Weekly Wrap-Up: The one with the first week of school 2016

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Weekly Wrap-Up

Happy Friday, y’all! We survived! We made it through the first week of a new school year. Y’all, let me just say, I can’t comprehend how I can have 9th and 11th-grade students this year. How did the years go by so fast?

My plan for the week was to simply get us back into a routine. My plan for school was to have the kids read something, write something, and do some math. Next week is soon enough to get down and dirty with schoolwork.

Monday turned out to be a marathon guidance counseling session with each kid – and felt surprisingly productive. Josh and I looked at how many credits he’s earned, how many he needs, and what sort of classes he needs to take to get there.

homeschool math

He wants to learn wiring and electronic sorts of things this year, and he wants to rebuild a computer from a shell that a friend has. Sounds good to me. He’s also opted to do chemistry with Chemistry 101 and some supplements.

He’s going to learn American Sign Language with Megan and I (since that fell by the wayside last year), and both kids are going to do a government course with A Noble Experiment and Constitutional Literacy. We’ve even invited a couple of friends for our own mini co-op.

Megan wants to study astronomy this year, and we’ve opted to do that with Experience Astronomy, an online class that starts in September. If you want to join me, you can sign up until August 27. Use coupon code WUH10 to take 10% off your entire order until August 12. There are discounts for multiple students in the same family.

She also wants to study World War I and World War II – and the Titanic, which prompted us to take a field trip the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge yesterday! (More on that in a minute.)

family field trip

Ready to embark on a fun family field trip

Megan has really impressed me with how enthusiastic she is about taking the reins of her education this year. During our guidance counseling session, we sat down and ordered her a brand new customized planner from A Plan in Place. It should be here by early next week, if not this weekend.

Megan’s BFF is thinking about taking the sign language course, too, so they can practice together over FaceTime. That would really be helpful for both of them.

Tuesday and Wednesday were read something, write something, do some math days.

Yesterday was the highlight of our week – we went to the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge. Brian and I went a couple of years ago and loved it. We’d talked several times about taking the kids. Now that Megan wants to study the Titanic, it seemed like the perfect time.

Titanic Museum

Brianna was off work, and Josh hasn’t started his job yet, so Brian took off, and we all went. We had a fabulous time! I highly recommend this museum if you ever get a chance to go. They offer a nice discount to homeschool families, too.

I’d already prepared my resident photographer, Megan, that they won’t let you take photos inside (disappointing for a blogger, too), so we were pleasantly surprised when we were informed that we could take one picture – of the actual violin that belonged to Wallace Hartley.

Mr. Hartley was the band leader on the Titanic. When the ship began sinking, he and the rest of the band played music on the deck right until the very end, before going down with the ship.

Wallace Hartley Violin

Mr. Hartley’s body was one of only 3 band members’ bodies recovered, and his violin was in the bag pictured, strapped to his chest. It was purchased by a private collector for $1.7 million and is on loan to the Titanic Museum until Labor Day 2016.

It was an absolutely fabulous way to spend the day with my family.

Today, Josh has orientation for his new job at Chick-Fil-A, and he starts next week. My babies are growing up. {sigh}

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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. What a lovely field trip! We will be going to the a similar museum in Northern Ireland where the Titanic sailed from. If you would like me to take photos for you I’d be very happy to. We are going during October when we are back visiting home (check out their website – https://titanicbelfast.com/)

    1. I heard about that museum. I bet it’s amazing! I’d love to see some photos. I bet you’re going to have a fabulous time.

  2. That museum looks so awesome! We all love to learn about the Titanic, especially my 16 yr old son. I love how you had “counseling sessions” with them the first day of school. I really should do that when my older kids start later this month because even though I have all their curriculum, I don’t know how we’re going to use it, yet.

    1. You know, I really thought I was going to feel that we’d wasted time and didn’t have a very productive day, but that was such a great time with each of the kids. They don’t like to think about school during summer break (to be honest, neither do I), so I don’t get very much input when I try to talk about that stuff during the summer. However, since it was our first day of school, their brains were in school mode. They gave me a lot of great input and were receptive to my suggestions. I think we’re going to make that a first day of school tradition.

  3. I noticed the teaching text books on the computer above! After several years of Math tears, seriously, we had to make a change. So far so good with the TT.

  4. What a fantastic start to a new school year. I love the titanic museum and totally want to go back some day. We went the year it opened and my kids were little tikes back then.
    Blessings, Dawn

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