The cats are supposed to stay outside. The kids,however, like to bring them in whenever they can. On this day, the cat snuck in and was laying on the arm of the couch, while Abby was doing here schoolwork. At least I think she was doing Big IQ Kids. Maybe she was checking her email, though.  The cat sure does look comfy, doesn’t it?

Calen bought a new soldering gun for working on computers. It came with a circuit board to practice on. When everything was connected correctly, a light lit, and a siren went off. He got it right the first time. And thankfully, he had more important things to do than run the siren all day.lol

Hannah made challah bread today. She was in a creative mood, so she made the bread in the shape of a menorah.

And the Star of David. She’s ready for Channukah now. 🙂

I got a new printer a few weeks ago. I got the Kodak ESP 7250 All-in-One Printer. I love it! It works wirelessly with my laptop. How cool is that?! No more having to hook the laptop up to the printer. I can be in one room and print something on the printer in the schoolroom. I’m loving it. the best part is when the kids are in the schoolroom and the printer starts printing by itself. Or so they think. lol One even said that I should warn them before printing something. lol

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful:

Pearl Harbor Lapbook
How to Make a Glass Magnifier
Printable ABC Bible Verses for handwriting & lots of other HS stuff
Homeschool Assignment, Planning & Record Books
Free Periodic Table of the Elements Printable”>
Homeschool Helpers and Hints
Super Teacher Worksheets

For more homeschool posts, please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

This has been a sick week for us. Why is it, that “just a cold” can make one so miserable?!

Needless to say, not much school work got done this week. A little reading, a little Bible and Bible Drill studying. And a lot of resting.

Today was the first day that we would have been able to do any school work. Since we were behind on our Sukkot preparations, though, I decided to take today off as well.  A couple of us are still dragging, so it wouldn’t have been a full days worth of school work anyway.

But our sukkot is now ready. It rained for a few days this week, so we weren’t able to eat outside in it. Tonight is our first night to be able to. Here’s a picture from tonight….

Our sukkah, complete with pictures colored by the kids, candles, and fruit hanging from the branches.  🙂

 

Here are a few homeschooling links:

Free Seed Planting Kit
Homeschool High School Transcripts – Activity Lists
What’s Up With Homeschool Reading Lists
Record Keepingn Samples
Writing Descriptions for Homeschool Highschool Records
Holy Language – Hebrew lessons geared towards beginners and FREE!
Sarah and David – Learn Hebrew, free printables

 

For more homeschool posts, please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

I never did get a homeschool week in review post up last week. Life just kept me too busy

Last Friday night, Abby had a slumber part for her 13th birthday. She turned 13 last Saturday. It was her first slumber party. She had a blast and I found out I’m way too old for root beer floats at midnight. roflol

Abby and her Reese Cup Cake

Abby and her gift from us – a prepaid cellphone SHE has to buy the minutes for!

School has been going well.  They all are moving right along. No major difficulties the past two weeks. A homeschooling mama can’t ask for more than that.  🙂

Bible Drill officially starts at church on Sunday. They have class/practice Sunday evenings at 5. Then church starts at 6. So it’s not really a lot on the schedule now. We just have to get to church an hour earlier. Next spring, during competition season is when it gets really busy. For now it’s just encouraging the kids to memorize and a little practice thrown in.

In her spare time, Hannah made 6 pillowcase dresses in the last two weeks.

Our church supplied the pillowcases, and the dresses will go in Christmas Shoeboxes. The money for the shoe boxes was raised by the kids at Vacation Bible School this summer.

This week, I also printed out some Hebrew handwriting sheets for Hannah. She’s learning Hebrew, and was happy to get them. She’s been using Read Hebrew Today from CurrClick.

I recently wrote a review on Aletheia Magazine, it’s a Christian magazine that teens can submit their stories, poems, drawings and photographs to for publication. Go check out the review. It’s a great magazine for teenagers.

 
Here are a few homeschooling links:

Hebrew Lessons – the same site I linked above for Hebrew printables also has Hebrew lessons. We haven’t used these yet,though.
Sign Language Lessons
Tips for Homeschooling a Large Family
What My Pre-K Student Needs to Know
Creating a Daily Schedule or Routine

 

 

For more homeschool posts, please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

We started something new last week. Sabbath Week. Every 7th week will now be Sabbath Week, which will be a week off of school work. Household chores and such are still required. As is Bible reading and studying Bible Drill verses. The kids enjoyed the week off. I have to say, I did too!

Even though we had the week off from school, the kids still kept busy. They make a show called The Geek Show. It’s little skits and such that they write (term used loosely, as to do a LOT of improv), act, direct and edit themselves. Well, Calen does most of the directing and and all the editing. they did another episode last week, and included a visiting cousin.

The only thing I don’t like about it is that they always tear the house apart. Here’s a picture of The Geek Show being filmed:

The room is trashed! (Yes, I made them clean it up!) Notice Hannah sitting on the floor holding the microphone up. Calen uses our home video camera and our digital camera that takes video and he edits it all together. As you can see, he also uses a green screen and inserts backgrounds on the computer. When I bought the kids new sheets earlier this year, Calen picked green sheets so he could also use the sheet as a green screen. roflol

 

I ordered some e-books for school last week. I ordered Digital Photography Unit Study by Amanda Bennet Click here to view more details. Which looks incredibly awesome. It’s a 4 week course. It will work perfect with our 6 week terms now that we take off every 7th week.

I also ordered The Passport United Kingdom 7-12th grade Click here to view more details. We do a unit study on the Olympics every Olympic year and include a study of the host country. This looks like an awesome study.

 

I also posted a review of a board game Tri-Cross lat week, in case you missed it. I review it as part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew. We really loved this game. It’s lots of fun for all ages.

If your looking for a devotional book for your 8-12 year old girl, I did a review last week of a book called Hot Chocolate with God, Abby, my 12 yo, loved it.

 

It’s back to our regularly scheduled school work this week. Including a study of Rosh Hashanah. Should be fun!

For more homeschool posts, please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

I forgot to take pictures again this week. I take pictures of everything, but for some reason I can never remember to take pictures of school. I really need to start remembering. lol

 

The kids have had skit practice a few times this week. They will be performing it tomorrow night at church. And most likely, on Sunday as well. Hannah and Abby are in it, and Calen is running sound and video. Since it’s for middle school and highschool, Zachary isn’t in it. He doesn’t care. He likes having all the electronics to himself while they’re at practice. lol

We started using Big IQ Kids this school year. Abby 7th grade and Zach 5th grade are loving it.It’s an online program for math, spelling and U.S. geography. I am a member of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew (yippeeeee!!) and this is one of the products we tested. Visit this link, Big IQ Kids, to read my full review.

I have been reading a couple of other blogs recently that have a Sabbath Week for their homeschool. Every 7th week, the Sabbath Week, they take the week off of school. I think it sounds like a great idea. So, this was our 6th week of school, so we are taking next week off. I haven’t told the kids yet, but I don’t think they will argue with me. lol Since we have a ton of apples sitting here, and more tomatoes ripening every day, we will put our time to good use.

 

How do you follow the public school calendar, or do you set up your own?

We’ve never followed the p.s. calendar.  🙂

 

The Old Schoolhouse Magazine is the honly homeschool magazine I subscribe to, has been for years. Right now, they are having a warehouse sale. Click the graphic below to see the sale.

$25 will get you a box filled with goodies from our overflowing shelves . . .
• SEVEN different TOS back issues ($69.30 value)
• Homeschooling with Heart tote bag ($24.95 value)
• Surprise bonus gift(s)
• Free Shipping ($10.50 value)
• $104.75+ worth of products and what it takes to mail them for ONLY $25

What  a deal!! Getting the back issues this way is a great savings. They may be back issues, but they are FULL of awesome information!

 

 

Here are a few links I found interesting & helpful:

Do It Yourself Markable Assignment Cards
The 9 Keys to a Successful Junior Year
Resolutions for a Homeschool Mom
Building Your Academic Calendar
Homeschool Planner for an Eclectic Curriculum
Homemade Oobleck Recipe – Your kids will love this!

 

 

 

 

For more homeschool posts, please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Well, nothing particularly exciting happened around here this week. It was a very cloudy and rainy week. Wii Fit is very good for burning off excess energy.  🙂

My husband didn’t have to work on Monday, so it wasn’t a school day for us. We had planned on having our parents over for a cookout, but the rain canceled that. So everyone went next door to my inlaws and had a cookout on their covered back porch. So we still had a cookout, it just wasn’t outside at the fire pit.

Since I don’t really have anything to share this week, I thought I’d ask the kids a question.

What was your favorite part of the school week?

 

Calen – I learned about the guy who invented television.

 

Hannah – I like Hebrew.

 

Abigail – I liked reading a chapter in the Bible.

 

Zachary – I liked P.E. because I get to go on the Wii.

 

Dad’s answer?  “The end.”       NOT FUNNY Dad!!

 

The kids did start practicing for a skit at church tonight. They’ll be performing it at Fall Fest at church on the 17th.  So they’ll have a couple of practices next week, too. The girls are in it, and Calen is running the sound system and recording it.

 

When I checked the camera for school pictures taken this week, this is the only one I found. Proof that Hannah continues in home ec. lol

 

Here are a few websites I found helpful and interesting:
Beating the Homeschool Blues, Instead of Singing Them
It’s Pony Penning Day
Discover the Biggest MIstake Made by Homeschoolers
How to Make a Kids Telescope
Homeschool Record Keeping
Awake America

 

 

For more homeschool posts, please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

The other day, the kids found a praying mantis. Which means we take lots of pictures, and then let it loose in our vegetable garden. Zach likes them, and it looks like the praying mantis likes him, too.

Hannah wanted to take Home Ec this year. She pretty much already knows everything to be covered, but she wanted to do it anyway. She finish a study on yeast breads today. She made a double batch of Challah bread. We use the Challah bread recipe from Tammy’s Recipes.

Kneading the dough…..

 

The dough just kind of exploded today. It was very hot and humid today. Even though we have a/c I think it still affected the dough. She should have gotten 8 small loaves from the recipe, as that’s the amount we usually get. But today, she got 8 large loaves.8 beautiful loaves!

Part of her assignment was to share the bread she made with others. So tonight she wrapped up some loaves and we went on a bread delivery run.

The neighbors were very happy to receive freshly made bread. She has a couple more loaves to deliver tomorrow. I think all those beautiful loaves deserve an A+, what do you think?

 

Abby wanted to do an American Girl study, so she chose Felicity. We use Portraits of American Girlhood for our studies. We’ve used it in the past with other American Girls and we like it. As part of her unit, she made Queen’s Cakes the other day. She did a great job, and everyone liked them.

This is a shot you don’t normally see. We take plates of food outside for better lighting when we’re taking pictures to post here. And there are always cats that come running to see if we will give them anything. lol

Did you see the chicken coming to see what Abby had? lol It makes photographing food somewhat challenging. lol

The whole family loves it when school involves food!

 

For more homeschool posts, please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up
Weekly Homeschool Highlights