This week in homeschooling: We get back to work

01/08/2016 Nichole

I was expected something between light gnashing-of-teeth and complete anarchy when the holidays ended and it was time to get back to work, and I was very pleasantly surprised to be wrong. Maybe the kids are maturing, or perhaps we were all just well-rested and ready to get back to normal, or maybe it’s the yoga I’ve been doing every morning. Whatever the reason, this year’s Return from Christmas Break was the smoothest transition we’ve ever had, and I’m grateful for it.

Social Studies

The kids finished Volume 3 of “Story of the World” before the holidays, and I decided to hold off on starting Volume 4 until next school year. We’re going to focus on US Geography for the rest of this year. I have several geography textbooks, teaching guides and notebooking resources, and I’m using a little bit of each of them to cobble together our own curriculum. We’re going to try to cover one state every week.

We kicked things off this week with a South Carolina study. We did some map work, filled out a fact sheet and started a biography of civil rights activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune. We were going to try some basket weaving, but the yarn I thought I had in the basement had at some point been unraveled to serve as a cat toy and was subsequently trashed. So it goes. This afternoon we made sweet tea, which we’ll be sipping as we snack on the homemade cheese straws we’re going to make once the butter softens.

Language Arts

Reading

We didn’t read it at all over our break, so we’re still working through “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” It’s beginning to feel like we’ll be reading it for the rest of our lives.

Pete has been reading his assigned books suspiciously quickly. I know he’s a fast reader, but I’m concerned that he isn’t taking the time to absorb what he’s reading. So we’re changing things up a bit. He started reading an adaptation of “The Jungle Book” out loud to me. I’m not sure how he feels about it, but I’m thoroughly enjoying it. I haven’t been read to in a long time.

Writing

Poppy asked repeatedly over the holidays if I’d ordered Level 4 of Writing Strands for her yet. I had, and she very happily started it this week. The kids are also working independently on mystery stories featuring our cats.

Grammar

We’ll be finishing “Grammar Island” early next week, and I still haven’t bought “Grammar Town” yet. The series has really clicked with both kids, so I’d love to continue with it. It’s $300 for the full package, though, and that’s a very big slice of my homeschool-budget pie.

Memorization

I was expecting to review Washington through Cleveland for awhile, since we didn’t do it at all over Christmas break, but both kids recited it with no problem on Monday to we moved on to McKinley through Harding.

Math

Poppy started factoring and Pete started division this week. They both picked up the new concepts pretty quickly.

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!

Family matters

Things that have happened thus far on this, the fifth day of Twenty-Sixteen

01/05/2016 Nichole 3 Comments

1.
I came around the corner to find Poppy pinning Pete to the ground with his arm twisted behind his back while he tried furiously to punch her. I sent them both to their rooms, but first I asked Poppy: “Were you defending yourself, or were you the aggressor?”

She smirked and shrugged.

“Both,” she said.

2.
Pete strode out of the bathroom like he was kind of a big deal.

“Hey Mama,” he said. “I think you’ve got a clogged toilet in there.”

3.
I’m coping with the previously mentioned Things by reading a book and listening/seatdancing/dance-dancing to the Genius list my iTunes created based on “Coming Home” by Leon Bridges. It really is a genius playlist (Alabama Shakes, Sly and the Family Stone, Wyclef, Stevie Wonder, Aretha, Bruno Mars, Al Green, M.I.A., Justin Timberlake, Michael Jackson).

menu plan Monday

We may be back in the real world, but we have not stopped eating cheese for every meal

01/04/2016 Nichole 1 Comment

Hello, and welcome to the first Butterscotch Sundae dispatch of 2016! Not only is it my first post of the year, it’s the first menu plan! Excitement all around!

We had a very nice New Year’s Eve at Rockford’s sister’s house, and we come home on Friday evening to discover that our DVR had not recorded the new “Sherlock” special. So that was a bummer. But the kids helped Rockford take down all of the Christmas decorations — our Christmas tree awaits pickup at the curb at the moment — and they went to see “The Road Chip” while I spent a few hours at Target and Michaels and Kitchen & Co. and Pier One, and it was an altogether fine weekend despite the lack of Cumberbatch & Co.

(It airs again on the 10th, so all is not lost.)

Today we are all endeavoring to return to work and school, and it hasn’t been completely smooth sailing for any of us. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just ease back into things with a week of half-days after the holidays?

Monday: Macaroni and Cheese: I made the Homeroom
Once upon a time, Poppy was a toddler who dumped macaroni and cheese onto her head.
recipe on Christmas Day, but it didn’t come out as creamy and luxurious as it should have because I left it in the oven too long and it dried out. I blame the residual stress from Rockford’s Rockin’ ER Christmas Afternoon Special. (It was a kidney stone, and it is no longer with us.) I was terribly disappointed in the dry mac, so I’m making it again for dinner tonight. We’ll also be having salad to offset the cheese intake.

Tuesday: Chicken enchilada casserole: I found the layered chicken and black bean enchilada casserole recipe several years ago on AllRecipes.com when I wanted some enchiladas but didn’t want to wrap them all up. The corn tortillas tend to get a little mushy, but the flavor is acceptable.

Wednesday: Grilled cheese sandwiches: Rockford and Pete will probably stop for a cheeseburger after basketball practice, but Poppy and I will be at home enjoying grilled cheese.

Thursday: Appetizer night: I’m not sure exactly what’s in the freezer, but I know we have a few boxes of Trader Joe’s appetizers that I never used during our holiday entertaining. I’m also going to make Alton Brown’s Spinach-Artichoke Dip, which looks to be the simplest recipe he’s ever produced.

Friday: Pizza: One of my New Year’s Resolutions was to make homemade pizzas more often. I’m going with the tried-and-true Almost Famous Barbecue Chicken Pizza this week.

Happy New Year to you and yours, and I hope you all have relatively painless re-entries into the non-holiday world.

Still hungry? Check out Menu Plan Monday at OrgJunkie for more menu plans!