting their week on Monday or Wednesday they opted for Wednesday which means we'll be doing lessons on Saturday as well this week (one of our four day weeks). 

Tuesday, Valentines Day, Noni came out to the house and we went to the nearest mall. We had lunch next to the carousel and then the girls took a couple turns riding around on it. This is their favorite winter thing to do (summer is meant for the beach) and they make sure we make it at least twice each winter so that they can ride the carousel. After lunch we walked around the mall for a bit and then made a quick stop at Walmart before heading back to the house where we hung out with Noni for a couple hours before she had to head back to her house. Each of the campers got a small box of chocolate from Daddy and I for Valentines Day after dinner. They usually get it in the morning so they thought that we'd actually forgotten to get them chocolate this year (would never happen). Daddy and I don't do anything special for Valentines Day, we never do. We get to spend every day together and show our love for each other in a million little ways all year long. 

Wednesday we began our school week. But, not in the way that we intended. Tuesday night Daddy grabbed two movies from RedBox: The Secret Life of Pets and Ghostbusters. So, Tuesday night we watched the first one together and Wednesday around noon we watched the other. Instead of lessons the campers asked to double up on Saturday and bargained for one more day off of book work. No skin off of my nose, I spent half the day crocheting and finished a sky blue baby blanket in crib size. I also made another newborn hat for donation.

So, Thursday (today) was supposed to be the true beginning of our school week (totally backwards I know) but both girls woke up with mild fevers and not feeling very well. So, instead I just cancelled lessons for the rest of the week. Next week in our area the local public and private schools are having a mid winter break ... we just took ours early. No big deal. YCJ helped Daddy make a crock pot full of chili for supper. Peanut and ECJ worked on a world in Minecraft pretty much all day long. Daddy and I relaxed with Netflix and my crochet with YCJ popping in and out of the room. 

It wasn't the way that we intended to spend the entire week and that's OK. Sometimes you seriously need a break even when you don't realize it. So, we had pretty much two weeks away from lessons, even though last week we did our online lessons just not our book lessons. Next week we'll be back to our regularly scheduled mayhem. For the rest of this week I'm going to bask in relaxing and pray that whatever illness is brewing in the girls doesn't spread and is over with quickly.

Posts you may have missed this week:
House of Night Series - Book Review

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Linking up this week with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap Up.

Over Christmas Break

So, I stopped blogging technically on December 22nd  of 2016 (because I finish my weekly wrap up's on Thursdays) and it's now 2017! Lot's can happen in that amount of time and we were off of school for most of the time. We were celebrating Christmas at home and with family, we were enjoying plenty of free play inside and outside of the house, and we had a bit of an early birthday celebration for ECJ with Noni on the 3rd! (ECJ will be turning fifteen next week!)


Let's cover the most important day first! Christmas Day was awesome y'all! We woke up (well, Daddy and Peanut barely slept) at 6:50 AM! I started the coffee pot and laid down for a couple minutes to fully wake up during which time all the campers began to creep around the house. We politely reminded them that Mommy and Daddy need a cup of coffee before gifts are opened and they agreed to eat breakfast while they waited. Gifts were opened and excited campers bounced around as they got most of what was on their list this year, they really were pretty good guys this year. After that we all got dressed, grabbed deviled eggs and banana pudding, snatched up the gifts for Grandma's house, and out the door we went! Stopping at Grandma's to drop everything off and give hugs before going to their church for mass during which Papa sang with the choir. After mass we spent several hours helping Grandma get everything ready for supper, Auntie and the cousins showed up with Uncle, and we all got to chatting. Gifts were opened with everyone being thrilled with what they got and then we all had supper. After which Buddy and Baby Girl stopped by with their mother to visit, Buddy stayed for a few hours and Baby Girl went to the movies with her mother. We didn't get home until around 10 PM, y'all! It was a great day but long so the day after Christmas we all slept in, stayed in our pajamas all day, watched movies, and played with our new gifts that we'd gotten on Jesus's birthday.

And y'all ... Y'ALL ... I got an electric pencil sharpener for Christmas! I know you can feel my absolute joy at this!!

I did some researching between Christmas and the New Year on what books we may need to purchase towards next year's curriculum. I'll be purchasing this boxed set of The Magic Tree House books for Peanut (we may end up with a couple duplicates but that's just fine, it's less expensive to buy the big set than buy the books even in the four book packages). I'll also be purchasing the Life of Fred series, or at least some of them, to help bolster our math courses. And the series A History of Us to help out with our History, we've read a couple of the books before by borrowing them from the library and I like their pace and rhythm. All three of these things are being added to what we already use for our curriculum. Seton for everything except math and Saxon for the math. Is it because I think Seton or Saxon isn't enough on it's own? Far from it! But, I know my family and I have to add some fun things here and there to keep our textbooks from becoming too dry and the routine of doing them from getting stale. We like using our textbooks but by spring time if I don't add other things in the campers are chomping on the bit to get away from them.

I also completed my goal in December of 31 preemie hats to donate in 31 days! I made the decision that while I have many other obligations to do crochet wise, and otherwise, in my day to day life that I'll make one preemie or newborn hat per day each month this entire year to donate. I will donate several times this year because of this but it is something that I enjoy and feel I can do.

Noni came out on the third of January, when the weather was warm even though we were getting rain. By warm I mean that it was in the 40's, so not really that warm but warmer than we usually have in Michigan this time of year. Noni's birthday is on the 17th and ECJ's is on the 8th so this was sort of a birthday for both of them. Noni got her gifts from us, a pair of homemade slipper socks that are oh so warm and cushy and a snowman carry/storage bag (I added a few dollar scratcher lotto tickets to the bag). Noni gave ECJ his small birthday gift of a few used Nintendo DS games, her large gift to him will come later in the year as she has offered to pay for his first level of driver's education! We've decided as a family (because we have a large two wheel drive truck) that ECJ will begin learning to drive once the weather is warm so either late spring or early summer. Needless to say he is very excited for it!

** Just as an aside to some of my previous posts CNN Student News is changing it's name to CNN 10. **

We went back to lessons on Wednesday, the fourth. It also happened that that was the same day that Peanut got her new glasses! Lessons went super quickly and we were done with everything inside of an hour and a half! The girls are chomping at the bit to do a new art project that they got for Christmas, but this mom still needs to pick up a couple of items to be able to do the projects. Perhaps I'll pick them up in the evening while I do what little running I need to do. The bottom dropped out of the temperature on Wednesday too, so we're down in the 20's without taking the wind chill into consideration, which is about right for Michigan in January. This also means that I busted out a new exercise video for us to do to keep us active during the cold weather.




Thursday we did lessons really quickly, in less than two hours and then we took all of the beds out of the house. We methodically cleaned each room of the house and then Daddy and I went out and picked up a new bed for everyone! Look! I got a king size bed for my Christmas/birthday/anniversary gift this year! On Friday (today) we did lessons again and it didn't take very long, under two hours again. While YCJ was finishing up her math, Peanut was working on Teach Your Monster to Read, and ECJ did the breakfast dishes. We don't have much planned for the rest of the day... we may do the girls craft project this afternoon or we may do it tomorrow.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

You may have missed the following posts this week:
Survival Guide Book Review
New Year's Resolutions

Linked up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for the Weekly Wrap Up.