The Homeschool Mother's Journal - 5

This week wasn't very exciting but I did stumble upon this home school blog that hosts a blog hop once a week. I thought it might be fun to give it a whirl so here goes...


In my life this week...
On Monday my sweet mother in law had us over to her house for a Valentine's Day Tea Party. My SIL, who also homeschools was there with her two girls as well. The kids had a great time serving treats and apple juice "tea" to each other. I think it was the best Valentine's "class" party I've ever attended! In other news, our hot water heater broke. My darling husband spent an entire day trying to figure out what was wrong with it. Finally, he decided he had it figured out which part needed to be replaced and made a few phone calls. Unfortunately he was informed that the specific piece was no longer available separately and would cost $500 for the entire unit. Thankfully we have this wonderful thing called EBay where we found it for only $30! Now, we just have to wait for the part to arrive....so yes, that means we have not had hot water all week. I've had to heat water on the stove for dishes and to wash my hair. It's funny the things we take for granted until we no longer have their conveniences.

In our homeschool this week...
First, as I mentioned last week the girls decided for sure they no longer wanted to use the Time4Learning program online. I did end up canceling it and found some work books from Barnes and Nobles to replace it. I know it's not the most conventional way to go about homeschooling, but really math is math no matter what book it comes from, right? The books include reading, writing, math, language arts, and spelling. I think they will work out fine for the rest of our school year. The kids did manage to work in their books every day, but we did not do any Bible or geography this week...totally my fault!
 
Places we're going and people we're seeing...
My husband went with a friend up north for the weekend so I made some big plans for the kids and I. Cabin fever has really been setting in for all of us so I thought it would be fun to stay the night at a local hotel. We'll go swimming, order pizza and watch movies. Just something to get out of the house! I've pretty much kept it a surprise...they know we are going away and that we need our bathing suits but they don't know where we are staying. I am super excited!
 
My favorite thing this week was...
Definitely the Valentine's Tea Party! I got some really great pictures and it was nice that even though the kids aren't in public school this year they didn't miss out on a class party!
 
What's working/not working for us...
My schedule...or rather, lack of a schedule. It's hard to start at the same time every day and stay on track when I have two little babies to care for. Plus, my husband is still laid off and is home most of the day which just really throws my whole schedule off...well, what schedule I had anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love having him here, it just really messes with me! I am working on writing a "schedule" down because I know I tend to do better when I see something on paper. Who knows how long it will be before I actually get it done...

Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
Right now I am really thinking about and researching the curriculum that I want to use for next year. When I started this year I chose My Father's World and really thought it was going to be perfect for us. It is a really great program, but for whatever reason it just wasn't meeting our needs. So, as I'm considering next years program I am very nervous. 
 
A photo, video, link, or quote to share... 
Here's a picture (or three) from our Valentine's party

Mrs. Bovee's class: Sammy, Annabelle and Alivia (Sydney is in the picture below)

Mrs. Campbell's class: Ariana and Adalyn.

Hey...the teacher deserves a valentine treat too...right??