Collage Friday - The Week of the Literature Fair
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 5:00AM 
TONS of learning occurred, but my house is messy and we have had no schedule whatsoever. The Homeschool Literature Fair is today and we have been knee deep in finishing projects and completing research!
I have to admit I've been a little crabby because of the lack of "structure" - I think this is what one would call a week of personal growth? (There was one day this week that was glorious - read about it here.)
{ The news here in Georgia this week was that President Obama has let the state out of meeting its requirements for No Child Left Behind. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I'm not really sure, and to be quite honest with you I have stopped keeping up with the political nonsense that surrounds the precious lives of the nation's children. Perhaps I should be more informed - but I really like to keep my blood pressure down. }
I saw this cartoon (snagged it from Facebook) and thought about what is going on right now in most public schools. Amid all of our chaos here this week it put things into perspective!
Now for the collage...
1. GMan helped me grocery shop on Sunday afternoon. We needed many things for his literature fair research (it's all about chocolate and The Chocolate Touch!). I was so proud of him keeping up with the list. I use Plan to Eat, which makes shopping so easy!
2. Miss B spent a large chunk of the weekend painting her school for her project (The Wheel on the School). I am so pleased with her independence and creativity. This book will be remembered by her for the rest of her life. I'll blog about their projects more fully next week.
3. I loved finding the Old Fashioned Hershey Bars for an activity we did with fractions. Who knew there was a Hershey Bar Fractions Book?!?!
4. At the library GMan found a Lego book - The Lego Ideas Book. Wow! What a find. He and Miss B stayed up late one night working on their own house (which came from an idea in the book). As I type this, GMan is in his room trying to build a Lego chess set. I love it! Ever since I received a poor evaluation from G I've been trying to let him lead the way a little more with his learning - and it's working. His first Lego WeDo class is Monday, so we will make the trek to downtown Atlanta for the afternoon - I can't wait to see how he likes it, and Miss B and I will get to have a little time together while he's in class.
5. We made molded chocolates (for the literature fair AND Valentine's Day) and used this handy little book by Wilton. We have also worked our way through Download N Go's Chocolate Challenge. What an awesome resource! It wins Favorite Resource This Week! We have done another Download N Go study and will be doing more!
6. More research... Nestle's Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies. Henri Nestle was an interesting chocolatier!
7. The kids helped pack a Valentine basket for a family in need (with 11 children)! Miss B and I went to Wal-Mart over the weekend and stocked up. She realized how much more we needed to buy than we usually do just for the four of us. GMan's Sunday School teacher delivered the basket to the family on Valentine's Day. We had a nice dinner out for Valentine's Day - with not a single picture taken. I told you my week has been a little crazy.
8. This one just made me smile. For a few days we had very cold weather - a baseball practice for 90 minutes in 30 degree weather is tough, but apparently the boys did great. GMan was giving me his game face - he claimed it wasn't cold at all.
9. Some computer schooling was done this week. We are reviewing K5 Learning and a favorite thing was completing enough spelling words to earn a La Linnea movie. They are pretty cute (and I didn't tell my kids you can just watch them on YouTube... I figured if they would spell 50 words to watch a three minute movie, then FINE!).
How was your week? I hope you can make a collage and link up this week. By Sunday of each week there are lots of wonderful collages, so be sure to keep checking back. I am gaining SO MANY IDEAS from my fellow bloggers! Thank you!
Reader Comments (13)
I love the basket for a needy family. What a great Valentine's gift. It sounds like you all had a great week. I look forward to hearing about your Literature fair. I think we are going to try that here.
Blessings,
Dawn
That cartoon seems accurate for around my area. I do know our state received a lot of federal money but honestly our public school friends are now losing lots of the extras - newest cuts are for the music and art programs. Just so sad.
I so enjoy these collages! Looks and sounds like a great week of learning. I will definetly be looking into that Lego idea book for my boys. And maybe that chocolate fraction book for us all - yummy :-)
What a crazy, busy week! But so full of goodness! We are starting a unit on The Secret Garden in a couple of weeks, and I just can't wait to dig into one piece of literature. Have a wonderful time at the Fair! (And, I am so glad you aren't using Disqus anymore!!)
OK, I've gotta know, did you kindly "suggest" "The Chocolate Touch" for your son to read so you could enjoy all of those chocolate treats? Hmmmm? ;0)
(P.S. I LOVE the idea of a Literature Fair!)
Great week full of Chocolate. {I don't like Chocolate..isn't that weird?} ;) I love the basket of food for Valentine's. Lovely idea. Love G Man's FACE!! Too cute. Can't wait to hear about the Literature Fair.
I just shared the cartoon on FB. I have to get the Hershey Fractions book- too cool!
Lots of learning and lots of chocolate! Sounds perfect to me!
We used Download and Go's Chocolate Challenge this week too! We didn't have time to do a lot of the projects, but we had fun learning about the different chocolatiers!
please share more about your "wheel on the school" projects, I'm thinking that might be our next read-aloud :)
Yes, there is a hershey's fractions book, and there is also an M&M math book :)
A study on chocolate? Brilliant!!!!!!
I just requested the Lego idea book from the library. My son likes Legos a little, but I think Legos are a great activity for him. Maybe the book will inspire him. Thanks for the suggestion.
There are so many great resources linked in this post! Thanks for sharing with Favorite Resources, Mary :)
I love all of the chocolate study, and I am looking forward to reading more about the literature fair. I plan to look up some info on Nestle...we've read about Hershey, but not Nestle.
The basket for Valentines Day is a wonderful idea...I'd never thought of that before!
Have a super weekend!!
Love your week, especially that you helped a family in need:) I have that Hershey fractions book- we need to use it. We read The Chocolate Touch too and really liked it. Thanks for all the resources for learning with chocolate! Wow...it all sounds so yummy and fun!