Weekly Wrap-Up: The Last Week of Break

Home Science Tools Banner
* This post may contain affiliate links or sponsored content. *

Did you like this article? If so, please help by sharing it!

Weekly Wrap-Up

I can’t believe that it’s our last Friday of summer break already. This is the part of year round schooling that I don’t like. The kids aren’t crazy about this part either. I don’t even think Josh knows yet. He asked me last week when we were starting back. I asked him if he really wanted to know and he decided that he didn’t.

This feels like the most low-key start to school ever. I haven’t even really done any planning. Of course, with the curriculum we’re using, there isn’t much planning required. I did sit down and make a list of supplies I’ll need for our first couple of science labs.

I really thought about putting off the start of school for another week. I’m not fully convinced that I won’t do it. Still, I keep telling myself that it’s just part of our lifestyle. It doesn’t have to be a big to-do. It’s just a matter of getting back into routine. Megan has an outing with the youth group at church on Wednesday (Josh didn’t want to go), so we’ll only be doing a few days next week anyway. I thought it might be a good way to ease back into routine.

I’ll be attending two curriculum fairs the last two weeks of the month – Chattanooga and Southeast Tennessee Home Education Association’s Homeschool Expo for Geography Matters on July 19 and 20 and The Southeast Homeschool Expo for Lexercise on July 26 and 27. Anybody attending either?

With those two events coming up, Megan’s youth group event next week, and Brianna being out of town the first part of next week, I’m not planning on jumping back into a full course load until the last week of the month. All that to say, I keep telling myself we might as well get started on Monday and at least get back into a routine.

Does anybody else go through those kind of “psych yourself up” pep talks when it’s time to start school? I’m actually excited about the school year and that things we’ll be doing. It’s just getting back into a more disciplined daily routine after several weeks of a much more laid-back schedule that’s hard – but also a bit of a relief.

Don’t forget, I’ll be hosting a special “share your curriculum” edition of the Weekly Wrap-Up on July 19. I’ll be updating my curriculum page between now and then and sharing what we’ll be using this year. Like I said, I’m pretty excited. There aren’t many big changes since we’ve already been using stuff we love.

Did everybody have a good 4th of July? (To all my non-American readers, I hope you’re 4th of July was good, too, even though it probably didn’t involve fireworks and cookouts.) Ours was good, but rainy. I honestly can’t remember the last time it rained all day on July 4. We had our cookout anyway. My husband, brother-in-law, and cousin stood out in the rain and grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone.

The best part? Homemade ice cream! I can’t even remember the last time I had homemade ice cream. I can say with some degree of certainty that it’s been 10 years or more.

I was craving it so much that I was online yesterday afternoon trying to find ice cream makers locally. No one had any in stock except Wal-mart and the only one they had had terrible reviews. Long story short, Brian thought he remembered seeing one in the attic. I knew that we used to have one, but thought we might have gotten rid of it.

Brian climbed up in the attic and there it was! We cleaned it up and it still worked great – probably better than the ones made in more recent years. I’ve gotta tell you, though – it made me feel very old pulling the old, dusty ice cream maker out of the attic. It seemed like one of those things your grandparents might do. I thought that might sound odd until I told my sister and she agreed that it sounded like something old people do.

I have a pretty fuzzy memory of my dad pulling an old hand-cranked ice cream maker out of storage and cleaning it off for a cookout years ago. I guess I’m becoming my parents. Whatever. Nobody was teasing us while they were eating yummy, homemade ice cream.

How was your week? Be sure to post about it and link up. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines. You can also follow the guidelines link to grab the banner code.

**Remember, be sure to link directly to your Weekly Wrap-Up post so that others can find it easily when they visit your blog and be sure to post a link back here so that your readers can find the Wrap-Up and join us.

**Was your link deleted? Click here.**



+ posts

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.

Did you like this article? If so, please help by sharing it!

10 Comments

  1. Glad you had a great July 4th! Home made ice cream makes everything that little bit better, in my humble opinion. We’ve just had a bowl with chocolate flake. Ahhh, I was born to eat!
    Hope next week goes well.

  2. Kudos to you for doing something on the 4th even in the rain. We didn’t do anything because of the rain. Maybe I’ll dig out the ice cream maker to make up for it!

  3. I know those start of school blahs! That’s one reason we don’t really get going until September, when all the other kids go back to school too. But we try to keep up a bit in the summer, and to prepare a bit in the late summer. But you’ll be able to make it work, even if you do only a few hours a day.

    Maybe have some home made ice cream afterwards!

  4. We are going year-round for the first time and started two weeks ago. It felt super weird to be starting up when schools were winding down. But I wanted to have more frequent breaks to avoid burnout so I stuck with it. Now our first break will happen in just a few weeks so I think I can make it!

    1. Avoiding burnout and getting those much-needed breaks more frequently is what makes me press on when it feels like summer is just getting into full swing and we’re starting school already. Enjoy your first year of year ’round schooling!

  5. I’m going to the curriculum fair in Chattanooga! This is my first time to go and I’ll be starting preschool with my son this year. I’m excited, super nervous and I’m sure I’ll be completely overwhelmed when I go.

    1. Yes, you probably will be completely overwhelmed. I was the first time I went. It’s exciting, too, though. Stop by the Trail Guide booth and say hi. 🙂

Leave a Reply to Betty Jo Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.