In my life this week…
Oh my goodness, where do I begin?
The drama continues with the technology in my life!
I finally recovered from my computer crashing last week only to have my iPhone die a few days later. You know when the guy at the Apple store tells you that your current phone is, “…pretty much a paper weight.”, you’re in trouble! Thank the LORD for a sweet hubby that told me not to worry about it and to go ahead and buy a new one. — ‘Cause mama can’t LIVE without her iPhone!
(OK, maybe I’m being a little melodramatic, but iPhone deprivation can do that to people!)
In our homeschool this week…
We are finally getting to build our paper model of a Medieval Castle. We’ve been waiting to do this project all year and we just started putting it together this week. I’ll definitely post a picture of it when we’re finished.
(That is, if my hand has the strength to press the shutter button on my camera. We have been painstakingly cutting, cutting, cutting out each and every piece of our castle and our hands are getting tired!)
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
Do you remember how I said last week that I wasn’t going anywhere or doing anything special?
All of that crazy thinking flew out of the window after the weather man said, “…snow in the high country” when we woke up last Saturday morning. Our family made a split-second decision to quickly pack our bags, grab the dog, and head up north to play in the winter wonderland. While we were there, we decided to drive up to the Grand Canyon too just for fun.
We captured some really great pics if you’d like to check out my post Northern Arizona Snow and the Grand Canyon from a few days ago.
My favorite thing this week was…
Our trip up north was hands down my favorite thing this week, but to be more specific, viewing the Grand Canyon in person is something that I believe every person should try to do at least once in their lifetime. To stand on the edge of such incredible beauty, makes me wonder how anyone could look at it and not believe in God.
What’s working/not working for us…
I mentioned earlier that we were struggling to get through The Door in the Wall because of the flowery Old English language that is used throughout the book. I must admit that we are now totally in love with this story and look forward to reading it every day.
Thanks to those of you that encouraged us to hang in there!
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…
I’m curious… When are you all ending your school year? Do you have a date set or are you going year around?
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
This is a photo of my son and I in our SUV on our way up to play in the snow in Northern Arizona. I just happened to capture my little man in the back seat behind me seeing the snowy mountains for the first time that day.
(I know that going on a trip to see the snow may sound strange to some of you, but it’s a big deal for those of us that live in the sandy desert and have to DRIVE almost 3 hours each winter to see it! – lol)
Happy Homeschooling,
Now it’s your turn to share!
You can find the link up guidelines
& graphics for your own journal post HERE
A FEW LITTLE NOTES:
The grab codes for my graphics have been updated & tested on both WP & Blogger, so I’m POSITIVE that they work this week! I apologize to those of you on Blogger that had issues with them last week.
Also, I’d like to make sure that I’m following everyone that joins me on this journey each week. So, if it’s your first time here, or you know that I am not following your blog via Google Friend Connect, please leave me a comment and I will make sure to pop over to your site and follow you.
Lastly, if you are on twitter and would like for me to tweet about your Homeschool Mother’s Journal post, just tweet a description and link @HomeschoolSue and I’ll be happy to RT it for you. 
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{ 30 comments }
I saw your photos of the snow up north! Beautiful! Thanks for giving me my fix.
All I need is photos…I love our AZ desert!
We don’t have a set date to end our school year but it is looking to be some time in May. Having said that, we do school year-round. My kids don’t do well coming back to school if we take too much time off. We usually only stop when we have visitors or when we leave town…otherwise it is school Monday through Thursday for us (Fridays we do “fun stuff” and play catch-up if need be)!
Also, I can relate to your iPhone issue…I am hoping mine will hang on until July (that is when our contract is up) so we can change carriers. AT&T does not work well in our house!
Take care!
Oh I love the Door in the Wall!!!! That was one of the first books we read when we started homeschooling almost 6 months ago. Actually I bought it on Ebay. It’s an old library audio tape set. We haven’t listened to it again. But I loved it so much that I can’t get rid of it.
TGIF!
Cant wait to see the castle and yay for road trips to the Grand Canyon. I’ve never been there =)
Yeah for Door In the WALL! SUCH a GOOD book!!!
I want to go to the Grand Canyon,but am so thankful you had the chance to go!!!
You have had a lot of ups and downs this week between technology and last minute travels……so blessed to see how you always make it positive….you are truly an amazing woman, mom,wife and friend!
Hope to chat soon
(u r 2 sweet to put my button on your blog…..ty!)
Love the snow pictures. We only have three weeks of school left!!
Blessings,
Dawn
I’m LOVING your picture at the end of this post. Oh my! Precious. xoxo
We’re not ending school, just going down to the 3 days/week that Daddy works. Hoping this works as good as it appears on paper!
Sounds like a great week! We are going to take some time off in July for me to do lesson planning. We do year-round.
We were just at the GC over thanksgiving… LOVE Arizona so much…
We are finishing within the next 4 weeks, i hope…
so sorry it didn’t give me a thumbnail in the link up! I selected one, i guess it just do it.
Hi Sue,
Loved your pictures in the snow!
We homeschool year round with small breaks (2 weeks) in between. It keeps us on task.
Thanks for offering this journal and connection with other moms.
Dorla
I love the picture of your son looking out the window! His smile is priceless. What a wonderful trip and spur of the moment is always fun!
I love the Paper Castle project, WOW! I can’t wait to see pics. We are studying castles right now too.
As far as ending the school year, I think I will ease up and do a lot more field trips but I will still have them do “school” everyday. Maybe not Fridays.
Thanks for sharing!
Eeek – I can’t get my post to link up. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
Carrie
Oh, Sue! Technology can be a blessing and a curse can’t it? Congrats on the snow fun! We had snow in Texas, in February and we were beside ourselves having fun!
We don’t have a set day for ending our school year yet, but I imagine we will break around the end of May. We have at least 3 trips scheduled in June and 2 in July with a week of Vacation Bible School thrown in for good measure. (Hubby is a youth pastor, so summer travel is part of the job description.)
We don’t have a set date to finish up. We’ll keep going until we finish our current material (I estimate that to be sometime the first half of June) and then we’ll take a couple of weeks off to regroup and then start again. We’re resuming a year-round schedule again after taking the past couple of summers off.
Love the Pic. We homeschool yr rd August 26th is our 4th Quarter then we start new Quarter
This is my first time joining… I liked the idea so I figured I’d give it a go… We put together that same Castle one year (about 4 years ago)- pasted it down on poster board right down to all the little people. It was a painstaking job (we used clear tape rather than glue) and everyone helped as my husband and I said this was the only time we’d ever do this… the most hilarious part was a year later when we found it a bit mashed up and a bit faded in a spot in our junk room and the kiddos decided to film a short video of a giant (my son) coming thru and tromping and stomping down the castle. That was the most fun part of the whole thing.
You said your Iphone was a paperweight, and I had a small panic attack. Ah!
A spur of the moment trip sounds like fun. As long as your windshield isn’t broken on the road : /
I’m going year round for school (unless I change my mind by June)
we are in the souhern hemisphere so our school year runs from Jan – Dec. Summer hols are in Dec – Jan. We school year round pretty much. 6 weeks on 1 week off. Except for Dec when we do what we call christmas school. Our textbooks go away and for the first two weeks although we still school everything is related to preparing for chrstmas. then we have time off from the week before christmas to the end of the NewYear week off
This is my first time linking up! I had been reading some others’ posts, so I thought I’d join in.
And I’ve been to the Grand Canyon twice…and I’d go again in a second. There are seriously no words to describe it. It sounds like the completion of your castle will be a rewarding experience.
I loved your pictures this week! Such a great trip!
We HS year round, so when ever we’re done one grade, we just move to the next
We do take a break for summer. We’re plan to be done by June 3rd, except for math as we’re trying to get caught up. She will probably be working on her writing over the summer too!
Hi Sue, I’m having a hard time linking up this week also. ugh! we do year round school but tax season is our “homeschool lite”. the kids get more time to play outside during the spring (nice weather) months and we do more serious homeschool during summer when it is too hot to play outside. Going year round also takes the pressure off of me to get done by a particular date and works well with our lifestyle as we like to travel and do alot of family trips. Hope people can find me this week through HSJ; I totally feel that technology can be soo frustrating (for all the blessing it gives us!). have a great week, Katie
this is my first time doing the journal. I’ve seen it on a few of my friends’ blogs and thought it was time to join in.
we *try* to end our school year by the first week of June, as that’s when final grades need to be sent in to our oversight. but there are always some loose ends to tie up after that, and I try to make sure the kids don’t leave their math neglected for the whole summer!
Hi Sue,
Not sure if you are following me or not – I joined up last week.
http://goddidcreation@wordpress.com
Have a great day
Tammy
I am so enjoying these posts and all the replies or links to other blogs. This is my 3rd week linking up to this and loving it! My blog is Blueprints of My Mind and I’m link #58 this week. I’m fairly new to the blogosphere but I have been lurking for some time
Oh and our official school year ends on Friday May 13th but we continue to do “fun school” all summer plus finish anything we didn’t get done, and work on skills that need extra reinforcement!
Monica
Like others I have been reading my friends’ entries for your HMJ and decided it was time to join in. My first post is almost too late, seeing as it is already Monday here in Australia but it is done. I look forward to the reviewing of my week each time I journal.
Best wishes
Jen in Oz
Our family loves Door in the Wall! I’m so glad you’re enjoying it after a rough start.
I thought we’d be finishing the year right at the end of June, but I miscalculated. Miss 10 pointed out it would be June 17 if we stick to our plans. That’s so much better!
We had snow yesterday…. The Bing picture of palm trees looked particularly appealing!
Annie Kate
PS You’re not following me yet; I’m not even sure if I’m following you, but I’ll check immediately and fix that problem if necessary.
great picture!
the way you felt about seeing the Grand Canyon, “makes me wonder how anyone could look at it and not believe in God,” is exactly how i felt last week at the beaches in Florida.
we school year round taking mini-breaks every 6 weeks or as needed. looking for one of those mini breaks coming up soon!
ps: i’m joining the Homeschool Mothers Journal for the first time this week!!
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