My weekly journal: June 19, 2013

 

In my life this week...I have to admit as this week progressed I started having second thoughts about public school for my children.  I have such a heart for homeschooling, but I think we need to still go through with it.  I really need some time to figure things out, and I need to see how each child does in a classroom.  I tell ya though, I was ready to scrap the plan yesterday.  It has made me very unsure about anything right now.

Our learning this week...Aaron did some bridge building with his Amazing bridges kit.  He also made a volcano with a Smithsonian giant volcano kit that he got for Christmas.  The volcano came out pretty neat since it was from a kit.  It was also relatively easy (I love kits!).  We also read 2 Magic Tree House books together.  I think he's getting excited about that series again.  I took all the books out to put on a more visible shelf for him to find them, and he decided to organize them and put them in alphabetical order.  He also wrote down the book numbers that we're missing so we can buy those to add to our collection eventually.  Then we discovered the Magic Tree house website for some more fun.  These books may be the key to his liking reading!  He needs any encouragement in reading.  I was very happy to hear him say he would like to read through all the books.  We also watched 2 documentaries we checked out from the library on volcanoes.  Aaron was enthralled, and has now decided that it might be cool to be a volcanologist (which fits in right along with his love for rocks).  I found the National Geographic  one (pictured above) very interesting to watch as well.

  Places we went this week...We finally made it to the library on Thursday (sometmes hard to do during the summer for us).  We joined the homeschool playgroup for a park day on Friday morning.  On Wednesday we headed up to inflatable kingdom with some friends.  Tuesday we went back to school shopping, and Monday we went registered for school.  Oh, and April also went to her first Young Women's activity.  She loved it, and can hardly wait for girls camp now.  That was silly, I kinda went backwards, and out of order!  Oh well you get the picture.

Our fun at inflatable kingdom.

My favorite thing this week... Sunday stations.  I am always trying to find a way to help the kids focus on keeping the sabbath day holy, and activities that prepare them for church.  So, this last Sunday I finally tried out an idea I found on this blog called Sunday stations.  It was a pretty good success.  Most kids did at least 2 out of 5 stations that I set up.  I loved that it gave them a chance to choose something to focus on.  I might start trying to do Sunday stations once a month or so.  The stations I had set up are: Sunday craft and story, articles of faith puzzles, read a church magazine (friend, ensign, or new era magazine), church/gospel games online (lds.org), or journal writing.  Even the youngest loved doing a few of them.

Alex was playing the "match the Prophets" game with me in the top left corner, and the story is The Berenstain Bears say their Prayers.  The craft was an outline of hands and on each finger was written something that the children could pray for with a picture of praying hands glued into the middle.

Now it's time for me to go figure out dinner today!  Yikes, it's almost 5!