Our week has been busy and FULL.
It has been one of those weeks where many times I have stopped and been THANKFUL for the blessing of homeschool.
It has been a week where many things both of my children have been learning collided and the pieces of the puzzle just "FIT".
It has been a week of fun activities, HARD work, and interesting discoveries.
It has been a week where we could adjust our time and work whenever it best suited us to get the work done.
In short - it's been a GOOD week, and I want to count my homeschool blessings.
The Blessings of Small Group Opportunities
I have come to learn something about my Anna through homeschooling: she does NOT learn well in (or even enjoy) large group activities. Whenever a personal connection can be made, it is always best.
{She is my introvert and one day I will write a post about parenting an introvert when you are an extrovert!}
One of the biggest blessings of homeschooling is that we can seek out and create opportunities where Anna learns best. Most of these opportunities involve just a few children, and/or one-on-one opportunities with other children and adults.
Tennis - Anna plays on a homeschool tennis team and takes lessons each Friday. The group is small, supportive, and perfect for Anna's personality. She enjoys playing with a friend from Challenge who is also on the team.
Challenge I classes - There are only 5 children in Anna's Challenge I class. This week, when I was sitting in on a portion of the day, she volunteered to give her classmates a challenging order of operations problem. Now, to most people this wouldn't seem like a big deal - but I could have nearly cried. First, she willingly volunteered to teach her class about MATH (thank you, Mr. D!), and second, she was excited about it. This week, in our community assembly, the Challenge students were recognized. Our community now has over 20 students in A,B, I, and III. It is so exciting to see this program growing!
Music - Another HUGE blessing of homeschool is that Anna can pursue her love of music... REALLY pursue it. She doesn't slide in a piano practice every now and then. She practices every.single.day. It is just a part of her academic homeschool day. She gave me permission to post a short Instagram video of her playing this week...
The blessings of homeschool high school are TIME, RELATIONSHIPS, and FREEDOM!
The Blessing of CREATIVITY
Grant, my 10 year old, is my extrovert.
He is happy in any type of situation, but I do notice that he loves his alone time.
This week he would strive to finish his school work so he could practice baseball in the back yard, draw, or make Rainbow Loom creations.
I have no clue how to make anything with the Rainbow Loom, but Grant can make anything. This week he has been working on lots of charms.... I love the Incredible Hulk charm (complete with orange backpack) he made for me!
We are back in the swing with all of our extracurricular activities, so we use the Cycle 1 Memory Work CD quite a bit to review in the car!
Grant continues to love D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths and the study guide from Memoria Press. He has completed Units 1-5 and LOVED the 50 word vocab quiz at the end. At dinner he practices the words on us to see if WE know what they mean.
Couple the Greek Myths study with our current read-aloud (Pages of History), and everything is connecting SO WELL!
When I have a doctor's appointment or anything else that takes me out of the house during our school day, I always leave a dry erase board full of assignments for Grant. One morning this week he did map tracing, PreScripts, iPad app memory work, and reading while I was away. This system works very well for us!
Finally -- we've been playing a lot of Ancient History GoFish (which actually is so much more than GoFish) as a family -- this game is SUPERB and I highly recommend it. The Classical Historian makes them for all different time periods, too.
This weekend will be very busy in our home. September 11 is my husband's birthday so we will be celebrating with him -- while also trying to be mindful of what an important day it is our nation's history. Saturday evening I cross an item off my bucket list -- a Josh Groban concert!! Sunday I am delivering the sermon at our little church. So... much going on and much to be thankful for!
Collage Friday
Talk to me about the blessings of homeschool! What are the blessings you have seen in your homeschool this week?
Join me each Friday for a wrap up of the week - or just to share pertinent thoughts that have been rambling in your head during the past week.
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