The Homeschool Mother's Journal

In my life this week: I've spent a lot of time reading and also finished my first knitting project. I do not want to lose myself in this whole homeschooling endeavor, and am striving to maintain my own "adult" interests.

I am happy with where my blog is right now.... I have gotten several comments that people are using the ideas, recipes, etc... that I share. I am also starting to review at The Homeschool Village, and this gives me the opportunity to have new experiences/ideas to use with my children, as well as share these impressions with other homeschoolers. I think I've discovered the "purpose" if you will of blogging for me. I think it's finding your niche, sticking to it, and blogging with integrity - Christian integrity. I have to guard myself against blogging time eating into time where I should be serving my family, so I pray about this and ask for self control!

Mentally, I have been slowly checking out each day, as we prepare for a trip to the beach next week. We all need a break, and going to the beach and visiting with my mom and dad is always a great vacation for us. On several occasions this week I have found myself thinking "Wow, I am so blessed".

In our homeschool this week: We spent a lot of time preparing for the Homeschool Literature Fair, which was Friday. Each of my children read a book and prepared a display, as well as a hands on research project. I'm so proud of both of them - Miss B. won first place in her age group, and my little guy soared through the personal interview portion (I was a little worried about that part for him!). The Trumpet of the Swan, by EB White, was our read-aloud this week , and I think they both looked forward to this the most each day. We also continued to enjoy Story of the World, and I finally broke down and ordered the Kingfisher Encyclopedia of History - what a beautiful book! All other subjects continued as usual.

Places we're going and people we're seeing: The big event was the literature fair, and of course everyone is excited for a trip to Grandma & Grandpa's next week!

My favorite thing this week: finishing my first knitting project!

What's working/not working for us: Can I say it AGAIN? Story of the World -- something about it just clicks for both of my children.

Homeschool Questions/Thoughts I Have: I am still pondering our science curriculum, and think I have finally decided upon Apologia, but am going to wait until the used book sale in the spring!

A photo to share: My first completed knitting project.... and the picture of my little guy and I just makes me happy!

*Hop over to Hip, Homeschool Moms to read other mom's journals this week!

Our Latest Five in a Row Title - A Pair of Red Clogs

We've slowed a bit on our FIAR titles since 2011 started. I don't know exactly why that is, but I'd like to pick up the pace again. Our latest book, A Pair of Red Clogs, was so enjoyable. I wouldn't say it was GMan's favorite, but he definitely learned quite a few things, and he has been talking a lot about Japan since we started the book! (I'd also like to recommend, Suki's Kimono, a book we found at the library, that really goes along nicely with A Pair of Red Clogs.)

A brief synopsis of the A Pair of Red Clogs:

A child's delight in a new pair of shoes is the same all over the world, whether the shoes are patent-leather sandals, straw alpargatas, deerskin moccasins, or wooden clogs.

For Mako, a little Japanese girl, the new shoes were clogs painted with red lacquer that shone beautifully. This is the story of what happened after she cracked the new clogs playing the weather-telling game and so longed for a bright, shiny new pair to replace them that she almost did a dishonest thing.

*Taken from Goodreads.com

Here are several pictures of the lapbook GMan completed, all of the mini books came from Homeschool Share, my favorite homeschooling site of all time!

The title page.... we discussed (per the FIAR manual) the use of colored pencil drawings and how the illustrator used vivid colors when the story was happy, and more muted colors when the story was sad. GMan enjoyed this part. He loves looking at and analyzing illustrations, and I believe this due in part to the guidance FIAR gives in this area.

The entire lapbook:

My favorite mini book - it contains four verses from Proverbs about honesty.

Many of the illustrations in the book are just embellished stick/action figures.... it was so neat to see this pointed out in the teacher's manual, and then to show it to my little guy in the book. I loved the mini book about action figures.

Do you use Five in a Row in your homeschool? Or, do you have questions about FIAR? Leave me a comment ~ I'd love to hear from you!

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