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Weekly Wrap-Up: The one with all the stuff that’s working

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Weekly Wrap-Up

Happy Friday, y’all! I hope you’ve had an excellent week. With the exception of one emotional breakdown, my week has been great. The emotional breakdown was mine and had nothing to do with school, but everything to do with kids growing up. And maybe a little hormonal fluctuation thrown in for good measure. I’m not alone, right?

Oh, and thank you all for your prayers last week. One of the kids got a scrape and wound up with a staph infection. We were fearful that it could be MRSA, but it has responded well to antibiotics and is almost cleared up.

So, what’s been going on in our neck of the woods? Well, the biggest thing this week is that Brianna started cosmetology school on Monday.

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She was a little worried that she might now like it, but she really has. What’s really great for her is that it’s only an hour or two of bookwork each day and the rest is hands-on. She’s all about just getting in there and doing stuff.

Cosmetology School

She came home yesterday and told me that she voluntarily took a quiz that she didn’t have to take because she can take it again later, but thought that going ahead and getting a practice run in would help her do better. Um, yeah. My jaw dropped,  too. It’s amazing what being engaged and invested in what you’re learning does for your attitude.

In other news, I had a moment of great excitement this week when I realized that I had, once again, been able to successfully send my 7th and 9th graders to complete their day’s work independently. It was one of my goals this year to move them to as much independence as possible. To try to help that along, I got each of them a student planner and we went through the Victus Study Skills System at the start of the school year.

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I am so pleased with how well it’s going! We do everything that we need to do together first, then, I make sure they have everything that they need to work on independently written down in their planners. I have them leave their phones and electronic devices with me and off they go! They can take breaks after 30 minutes or so of work. During their breaks, they show me their progress and can check and respond to texts. (I’m trying to be flexible since many of their friends aren’t back to school yet).

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Once all of their work is completed for the day, they show me their completed assignments. If everything is done and doesn’t show glaring signs of being rushed through to be done, they can reclaim their electronics.

This week has been mostly review of last week’s science unit and independent research for their current history unit. With the history curriculum we’re using, the kids are to choose their own topic to research during the second week. It was cool to see what they each chose and how excited each of them are about their topic. Josh chose to research how guitars are made and the history behind them. Megan chose to research what Noah’s Ark may have actually looked like.

This past weekend, Josh’s music school played at a festival in a nearby city. That boy loves to play and I love to watch him.

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I’ve also remained fascinated by our arachnid friend, Charlotte. She seems to eat well. I’ve seen three different insects wind up in her web and I’ve been able to watch her wrapping up two of them.

Charlotte2

This past week, I went out to check on her and she started bouncing her web, shaking it vigorously. I told Brianna I didn’t know if that was some kind of defense mechanism designed to frighten off predators or not, but it worked! It creeped me out and I went back inside!

Yesterday the boy left to go out of town with a friend. I would appreciated your prayers for safe travel. This is the furthest he’s ever been away from home without us. This is also the last big interruption to our school schedule. After this, we should be able to get into a fairly normal, consistent routine.

This weekend, I’ll be working on putting the finishing touches on my back-to-school Facebook party. It’s happening next Tuesday, August 12, from 8-10 PM (ET). We’ve added some new giveaways from folks like:

I hope you’ll be able to join us!

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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.

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11 Comments

  1. Let’s see, your week sounds a bit like mine:
    Emotional outbursts due to growing up – check
    Staph infections – we tried to grow one, does that count? – check
    Daughter studying cosmetology – no, but they have both asked to do a house keeping course next week. They might as well have asked me to teach them chemical engineering. I am not one of life’s little house keepers – no check
    Son making varying amounts of noise on drums followed by husband who was trying to outdo him – check
    Lots of independent study going on – check
    A Charlotte who eats everything she can gets her hands on – check (although in my case Charlotte is a daughter – but watching her eat sometimes makes me want to run away – still counts though, right?)
    Have a great weekend Kris xx

  2. How exciting for Breanna! My daughter is 27 school days away from completing her cosmetology education! She just accepted a job offer at THE salon she wanted to work at. We are so excited for her future!!

  3. I’m so glad all is well with the tests – that’s never fun. And I am with you on the meltdown, even without hormones betraying us, it’s an emotional journey. Oy. I think I’m still in shock.

    I’m really interested in this Victus, I’m going to have to keep that in mind as Bram matures.

    Is your Pampered Chef party still open?? I had 3 items in my cart and forgot to check out :-/ That’s what happens when I shop without my wallet right beside me.

    1. Um, is it bad that I don’t know if my party is still open? I haven’t talked to my consultant this weekend, so I don’t know if she’s closed it yet or not.

    1. It has been very effective and after the first day or so, there has been very little grumbling about it. The kids are honest enough to admit that electronics are very distracting and just make the school day take longer.

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