Mid-Summer Check-In

My littlest kiddo helps her dad mow the lawn

I won't apologize for being away from blogging so much this summer, and will instead simply offer that my energies have been focused elsewhere thus far, and I felt that unless I could offer something truly meaningful and present it in a way that wasn't disjointed, then I should just continue to enjoy our summer for a little bit longer without quite coming back to earth yet (as it were) with blogging.

Here is a bit of a catching-up on what we've been up to. We just spent the last month entertaining my in-laws from Australia (you all may recall they visit us every summer for 3-4 weeks). During that time, we went out to eat quite a bit, spent time outside, did lots of organizing around the house (with their help), spent time investigating shipping options for our big move next year (I think we've pretty much settled on scaling WAAAAY down on our belongings and sending them via post through the US Postal Service or perhaps Fed Ex or other similar service).  It will still likely cost us around $3,000 to ship everything we'd like to bring when all is said and done, but that is far cheaper than any other option we checked into. I should write a separate post sometime about the craziness of international shipping! 

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I have been trying to get new clients into my home childcare for the fall and not having terribly good luck. My husband is enjoying a much more manageable schedule now that he has finished his advanced degree and has hoped to pick up some more hours at work but that has yet to happen.

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On the homeschooling front, I have decided to use Waldorf Essentials 2nd Grade Curriculum for my son for this year, so I purchased the digital version using the WE summer discount. My hubby printed off only the pages I would need at work (I think it was like only 80 pages that I truly wanted to have paper copies to hold in my hand, so by printing on both sides it only used up 40 pieces of paper)...so that saved quite a bit compared to purchasing a physical copy of the curriculum (especially considering he printed it for free) and I can read the rest of it on my laptop if needed (much of the rest of it is philosophy and descriptions of the 2nd grader anyway, and not something I will need to refer to each week as I'm prepping for lessons). So far, it seems like a user-friendly curriculum. I'll give a more thorough review as I've used it for a while, but so far I'm enjoying reading through it and feel that it will work well with some other ideas we'll supplement with it...including....

I'll likely use www.k12reader.com again for his spelling/handwriting (it works well for both) but I'm not sure I'll print off quite so many weeks worth of words this year. I found we only made it through about 15 weeks worth of lessons this past year.  We'll also do a few science lapbooks and likely a social studies unit study this year (topics to be determined).  We'll continue to have read-aloud time as well as listen to some books-on-tape in the car.  Also, because we allow some screen time (sorry tech-free mamas), my son's interest in Minecraft will be enhanced this year because my husband is going to work with him to do more in the way of building and learning about coding. He has learned soooo much from the game, including but not limited to spelling, historical references, unique and challenging vocabulary, social skills, fair play, computer skills, math, spacial relations, and more.

Another addition we'll make is a math workbook I purchased. We are unlikely to get all the way through the workbook, but it will provide supplemental math since our son is a bit ahead of his same-age peers and so the grade 2 math that is included in the WE curriculum will not quite be enough for him...not to mention, he does get benefit from the "drill" format a worksheet can bring once a week. 

We'll be doing some more handwork as well as music (recorder and possibly keyboard).  I want to include even more nature walks this year so we can truly enjoy the 4 seasons of Maine before we leave it next year for life in the tropics.

So, yes this was a bit dry but wanted to catch up a little. I'm hoping to post some actual curriculum-specific info and pics once our new homeschooling year has begun. I haven't actually decided upon a first day of school yet. I think I'm still just enjoying the dreaminess of summer a bit longer first....