School? Oh, yeah. That!

SO, a couple of weeks ago I posted that we were going to take a school break for two weeks to handle up on our house projects. We did, and it was wonderful! I have found that as a homeschooling family, it's all based, well, here. At our home. And as a result, I get so overwhelmed when we've got house projects, ministry and mission materials, school, laundry, and life all co-mingled. Sprinkle some random lyrics from 80's songs in there and it's pretty much a picture of what the inside of my brain might look like! As a result, narrowing my focus for a couple of weeks was just what I needed. We didn't get totally finished with the house, but it was a break from having to teach math and grammar in the midst of it, so it was just what I needed.

Last week we got back to it. We have somewhat of an "abbreviated" schedule at the moment, because I really do have alot on my plate, and I'm being realistic. The one subject in which I refuse to compromise is math. I sat down with their math curricula and figured out how we can still end in May, having covered the material we needed to for each of their levels. I'm loving how Teaching Textbooks offer sreview at the beginning of the next level, so we may just end Pre-Algebra in May and pick up Algebra in August and go from there. (The first 36 or so lessons of the Algebra are a repeat of the end of Pre Algebra.) Kyle will finish Math-U-See 's Epsilon level (fractions) this year, and be able to do Zeta (decimals and percents) next year before beginning TT's Pre Algebra program in 7th grade (or before, if he's ready.) They spend gobs of time reading good books, and we are continuing with our history and Bethany's co-op subjects, which is enough for now. We're ready to wrap things up! In the mean time we are packing up our house for a move, planning for our upcoming trip to China, and ending our ministry year in Awana, all of which they are very involved in, so hopefully they are learning some life lessons in there, too!

We've had some fun salt map projects and went on a couple of great field trips in the past two weeks as well (which I'll post about separately) so there's been some great learning going on. I hope your school year is "spring"-ing along nicely, too. I feel like I've neglected my lil' homeschool blog for too long, and I've got some thoughts I want to post, so I'll be back more often as time allows.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!