Homeschool Weekly Report

Another week under our belts. We had a couple of difficult days, but I think it's just "growing pains" as we all continue to adjust. Lindsey will likely have at least a few more months before homeschooling begins to feel normal for her. Kathryn is learning that she has to share me and not interrupt when I'm helping Lindsey with her work. And I have to get into the groove of figuring out how to do school with more than one child, and doing two totally different lessons and subjects at the same time. But with God's help, we're getting there!

With Kathryn, we're "visiting" the United Kingdom this week. She's added her first stamp to our homemade passport, and has made some great pages to put in her travel journal. We toured Britain via a few fun websites and saw photos of many different areas, and we designed a few styles of English gardens--fun! She's continuing to read George Mueller: Father to the Fatherless. We both find our Material World book fascinating.

We're still doing a bit of current events with News Current kids' magazine. Sometimes it goes right along with our studies, completely by accident. This week, for instance, there was an article about a new species of salamander, which fit in perfectly with this week's study of taxonomy in biology!

I'm so proud of how Kathryn is doing with math so far this year, particularly in the less-complaining department. Once we're a little more into the swing of things, I hope to incorporate more living math, but that just hasn't happened yet.

Last year, I had a goal of doing a little mother-daughter tea party each week, but it didn't always happen. This week, since we were "visiting" the U.K., we made a point of having a nice afternoon tea. And now I have another daughter for our mother-daughter tea! This was the first time we've done a set-the-table sort of tea since Lindsey joined the family. She wasn't sure if she'd like hot tea, but she did. I told her that meant we could keep her. (Yes, of course we would've anyway! She knew I was just JOKING because I'm such a tea-loving maniac!)

We decided that tea time would be a lovely time to discuss our verse and character trait of the week. This week's character trait was humility, and our verse was Micah 6:8.

"...and what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with your God."

I think one of the hardest things for Lindsey to adjust her thinking is in how she views the work at home. I think it all feels like "homework" and she tends to forget that it's really three days worth of classroom work. She's always completely done with her work by 3 or 4PM, and she wouldn't even be home until after that time if she was in public school, but to her it feels like she has hours and hours of homework. But she's had a whole lot of years in public school, so I shouldn't expect her thinking to change immediately. It really is a BIG adjustment. Two of her teachers left this week, too, so she has two new teachers, just as she was getting used to the others. So, lots of changes. Overall, she really is doing well, and I'm proud of her.

We have not been doing much in the way of nature studies so far, and that is making me sad. I hope to begin next week, and I want to do it when Lindsey can join in. I think she'll really like it, and will enjoy doing a nature journal, too. I'm scouting a location for a nifty little nature display shelf to help us all stay excited about it. Kathryn and I did have a little impromptu nature study when we discovered a praying mantis on the side of our house, near the front door, but Lindsey had class that day. We believe it's one of the babies we released this spring, and we're delighted to know that some survived, and will hopefully procreate and help control icky bugs in our gardens!