October School Days

Well, hello there bloggy world!!
I have missed you!
My intentions are always to be here enjoying this little space of ours!
I have started this post multiple times!
Hopefully this morning will be the time that is actually gets finished!
Let’s get to it!

We just took a week off of our regular daily “school” rhythm for Thanksgiving this week.

As I contemplated how many days we would take off this past week, I was thankful to be able to look back on our school year so far this fall and remember how consistent we have been with everything.

That really blessed me!

And it also gave us a whole week this past week to enjoy other things!

I spent some time during my quiet time just this morning writing down some goals I have for the months ahead regarding our school days.

One of those goals is to be more consistent with our art class – it has been very hit or miss!

We did have art a couple of times in October, and the kiddos love it.

One afternoon we did some flower pounding.

I would like to do this again and have more flower options available!

Doesn’t that look like fun?!

We always enjoy water coloring and I am impressed at how much the children have improved with this skill!

I purchased a downloadable tutorial from Brighter Day Press that we have been enjoying that teaches water coloring with the templates to copy.

Another afternoon we did some candle making.

I was blessed with a gift certificate that allowed me to purchase the items needed for this!

We basically followed one blog and her instructions for candle making – and we did not have any past experience or one clue as to what we were doing.

The best way to learn is by doing though, am I right??

Let’s just say we learned some tips for next time so that we can do better!

Unfortunately, as our candles hardened they all sunk in the middle.

The candles smell amazing though, and we enjoy burning them!

They also are healthier than store bought candles that are full of synthetic fragrances and are toxic to your health!

We still are using our same rhythm for our school days.

It is working, we enjoy it, and it flows nicely!!

We always start our school mornings all together (after everyone has their own personal Bible time) working on Scripture memory, our Catechism, and prayer.

It is the best start to our days!

After our Bible time, I help Tate and Eliza with their new learning for that day.

Most of that time they are working on their own but I am sitting close by and available for questions.

I try to find something to work on during that time!

Usually it is menu planning, grading, holiday planning or things like that.

Here I was grading school work while listening to a cooking show!

Multitasking at its best, ha, ha!

Next I head back to our den/office and work with Lane for an hour.

We work on Biology and I give him his daily spelling test from the Spelling Power book.

Back in the summer when I planned school for this year, I had a meeting with each child to ask them about the past year.

One of Lane’s requests during our meeting was that we find a way for me to be more involved in his school this year, so we decided to work on Science together.

I LOVE this hour with Lane!

Next Lane moves onto his Algebra 2, and I head back out to Tate and Eliza to check what they are working on and to get ready for our read aloud time.

Tate and Eliza are very thorough and diligent already when they work on their own – and this is a new skill I was hoping to see in them this year as they get older!

After read aloud, Tate and Eliza work on their illustration and narrations about what I just read while I work on preparing lunch.

Ever since Tate and Eliza moved up to the intermediate piano level, we have piano lessons from 12:30 to 1:15 everyday Monday -Thursday.

This time for piano lessons forced me to change our lunch time to 11:45 so that we are done eating and ready for piano in time.

We have had a 12:30 lunch time FOREVER and this was a hard switch for us at first!

Thankfully we are getting used to it!

Our piano teacher sent out a video update for all the parents awhile back which prompted my heart that I was not being diligent enough in supporting Tate and Eliza in their piano studies anymore – and I set about immediately changing that!

I do try to have something to read while I am sitting with them for that 45 minutes each day – but I also help them, listen carefully to certain things they are working on, and also participate when their teacher is speaking.

Our afternoons are filled with foreign language studies, typing practice, finishing any chores we did not finish in the morning, and then some free time.