The Homeschool Mother's Journal #11

In my life this week... We started back to school this week. Like every year before this one, it was a chaotic, sometimes tearful, sometimes hysterical, first week. By the end of the week we could see past the rough waves and see smooth sailing ahead. 

In our homeschool this week... So far we are loving all of our new curriculum. Gavin especially likes the quick, straight-to-the-point, daily lessons in Easy Grammar Ultimate. But his favorite thing is the fact that he's studying physical science this year. His lessons started off with an experiment the first day. He was in his element! Ben had the most difficult time of all settling back into a school routine. Ironically, he's the one who benefits most from the routine. By the end of the week there were fewer tears, groans, and wails. He jumped right into math, declaring this math is EASY! Gotta love review material. Luci loves school, right up until math time. But even then, she doesn't do too bad. She worked on a paragraph this week and couldn't have been more excited about the whole process! She constantly amazes me. All three of my children are different, have different learning styles,  different strong points, different weaknesses, etc... But Luci somehow manages to be polar opposites of both her brothers at the same time. She is SO incredibly different!

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share... I purchased the boys a personal school planner for this year. They are a huge hit! I think keeping the boys on track with these will prove to be a much easier task. We purchased the NIV Middle school and NIV Elementary Planner from Rainbow Resource. 

What's working/not working for us... We have new chore charts in place (see a picture here) and they are working out great. It helps to have clearly defined responsibilities for the kids. In the past we've always used Accountable Kids, and I am still a huge fan of their system; however, I no longer have the wall space in our school room to devote to the boards. Our printable charts are working out great! 

I'm reading... I've been spending a lot of time reading about the gluten-free diet and Celiac disease. We suspect this is what has been plaguing our son for quite some time. If so, it is going to cause a lot of changes in our house. We expect test results to be in within the next couple of days, but the wait is awful!

I'm cooking... This week's dinner menu: 

• grilled chicken salads
• BBQ pork loin (slow cooker) on buns, baked beans, green beans
• spaghetti with ground turkey, steamed broccoli
• Mexican chicken in the slow cooker, tortillas
• Pineapple glazed drumsticks, brown rice, green beans
• baked pork chops, squash & lima beans

I'm praying for... This week, I'm praying for clear, concise results from Gavin's biopsies. Let there be no doubt, no need for further testing. 

A photo, video, link, or quote to share...

This is a look at our homeschool area before we started school. It's my goal to make it look exactly like this at the end of each week!