Weekly Wrap-Up: October 12

It's been a while since I posted a weekly wrap-up.  Our Fridays tend to be busy, so often it's late Saturday, Sunday, or even Monday before I realize that I never got to it!  So what have we been doing?  In a way, I feel like we have not been doing all that much, but it seems to take up a lot of time!

Swimmah reminded me that I had told her back in August that we would take Columbus Day off.  We usually don't, because my husband has always had to work that day and it has always felt like just another day.  But we took it off this year.  We typically need a break by this point in the year, anyway.  I think a day with nothing to do was just what we needed.

Swimmah is writing a research paper on sea turtle conservation for her writing class this session.  She has to have at least five sources, with no more than one of those being a website.  She searched our local library for books and magazines, but it didn't have anything she was looking for.  She was able to find some books at other libraries in the area, however.  Of course, that meant driving to four different town libraries for four different books, as there is not time to wait for inter-library loan.  We went in one direction Wednesday afternoon and in the other direction Friday early afternoon.  Then writing class was at 3:00, diving lesson at 6:00, swim practice at 7:00.  Phew!

Thursday I took advantage of the beautiful sunny weather and pulled up the dying tomato plants, eggplant, what was left of the cucumber vine...  Something ate all my kale (it certainly wasn't my family!) so I pulled the remnants of that, too.  It's a little sad, but it does look neater and I do love fall.  They say there's going to be a frost tonight - we haven't had to use the heat yet, but I suspect it will come on tomorrow morning!  That's OK, I love the crisp weather.  I hope to get out this weekend for a hike to see the foliage!  What are your plans this weekend?

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 14

We're still getting used to our new fall schedule here.  The weather has been obligingly September-like, with warm sunny days and cool nights.  And with such lovely weather, it can be hard to be strictly back-to-the-books.

Monday morning was spent at home studying, and after lunch, we met some friends for a hike at Burr Pond State Park.  It was very pretty and, at least on a weekday in September, very peaceful as well.  We all agreed that it would be a great place to kayak.

My husband decided to take the afternoon off to go fishing on the Block Island Sound on Wednesday, and invited Swimmah to join him and his friend.  Turtlegirl doesn't enjoy ocean fishing - she tends to get a little seasick and even aside from feeling sick, just doesn't enjoy the constant motion of the waves.  I'm with her.  Anyway, that meant that Swimmah and Turtlegirl had their first morning of volunteering at the nature center and then Swimmah was fishing all afternoon with Dad.  Turtlegirl and I took the kayaks to a local pond for a couple of hours.  So no formal lessons on Wednesday, but they're learning plenty at the nature center, and I'm sure on the water as well.  That's the beauty of homeschooling, isn't it?

Swimmah and her dad with a false albacore she caught.

Swimmah's piano lesson has been on Tuesday afternoons for the past few years, and has just been switched to Thursday mornings.  I think it's going to take a couple of weeks to get used to that!  I knew on Wednesday that she had a lesson the next morning, but Thursday morning I forgot about it until I was in the shower.  Luckily, there was still almost an hour before her teacher was due to arrive - plenty of time for us all to get dressed!

Swim team started up again this week, with a modified practice schedule - ostensibly, to ease the swimmers into the regular practice schedule, but I think it's actually to confuse the parents with all the different practice times!

And today, Friday, is my husband's and my 21st wedding anniversary!  He's a great husband and a great dad to our daughters.  I can't believe it's been 21 years already!

Enjoy the weekend!

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 7

This was our first official week of "school".

Monday afternoon, the girls and my husband went for a bike ride.  I had things I needed to do around the house (like make sure we were prepared for starting our school year), so I stayed home.  They didn't get far when Turtlegirl spotted something that made her come to a dead stop.  "Dad!  Is that free?!"  Sure enough, there, on the side of the road, was Turtlegirl's holy grail: a backyard pond liner and pump - free for the taking.  She's been wanting one for years, but we told her they were too expensive, not to mention a lot of work.  She's been contenting herself with a wading pool in the backyard for the turtles to enjoy during the daytime hours of the warmer months.  So they called me and I drove the car over and brought it home.

When they got back from their bike ride, Turtlegirl and her dad started digging.

The turtles like it!

So Turtlegirl will be doing nature studies for her science this year.  She and Swimmah will be continuing to volunteer at the nature center through the school year, so that, plus the pond and tanks here, will give her plenty of hands-on work.

We decided to go with Math-U-See for pre-algebra.  She doesn't like watching a video lesson, so we just won't use the DVD, unless there is something that doesn't make sense from reading the book.

Swimmah is also using Math-U-See for geometry, continuing where she left off at the end of July.  She will also be continuing Marine Biology.  This is the first year that they are studying different things for science!  I'm a little nervous about keeping them both on track in different topics, but they are older and more independent now, so I think it will work out fine.

For history, I had planned to get The History of US by Joy Hakim from the library.  Apparently, someone else had the same idea, because when we went to the library to check it out, the first 3 were not there.  I hadn't bothered to put a hold on it because I figured that it's always been there before when I have looked in that area.  Oh well, I found a couple of other books on Native Americans to use instead of the first History of US book.  I did put a hold on the second book, however.

Both girls start an essay-writing class this afternoon, taught by an aspiring writer and teacher to a group of homeschooled teens in our area.  There was not much interest in a book discussion group this year, which my girls have always enjoyed in the past.  So we decided to have our own family book discussion group.  Our September selection is The Giver by Lois Lowry.  We'll have the discussion meeting the last weekend of the month (whichever day of the weekend my husband is not fishing!).

 I won't say that everything this week was perfect, but overall things went pretty well.  It's been a fairly quiet start to the year, with no writing homework, as class isn't until Friday afternoon, and no  nature center volunteering until next week, when someone will be available to train them on the morning routine. And swim team starts next week, so we'll really be into the full swing of things then!

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 27

I really don't have much to wrap-up this week, and probably won't for the next month.  Other than watching the Olympics and visiting with family, we don't have many plans for the next few weeks.

Last week was the last week of the summer swim season, so this week we have had quiet evenings at home.  Well, except for Wednesday, when we were out for the swim team end-of-season picnic.  Oh, and Tuesday, my husband and his friend spent the evening working on his outboard motor.  And then letting it run (...and run) to make sure all was well.  But other than that, things have been pretty quiet around here.  


This is also our last week of "school".  We're taking a month off before starting up for the official new school year.  Of course, that also means making final plans and preparations for the year (well, as "final" as things get around here...our academic plans are always open to change).  I'm looking into various options for pre-algebra for Turtlegirl.  Right now, I'm looking at Math-U-See, Teaching Textbooks, Kahn Academy, and Thinkwell.  I'll let her choose from those, and/or any others I might find. We've used Math U See for other levels and I liked them well enough, although she was not crazy about them.  Or maybe it is just math in general.  When I was looking into Algebra I for Swimmah, she swore she hated Math U See, but when I showed her the various options (can't remember now what other ones we looked at), she decided to go with Math U See and hasn't complained about it since.


We're looking forward to watching the Olympics over the next couple of weeks.  Swimming is high on our list of events to watch, naturally.  We're looking forward to gymnastics as well, not to mention a few sports we have not seen before, such as canoe slalom.  Let the games begin!

This post is linked to Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unscocialized Homeschoolers.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 13

This week started with a swim meet and is ending with a swim meet.  Sunday was a crazy day, with a swim meet in the morning, and kayaking with friends in the afternoon.  The meet went a little longer than I expected, and I really didn't think we would be able to make it in time for kayaking, but somehow, we did.  I was glad, too, because it was a lovely day and we had a great time with good friends.  I would include a picture if I could figure out how to get a picture from an email message to a blog, but I am somewhat technologically challenged.  If I figure it out, I will add it later.

I did spend a little time considering plans for the coming year.  I took an idea from Julie's post last week at Brave Writer and thought about what I would change about last year.  The biggest change that I would like to see is more excitement about learning.  There were, at times, some rather "resigned" attitudes, a "What do I have to do now?" kind of attitude toward anything remotely academic.  While I don't expect anyone to jump with joy at the prospect of doing, for example, their math lesson for the day, I would like to see maybe a vague interest in the lesson/assignment.  That's one of the things I have always struggled with: I want my kids to want to learn for learning's sake, to be excited about learning, but when they're not, then what?  When they were younger, I tried to focus more on what they were interested in, and tried to keep the lower-interest subjects low-pressure.  But as they are getting older, I have to admit that I am starting to feel the pressure.  I know that there's still time and that when they decide that they want/need to know something, they will pick it up so much faster and easier than if we push them.  But still.  It is so hard to resist all the societal pressure.  There is no one actually telling me that my kids should be doing such and such, but it's there all the same: The Expectations.


Deep breath.  Go back to what I know works: encourage their interests; discuss with them what they will need to do to prepare for adulthood (and putting it that way helps me keep things in perspective, too); and get their input.


The other thing that I would improve from last year is time management.  We could all use a little help there.  Luckily, this one is a little more straight forward.  We'll figure out how many waking hours we have, subtract out the scheduled activities, and then divvy up the remaining time to create a study schedule.


Wish me luck! ;) 

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Weekly Wrap-Up: July 6

There's nothing like a holiday in the middle of the week to throw you off!  Wednesday felt more like a Sunday, which threw me off Thursday and Friday.  Plus, my husband took the week off from work so that made the whole week feel like the weekend.

Not that I'm complaining - it has been a pleasant week.  We took the kayaks out on the river on the 4th, and stopped at a beach area for a picnic lunch and a swim.  The girls had a great time flipping their kayaks and getting back into them from the water.  Then we went to my in-laws for a cook-out.

My husband got in a couple of fishing trips, split a bunch of firewood, and he and I painted the front door.  Swimmah and Turtlegirl both volunteered at the nature center, and Swimmah at the library.  She also decided to continue the mural on her bedroom wall started last summer.  Last year, she did one wall (an under-ocean scene) so now she is painting a second wall.  Here is what she did last year:

I'll post more pictures when it is completed.  Turtlegirl painted a mural on all of her bedroom walls last summer.  Here are two of her walls:

The kitty is our beloved George, who is no longer with us.

And meanwhile, I have started to feel pressured to get my plans for the coming school year more fleshed-out.  It must be the time of year, because Julie at Brave Writer posted about this today.  So over the next couple of weeks, I will carve out time to sit and reflect on our goals for the coming year and discuss individual plans with each of my girls.

Are you feeling pressured to finalize your plans for next school year, too?

This post is linked to Weekly Wrap-Up.

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 29

For a week that I expected to be quiet, it sure flew by!  I can't say that we were really that busy, but we still managed to be out and about every day.  As the girls get older, they get busier, happily for them, not necessarily so happily for mom who gets to chauffeur them around.

We had a get-together at my sister's house, about two hours away, on Sunday.  I am the youngest of six, and all six of us were there.  That doesn't happen very often!  Just the four youngest (of twelve) grandchildren were there (the youngest being Turtlegirl).

Monday, the girls started volunteering at the nature center in a neighboring town.  I expected it to take longer than it did, so I did a couple of errands and went home, thinking that I would have an hour or so at home before I had to go back to get them.  But I was only home about ten minutes when Swimmah called to say they were done.  Next time I'll hang out at the Barnes & Noble that's about 5 minutes from the nature center while I'm waiting.

I thought we were going to have a day at home on Tuesday, but Turtlegirl was invited to a friend's house.  After I got back from dropping her off, Swimmah and I started watching Romeo and Juliet.  Then she got a phone call from the library about the volunteer application she filled out and could she come talk to them?  So out we went to the library where she had her first "interview" (good practice!).  She will help out shelving books in the young adult section, as well as anything else they may need help with (and possibly making suggestions for books for purchase!) for an hour or so on Friday afternoons.  We'll have to get back to Romeo and Juliet another time.

A friend of mine has been coordinating hikes every week for homeschooled teens and their families.  If you're in Connecticut and would like to join us, you can check that out here.  The day varies based on her schedule as well as the other regulars.  This week we met on Thursday afternoon.  It was a short hike out to the legendary (in this area) Indian Council Caves.  Apparently there is no evidence that Native Americans held council meetings there, but there have been numerous Native American artifacts found at the caves, so I guess it sounds more romantic to think of big council meetings being held there than just using it as a shelter while out hunting and gathering.

It's really huge boulders coming together to form a sheltered area, rather than what I usually think of as a "cave".

But it was pretty cool, and we could climb around and on top of the boulders, although there were too many trees around for much of a view.

So then Swimmah had her first day volunteering at the library on Friday.  I thought she was only going to be about an hour, so I decided to hang out at the library while waiting for her.  This time she was longer than I expected, so I ended up going out to the store to buy cups for the fruit salad I volunteered to make for the swim team concession stand and then came back for her.  If I had known she was going to be that long, I would have run another errand I still need to do...but that's the way it goes sometimes, huh?

Back home, we still had to do our weekly chores and I had to make that fruit salad, and the girls had to get ready for the swim meet scheduled for the evening.  Both girls swam well, there were a couple of personal best times, but Swimmah was disappointed that the 500 yard freestyle was cut from the meet because of time constraints.  I guess she has taken about 10 seconds off her time in practice, but it doesn't count because she hasn't done it in a meet in a while.  Oh well, hopefully next time.

Oh, I also found out that we've been missing the Olympic swim trials all week!  That's what comes of not watching network TV, I guess.  We've been streaming episodes of Merlin all week, and before that there was...something...and before that, Dr. Who, and so we haven't watched anything on NBC in ages.  I think there's one more night of trials tonight.

So there's our "quiet" week.  I have a feeling this is how it's going to be for a while now - until they can start driving themselves around, anyway.

This post is linked to Weekly Wrap-Up.

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 22

Why do things tend to come all at once?  We had two days this week with three activities scheduled, and a couple of other days with nothing.  Not that I'm complaining about quiet days at home, particularly because we did need them to recover after the days when we were running around.

We started the week out by spending a lovely Father's Day on the water.  My husband's request for Father's Day was for all of us to go fishing with him -and actually fish.  We gave it our best shot, but we didn't catch anything, because the wind was blowing from the east, and you know the saying - "East blow, don't go."  Never heard that before?  Oh, well, you know it now.  But no matter, we had a good time anyway.  We anchored the boat at an island where we had lunch.  The girls swam a bit (the water was actually like bathwater in the shallows!) and we collected sea water to bring home and observe under the microscope.  We made a makeshift plankton net from the sheer curtains I took down last week and tried to collect plankton with that.  I think we'll have to try that again another time.  We did find some cool stuff in there, though:

A baby crab

Seaweed

And this one looks familiar, only this is the salt water version:

Tonight, the girls have their piano/trumpet recital, so they have been practicing lots for that.  Wednesday morning, Turtlegirl's trumpet teacher came for a last pre-recital lesson, then we went to the park for Park Day from 10-12.  Then both girls needed to be at the local nature center for a volunteer training session at 1:00.  Not to mention the usual swim practice at 5:30.  Phew!  Thursday gave us a relaxing day at home, at least until swim practice late in the day.

Today we had an end-of-year picnic with some homeschool friends, the same day as my husband's company picnic.  The girls and I went to the homeschool picnic (after bringing one daughter to the doctor for pink eye), and he went to his company picnic.  Now we're home relaxing before we head back out for the recital this evening.

I think next week will be quieter...

This post is linked to Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-Up: June 15

All in all, this has been a fairly productive week.  Last weekend, Swimmah had her first long-course swim meet, which means that they swim in a 50 meter pool, rather than a 25 yard pool used for the regular YMCA swim meets.  (Note: Turtlegirl also swims, but is content with the 25-yd pools.)  Swimmah did well and enjoyed it, but was pretty tired out the rest of the day.  So was I - check-in time was 7:45am at a pool about 45 minutes away.  Most of these meets are further away with an earlier start time, which is why Turtlegirl didn't want to sign up for these!  I can't say as I blame her...

On Monday, the three of us went to Mystic Aquarium to kick off our study of Marine Biology.  Highlights of the trip: the youngest beluga whale was playing with a blanket (or maybe it was a rug?); one of the penguins had a sprained ankle (I don't think we got a picture of it, though); the octopus had all his tentacles spread out over the glass of his tank - very cool!  More to come in another post.

I also spent some time in my garden, thinning the Black-eyed Susans that were threatening to take over the entire garden.  I had one friend who was willing to take some, but there was a whole lot more that I threw out.  I have to say, the garden is looking better now.

Also on the homefront, my cordless cellular shades for the family room came in and we hung those up.  I'm so happy with them, I'm wondering why I didn't do this sooner.  We had white sheer curtains with a valance since we moved here eleven years ago.  I took them down to wash a month or so ago and realized the shape they were in - claw marks from cats trying to look out the windows, paint on the set that was next to the kids' art table.  They were clearly past their prime.  I also couldn't bear to put the navy blue velour valances back up.  They just look so heavy in the summer.  I'll put them back up in the fall, but for now there are empty curtain rods over the new shades.  I'll have to do something about finding something lighter for the warmer months.

Last evening was our natural food co-op monthly delivery.  I help in the kitchen weighing out the bulk items for members.  Now that it's summer, many members are on vacations and getting more food locally, so the order was pretty small.  We were actually done in about an hour and a half.  Often in the winter, it takes us closer to 3 hours to weigh and distribute all the bulk items (that's with 3-4 people working on it).

This afternoon, the girls and I met some friends for a hike.  You can read about that later this weekend, or maybe not until Monday, here.

This post is linked to Weekly Wrap-Up.