Homegrown Learners

This was our last week of school before our two week spring break. We didn't officially take a "break" this winter, so we will be taking two full weeks off. We will be traveling to south Florida (where I was born and raised) to see my parents, and then heading center state for a surprise trip on the way home.

I am TIRED at the end of this week. Sometimes I feel like I just go, go, go. You know what I mean. I often wonder what we really accomplish (this increasingly interest led life is still a little hard for me to wrap my head around!), but when I put it all down in a weekly wrap-up I can see that we've been BUSY!

I was pleased with everything we accomplished and learned this week. We will be at the grand opening of the Legoland Discovery Center Atlanta all morning Friday... so excited that we get to be a part of the ribbon cutting ceremonies. (Thank you, Kathy, for securing the tickets for us!) We will be there with my sweet friend Hope and her family. Hope has been my encourager from day one, and I'm so excited she has recently started blogging!

The above collage shows one day of our week that was especially productive. We made a huge trip to the library (I actually had to take the basket from our family room and haul it into the library!).... one of our favorite books we checked out was Jabberwocky. This is one of my favorite poems, and I think the kids enjoyed it as well.

GMan has started cursive! I stumbled across Cursive Writing Made Easy and Fun in the Scholastic Store for just $.99! It is a wonderful download and I've been printing a sheet each day for G to complete. He loves the exercises and is inspired to learn. When I went searching for the link again it looks like the book doesn't exist in the Scholastic online store, but it is available through Amazon. I was so pleased, however, with all of the downloadable books Scholastic has to offer. The Scholastic Store wins my Favorite Resource this Week!

Both children have been working with money. GMan is working with basic counting of money. Miss B is making change and doing word problems. She even got some very real world experience one night this week when she went with her dad to work the concession stands at the baseball field! It doesn't get any more practical than that!

Lots and lots of hands-on learning occurred this week. We are loving the Nebula Ball... lots to be learned from this, and I need to research some lessons to go along with it. For now, the children are enjoying experimenting with it - I've left it plugged in and available all week for exploration.

We finished the Louis Pasteur unit study, which was a home run in my opinion! We are now watching mold grow on a plain banana, and also one with yeast on it... and we have bread in a bag that we're trying to let get moldy as well. Each day we observe a little and write down our findings.

Miss B made some yummy St. Patrick's Day treats! I am witnessing her growing independence and maturity by leaps and bounds. She is nearly as tall as I am and is just growing so fast.

In the above collage you will see a newspaper article about Legoland Discovery Center opening in Atlanta. We learned quite a few interesting tidbits from this article, and it was so sweet of our pastor's wife to drive this article to our house one day this week.

It has also been very warm here, and since it's nice and light in the evenings, GMan and his dad have been throwing the ball each evening. It is one of my favorite things just to sit on the porch and watch them... it's a great time to count my blessings, of which there are so many.

I tried to take a little time each night to read -- The Hiding Place has been on my list for quite some time. I'm enjoying it very much - what a powerful story (and I'm only 1/3 into it!). I'm also completing a review of a Max Lucado book which I'll be sharing with you soon.
Thursday's co-op classes were very exciting for the kids because dad got to attend. He has never been with us because he is of course at work. Pictured above are Anna and some of her friends. Do you see all of those smiles? These children are such a sweet group and our co-op is SUCH A BLESSING TO US! These four little girls in particular mean so much to my daughter and I.
Miss B's favorite class by far is her President's class -- each class ends with a game of Presidential and First Lady JINGO. I credit my daughter's love of this class to her amazing teacher - who exudes such patriotism and love for our country.

Things not pictured this week:
* More Writing With Ease -- I LOVE this program!* A successful wrap-up of our fractions unit with Miss B. We took extra TIME with fractions and it surely paid off. *Learning about The Crusades in Story of the World... I had no idea there were EIGHT Crusades. * Reading LOTS of picture books - I have picked a Caldecott winner each night. * TONS of piano practice - Federation (a competition) is tomorrow and Miss B is READY! Since I am teacher with students participating, I work ALL DAY Saturday at the competition. * Miss B read this series of books this week - she's now very interested in Mt. Everest. I love that homeschooling gives her the freedom to just READ!   * A new haircut for mom -- it's the little things, you know?* An afternoon at a friend's farm for Miss B... she loved spending time with her friends, the horses and goats. I love that she has these friendships and a chance to do what she loves. * Baseball, and more baseball - a practice, game and batting cages.

I'd love for you to link with Collage Friday. I've been so pleased with the response to this link up, but I feel the need to issue some simple guidelines so we're all on the same page:
1. Please use photo collages in your post.... that's the whole reason for Collage Friday!
2. Link back to my Collage Friday post or display the button somewhere on your site.
3. Please visit the person who linked ahead of you - leave them a comment and say hello.

I try my best to visit each person who links up.... be patient with me because it may take me a few days. You have NO IDEA what I gain from reading each of your posts. You are all a blessing to me!