2015-16 School Year Blogging Bust...

This school years blogging was a complete bust! School was not, thankfully! We are in our final 4 weeks of our school year which is behind when we usually finish up. But you know those "Homeschooling in Crisis" articles and posts. Well this year we have lived it. We have had plenty of hard years, some which could even fit the "crisis" label in the past, hard pregnancies and new babies, moves, unemployment, homelessness (without our own but family took us in)...we have run the gamut of life experience. Going into this year I knew we would need to be flexible, in April of 2015 my mom was diagnosed with cancer. She did treatment all summer, we went back and forth to help through those months, I expected to do that through out the school year. We pushed back starting school a couple extra weeks when she needed more care, I spent two weeks with her leaving my family behind at the end of August/beginning of September. With this in mind I was proactive and prepared everything ahead of time, including my handy dandy book I make each year. But I was not prepared for a phone call two weeks after retuning home saying I needed to come now. The three hardest phone calls I've ever had to make and an hour and a half later my kids and I were on the road for the 10 hour drive. And then she died. That was not the plan. The plan was to take care of her all school year. Not for school to be interrupted with death and estate needs and memorial travels. But it did. And we have four weeks left.

That said I have something more to share. All those crisis articles were good, it was stored up knowledge I had but there is something they did not cover. Homeschooling was an anchor. Yes I gave myself permission to be easy with myself, yes there were days I could not even muster enough to feed my family but schooling was an escape of sorts. We could compartmentalize the grief and open a book to escape and learn. I could be ok for that time I taught Leili the letter families, I could be ok while dusting off the parts of my brain that use to know how to do 5th grade math, I could be ok while learning about the beautiful art of the Renaissance. And those moments of being ok got us through. Homeschooling is an added responsibility when crisis comes but it can also be comfort and and anchor.

My handy dandy school book!

The kids on our first day of the school year.

This was an instagram photo of mine dated just 10 days after she died. I captioned it, "The tornado of a homeschooling morning and it's effects on my family room. Whew...I survived. This time." Looking back on any kind of journaling is interesting, I can see that I was not talking about homeschooling I was just surviving. But I was doing it through homeschooling.

A smattering of books from this week.

This weeks pages of schooling, Riley's are blank because he was taking online classes and finished the week before.

And the kids now...older, wiser, and more compassionate for the year we have had.

Schooling Around Town!

I thought I had a couple pictures of school around the house but mostly I found pictures of us schooling around town! We are mostly homebody schoolers but we do get to do some fun stuff around town too!

We got the amazing and FREE opportunity to see the Reno Philharmonic preform Peter & the Wolf! It is one of our FAVORITE music pieces! They even got the mascot form UNR to come out and capture the narrator (an anchor from the local news channel) at the end.

I was so overwhelmed to have the opportunity for my kids to hear this beautiful music performed right in front of them. I still get teary!

We've also gotten over to Ox Bow Nature Preserve a couple of times, it is one of our favorite nature walks plus the critters are always fun! The beaver dams and beaver chewed trees are among our favorites to spot!

Here is one from our backyard! Here are the kids making a village as we learned about the beginnings of Rome.

And of course we have been to the river! It is one of those places we go to unwind, or windup, wear out or calm down. Plus it is a great place to school! Leili and I were reading Three Days on a River in a Red Canoe and then Leili and Dad made a little boat to float in the river!

Inside, outside, here or there!

As a family we are learning about the Civil War era, slavery, and Abraham Lincoln. Mostly through out loud reading, it is amazing to me how much the kids absorb when I read aloud verses other learning!

We scored this week at Goodwill and found a mostly complete set of Lincoln Logs! The kids have been building Abe Lincoln's log cabin, with no windows but they have not found a bear skin for the door! ;)

I have collected these books over years at thrift stores and library sales. We are onto the second book in the Addy series, the American Girl Books are great historical fiction! We also read the If you Grew Up With Abraham Lincoln which I just found at Goodwill last week! Perfect!! I am also planning that we will listen to THIS free recording of the Gettysburg Address. This all ties into our learning about Nevada as Nevada became a state during the Civil War. Which is why our state's nickname is Battle Born!

Riley and I recently started our block on Native Americans in Northern Nevada. It was slow going for a bit as we non-Nevadans tried to find information. We got excited that there was an exhibit in the airport but that was not as fruitful as hoped. But just today we found some wonderful student guides put out by the state!

This area is home to the Northern Paiute, Western Shoshone, & Washoe Tribes.
What Native Americans live in your area?

Well you all know we have lived in a few states, and they all have fun and weird things we have enjoyed. But I have to say Nevada has one I have never even considered but is actually a really cool thing EVERY state should do in my simple opinion!

NEVADA DAY!

What is Nevada day you ask? Well it is the day that Nevada was accepted into the Union. It is a state holiday, technically is is on Oct. 31 but they choose to have Friday off this year so we went on an adventure!

A homeschool group here planned a fun Nevada Day field trip to the Capitol. So the kids and I drove down to Carson City, it's about a 45 min drive through beautiful Washoe Valley!
We had a fun picnic, getting to know new homeschoolers and then one of the parents planned a little Nevada art project (I'll share that soon). The sun was warm and the kids ran until they could run no farther! Then we went into the Capitol building.

Leili was fast expiring, but we pressed on...

The first and second floor were open to walk through, we saw the Assembly room, Senate room, everything was just beautiful!

This is what is painted all around the ceiling of the first floor, and there are paintings of all the past governors (even the "Territorial" governors!

And my cuties (and unhappy babe) on the front steps of the capitol. It was great to learn a little bit more about this state that is our current home!!

And a couple of great articles to share! HERE and HERE!!