Weekly-Wrap Up: A Bit of Encouragement

If you’ve homeschooled any length of time you know that some weeks are incredible and some weeks it seems like you’re just trying to hold it all together. I think God gives us those awesome weeks to help us get through the lousy ones.

This week wasn’t great as far as academics go, but it was one of those weeks when I was able to get a glimpse at the fruit of our efforts.

Monday and Tuesday were really whacked. My husband was surprised with a couple days off work- surprised because his truck decided not to start on Sunday and despite his best efforts, it just wasn’t going to budge. For a contractor, NO TRUCK=NO WORK. I don’t know how things in your home work, but when daddy is home, we don’t really get a whole heck of a lot of school work done. Of course that’s better than it had been since the kids are older and don’t need me like when they were younger. They completed all of their individual assignments, completed their Connect the Thoughts courses, finished their math up and did all their individual reading.

Though my husband was off work, we didn’t see him much because he was working on his truck. He did take a break and join us for our Bible reading and devotions and that was a special treat. We're still reading Created for Work: Practical Insights for Young Men by Bob Schultz and I just can't recommend that book enough! Don't let the name fool you, I've found it just as beneficial for myself as for the boys.

We all discovered that campers are some of the most amazing people! I’m grateful for the people that the Lord has placed around us. They were extremely helpful to my husband, ran him to the parts store on numerous occasions, just to get a part that didn’t work, took him to Walmart and asked a mechanic friend to come over and take a peek at his truck. Something above and beyond what we’d have ever asked them to do. By Wednesday, his truck was fixed and the kids and I were itching to get out of the camper. We could not have chosen a better day, it was beautiful.

My husband dropped us off at the nearby art museum and the kids and I explored before heading outside to the park and then meeting up with some homeschool friends for a tour of the local Hardware Store.

While the kids were eating all their retro candy they bought on the field trip, I decided it would be a good time to watch one of the documentaries that I’d selected for school called Food, Inc. We were still watching it when my husband got home. Have you seen it? If not, you may want to take a peek. It certainly reinforced our desire to one day settle down on our own land and try to live a bit more self sufficiently! I don’t care where we are this summer, I’m going to grow as much of my own produce in buckets as we can realistically transport!

Anyways, I mentioned seeing the fruits of my labor right? Do you ever wonder how much your kids are really learning? Surely I am not the only mama out there that occasionally wonders…well at the art museum I was impressed by how much detail they noticed, commenting when some of the paintings reminded them of The Christmas Carol while another reminded them of Shakespeare’s play, Richard III. I was glad they noticed!

We’ve also struggled in math so I backed the kids up because I think it’s so important that they are solid on the basic steps. It wasn’t an easy decision because I was really ready for my oldest to begin algebra; instead we went all the way back to fractions and decimals. Today both boys were commenting how they finally really understand. For five minutes they had this awesome conversation between the two of them as they challenged each other with problems and then checked their answers. They got it! I’m so encouraged!

How about you, has there been an area in your homeschool that you are beginning to see improvements in?

Don't forget to stop by Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for some more Weekly Wrap-Ups! Until next week...Happy Homeschooling!