Oh my goodness, what a week!! 900,000 acres are on fire in Oregon this week. So many people evacuating their homes. My heart is heavy and my nerves are shot. We had one fire within 8 miles of us to the west, and one fire that came within 4 miles to the east of us for three days this week. We packed, we planned, and thankfully we never had to go anywhere. However, the big fire from central Oregon is encroaching and we are within 15 miles of the level 1 evacuation zone now. My in laws are within miles of the evacuation zone in Eugene area, my parents are miles from the fire in Tillamook, and one of my sisters is quarantined due to exposure to Covid. Whew.
With all that happening we managed to school two days this week. Over the summer I partnered with another gardener and we launched a veggie CSA. On Wednesday we harvest and deliver veggies, while my boys stay at home with one of the moms from our homeschool learning co-op. She brings educational games and activities, so really they did 3 semi formal learning days.
Our new school set up is working awesome! We each have our own drawers, and having all our books and craft supplies on the shelves behind us is super convenient. Also, our kitchen table is never littered with books and papers now!
While we read the first chapter of Story of the World Volume 3 this week the boys drew on REALLY big paper that Michael picked out at the craft store. Avery drew a building being burnt by Pokemon, and more Pokemon helping firemen put it out. Love how he processed his worried this way.
The smoke was was strange looking the day the fires started. Then it changed quickly to smokey, while we watched the water plane fly from Hagg lake, straight over our house, to dump water on the closest fire. It went from 3,000 acres to 300 acres in just a few hours thanks to the plane!!
We have a variety of new games and I plan to reinforce learning this year by playing cooresponding games. This week we tried out Planet and loved it! A fun biome building game with info on animals and where they live. We also have been loving Wildcraft, a cooperative game where you travel through the woods to go berry picking, but have to use herbs along the way to heal any ailments. The boys think it is hilarious, because LOTS of bad things happen so you can learn what herbs and plants can help. So it is always one crazy adventure.
We are still getting our Raddish box from last year. This months theme was Harvest Party. Michael was especially excited for the apple cider donut recipe and made it 100% by himself. He has figured out how to read recipes and frequently bakes things.
Story of the World Volume 3, chapter 1 was on the discovery of gold in south America and the Spanish Conquistadors. We explored about south American culture through a collection of books, a documentary we watched over the weekend, and by playing with clay to make Aztec inspired masks.
For foreign language I have differing opinions from the boys. I want them to learn Spanish and it has been slow going with little retention. Avery asked to learn sign language and Emmet wants to know how to speak Chinese as he plans to live there someday. So, we are doing a combined effort of all the languages to re-learn the basics of Spanish we attempted last year and add in the two new ones. They REALLY enjoyed the sign language and have ran around all week signing numbers and other random things they invented at each other. So we may focus mainly on that. Signing Time videos and my own two terms of sign language in college will make it easy as well!
None of the boys want to do a reading or writing program this year. I am feeling torn, as I know it is good for them, but also we have not explored a lot of creative writing. So we decided on journals for copy work and sentence prompts. Avery is the exception, I will be ordering him a copywork book because he doesn't have the knowledge of letters yet like his brothers. He did write, on his own, the handful of words he knows by heart, "tnt", "on", "no", "avery", and, of course, "boom".
That is all our subjects for the week except science (you could count baking), because our curriculum hasn't come yet, and reading. I have made the boys reading charts and require 20 minutes a day, or 24 twenty minute readings a month. Michael asked if they get a prize once their reading sheet is filled out, and I offered buying them a new book. Oh how excited they were!! If you ever want to know how to spot a homeschooler, it is someone who gets excited about a new book as a reward for reading, ha ha.
Hope you are staying safe from the fires and smoke and staying sane from being trapped indoors.
Cheers,
The Dillman's
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