I love Project Life!

Sometimes time goes by so quickly, it’s shocking!  And when I look back at these weeks in my scrapbook, all I feel is love and gratitude for the little, happy things in life…  things that I would have forgotten by now.

It’s already the end of August!  The cool mornings already feel like fall and I have already seen red leaves…

I love this project.  I love taking the pictures.  I love writing the thoughts.  I love making it pretty. I stay inspired and enthusiastic also because I’m not doing it alone.  One friend, in particular,  has swapped cards with me several times and discussed weekly themes and kept it so much fun!  You know who you are!  Thank you, friend!

Without further delay, here’s what the last few weeks have looked like around here.  First up is a week when both the boys stayed in Colorado.  I did a whole lot of nothing – played with paint, smooched on a dog (and maybe a husband), watched the garden grow.  It was awesome.

Jennifer and I went out for just drinks this time and discovered why our husbands always enjoyed “beering” together!  We had so much fun.

The next week, the theme was drinks or coffee or both…  Used some of my favorite mugs for the first time in a long time.  (I exclusively use a travel mug these days because I hate to keep returning to the kitchen to reheat my coffee.)

Used Ali Edwards’ Stuff Story Kit and a few miscellaneous pieces.

This was a simple theme but so much fun!

Next was a more normal week.  I made a point to create something for an insert.  I like inserts and I haven’t been doing them much lately.

That dryer full of doggy stuffies was the result of having to bug bomb our house for fleas, which I realize now, only got one, small journaling card…  It was kinda traumatic, I must have repressed most of the ordeal!

I really should have put a small picture on that story cork thingy…  But oh that deer!  Isn’t she beautiful?!

I’ve been wanting to try my hand at 6×12 pages and I think these two turned out really nice…  I’ve grown to love mixed media pages with paint sprays and splatters!  The more the better!

And never before in my life have I loved pink as much as I love pink now!  I have no idea what’s gotten into me…

I included a screen print of a couple text conversations on this page because I have such cute and clever friends and such a sweet husband!

Next up is Will Week!  It’s all about our Dood! (and his interests and his stuff)  He didn’t mind.  Believe me, my children are used to this kinda thing!

Included a short interview:

Had to include silly selfies!  And HAD TO DOCUMENT, “Love you more.”

Next up?  It’s Bee’s turn!  I asked them what their two favorite colors were and those are the colors I went with.

I made these journaling cards ages ago.  They were supposed to look completely different and when they turned out bright and primary color-y, I didn’t like them.  Instead of throwing them out, I held onto them and wouldn’t you know it – Scotty says these are his favorite colors and the polka dots look like a playful young man!  Right?

I had to paint the date card because I didn’t have any cards or paper these colors.  But we had purchased paint for some arty project Scotty had done earlier in the year.

This boy’s catch phrase these days is, “Love you too bad.”

Another interview and a selfie:

Oh, I love those boys something awful!

I’m currently doing a week about my honey.  And I’ve already filled the pockets the next two weeks with my Mom’s favorite colors and then my Dad’s.

Oh, you know what?  There needs to be a Boo Week, doesn’t there?  I’ll work on it…

 

Homeschool Update Aug. 2016

Nope, they are not looking forward to starting school again…  I can’t relate.  I never loved school when I was a kid, but I did love buying all the school supplies and the new clothes and going back and getting started again.  Maybe it’s a gender difference?  Maybe it’s a homeschool/traditional school difference?  I dunno…

These days I look forward to starting up again because I’ve spent a lot of time and energy creating lesson plans and finding exactly the right materials and I’m excited about sharing it all with them!

So, go back, we shall…  on September 7th.  I fret a little at the thought of all my time being taken up with school again, but as they get older, I’m really trying to be more hands-off and encourage independent learning.  It still takes most of my days, but it’s so worth it and I still love doing it for them!

So, here’s the plan for the upcoming year:

For math, Will will resume his work in Math U See Zeta and Scotty will begin Zeta!  (Almost forgot to order Scotty’s new book – he was in a tizzy…  NOT!)  Math is one subject that I’ll be learning along with them this year.  They’re beginning decimals and algebra and I just don’t remember that stuff.  In order to help them, I’ll have to take the class too!  (I’m actually looking forward to it.  In high school, I thought I hated math – I think I have a more open mind about it now.)

For Science we’ll continue Exploring Creation with Physical Science.  We should finish this before the year is up, so we’ll fill in at the end with Youtube/internet research studies of subjects that interest the boys.  This book contains lots of hands-on science experiments that the boys really enjoy!

For Literature and Language Arts we’ll be returning to Easy Grammar as a refresher course and Introduction to Literature for reading and writing.  I have mixed feelings about our Literature book – if I remember correctly, the “classics” that we’ll be reading were some of my least favorite reading ever!  They are “classics” however, and as such, students are required to read them…  God only knows why…

We’ll also be using http://www.insidestoryflashcards.com for SAT vocabulary word exposure.

For Health – I never found anything I was terribly excited about.  I bought the book below, even though it’s written for a younger audience.  It goes over some pretty complicated stuff about nutrition and metabolism.  The problem is…  it’s written in the metric system.  Suggested amounts of certain nutrients that people should eat  are given in metric measurements.  I don’t want to spend time changing them…  So, this book is out.

I’ve since found a good, free resource online, written specifically for teenagers at http://www.healthychildren.org   Along with reading from this website and possible additional research, the boys will resume cooking family dinners and doing treadmills three times a week.

Also had a bit of a quandary with history…  I could never find exactly what I wanted…  I wanted to continue our studies chronologically but couldn’t find anything I liked about contemporary times.  I had settled for an expensive, online program that did NOT cover what I wanted.  But when I gave it time to percolate, I found http://www.teachwithmovies.org .  Not only does it list relevant movies, but it also has learning guides and discussion questions.  We’ll spend two days watching a movie and then the rest of the week doing research on the time or characters. The website has other activity suggestions as well.  I found a timeline that I like a lot that will help me decide what to cover.

I hear there’s a new Assassin’s Creed video game coming out in January, I think…  It’s set in ancient Egypt.  And although we’ve done ancient history already, we’ll probably delve back into it when the game hits the shelves.

Not required by the Department of Education but necessary, we feel, for a foreign language study, we’ll be returning to Spanish at Duolingo!

There’s been talk, among the family, of a computer programming class this year.  I haven’t heard any concrete information yet and I’m not sure it’s actually going to happen.  We’ll see…

We’ll be doing standardized testing in October too.  Wish us luck!

For now we have 2 more weeks left of summer break to do whatever we want!