Mohaus Schoolhouse Week 15

I have been blogging for a long time (since 2003!), and would consider myself to be a pretty avid social media user, but I still struggle with where the best place is to share our homeschool adventures.

Videos on Facebook have been my go-to in an effort to stay accountable (mostly to myself), but I don't know if that is truly the right place.

So I am going back to my roots and will be once again writing on my blog and sharing links to FB and Instagram. If you are so inclined to follow along –whether you want inspiration for your own homeschool, are curious about what homeschool might look like, or you are just family/friends who want to keep up with we us– this will be the place.

Following is an overview of some of what we have going as part of our weekly home education.

Books we read:
Peter Pan is an audio book we are following along with. I don't remember reading this before (though I loved the various movies I have seen), so it is a treat to listen along with my kiddos.

We started listening to The Little Pilgrims Progress several weeks ago and are almost at the end. I wasn't sure how the boys would like it, but according to Jack, it is his favorite "podcast" (we are listening to it in the car and he thinks everything audio is a podcast!).

We are in the process of reading The One and Only Ivan aloud. I was actually trying to follow along with a Bravewriter group on this one to see how we liked it, but we never quite got aligned with the group promts. However, we are still enjoying the story. If you are considering Bravewriter, you could give this group a go to get a feel for the program. I really want to do a book club/party school surrounding a read-aloud. So if you are homeschool friends with us and are interested in something like that, give me a shout and maybe we can figure out something for January.

Last week, we wrapped up The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place and the Mysterious Howling, and I am hooked! There as a great cliff hanger at the end of this book, and I can't wait to read more to the boys. They loved all of the howling that took place throughout the story, and I loved that it had parts that reminded me of My Fair Lady and Jane Eyre (two of my favorite stories!).

Our bedtime book right now is How to Be a Pirate! The boys are both enjoying me reading a chapter to them each night. Jack has decided we need to read the entire How to Train Your Dragon series... I have a feeling this might be a good first series of books to get him to love reading on his own.

For history, we are reading passages from Words that Built a Nation, and Never too Young. These beautiful books are full of wonderful information. I'm sure I am learning just as much as Jack.

We just started The Story for Kids as a part of our Bible study. It has great questions at the end of each chapter.

Podcasts we listened to:
The Same Page podcast has become my favorite way to start our school day. Each week we listen to a different core episode every single day for the entire week. This 5-minute episode includes a passage of scripture (from James right now), a passage from Shakespeare (currently from Romeo & Juliet), a poem or two (If by Rudyard Kipling and Who Has Seen the Wind by Christina Rossetti), and finally a series of facts about the Presidents (last week was Andrew Jackson). By listening to this daily, we are all memorizing tidbits of great literature. It may be my favorite part of our day!

Learning Apps we used:
Math Tango and Prodigy have been great resources for killing time in the car and are good practice for Jack. We also use the Bible App for Kids. Jack likes listening to the stories and then playing the games related to the story. It starts in Genesis and paired really nicely with our reading of The Story for Kids.

Movies we watched:
Have you seen Peter Rabbit on Netflix? We watched it after reading the story by Beatrix Potter. Jack and Isaac thought it was hilarious. I have been trying to find a copy of the movie The Wizard of Oz at the library (we finished this book a couple of weeks ago), but haven't been able to, so we tried watching The Muppets in Oz. We were not fans of this version and I hope to rent the real one from Amazon soon.

Other Activities:
The boys have been really into building with K'nex lately. They can spend hours just building various things. I love seeing them be creative in this way.

It was really cold last week and we decided to skip our weekly hike. But we are continuing to notice all of the winter birds outside of our windows. As part of our study of birds, we looked at several nature books and took time to paint pictures of the bluebirds we saw.

On Wednesday we met friends at the park after they got home from school. It was frigid, but the kids didn't mind. They sipped hot cocoa and then ran around like crazy kids who obviously needed to burn off some energy.

Thursday I took the boys to meet friends for roller skating – a first for them. They had an absolute blast and Jack has been pestering me daily to go back.

Over the weekend we started to set up our house for Christmas. It was a joy to see our boys get so excited about their personal ornaments, and also the family ornaments from all of our travels.

 

Check back next week to see what we have been up to.

What Our Homeschool Looked Like in November:
Week 12 (Nov. 4-10)
Week 13 (Nov. 11-17)
Week 14 (Nov. 18-24)
Week 15 (Nov. 25-Dec. 1)

Mohaus Schoolhouse Week 14

Week 14 of our homeschool was a partial week because of Thanksgiving, but we still managed to squeeze in fun and learning.

Sunday night we hosted a Friendsgiving then Monday we had a group of Homeschool friends over to celebrate Thanksgiving. The kids looked for leaves in our yard for a craft, while also climbing our rock walls and sliding down the hill in the leaves. We used the leaves to make turkeys while I read the book, Gobble Gobble Crash to the kids. Lunch was leftovers from our Friendsgiving as well as slices of deli turkey and mac-and-cheese. The kids, and moms, had a lovely time together.

On Tuesday Jack and I did our regular schedule of schoolwork and also had the opportunity to see how many different kinds of birds are in our back yard right now. There were a dozen or so bluebirds, sparrows, cardinals, a blue jay and even a woodpecker. That evening we enjoyed the annual Chili & Pie Supper with our church family.

Wednesday we met up with a local hiking club to hike and play by the Piney River just north of Spring City my boys had a blast tramping around the woods with a gaggle of other little boys (Isaac has a rough start to the hike but eventually came around).

Thursday we slept in and then met my little brother at Cracker Barrel in Lookout Valley for Thanksgiving brunch.

After our delicious breakfast we took the boys to explore the Boulders on Lookout and then took advantage of our National Park pass and visited Point Park on the top of Lookout Mountain. We were blessed with amazing weather. 

After hiking we headed across town to visit with Daniel’s dad and his wife and her family. And enjoyed a Thanksgiving Meal with them. The kids were excited to have a ton of kids to play with, and are always glad to see their Grandpa and Abuela.

Friday the kids enjoyed more visiting and playing with their Uncle. We took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch Playground and then their Uncle Mark treated us to treats at Pruitts. And we showed him the Brow view on the way home. 

That night we enjoyed the boat parade downtown at Chattanooga’s Cheer at the Pier and ended the night with Jack pulling his first loose tooth and fireworks.

Saturday was more playing and getting the house ready to decorate for Christmas. That night my brother watched the boys while Daniel and I actually went on a date.

Our weeks are a constant state of hands on learning. Some weeks are more fun focused than others but always some kind of learning is taking place.

What Our Homeschool Looked Like in November:
Week 12 (Nov. 4-10)
Week 13 (Nov. 11-17)
Week 14 (Nov. 18-24)
Week 15 (Nov. 25-Dec. 1)

Friendgiving: Give Thanks in All Things

The last month has been an overwhelming one for our community and state. Even though I haven't been directly impacted (other than the smoke from the Chattanooga wildfires), my heart has been heavy as hard things have continued to happen. 

First were the local wildfires, then the week of Thanksgiving a terrible school bus accident left families without children, followed by this week's wildfire that brought destruction to Gatlinburg leaving people without homes, jobs and in some cases family, and finally tornadoes coming on the heels of the fires. 

I have spent a lot of time in prayer recently. I have prayed on behalf of those who have endured hardships that I cannot even begin to fathom. I have questioned why all of this is happening, and continues to happen. And as I have prayed, I am drawn to things I am thankful for. Tragedies have occurred, and there is nothing that can take away from that, but there have been moments of goodness through it all, too. Neighbors helping neighbors. 

People have opened up their homes to strangers, their properties and barns for animals. Food and items have been donated to help take the sting from the most terrible of events. Blood has been given as people have showed up in droves to support those who were injured. Prayer vigils have happened where neighbors and strangers alike have shared a shoulder to cry on and supported in the only way they know how. The response of our community allows me to continue to have faith in humanity. Even at the darkest of times.

This past Sunday our small group gathered for a Friendsgiving. I got out my china and we shared a meal that was seasoned with laughter. We didn't talk about the heartache that I know we are all feeling, but for me it was an evening that was needed amidst the heaviness of life. 

I think I could write pages of all the things I am thankful for, but for now I am most thankful for our families, the friends that we get the privilege of experiencing life with, and this community that we live in – these people who step up and love each other, especially when life is hard. 

"Give thanks in everything." 1 Thessalonians 5:18