My Special Place ~ My Current Reads

I think every mom needs a sanctuary.    Mine is nothing grand, but it is quiet, away from the hustle and bustle of the rest of the house, and IT IS ALL MINE!   

I've had this rocking chair since my oldest was born.  I remember sitting up with her one night in an old, hard rocking chair (and while it had sentimental value, it just wasn't too comfortable!) and being so exhausted and sleep-deprived.  I told my husband I had to have a nice rocking chair within the next week or I was going to LOOSE IT!  I remember demanding (in my oh so nice way) that if I did not get a more comfortable chair, HE was going to be the one getting up in the middle of the night!   Within the next several days we had ordered this glider, and it has served us well.  

I've changed a lot since then.  First of all, I wouldn't demand something in such a childish way again.   Second, my children are older and don't need rocking any more.  Third, I hope I'm much wiser and patient then I was ten years ago.   Now this chair is my reading, knitting and relaxing spot... there are times when it gets laundry piled on it, or homeschool books stacked on the footstool, but for the most part I try to keep this place ready for reading.   

I'm always interested to hear what other moms are reading.  I usually have two or three different books going at the same time.   The current ones on my nightstand are:

Seasons of a Mother's Heart, by Sally Clarkson

This is my inspirational book and devotion each morning... I love Sally Clarkson's books, and this one is beautifully written.  It even has places for me to journal throughout the book, which I love!

Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins

The third book in The Hunger Games series, this is my page turner!  Yes, I joined the hysteria of The Hunger Games and I have been hooked.   If you're wondering, I'm "Team Gale".  

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot

This book will be started next - a good friend of mine recommended it to me.  It is the story of a poor southern tobacco farmer whose cells were harvested without her knowledge and have become one of the most important tools in medicine.  To this day, Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown and is buried in an unmarked grave. 

Oh, the candle burning on my nightstand is a pecan pie candle by Paula Deen.  I LOVE IT!  Since fall is my favorite season, it transports me to that time, even when it's 100 degrees outside! 

What is on your nightstand right now?  Do you have a book you think I might enjoy?  I'd love it if you'd leave me a comment...   

Weekly Wrap Up #4 - Mission Accomplished (sort of)

Weekly Verse:

For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God?

2 Samuel 22:34

Composition of the Week:

Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven

Song of the Week:

Fifty Nifty United States

After an inspirational weekend and just a few "God" things happening to me, I was able to let go a lot more and just ENJOY homeschool.   I had this elaborate "modified workbox" system in place and guess what?   The kids didn't take to it at all!  Well, they did it because I made them the first two weeks, but by week three I felt like the life was zapped out of our homeschool because of my dumb schedule!    So, we kept our large boxes with hanging files and keep our work in them now... still a great storage place for work in progress, but we no longer have to complete "everything in the box" and we are more free to go where the spirit leads us!

Notice I added a musical composition and a song this week.  Now we have a weekly Bible verse and a piece of music.  In the coming weeks I'd also like to add a picture study to our list, too.  These things are all so easy to accomplish.  The Bible verse gets recited each morning.  We listen to classical music and sing at lunch time, and I think the picture study will fit nicely in there as well!  

We did start Latin this week - just one lesson from Prima Latina, but both kids really enjoyed the format.   My oldest does the workbook and runs the CD and my youngest listens in.  The lesson was short, quick, and very achievable.  It's complementing our history (we are right around the time of Jesus now) study very nicely.  Hooray for Latin!  

After meeting Jeannie Fulbright last week at the Apologia luncheon, I was that much more excited to continue our science, Flying Creatures of The Fifth Day, this week.   We spent one full morning with science... did the reading from the book and then went to the course website (I love this feature!) and explored the internet links and notebooked the findings.   My daughter is getting to be more independent, which I guess is the goal as she approaches the middle grades.    The kids also watched one episode of The Life of Birds via Netflix streaming.   It was excellent!  

Examples from Miss B's notebook - learning about the 5 Biomes:

We had a fun morning mid-week and took three other homeschooling friends to go jumping.   What a great time they had -- the boys especially NEEDED to get rid of this energy, and outside play is hard when it's so hot outside!  

The same day we went jumping we also had swimming clinics at the YMCA in the afternoon. By read-aloud time that evening, look what happened to GMan! 

When the weather cooled of "slightly", Miss B would go outside and time herself to see how long she could jump rope.   We did a unit about jumping rope and jump rope rhymes last year that really stuck with her!   See her smile in this picture?  I saw it this week even during math!  (which sometimes I have had tears over)   I relaxed on math a bit and we did lessons together on our white board with lots of different colored Expo markers.   She got much better at long division this week, and also learned to average numbers.  I'm learning that we don't have to do every lesson in the book!  

Grammar this week consisted of Time 4 Learning lessons for Miss B.   We are reviewing Time 4 Learning, and the grammar fit in very nicely.   She completed several lessons about punctuation marks and quotation marks, which we had been working with in Writing With Ease.    (Both children are doing Writing With Ease and this is a WINNER!  I need to write a post just about this excellent writing curriculum!)  My son continued in First Language Lessons.   Here is he is using index cards to make sentences... the focus here was linking verbs!  

Here's my favorite thing this week!   Check out what my son wrote in his spelling book:

"Plant soil  Plant seeds and walla! You have zucchini"   Don't you love the spelling of voila?!?!  So cute!  

Today (Friday) we went to lunch with my sweet father-in-law.  He loves to take us to a southern cooking restaurant in the small town where we live.   The chocolate chip pie was out of this world!   I had a doctor's appointment, so he kept the kids after we all ate lunch.  We are so thankful to have granddaddy living this close to us!  

I blogged earlier in the week about our new state study unit.    This week was learning all about Wisconsin, which was very interesting.  We also did some general 50 states notebooking and used resources from HS Launch.  If you have never visited this site, you SHOULD!  There are so many free resources for homeschoolers!   I printed this alphabetical listing of the states for my children to copy... to put in the front of their notebooks.   I also printed state notebooking pages so they can complete one about each state we study.  In fact, this is my favorite resource this week!


   

We only read one chapter in our history book this week, about Buddah.   I'm finding that it's best not to rush through our Story of the World chapters.  The kids really like to linger and find out a little more about the subject we have studied... so I'm giving them time to do this.  

Other highlights this week include:  

Baseball practices started for GMan 

Miss B tried out for swim team and that begins next week

Co-Op registration was completed - classes start soon

A swim date with friends while mom had some time to herself!
We are almost finished reading The Bronze Bow.
In the car listening this week was Roberto and Me (Baseball Card Adventures).
Bedtime reading by dad was Saving Shiloh. 

If you've read through this LOOONG post to the end, congratulations!  These weekly wrap-up posts are mainly for my notebook.  I print them each week so we have a record of what we have accomplished.  Hopefully you found some things you enjoy and can use, too.

AND, if you have any resources to share with me that we can use I want to know!  Leave me a comment because, to be quite honest, I find my best ideas come from blogging friends!

Linking up to The Weekly Wrap Up!