Homeschool Journal: One Foot in Front of the Other

If you saw last week's Homeschool Journal post you know I was living life in limbo for the week.  Word came, surgery is scheduled and I actually won't be leaving town until around April 20th.  Many more tests need to be done between now and then, dad is doing great and has a very positive outlook... which helps me be at ease as I just wait, 1200 miles away.

Knowing he is trooping along, I can relax and actually find some relief in the extended wait.  I am hoping to review lesson plans this weekend and trim, where possible, so we might finish the bulk of our studies before April 20th.  This would allow me to leave the kids with only minor studies to round out their school year.

How do you plug forward when limbo swings around?
#1 - Don't give up! It seems to me that there is always something to slow up or stop the homeschooling process.  It is easy to drop everything and just succumb.  Sometimes you need to and that is OK - BUT - when this becomes a daily or weekly habit it is time to grab a hold and plug in.  Maybe at a slower pace, but still a pace which moves forward.

#2 - Put one foot in front of the other!  This sort of goes hand-in-hand with #1.  Once you resolve to not give up, don't feel like you have to have it ALL figured out.  Simply take one-step-at-a-time. 
     ...Maybe in a difficult time you can't handle your full subject load
     ... maybe you are behind or disoriented with what to do
Pick one thing to start with and step forward in that.  When you are ready, add another, and so on.  No one gets to the top of the stairway in one leap... it is one-step-at-a-time.

I could have been daunted this week by all I wanted to do AND needed to do both academically and in all the other little side ways we house-mamas have to juggle.  But I took it one-step-at-a-time and plugged ahead.  I didn't get to EVERYTHING this week, but I got to things and more is done at the end of the week then was done at the beginning.

Our Homeschool This Week...

In-line with walking out the above steps, this week we cut out a couple of our subjects and focused on some of the basics I was most concerned about.  We did Science, History, and Algebra and, on the days I could, Brooke and I tackled Composition.  It was all good - not our usual load - but we didn't give up!

I didn't take very many pictures this week.  I suffered a pretty bad migraine starting Monday.  I wasn't really feeling well enough to look at screens until Wednesday.  Jumping into our geology unit as previously mentioned, it only took us one week to study the basics in our Earth Science book.  The kids requested an edible science project to review the layers of the earth - proof that it doesn't matter how old you are; edible science is always a good idea!!

We started with drawing up a "recipe" chart showing approximate relative thickness for each layer they would be building

We are using A-Beka Earth Science for 9th grade.  Brenden only got through half of this his Freshman year so he joined up with Brooke for the other half this year (her Freshman year, his Junior this year)

 I left interpretation up to them on exactly how to draw it out.

We taped their "recipe" card to the back of a clear tumbler.  I happened to have glasses the size they wanted to use but you can get clear plastic cups at the store.  The kids wanted to use large and later, I think, wished they had chosen smaller because it made A LOT!

 Earlier in the week we made a list of ingredients to correspond with the different layers and then shot over to the grocery store.  Oreos and pudding were on sale, it was a score!  We made the pudding in the morning and stuck it in the fridge while we did our other school work.  I crushed half of the cookies for the crust and lined up all our ingredients with respective labels to avoid confusion.

Ashley may be graduated now... but that doesn't change the fact edible science is always fun to join in on!!  Brooke was lining the pudding up with the appropriate line on her "recipe" card.

Our unit had covered layers of the earth, continental plates, earthquakes and volcanoes so it is only natural we would add an extra layer on top of the crust to display the pieces of continent.

Bon appetit`!

While enjoying our edible earth we watched a video on volcanoes!

In other news this week.... Brooke painted her face for St. Patrick's Day!  We all enjoy Irish heritage here, some of us (like my husband) more than others but it makes St. Patty's extra special knowing some of our Christian heritage under this roof might be traced back to the man himself.

I forgot to include this picture last week, it is a new favorite:

We had a girls' day out two Saturdays ago, it was discount day at the local art museum and the girls wanted to go.  We love art ♥ and I love the rare treat of time alone with my girls.

What have you been up to this week?

Blessings,

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