Weekly Wrap-Up: Pre-Break Week
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Happy Friday, y’all! I’m tossing a little confetti over here today. There is nothing that requires my direct instruction today, which means my first break week of the 2014-2015 school year has begun!
Unfortunately, it looks like it’s going to be the busy sort of break week with doctor and hair appointments. Still, it’s much easier to do those things on a break week than trying to fit them into our school day.
Sunday was Brian’s and my 23rd wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe the years have gone so quickly. We didn’t really get to do any celebrating Sunday. We both worked in our different areas at church, had a meeting after church, followed by my mandatory Sunday nap, and ending with our first Life Group meeting. We could have skipped the meeting, but we were both looking forward to seeing who’s going to be in our group this year – and there was barbeque.
Some random photos of my kids since I didn’t take any pictures this week
Since Sunday had been so busy, Brian and I went out to lunch Monday. That’s a little nicer anyway. It’s not so crowded and it’s cheaper. Afterward, we all had dental appointments. The older I get, the more I hate dental appointments. They were supposed to be scheduled for our break week, but with the busy schedule the kids had this summer, I wound up pushing break week back a week. Since this week is over already, I’m feeling pretty good about that decision now.
It’s been a pretty easy week for me as the teaching parent. Josh and Megan had a self-directed project for history and it was review/study week for science. I’m liking this being a mom to older, independent learners stuff.
Speaking of science and review, if anyone knows of some good supplemental resources for biology, let me know. We like the Crash Course videos I mentioned last week, and I love Pandia’s Biology 2, but I think both my kids would benefit from spending at least two weeks on each unit and having some more supplemental stuff – videos, coloring pages (of the more grown-up variety), hands-on activities, etc.
Both kids have been busy with extracurricular activities and are gearing up to be even busier. Josh has rehearsal this weekend for performances with his music school and they’ve got four or five performances in September.
Megan has been getting together with some girls to toss softball and hit a bit so she’s not so rusty when softball season rolls around. It’s been years since she’s played, but she wants to play next spring.
It looks like she’s also going to be adding another gymnastics night to her schedule, too. She really loves gymnastics and is hoping to make the team soon, which would mean a lot more practice.
Brianna is still really enjoying cosmetology school. I think I’m going to go next week to be a guinea pig for eyebrow waxing. I won’t deny hoping that I’m the first one to go in for it so her instructor can demonstrate on me.
I think that’s it for my highlights from the week. Don’t forget that I’ve still got two giveaways open. One if for a chance to win a family of homeschool shirts, and there is also a chance to enter an Instagram photo contest on that one. The other is for a $50 Amazon card.
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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.
You might want to try McGraw-Hill’s virtual labs: https://www.mhhe.com/biosci/genbio/virtual_labs_2K8/ or from Prentice-Hall: https://www.phschool.com/science/biology_place/labbench/
Happy anniversary!
Sounds like a lovely week! Thankfully, I’m not feeling like I need a break yet…but I do smile as I look at the schedule and see it slowly creeping up.
Enjoy!
Happy anniversary. And good luck with cometitive gym. My 13 yo dd does competitive trampolining and I seem to spend all my life driving to and from her gym. I found many of the extra curricular resources mentioned in the teachers guide for RSO Biology to be good. For colouring books there is this one – https://www.harpercollins.com/web-sampler/9780064603072 (you can see some samples ) or this one https://www.amazon.com/Biology-Coloring-Workbook-Workbooks/dp/0679778845 (no samples but it is Princeton so I’m guessing it is thorough). This site – https://askabiologist.asu.edu/activities/coloring – has a few nice pages, especially for cells. My daughter is doing better with the later sections than with cells and genetics. She is already more familiar with the material and it’s less technical than the cells/genetics sections. Since she may end up studying zoology at university level we’ll probably be revisiting cells and genetics again before her high school years are done so I’m happy with less than perfect understanding. I have heard Blair Lee, RSO author, is meant to be posting some videos to help with the first sections but I don’t know when. We may do some review when she does!
Thanks! I’ll check those resources out. And, {ahem} I’ll take a look at the teacher’s guide. I had completely forgotten there were supplemental resource suggestions there.