in pursuit of wild things

Since I was still suffering from my chest cold and this was Thanksgiving week very little schooling happened. We did work on some math and read in our History of Medicine text for science. This week we’ll get back to a full schedule, wrapping up a few subjects, and prepping for a new start in January. Mostly, I am planning fun things to do between now and Christmas.

One of my favorite moments this week involved Oldest. He learned to fry eggs last week. One day this week he chose to make himself a bird’s nest for breakfast. When he finished the first one Middle Boy asked for it so Oldest gave it to him and started another one for himself. Every single time he finished his egg another sibling would ask him to make them one too!!! And every single time he handed them his breakfast and started again. I think he expected me to ask for one too but I just smiled and said, “Welcome to motherhood!”

This Tuesday I helped the crew make our breakfast for Poetry Tea and Breakfast time. I taught them to make biscuits and bacon gravy this week. We’re enjoying cooking together every Tuesday morning. Poetry appreciation has also morphed into cooking classes and it is very good…my favorite morning of the week. These sorts of mornings remind me why I love homeschooling my children.

We drove to Paducah to spend Thanksgiving with my husband’s family as we do every year. I would have been fine staying home and just resting. We’ve been on the go since the move and could just use some down time as a family. But it was also good to go in and see family and friends. We stayed at our old house and it was kinda

sad to see it empty. I refused to go to our old school room because I knew I would cry. On Friday we visited with friends. My bestie and I hung out at McDonald’s for breakfast and chatted about everything while the kids played at the Playplace. We’ve been gone less than two months and the McDonald’s in town was already remodeled. I know things change when you move but that was a bit quicker than expected!!!

For lunch we drove out to our favorite Chinese buffet. We had a great time laughing over our fortunes. Oldest’s reaction to his was hilarious because his fortune was something about exploring his feminine side! Later in the evening we went to visit with Suzann and her husband. The kids and I all missed her and we had a wonderful time at her place. I am a little mad at myself because I didn’t take any pictures of her with the kids!!! We are also officially adopting the kitten that was stranded at her house this year. The kitten will come back with us on our next trip west.

Sparkles has been begging for a kitten for over a year. She is over the moon and cannot wait to go shopping for kitty supplies. Our new kitty is named Boots.

On the drive home I listened to Julie Bogart’s last scope. I had missed it the night before and had to catch the replay since it wasn’t saved to Katch. I admire this woman so much. Her courage is infectious! I haven’t had a mentor in a long time and am glad to have someone willing to invest her wisdom and time. She is also

going to do a live writing workshop this week for the kids!!!! You can find the information for the workshop on the Brave Writer site here. The whole experience is free and will give you some insight into the Brave Writer lifestyle. I am excited and plan to participate along with the kids.

We are thankfully finished with our current science curriculum. The kids and I are definitely ready for something new to read. Instead of choosing the curriculum myself this year I let the kids pick. I showed them several different books based on the

criteria they gave me (lots of experiments, mostly science with no overly pro-creation or pro-evolution talk.) They chose Dr. J Wile’s Science in the Beginning. We’ll also order the lab kit because I am terrible at getting all those little things ahead of time. Middle Boy read the entire free sample online and loved it. He responded with delight to the conversational tone and the assignments.

Math will be receiving a major overhaul. I’ve been reading books and articles by mathematicians and have all of these ideas swimming in my head. All four of my children are in separate math curriculums based on their learning styles or comfort needs.

Middle Boy is bored, bored, bored! He needs to have his mind challenged or he gets rebellious. In January he will be starting Beat Academy. He chose the curriculum after loving the placement exam. This math is “out-of-the-box”, tough, and will stretch all of our thinking skills. My mind may very well snap working with him! I also set up all of the kids some math courses on Kahn Academy this week. Oldest is determined to start pre-Algebra sometime next year so he will have time for advanced mathematics before graduation.

Sparkles will continue with Teaching Textbooks for now until her math phobia is behind her. Littlest is already shocking all of us with his addition and subtraction skills so I will start him with MathUSee’s Primer because I have it on my shelf. As his learning style unfolds we’ll place him into a suitable math curriculum.

Sometime this week I’ll have my next post about our journey through Intermediate Medieval History with Beautiful Feet Books. We are finishing up our study of Medieval China. I’ve also got a set of long overdue book reviews from Deborah Taylor-Hough. She sent me a couple of her books during the move and I’d like to share them.

Linking up with: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Parent-Teacher Meet-up

Middle Boy decided George Washington was studying about clocks

my crew with their favorite books

our last few pages

decorating binders and organizing for the new academic year

happy boy