Weekly Wrap-Up: Enduring High School (Not in a Bad Way)

Some weeks test my endurance. The kind of endurance that you need to keep putting one foot in front of the other, to keep the light at the end of the tunnel in sight. Endurance is a good quality to develop so I can view week's like this as a training session for moms.

As far as the tests go, my main problem is that I have developed two very able thinkers who want to dig deeper into things than I am prepared for on your average homeschool day. Issues that come up in our geography, literature, Bible reading, science, current events, and more have them expressing concerns and ideas that leave me speechless. Speechless in a good way, but still I am taking deep breaths a lot and finding myself saying more and more, "We will need to do some more research to answer that question." Gone are the days when we are just learning facts and putting them neatly into little boxes. Now I see their brains reasoning, contemplating, and debating about issues surrounding the facts. This is what we have been working for all these years. Our best days are when we sit around at the table and talk about what they are learning. It gives me food for thought as well. It fuels more research and now they are putting that research into words in their writing.

It is exhausting.

So now to my Weekly Wrap-Up which will be just a series of photos with the highlights as usual. I was thinking that the photos really don't show much of what I am trying to explain above. It really is a case of "you really need to be here" to completely understand.


We are into our second week with Saxon Geometry and I am pleasantly surprised at how much my son and I like it so far. I will keep you posted about how it goes since I have heard of no one yet who is using it in high school. (It is a new product for Saxon.)


World Geography this week was still about African countries and we focused on Cameroon and Tanzania. I know I have said this many times before, but for our family the notebooking pages for each country have really pulled our study together. We adapted them a bit to fit our focus of modern culture by eliminating the "history" section on the second notebook page and substituting in "current event" instead. We all are enjoying learning more about what is happening in each country as of today.


I just can't keep my boys away from maps and they complete these all on their own as we work through Trail Guide to World Geography. I leave them as options, but I notice that the map is one of the first assignments they complete each week.

Another little blurb on GeoPuzzles: My boys pulled the African GeoPuzzle out the other day and they could put it together in about 3 minutes.....a vast improvement over when we first started using the puzzles. I also quizzed Mr. A by turning a few of the pieces over and he could tell by the shape what country the pieces were. He is so visual-spatial and the GeoPuzzles really work with this sort of learner. I am amazed.


I had a few emails this week about Commonplace Books. My boys use them every week for their reading assignments. Mr. B is keeping a Commonplace Book for his reading of the John Muir book, The Yosemite. Mostly he writes down quotes he likes and I enjoy reading over the book at the end of each week. Very insightful.


Mr. A is working hard in his aviation class. I am pleasantly surprised at the notes he is taking as he reads. He has formed a study group with two other adult students on Wednesday afternoons. This is a child that has been homeschooled all the way through and my extended family has been on my back about his lack of opportunity for "socialization". The success I have seen in his ability to attend and flourish in an adult class as a 16 year old, shows me his socialization skills are just fine...I knew it all along. He has not been schooled in a bubble.


Here is another photo of the Crazy Lawnmower robot that each of the boys built over the last few weeks. They are now going to work through a new book called, One-Kit Wonders. One of the projects is a robot that will sort peanut M&Ms by color using the sensor. They are really anxious to get started on that one.




Auto shop class this week with Dad using Auto Upkeep is to change the air filter on a car. I am reaping the benefits of this course and I love it!


This is actually from last week, but I don't think I shared any images of their artist notebook pages.

They are now in their next six week study.
Mr. A: Albert Bierstadt for artist study and Brahms for his composer.
Mr. B: Caspar David Friedrich for his artist and Maurice Ravel for his composer.

To wrap up this Weekly Wrap-Up: I endured to Friday. I have all their work recorded in Homeschool Tracker. They want to go for a bike ride....in the rain???? I want to go to Starbucks. My hubby has been away for training this week, but he will be home this evening. Fire season is coming upon us quickly.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom