Trying a Weekly Template to Record our Homeschool Journey

In my life this week…
I am doing my best to keep the homeschool fires burning while the Christmas spirit engulfs us and tries to make accomplishing anything laughable.

In our homeschool this week…
Joshua is writing a personal narrative about his trip to the state fair with his best friend. He begged to make the narrative into a Powerpoint presentation, to which I naturally agreed. He spent an hour on the rough draft and churned out 6 slides, which roughly equal 2 pages single space. I'm impressed!

Andrew is toughing it out on renaming to tens and hundreds places. The roughest part of this new venture seems to be the addition facts above ten, which have been under-exercised thus far. I foresee introducing the Math Bingo game I bought last summer for just such an occasion.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
Scholaric.com! Seriously, that is my biggest discovery in the past 4 years of homeschool teaching and planning.

I am inspired by…

My husband. Whenever I feel as if I do nothing but work, I look at him and see that he is working harder and longer.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
We have a field trip to Kaviar Forge this week, which is very exciting to me. Joshua has a Homeschool Student Council Christmas party, which sounds fun. John and I are invited to a business Christmas party this week as well! So exciting! I think it has been 5 years since we had one to attend.

My favorite thing this week was…
Having my parents visit us Sunday afternoon. John and Joshua were gone, so having company spared me a whole afternoon of missing them.

What’s working/not working for us…

Joshua has determined that he needs to take his spelling instruction under his own control. To that end, we have abandoned Dictation Day By Day by Kate Wagenen and he is speed-studying the lists at BigIQKids.com for spelling. He's a gifted speller and I well remember the agony of studying lists of words I already knew when I was his age. I am cheering him on and admire his progress.

Questions/thoughts I have…
I find that our appetite and saturation points for learning wax and wane, along with the seasons. It makes sense that our brains can tolerate more activity at regular intervals. I am learning to let our school be more organic and less forced. While I still have a "To Do" list going on all the time, I become less frantic if I find that we are only able to digest 10 pages of a history text rather than the 14 I arbitrarily assigned.

I’m reading…

Devotionals--- Oswald Chambers and A.W. Tozer.

I’m cooking…
Oh, wow! Relishrelish.com has revolutionized my meal planning and shopping. I told John I could never go back to tacos, spaghetti and pizza each once every week. I'm actually using fresh herbs, like rosemary, cilantro, basil, and Italian parsley! I've chopped and seeded my first, second and third jalapenos! I am totally jazzed about this program.

I’m grateful for…

Peace. In the midst of uncertainty and change, there is a deep abiding sense of rightness about my life right now. For this I thank God.

I’m praying for…
Wisdom. The more years I live, the more I realize my own limitations and need for wisdom.

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

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This has spoken to me so plainly over the past week. It takes away all uncertainty and fear. For loved ones, for my questions: Only believe. Those who believe SHOULD NOT PERISH. Praise His Holy Name.