Getting Organized and Loving It!!

    This post is linked to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal 

over at The Homeschool Chick.

The Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and
Favorite Resource This Week at Learning ALL the Time

Make sure you hop over to see what other homeschool moms did this week!

In my life this week…Boo is finally recovering from being sick. Yay! It has been a long three weeks of him being under the weather. I am feeling better, too. The other kids all seem to be fine, except for Ladybug, who has allergy eyes today, and sniffles. 

Our good friends, Lady L. and her five wonderful kids, came over on Wednesday for a visit and to check out what was new on the Bookmobile. Tex always enjoys recommending books for his friends to read (since he reads so much...maybe he will be a librarian someday?), and he has them hooked on the Percy Jackson series from Rick Riordian. In fact, he received Son of Neptune, the newest book in the second series, from his brilliant mom (me!) for his birthday, finished it in under 24 hours, and then passed it on to me (and I finished it in about two days...being sick is good for catching up on reading). They are fun books, but if you have a problem with your older kids reading fantasy, or about obviously imaginary Greek and Roman "gods," then you should skip them (but you will be missing out on some good laughs!).

Having a nice time with Briar Rose, or Rosie, 

our Shetland-Quarter Horse baby pony.

Yeah, go ahead, laugh if you want. 

It IS an unlikely combination...

But she is adorable, and sweet, too.

In our homeschool this week…The younger group got to read a book about ponds and they drew pictures of what they read about. We watched a video on Egypt together, read a book about the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, made a cartouche necklace, wrote letters to the grandmas and great-grandmas, and started working on Math Mammoth, which we are reviewing. They also played with their Duplo Legos quite a bit, and spent plenty of time playing outside with their bikes, the baby pony, and their new sidewalk chalk and bubbles. 

Tex is loving his new (birthday gift/school) computer and accessories.

Tex finished up the last of his ten lessons of Visual Latin (another review item), set up his new printer, finished putting together his notebook (to keep all his reading records, math charts, worksheets, etc. in), started working on the "Alice 2.2" programming lessons, wrote some thank you notes, caught up on his Exploring Creation with Physical Science experiments, and did plenty of Khan Academy. He LOVES his new laptop. So do I. I hope it is my turn to get a new one next...Oh yeah, and Tex and I read Son of Neptune. Does that count for school?

Bubble time!!

Boo was obviously feeling better because he repeatedly got into trouble by climbing places he should not have been to get things he should not have played with. This morning he climbed to get into our school drawers and got some scissors (blunt primary ones) and cut a pillow cover I had quilted years ago. Sigh. What am I going to do with him????

What’s working for us...Nanny helped us rearrange the boys' room downstairs so that two desks (with two computers on them) fit in it now. A third computer (the netbook) sits on the cedar trunk by the bed with a padded footstool for a chair, so all three of the Amigos can do their online schoolwork at the same time. It is much more efficient and helps me to be able to get and keep them on task more easily. Plus, they finish the online stuff (Mathletics, Reading Eggs, some review items) before lunch so that after lunch we can do our "fun" and "creative" together activities for an hour or so (and we don't even start "school" until ten most days since morning chores take a while, and I am not getting up at the crack of dawn to do them). Thanks for the help, Mom!

Cowboy after eating chocolate ice cream. 

Thank goodness Zote soap works so well!

Thoughts I have…If I could just get "caught up," I think our days would go pretty smoothly and I might start having more fun instead of always feeling behind. I know the "to do list" will never be empty, but if it would just get to fewer than a dozen important items...

Ladybug is always hard at work, even when it is fun work.

She's just a hard worker. What a blessing.

My favorite thing this week was…Watching the kids be so excited over being able to do all their work at one time, and then seeing how Ladybug rose to the occasion and acted as helper whenever I was busy doing kitchen chores, or laundry, or something. Great job, sweetie! You are a gem!!

I am inspired by…Cindy Rushton. I discovered her seminars when we moved here and I was on limited activity (pregnant with Boo). Her peppy and heartfelt talks cheered me up, and I felt like I had a friend in the room with me. She's having a sale this week on her notebooking set, which is great, if you want to find out more about it and don't have many printables of your own already. Her "brain in a binder" is awesome (and it is included in the set that is for sale). She's featured on Homeschool Freebie of the Day today, so head over for a freebie and check out her sale! You can get more freebie audio lectures from Cindy HERE.

 Firefly is ready for church...such a pretty and sweet four-year-old big girl!

My favorite homeschooling resource this week…I had fun exploring links for mini-offices this week, and printed up several things I found links to on this Squidoo lens about mini-offices. The kids have a mini-office hanging on their school area bulletin board now, and have loved referring to it since I posted it. Give a mini-office a try!! I'd love to have you share any links to mini-office posts you may have, or favorite resources for your own, if you have time to  leave a comment. Thanks!

Have a blessed week,

Heather