Unexpected Detour and Our Week of School

We made a last minute trip to Kansas.  I say last minute because we got a phone call from my brother saying he was having surgery on Wed so we took off.  I hate the 12hr drive but enjoy spending time with family. 


We brought our books for some school.  We didn't do as much as I had planned but middle son did his math and did his bible reading.  My little one did his math.  The oldest did his physics and he had his bible by his bed for reading at night.  


We did lots of family things.  Between hospital and homes, it took most of our time.  We drove those dreaded 12hrs back home today and got home around 7:30pm.  Bed time is early tonight because that drive is a killer.  The boys saw frosted windows this morning and also saw me trying to rid that frost from the windows so we can start our drive.  Middle son loved to see the frost come back after wetting the window with the windshield washer fluid.  I'll have to check and see what kind of fluid is in my moms car.  Oh and next time we'll go in my van and not in my moms car.  We all hated that tiny car.  Can you say....cramped?

Two Months in Review

I wanted to do the week in review but these past months it has gotten so crazy.  So here is my attempt at getting back on track.  We started our school year off slow.  The first month we worked on language arts and math.  Just the basics.  Middle son who has dyslexia is reading so much better and my baby is reading so wonderfully also.  I'm glad we spent a month just with basics.  We have accomplished working on spelling and reading mostly.  I never thought middle son would get into reading chapter books but he is now.  We still listen to lots of things on audio which is wonderful especially while we are driving.  I would love to be able to read books in the van but I'm not the one that can do that because I always get car sick.  So audio is the way to go.  For spelling we have been working on All About Spelling.  I think I need to pick up the pace on that but it is so much fun that we take our time and have fun.  

Now this month we have added geography, science, history and nature studies.  For geography we are using Galloping the Globe which is a unit study and we are adding science and history through that.  We learn about a country for geography, for science we learn about different animals in that country and for history we learn about people or events that happened in the country.  

We have always done nature studies.  We have learned to identify our local birds and flowers.  This summer has been extremely hot and we have no where to go to escape from it except indoors.  We have no mountains to go to that would be cooler.  Texas is pretty flat for the most part.  South Texas is also very humid so lots of our nature study this past month has been our hummingbirds right outside our window.  We have had scorpions and snakes that decided it was to hot and dry outside and ventured indoors and were quickly captured and studied.  We will be adding art and just doing some fun art projects starting in October using some books we have in our home library.  

Here are some of the things we have used these past two months.  We are still enjoying some of them.  


Stay tuned for more on that....

Time Out or is it?

We have been busy this week and the week is almost over. I can't believe it. Here is what we have been up to.

Monday: We use this day for volunteer work for myself and the boys. It is also our day for groceries and getting things done in town before we get home late in the afternoon. We are always very tired but a happy tired.

Tuesday: We were going to make a trip to the zoo but changed it to Thursday because of rain. So we did school. We did our math and reading. We are also working on a few lapbooks.

Wednesday: I had a friend from out of town come over in the morning. We talked homeschool stuff while the kids played. We had lunch together and the boys went out to play and run around and just have a great physical ed. type of day. All we did that day was continue on our reading of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH.

Thursday: Zoo Day!!!! Yippeeee!! We made a trip to the Houston Zoo. Well, we had to go an hour later because they were going to have some bad thunderstorms early in the morning in Houston. So instead of getting there at 9am when it opens we got there at 10am. Glad we missed all that yucky rain. It turned out to be the most beautiful, cool, breezy, low humidity type of day. It was like the best day to walk around. Well, except for the public school field trips that morning. Have you ever been trampled by a bunch of 6yr olds. Oh, my goodness! My boys just stayed by my side and kept asking me why they were acting like that and why did they all have to yell? Even the teachers and parents were yelling but that was, I imagine, because they had to so they could be heard. Oh and everything was don't touch this or don't do that or stay in line or where is your partner or let's keep up with the group. Anyway, enough of the complaining.

It turned out to be great after lunch because most of the kids left. It was much more quiet and peaceful. We read about different animals. My little one loved the day and would run ahead to see what was next. My middle son loved to listen to me read all the info on different animals that they had. There was a new baby giraffe. At 8 weeks that baby weighs 181 lbs. Wow!! It was soooo cute. They also had a new addition to the zoo. A Red Panda. Now I thought I would see a panda like I saw in the San Diego zoo. Wrong me. It was cute though.

Since it was a windy day we heard the bamboo. Yes, I said heard. They would bang against each other and you could hear a hollow sound. It was so neat to hear that. Reminds me of those bamboo wind chimes that cost way too much money for being bamboo.

After the zoo we went to the Health Museum. It was free admission after 2pm. So we got there at 3 and had fun there too. We saw lungs, the heart, this big boy that if you go around him you see his teeth and on the floor is the tongue with spots for the taste buds. You are actually in his mouth. It's a neat museum and can't beat free!

Finished up the day with dinner at Olive Garden. I love their peach tea. Yum! Oh and we did make a trip to Barnes and Noble but I came out with not one book. *shock, disbelief* We got home at 9:30pm. I am tired and need to finish up here so we can do school tomorrow.

Friday: We will start up our second part of the zoo lapbook now that we did our trip to the zoo.

So no time out for us. All this is learning time.