Weekly Wrap Up

    In My Life This Week: We've had the norm of a week, not anything spectacular. School work was done, house was cleaned, cooked, & took care of pets.
    We did have one extra pet this week. My nephew had a sick puppy that he brought over for us to take care of while he was at school & work. All of the dog training & puppy taking care of skills that we studied a while back were put in to action. This little guy was a sick pup when he was brought to us. He's doing great now. Here's a pic of the little fellow.

    I did have one accomplishment this week. I finished an afghan this week.

    I should have already finished it, but I just haven't worked on it. I enjoy crocheting. That is my pass time while I am sitting with the children while they work on some of their school work. I crochet while they are working a math problem, answer a question in their Science, etc. I'm not just sitting idle.
House Work/De Clutter: Normal house work, laundry, dishes, bathroom, made beds, floors, & then did some dusting and cleaned my entire desk. My desk was much in the need for some attention. It looks great now.
    Home Schooling For the Week: We finished Module 6 in our Apologia: Exploring Creation With Physical Science on the Lithosphere. I really wanted to study a little more on the earth's magnetic field, but haven't found any books yet to take it in to a deeper study. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
    There are a couple of experiments we have skipped in the past 2 Modules. I think we are going to take an experiment day & just do all of them.
    Saxon 8/7 has been a breeze this week. There were several lessons on division & decimals so we were able to just move right through them. My children love working with decimals. So math was not a subject I had to beg & plead with this week.
    Our great Literature read comes to an end. We finished up Little Men this week. My children have enjoyed this book so much. I suppose it was due to the character Jo, they felt like they knew her already from Little Women. They did find some favorite characters in this book also. That's one of the great privileges of reading great Literature, you feel like you know the characters by the time you reach the end of the book. In some way you just feel connected to them in the end.
    Still no English. Oh, I've got to get with the program.
    For our History this week we have been reading a library book titled If You Were there When They Signed The Constitution by Elizabeth Levy. We have also been reading another library book titled The Summer of 1787, which we will be reading for the next few weeks.
    In reading these books we've been learning why the Articles of Confederation would not work for a permanent government, causing the Constitution to be written. We also learned that people think that Shay's Rebellion had something to do with the writing of the constitution.
    Shay's Rebellion was new to my children. We have not studied this in the past.
Here's a few links to some videos we watched this week on the Articles of Confederation & the Constitution;
     The Background of United States Constitution
     The Articles of Confederation
      Benjamin Franklin Biography
     John Hanson Our First President
     The Articles of Confederation 1781

    What I'm Cooking: We are trying a recipe from another home school mom that we ran across this week, Taco Chicken. I'll let you all know how we like it. Probably will be a big hit with my family. My bunch loves some Mexican foods, also Italian.
    Helpful Hint for the Week: REMEMBER, we don't have to finish the entire book in one year & we can pick & choose what we want our students to learn. We are the teacher. The Curriculum should never be the driver. So, beings we are the driver, we can choose the speed we travel.
    Goals for Next Week: Hope to get my kitchen cabinets pulled out & shop-vac. I like to do this to keep my cabinets organized.
    Pic/Video: Just a quick pic of one of my Valentine cards I received. I think it is so pretty. My hubby knows I like butterflies so this card was perfect.

    I suppose this will about wrap us up for the week. To read about more great weeks drop over to the HMJ & Weekly Wrap Up to read some other great blogs.

My Weekly Wrap-Up & Give-A-Way

In My Life This Week:
    My week began so sweet. I sent my husband an email & asked him on a date to our back porch. He replied back with an acceptance so we slipped out before the children awakened & shared a hot cup of coffee with my favorite liquid creamer, white chocolate mocha, mmm. The week got even sweeter by Wednesday night. Before we went to bed my husband told me he had bought me a gift. "Hmm" my mind was thinking, "I wonder what this is for?" Turns out it was just an I love you and was thinking of you gift. (Wasn't expecting that this close to Christmas, especially since my birthday was only two weeks ago.)
    We have had another couple confiding in us that are having problems in their marriage so my husband & I was talking that they just need to keep the love burning. So while talking about them we started talking about falling in love all over again. That's why my hubby got me my gift. He's so sweet. The road has been rocky at times, but I love him more today than I did 13 1/2 years ago.

Here's a pic of my gift

    I cried when he gave me the cross. The first thing he ever bought me was a sun catcher cross with the words "Love is patient, Love is kind," the cross he gave me this week had those same words with a few more added. 13 years later & he's still got the same thoughts on his mind, me & our love. I'm so blessed.

In Our Schooling This Week:
    I'll just give a quick over view instead of a long report.

  *Math: Saxon 8/7 lessons

  *Literature: Began Robinson Crusoe

  *English: They are liking Robinson Crusoe so much they wanted to write their own story about being on an island by themselves, so that's what we did.

  *History: Read a library book titled Imperial Romans by Jill Hughes.

  *Science: Apologia: Physical Science Modlule 4 & researched the chemical reactions in our Amish Friendship bread starter bag that we are going to be baking next week.
    Our experiment taught us a lot about the energy, pressure, & gases that were in our bag. We learned that temperature & sugar plays an important part in how much our bag reacts. Here's a couple of pics of our bag.

You can see all the gas bubbles forming & coming together in these pictures.

I'm reading This Week:
    I'm actually reading two books at the present moment I am reading a Grace Livingston Hill book titled Crimson Mountain. I read it on my own free time for my pleasure.

    The second book I am reading is A Hope Beyond by Judith Pella & Tracie Peterson from the Ribbons of Steel Series. My hubby and I are reading this at night when we lay down. It is an audio. My husband & I enjoy reading great books together, even if I do slip in a Christian Romance from time to time. Our most favorite ones to read together are history, especially during the Pioneer days.


Give Away:
    I am having another give away on my blog. This one involves a Christmas book, Hot chocolate, & more. Drop over to this link & leave a comment if you are interested in entering. The winner will be selected on November 28, 2011.
I think that about sums up our week. Hope you all have had a great one.
    I'm linking up with Weird Unsocialized & Homeschool Mother's Journal to share our week. For more great weeks in other's homeschools this week, check out these links to see what others are doing.

Books Spark Imaginations

He he he, I'm so tickled right now. I know my children are digesting their Literature when I walked down the hall and heard them playing coon hunting.
We chose the A Beka 7th grade Of People Literature book to be our spine to guide us through Literature this year. As we read through a unit in the book we chose another book to read along side of it that would bring out more about a certain Poet/Author/Story/Etc. The first unit we are reading from the Of People book has a short version of Where the Red Fern Grows. So this month we chose to read the actual book Where the Red Fern Grows. It's about Billy and his coon dogs so after hearing my children pretending to coon hunt with their little animals I know the book is making an impression on them. Guess they receive an "A" for Literature today.
How is all of your studies going? Happy Homeschooling this week!

Books I Read Over The Summer

     I took some time this summer to just do some pleasure reading. I enjoyed it tremendously. I love to curl up, walk around and listen, etc. and enjoy a great book. Especially, great books that take place during the pioneer days. I also like them if they have a hint of romance in them.
     This summer I read some books from a new author, or at least one that I had not heard of until I ran across her name on a fellow bloggers site. Her name was Grace Livingston Hill. So far, I have enjoyed every one of her books that I read. Here's the books that she wrote that I have read:

The Man of the Desert
In Tune With Wedding Bells
Bright Arrows
Marigold

     The other author I have been reading from this summer is Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yep, I've been reading the Little House books. I just love these books.

Little House in the Big Woods
Little House on the Prairie
On the Banks of Plum Creek
Farmer Boy
By the Shores of Silver lake
The Long Winter
Little Town on the Prairie
These Happy Golden Years
The First Four Years

     I have also been reading a Steve & Terry Maxwell book;

Keeping Your Child's Heart

     My, what a book. I'm not finished with it, but the content in the book has such godly wisdom. I definitely would recommend this book to parents that want to shepherd their child towards God and have a close relationship with them.
     I would say, "My summer has been filled with some fabulous books." If any of my readers have any great selections that you would like to suggest, my ears are open, thanks.