With 3 out of 4 kids on vacation and the 4th old enough to direct her own work, I’ve been working on organizing the schoolroom.

I have papers from all 6 kids in there, even though the oldest two are 25 and 23! Time to sort it all out. I’ve been finding lots of treasures. I tried to convince the kids that papers done by their older siblings when they were little are like gold. They’re not buying it, though. lol

A word of advice, put names and dates on everything! I have so many cute papers and drawings with no names!

I have found so many spiral notebooks with just a few pages used. So I’ve been ripping out the used pages so we can use the notebooks. I wish I had taken a picture of the stack before I put it away. I think there was about 20!

I found this inside one of the notebooks.

Apparently, she was excited to finish her book! lol

I didn’t take a before picture of the schoolroom. Might have been too scary.  Here’s what it looked like this afternoon.

The boxes are full of my older 2 kids papers. The green bin behind the desk is filling up with books to get rid of. I’m also having the kids go through books and picking some they don’t want anymore.

Then I’m going through that stack, and picking out the ones I don’t want to get rid of. Goodnight Moon isn’t going anywhere! lol

Here are a few links I found interesting and helpful this week:

Cataloging the Homeschool Library – I really need to do this!

Mom’s Tool Belt has lots of printables

Including Homeschooling Pages

House Rules – We have most of these, too. lol

Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Today was our last day of school!

Last Day of School

The straggler cracks me up. She is the one who decided not to take a break. I still think she could have shared in her siblings exuberance! lol

The other day, one of the kids found a Praying Mantis in one of the flower gardens.

We kept it for a few hours, and took pictures, of course. Then they let it go in the vegetable garden.

But back to the last day of school! The kids celebrated by throwing papers!

Hannah is going to continue working over the summer, the others get the whole month of July off. They will still be reading their Bibles, though.

I will be doing a thorough clean out of the schoolroom. I have papers from when my oldest two were in kindergarten! They are in their 20’s now, so it’s time for me to let all the papers go. That’s the plan anyway. 🙂 I’m sure I’ll be saving a lot, too.

Here are some links I found interesting and helpful:

Stepping Outside the Grade Level Box – I loved this article
Cataloging the Homeschool Library– I really need this!
Mom’s Tool Belt – Homeschooling Pages
Curing Scope and Sequence Syndrome
State Trees quiz
Fun activities listed by month
Nature Detective – Woodland Log

Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

The kids are starting to finish a lot of subjects now that we’re getting close to the end of our school year. Those taking a summer break start that break on July 1st. Hannah 15, has opted to not take a break. I’m sure she will take days off during the month of July. Especially when we have relatives visiting from out of state.

All the kids have math left. And all the kids have finished history and science. Hannah learned how to cut her brothers hair this week. Exciting for her, a little nerve racking for her brother. lol

So they are mostly finishing up math. I have one doing an intensive spelling unit, using the Natural Speller. In this case, intensive means 20 words a day, a pre-test in the morning and a re-test of the words missed in the afternoon. So far, they have gotten all the words right by the end of the day. I told this child that if they didn’t get them all right, they would get homework over the weekend. Another kid asked, “Don’t we always have homework?” lol

They recently found a tree frog and a turtle.

This coming week will find all the kids anxious to be on break, I’m sure. I don’t normally like taking a summer break, but I’m looking forward to this one. I really need to sort through all the books in the school room and downsize.

Here are some links I found helpful:

Torah Homeschool Links
Handbook of Nature Study: First Day of Summer Activity Page
Large Family Homeschool Form
How to Regrow Store Bought Celery – looks like a good summer project!
Want to learn more about edible wild plants & mushrooms? Visit Wildman Steve Brill
Quizlet – has flashcards and quizzes on a variety of subjects. I’m looking specifically at the Hebrew flashcards, they are even printable. And the quiz looks hard! lol

Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

The kids have been working in the garden in the mornings while its cooler. Schoolwork has been waiting until the afternoon. Most of the kids prefer to get their schoolwork done in the morning so they can have the afternoon free. However, it has been so hot in Kentucky this week. So hot that they haven’t even been wanting to play outside in the afternoon. If there is no church at night, or other family activity, we all go back outside and get a little more work done in the “cool” of the evening.

Today, Zach caught a cricket and followed the directions in his science book to make a terrarium for it.

See his little friend inside it’s new home?

We also reviewed Shavuot this week.  And enjoyed a nice family meal together on the first night of Shavuot, complete with everyone’s favorite dairy foods. We had homemade macaroni and cheese and yellow squash casserole. I made the yellow squash casserole with home canned squash from our garden last year, covered with Ranch dressing and mozzarella cheese, then baked. My family loves this! We also had homemade vanilla pudding and chocolate pudding made by the girls for dessert.

It was the first time the girls had made homemade pudding themselves. They did great, except for Abby burning her finger on the pan. The pudding was awesome!  I have no pictures to share as we ate it all. 🙂

The kids also started reading for a summer reading program this week over at Homeschool Buyers Co-op. The kids will have chances to win prizes. My kids are reading a lot to try and win the Ipad2.

Here are some links I found interesting and helpful this week:

Gee Whiz Quiz – A Math Scavenger Hunt Game
American Sign Language University at Lifeprint.com – includes dictionary, free lessons and more!
Why Did 17 Million  Students Go to College?
What is a College Education Really Worth?
Little House on the Prairie – This post has a lot of links for a study of these books

Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Today, I had the kids fill out a Who am I? sheet. I didn’t get too many surprises. It didn’t even surprise me when one of them tried to answer every question with “IDK”. lol  I’m going to have them fill one out at the end of every school year. If I remember. lol I think it will be fun to look back every year and see how much they have changed.

As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t take a long summer break. This is a nice article, Summer Help or Hindrance. I find a long summer vacation more of a hindrance.

Are you a member of the Homeschool Buyers Co-op? They are offering a summer reading program where the grand prize is an Ipad2! They are also giving aways lots of other prizes. This is open to all ages. Also check your local library, most offer a summer reading program.

Here are some links:

Mason Jar Terrariums – great project for kids to make, great gift, also
Organizing Kids School Papers
Painted Pencils – great project, and gift items
Factory Tours USA – find factories that give tours listed by state
Clothespin Button Racers – great fun for a rainy or snowy day
Online Storybook – Charlie the Ranch Dog by Ree Drummond
Homemade Sprinkler – great way to keep the kids entertained on a hot day
The Case for Once a Month Cleaning – Sounds great for homeschooling families!
American Sign Language – View signs online, create quizzes, this looks great!
Good Books for Boys
How to Make Free Watercolors

Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

This week hasn’t been terribly exciting in our home. We’re just plugging along with work.

It ended up being cold this week! Which is highly unusual for Kentucky in May. We did manage to get some work done in the garden yesterday. Today has turned out really warm! So we worked some more in the garden and got a few things planted.

I did talk with each of the kids about their goals this week. More important for the high school kids than the 4th and 6th graders. But since we talked about how much of a summer break they are going to get, the two younger ones were really interested. lol

Hannah, 15, who is completing 10th grade because she worked ahead, doesn’t want to take a summer break. She just wants to keep working. Calen 16, who is completing 10th grade does want to take a break. So as soon as he finishes his books, he will be on vacation until the first week of August. He does spend time working on computers and such, so I’m sure he will make wise use of his time. Or I’ll find lots of work for him to do. lol

The 4th and 6th graders will be only getting the month of July off for vacation. Of course, they will get a day or two off here and there when cousins come to visit.

I’m not a big fan of summer vacations. I learned early on in our homeschool, having started kindergarten with our oldest in 1991, that it’s easier to keep schooling over the summer. I found attitudes about starting school again after summer vacation were less than desirable. Besides, in real life you never get the whole summer off. Unless, of course, you are a teacher. 🙂

One exciting thing did happen since my last homeschool week in review!

I have been selected to be a part of the TOS Homeschool Crew!


I am so excited! I’m really looking forward to reviewing some great homeschool products!

Until next week, here are a few websites I found helpful:

Homeschooling Grades
How to Calculate Grade Point Averages For Homeschooled Students
Homemade Butterfly Feeder

Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights

Zachary was not a State Winner this year. He missed too many. That’s ok, we’re still proud of him! He won a trophy for being an Association Winner, and a certificate for participating in the State Drill.

Congratulations Zachary!!

They are looking forward to taking a break from all that memorizing! We won’t get the papers with what they have to learn for next year for another couple of months.

They will continue to read their Bibles, though!

Next week will find all the kids buckling down so they can finish this years work. Their choice. They want a summer break. I prefer to school year round.

But if they are willing to work hard to finish, I will let them!  🙂

Here are a few links I found helpful:

Spelling City
Charlie the Ranch Dog – online storybook read by the author Ree Drummond

Please visit:
Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Wrapping Up The Week
Weekly Homeschool Highlights