July School Holidays: Week One ~ Finally Some Sunshine

School holidays are officially here and we are more than ready for the break after a "less than our best" term two. 

Despite the holidays, we did continue with some reading. Generally we only read the Bible during holidays, but as we were near the end of this book we continued reading, finishing it on Friday. As I mentioned in the review I gave on both Goodreads and Storygraph, I have made reading the classics a key part of our English literature curriculum because I believe they still hold importance and relevance in this day and age. Yes, there are cringe worthy moments in many of them. Yes, the language and attitudes of the time are often vastly different to what is considered appropriate today. However, rather than ignore, brush aside, or ban them, I feel they give us a starting point and/or a bridge to deal with the difficulties of the past.

Sunday kicked off a pretty solid week of rain. We had some chunks of time through the week when it would dry out a little bit, but most of the time it was dreary and wet. I will admit that after twenty-six years here, I am spoiled by the sunshine here in Australia. Long periods of rain get to me, and MUCH quicker than it used to bother me in the states.

Traditionally, the first Monday of school holidays is MY day and I call it my "read and rest" day. It means that aside from basic work around the house, and meals, I ignore everything and focus on reading. This school holidays I needed it more than ever. It was a good day and I finished these two books. Both were excellent in their own right but I definitely preferred "The Invention of Wings" by Sue Monk Kidd. I will go into more detail about them at the end of the month.

Tuesday was my first "work" day and I focused on catching up the boys schoolwork. I did little marking (grading) through the term, and almost no recording in their portfolios so everything needed attention. I got Munchkin's completely finished and a good chunk of Monkey's done as well. In week two of the holidays I'll finish off Monkey's recording and make sure I am fully ready for Term Three. These two pictures show the balance of the day. I fuelled myself with a healthy(ish) breakfast and some reading before getting stuck into the work. As you can see from the second photo, I kept a close eye on the World Cup soccer scores while I worked. I chose not to watch the game as it would distract me too much, but with this set up I was able to monitor the score.

Wednesday afternoon Munchkin and I took a much needed trip to the shopping centre for groceries. The weather was somewhat clear, with periods of sun, so we decided to get that chore out of the way. Good that we did as Thursday it poured again. We discovered this little guy on our way. We stopped, snapped the photos, and ensured he would reach the grass safely before we continued our trip.

Wednesday night was the third and final game of this year's State of Origin Rugby League match between New South Wales and Queensland. Somehow, by some miracle of miracles, we pulled off a win and thus clinched the match title. Yes, there was a try we shouldn't have been awarded, but it may not have changed the result that much. If only New South Wales could play like this consistently. But I'll take that win, it was a fabulous game, and we'll see what happens next year.

No youth group for the boys on Friday, so no library trip for me. But as they are teenagers now and like to do their own thing of a Friday night, (this week it was many episodes of the Clone Wars show and a Narnia movie) I have oodles of free time. A mug of hot chocolate and a stack of books is my idea of the perfect Friday night. I read one chapter each of the two non-fiction books and several chapters of the novels. It was bliss.

Saturday the sun returned and it was glorious. I spent the morning getting a couple of loads of laundry on the line and admiring the cloud formations. As beautiful as they were, they were a sign that more rain was to come, and sure enough, the rain returned overnight. However, we have more sunny days than rainy days forecast in the week to come. So far this has NOT been the dry winter that was predicted.

Saturday afternoon Munchkin and I managed a quick walk in the afternoon to soak up the sunshine. When we returned we enjoyed a cup of freshly squeezed lemonade that some neighbour girls across the road were selling (it was made from lemons off their tree and was absolutely delicious) and I enjoyed more sun soaking on the front verandah. The Snake plant has been blooming (which interestingly is often a sign of stress) so I took the opportunity to photograph the flowers. When it is done flowering we will divide the plant into more pots as it IS looking crowded now.

So pleased with my Wordle work this week. No bombs and I have hit double digits with my streak for the first time in weeks. I am slowly learning that I don't HAVE to solve the puzzle immediately. If I don't get it straight away, I put it aside and look at it later.

Term Two: Week Eleven ~ The Finish Line

 

Our final week of the term. We made it. Once again, term two was not our friend. With both boys sick, but taking turns, it meant a complete loss of routine. However, because reading is such a core component of our schooling, I almost never feel like the boys fall behind. We will hit the ground running in term three.

We finished these two books Tuesday afternoon and I called the term officially over. "The Moral Compass: Stories for a Life's Journey" Edited and Compiled by William J. Bennett is a daily read in our homeschool. We alternate this one with the first book, "The Book of Virtues" and read it alongside the Bible. These books are packed full of stories, poems and fables from around the world. Each help drive home a particular moral or life skill and they are wonderful reading. 

"Darwin on the Beagle" by Harrison Christian was an interesting read and we learned much more about Charles Darwin than I expected to. Whilst the book was mainly about his travels on the Beagle, it also delved into his personal life, his health problems, and his frustrations with his research and writing. It wasn't a fantastic read (we gave it a three star rating) but it was an interesting way to end the term.

Two achievements earned in Duolingo this week.

Sunday was hubby's birthday. After church we went out to lunch together as a family. Once we arrived home and I had finished my batch cooking for the week, it was time to start the dinner festivities. First up Munchkin whipped up a batch of brownies from scratch. This was the first time we attempted a recipe as opposed to buying a box mix. Something weird happened when we cooked them, but in the end they tasted delicious and hubby was happy.

Dinner was homemade pizza. I prepped all the various topping options (there were many) and then we got busy making them to order. There was even leftover which surprised me.

School holidays means time for projects they don't normally make time for. Monkey got busy one afternoon crafting a Light Saber out of toilet paper rolls. He used every spare roll we had and still didn't have enough. Thus this is the only photo I have. They still duelled with what he HAD. Perhaps there will be more Light Saber construction in the future.

Meanwhile Munchkin made some play dough. I cooked the batch for him and then he got busy colouring it. He had some issues, and the lighting doesn't really show these colours properly, but he was really happy with the purple ball in the bottom right corner.

Friday was another solo trip to the libraries for me. No youth group for the boys though it was the last meeting for the term. We are hoping and praying that life settles down for our friends so that they can enjoy dinner and youth group with them regularly in term three. It wasn't my best trip to the libraries. I somehow missed picking up three books. Thankfully, a quick call to our main library when I got home determined that they WERE on the shelf, and they promised they would hold them a full fortnight for me (another bending of the rules). In the meantime, I renewed Munchkin's Spanish as he hopes to work on it over the holidays, I picked up ONE book for myself, and the rest was reading for Munchkin. Not shown in this picture (not sure why) are two books I plucked from a "new books" display for Monkey. One drawing book and one about famous buildings around the world. Hopefully he finds them interesting and useful.

Over the month of June I did a LOT of reading and made good progress with the tremendous number of books I had borrowed in May. Reality hit me and I returned at least four unread with the intention of borrowing them another time. Now that it is officially school holidays, the challenge is to see how many of these I can finish before the beginning of Term Three. I have six on the go (as seen from the bookmarks on the right hand side of the photo) and as I finish each of them I will start one of the ones on the left.

The weather looks to be interesting over the first week of school holidays. If all this rain eventuates it will be a good week for reading and catching up on paperwork. We only just had three days of sun after a previous stretch of a full week of rain. It looks like we may have a wet winter this year instead of the dry winter they predicted. Time will tell...

Not my best walking week. With the rain I only managed one walk to the shopping centre for groceries, and then the trip to the libraries.

A rather random Wordle Week. Several close calls and one bomb.

Books I Read in June

Another month has come and gone and this year is officially half over. Time is flying. But there is ALWAYS time to read and I read (finished) many wonderful books during the month of June.

My two favourite reads for the month (and scoring 4.75 stars) were "Born a Crime" by Trevor Noah and "Diamond Promises" by Anna Jacobs. I knew of Trevor Noah, and I think his comedy is hilarious, but I knew little about his life. His book was exceptional and far exceeded my expectations. Anna Jacobs is a prolific author who writes really wonderful stories based in England and Australia that just warm my heart. They have just the right balance of tension and relief and I often turn to them when I need a mental break from my heavier books.

In a very close second place are all the books I read that I gave a 4.5 star rating. They were as follows: "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile" by Agatha Christie, "The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins" by Peter FitzSimons, "Raising Readers" by Megan Daley, and "The Little Coffee Shop of Kabul" by Deborah Rodriguez. Each of these were exceptional in their own right and for vastly different reasons. If I had to choose a favourite it would probably be "Murder on the Orient Express" because the ending shocked me.

My four star reads for this month were: "Elizabeth Macarthur's Letters" Edited by Kate Grenville, "Espresso Tales" by Alexander McCall Smith, "Shanghai Girls" by Lisa See, "Battle for Australia" by Bob Wurth, and "The Queen" by Andrew Morton. My favourites from this group would have to be "The Queen" and "Battle for Australia". I learned so much more than I already knew from reading both of these books. It was also interesting to learn about Elizabeth Macarthur's life through the lens of letters she wrote to friends and family. "Shanghai Girls" was a confronting read and would be difficult for anyone who has experienced war, trauma, or physical and sexual abuse. "Espresso Tales" was a light hearted a fun read and I'm enjoying yet another series by the author through reading these books.

Finally, I read "Teacher, Teacher" compiled by Megan Daley which was a lovely book highlighting wonderful teachers and educators. I think my expectations for it were too high though and it was only a 3.5 star read for me. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, I was just expecting more.

Many of these books fulfilled prompts for the 52 Book Challenge that I participate in, and two were buddy reads with my mom. Together we thoroughly enjoyed "The Incredible Life of Hubert Wilkins" and "The Queen". July is here and with it comes our scheduled two week winter school holidays. I made a good dent in the HUGE collection of library books that I borrowed before I thought carefully, and if all goes well I'll finish many of the remainder during July.

This collage shows the books I read aloud to the boys during the month of June. Two of these will feature for discussion in my upcoming Weekly Review post. Stay tuned for that.

Finally, for fun I'm including the wonderful reading stats graphics that Storygraph generates for me at the end of every month. As this is the halfway point of the year, I will also note that I've read (finished) 83 books already for the year. My yearly goal is set at 100 books and I will not change that. I could possibly beat my personal best but will wait to see what happens in the second half of this year.