Friday
May042012
The Week of Books! ~ Collage Friday
Friday, May 4, 2012 at 5:00AM 
The theme of the week was BOOKS! Our local homeschool group had our used book sale. I was a seller, shopper, and volunteer. What a great morning! The sheer number of books and homeschooling moms in one place would give you the shivers... most people I saw had a glazed-over look as they entered the gym... so much potential learning crammed into one tiny space!
{ I was so busy organizing books and searching for books that I forgot to take a single picture! I did take some as I tagged my books... see what a neat spreadsheet system we had this year? I just entered my books into the spreadsheet and the tags were automatically created. }
I'm also so very thankful for our local homeschool group and how hard so many people work to make events like this possible!
As you can see, I got a lot of the classics, a wonderful art game, and our next volume of The Story of The World (in mint condition!). Lots of the books I bought aren't pictured, either! The break down was as follows:
Amount Made at Book Sale (by me): $77.00
Amount Spent at Book Sale (by me): $25.00
________
Profit (for ME!) : $52.00
We also grabbed a few books at our local library's book sale, as well. Paperbacks were .50 and hardbacks were $1.00. I had $10 in my wallet and let the kids go to town with the $10 limit. They did great. So, all in all a great book week!
On to the collages. From left to right:
1. Two exciting things happened this week. I got a new laptop (which will be wonderful all things blogging, homeschool, etc...). My husband took me to "look" on Sunday and I loved one so much I said "Can't we just get it today?". My husband said he was planning to surprise me for Mother's Day -- my response was "I'm not one for those Hallmark holidays in the first place, so why not just make it Mother's Day all year round?" (I'm pretty clever, right?)
You will also see the website on the computer is "In a Nutshell". This is a blog run by About One ~ I am writing a couple of posts a month for this site now. I have never thought of myself as a "writer" per se, but I'm now adding that word to my self descriptive vocabulary.
2. My daughter's favorite book from the past few weeks is Knight's Castle. She finished it this week and then I (the mean mother) required a book report. We've been having some motivation (ahem) issues around here. I understand this is age related, but we must keep pressing through and keeping our expectations high. Interest Led Learning is great, but you have to have INTERESTS to make that possible. I'm gently suggesting interests! We think so much about moms losing motivation in these spring months, but I think the same goes for our children as well.
* I do have to say that Miss B has expressed an interest to learn about England, so I think I'm going to put together an Adventure Box about England and let her explore.
3. GMan is going strong with his piano lessons from me. I wondered how he would do when we first started and he has amazed me... loving to practice and a very natural sense of the steady beat and musicality. It is my greatest joy to hear both of my children practice each day. (Do you remember what I said about piano lessons?)
4. Both kids have still been a bit under the weather this week. I've been trying to make lots of healthy smoothies for them. The favorite this week was the Cinnapear Smoothie!
2. After doing three chapters in The Story of The World this week we read Who Was Marco Polo?. I love all of the "Who Was" books and this one was no different. While I was reading my little guy hopped up next to me on the sofa with his LEGO bow he had made ... that stinker built a Mongolian Composite Bow. I adore homeschooling.
We also did some music notebooking with history - download the Medieval Music Notebooking pages for yourself!
3. Another history picture - map work of Marco's journeys across Europe and Asia.
Our favorite resource this week was a series of videos we discovered at the library. Countries Around The World are short videos that take children throughout a country - and they are guided by another child. We have watched Iceland, and checked out United Kingdom and Italy (in honor of Marco Polo). All in all it was a good week... trying to get my little guy feeling better after walking pneumonia and just tying up loose ends of the school year kept us at home most of the week and not doing anything "fun". Next week I'll be the fun mom - I kind of missed her this week.
I had an email from my own mom this week that praised me for doing a good job with my own children and told me to keep up the good work on my blog. That praise meant so much to me... and in an instant I realized what it feels like to be one of my children... how much they crave praise and how they must feel when they get it from me (which isn't enough).
How was your homeschool week? Please feel free to link with me... no formal collages necessary, just a compilation of photos that tell the story of your adventures in learning.
As always, please grab my button from the sidebar or link back to this post in some way. Please visit the person who has linked ahead of you to offer encouragement and gain ideas.
Reader Comments (13)
What a busy and productive week you had! I love used book sales, they are dangerous ;) I have a MacBook and I love it, I think I'm actually due for an upgrade in the near future - its an excellent investment. Your smoothie sounds great, you should add in a handful of spinach too!! Have a great weekend Mary.
Oh, I love used book sales. Our hs group had one this week as well. Fun to look through titles, find new resources, and great deals! The praise from your mom - beautiful and encouraging. I sometimes wish my parents had a computer (seriously, they don't!) so I could share this blogging thing with them on a more regular basis.
If it was a week of books, then that means it was an awesome week, as far as I'm concerned :) I adore used book sales, but I have to remember to control myself. That art game looks great, too, by the way!
I am intrigued by the idea of adventure boxes. I can totally relate to the motivation issues, because I've been experiencing some of that here, too.
That DVD series looks great, Mary!
I am thankful for your thought about how good it feels to receive encouragement from our own mothers! I need to make a more conscious effort to verbalize my praise for my kiddos- it just feels so darn good when you hear those words from others, ESPECIALLY your own Mama!
(Oh, and even if you felt like you weren't the "Fun Mom" this week, I think you were! Come on- book shopping? Smoothies? Yup, you made it a good week for your kiddos!)
There is so much I love about this post! I loved the lesson in alphabetizing with your spices!! LOL You are so right when you say, "Interest Led Learning is great, but you have to have INTERESTS to make that possible." I suggest activities just for that reason. Especially when they are young, they don't know the possibilities unless they are offered. Suggestions do not make it less interest-led!
I love the Lego bow!! Wonderful week!
My homeschool week has been sort of off and on. We went to Battle of the Nations here in Warsaw, Poland. It was very interesting. However, it was very hot!
A few of your books look familiar to me. You have to love used book sales. I can't wait to do those sort of things again.
I love your spice cabinet and those videos look very interesting...hmmm...I have to see if we can get them for the library...
I hope you don't mind that I linked up, our homeschool has looked different lately, but I had some photo collages of the things we have done.
Oh I love seeing a whole lotta books! Wow! Post packed full of resources.
First of all I love that your spices are in alphabetical order. :)
I scored last month at our used book sale too. We had the final one today but because of Kei's play I couldn't go. I always get great deals.
YAY on the laptop! I would love to have a new one. How exciting about writing for "About One" I will check that out.
I am also going to check into Adventure Boxes. I think that is something Keilee would really like. I also hope our library has those DVD's!! Do Nexflix have them?
Great week Mary. Enjoy your weekend.
Sounds like a great week, Mary! How wonderful to both make money and to get so many bargains! And a new laptop? How wonderful! (D'ya think your hubby would talk to mine? ;-) ) I know what you mean about being the mean mom vs. the fun mom. It's hard to be both, isn't it?
I just love reading about your weeks. I hope to be back tomorrow with my own collage and wrap up.
Cinnapear Smoothie sounds YUMMY! Have to keep that in mind.
We like to freeze applesauce in the little 1/2 cups to use for smoothies. For 2 people we use 2 of the cups. Add juice and/or milk along with some other fruit if wanted (or have lol) and blend to the consistency preferred.
We read The Apple and The Arrow this year. Found a nice free Lapbook to go with it.
Where did you find the country videos? I just checked the coweta public library system online and couldn't find them. These would be great for what we're learning right now as well (Mexico & Canada.)