Collage Friday - Books, LEGOS, and Endings/Beginnings
Friday, March 29, 2013 at 5:01AM
Do you have a reader in your house?
I have been blessed with the gift of a daughter who LOVES to read. A trip to the used bookstore, library, or any sale that has books is heaven for her.
She reads and then REREADS books. She takes a good friend at our church bags of books when she is finished with them. Her friend brings them back just a couple of weeks later and they talk about them.
How many kids do this? I think it's awesome!
I have to admit I've read very few of the books Anna has read. I think, however, I'm going to start. She can just lose herself in her books and I want to do that, too.
I asked Anna to recommend some books for this post:
- Dear America
- Lady Grace Mysteries
- The Inkheart Triology
- Fever 1793
- The Witch of Blackbird Pond
- Wenny Has Wings (her most recent read - she LOVED this one!)
The Homeschool Week of My Eight Year Old
1. Mrs. Piggle Wiggle - what a cute book this is!
2. We found out about Mrs. Piggle Wiggle through Writing With Ease Level 2. I pick many of our read-alouds through Writing With Ease. (Next week's is Dr. Doolittle.) I'm so impressed with my son's ability to narrate after working through Level 1. Level 2 steps things up a notch and is challenging him right now
3. Chester Cricket's New Home - We listened to The Cricket in Times Square just a couple of months ago and I had no idea there was a sequel! I picked this up at a used bookstand at The Great Homeschool Convention and Grant finished reading it this week.
4. It warmed up ever so slightly on Wednesday (up to 32 degrees at 9 a.m.), so Grant needed to take batting practice in the back yard. He stayed out there for an hour while Anna and I went over her math. When he came inside I realized he wasn't wearing any socks the whole time. (No frostbite, so we're good. Someone give my child some socks!)
5. No Stress Chess - I finally learned how to play Chess this week. I wasn't very good. I need practice. I think, though, that I will let my husband and Grant stick to playing. They are two peas in a pod and play quite often.
6. Grant pulled out his Erector Set this week and was making things. This is a pretty complicated set and really needs adult supervision, but was getting ideas and making simple creations. I have a builder on my hands!
7. We are on the home stretch with Saxon Math 3! I really like the drills in the Saxon books. This week Grant was working on three digit subtraction with borrowing and money. Saxon leaves no stone unturned, and while sometimes it may seem like overkill, it has produced good mathematicians in my house.
"Thank You For the LEGOS!"
On Wednesday evening the UPS man rang our door. Grant ran to greet him and saw LEGO Education written on the boxes. I thought he was going to kiss the delivery man! He said "THANK YOU FOR THE LEGOS!" as the brown truck drove off.
We are so excited to be partnering with LEGO Education to share their great products with you. I wrote about the StoryStarters last week, and I will be sharing about other products in the coming weeks.
All I can say is: WOW.
Don't you love the LEGO Collage? Grant even had me take a picture of us as we were unpacking all of the goodies!
The Simple Machines Set has already been quite a hit, and we haven't even broken out the instructions yet! We also received some add-on packs that I'll be telling you about soon.
Easter Celebrations
W
We took the better part of a day to read a great Easter book aloud: Lilies, Rabbits, and Painted Eggs: The Story of The Easter Symbols. We learned so many interesting facts in this little book.
Of course we colored Easter Eggs. I don't think you're ever too old for this tradition.
I also used Spottify to play a lot of sacred Holy Week hymns for the kids. My husband and I were married and then were members of a beautiful Lutheran church in midtown Atlanta for several years. The pipe organ here is fantastic, and I have such fond memories of festival days in this church. I still miss the gorgeous music, and while I know we can worship God anywhere and at any time, my perfect place is in an old cathedral with a beautiful pipe organ! Bach runs deep in my veins!
We await the Ressurection of our Lord this Easter Sunday. It is the only TRUE HOPE for our fallen world.
Model Seder - Jews for Jesus
Saturday I enjoyed spending the day with Anna and a friend. We finished the day by attending a Model Seder meal at our church.
This was presented by a missionary from Jews for Jesus. We learned SO MUCH.
It was a beautiful way to ready our hearts for Holy Week and learn about Passover.
I was so proud of the girls that they tried everything on the table (horseradish, parsley, matzo, and more) and listened intently to the presentation. I'm thankful Anna has like minded friends who enjoy learning!
Endings/Beginnings
We had two big endings this week.
I gave my very last piano lesson (I'm now retired - ha!) on Wednesday.
We also attended our very last co-op meeting. We have been in the same co-op for three years and it has been a blessing to us, but it was time to simplify and move on. We are sad to go, but excited for new possibilities.
Next year we will keep it very simple. We have joined a Classical Conversations community just 10 minutes from our home. Anna will participate in Challenge A and Grant will be a part of the Foundations program. We utilize so many components of a Classical Education now and I am excited for next year.
As my children get older I'm finding I need MORE time for homeschooling and just for them in general. Giving up some volunteer commitments and my part time piano teaching job will greatly help me focus more fully on them.
That's our week in a {rather large} nutshell.
How was YOUR week?
Please join me for Collage Friday!
The rules are simple. Link your post (that incudes photo collages) about your homeschool week. Be sure to grab a Collage Friday button or text link back to this post in some way. Then, be sure to visit the other blogs on the list to offer support and gain ideas. This is a wonderful community and I love reading through your blogs each weekend and seeing how you all encourage each other.
*I will delete any links that don't comply with these guidelines. {not trying to be crabby, just trying to respect the hard work of those who do follow the rules}
Reader Comments (21)
Thanks, as ever for hosting! I love the peek into your week!
I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Lego Simple Machines set, it sounds like it might be great for my son.
I think it is great to read our daughter's favorite books. I read one of my daughter's top picks to choose dictation sentences, and her face lit up when I said I was reading it. Now she's recommending others to me and we have yet another shared story.
Simplifying the schedule sounds good!
I love the Lego sets. What awesome learning fun. I loved reading Fever 1793 to my oldest years ago. Books are such a gift.
Blessings, Dawn
My girls love the Dear America series as well. I am going to recommend some of the others to them. Allie has been a reader since about 5th grade and now that Piper is in 5th grade, she is not as interested in her dollhouse and Barbies and is more interested in reading. Yesterday we went to the big library near us and Allie recommended all kinds of books to her.
I admire that you gave up teaching piano. I have been praying and thinking about leaving the library, just so I could do more with the girls. Our budget was cut and my hours were reduced so that should help for now...we'll see...
LOVE your collages! So happy and full of learning. And congrats on the start of new things!
Wow! Lots of stuff this week. My daughter reads a lot as well. She seems to always be looking for books to read. She has read a few on your daughter's list. The latest she really enjoyed was The Final Crumpet.
Congrats on your piano retirement. I think. :)
I went to a Seder by Jews for Jesus, and I agree with you that it was very interesting. You have had a wonderful week! Your eight year old sounds like my younger boys who love to build. It really is a blessing to have a reader!
What a happy sounding week :-) We had a Jews for Jesus missionary at our church two or three weeks ago talking about the Passover seder and demonstrating during our church service. It was so fascinating.
I just love all the fun LEGO stuff y'all do. I really want to start doing more of these sorts of things.
And all your Easter fun, including the Seder -- I had big plans for things like that this week and then the sickies came to our house so it has thrown me for a loop. Guess we could always do it belatedly in a week or so, though, if we really want to!
The beginning of your post about Anna made me think about my wife so much. She can still lose herself in her books all the time. It amazes me just how many books she reads in a year.
As for Grant's week it sounds like he had a pretty good one, too. Lego learning, chess, math practice, reading, and even a little writing thrown in there for some balance. It all sounds like a great set of experiences.
I'm glad you died Easter Eggs. I haven't done that in years and it brought back many fond memories. Memories that I am sure your kids will carry with them into their adulthood, too! It's those kind of moments that stick with a person - the relational, family-together kind of moments.
I'm also glad I got to share the Seder with your family. Anna and her friend were indeed on their best that day. And they did try everything! I'm glad you all learned a bunch. On my online collection of recipes I have my favorite recipes for the Seder meal that I've done for churches in the past. If you want to try out some of the recipes that I have, feel free. I really like my recipe for the charoset (apples/walnuts) and the 300 minute egg recipe is simple and really neat from a cooking/science perspective. (You don't need recipes for anything else ... celery/parsley/lettuce, horseradish, saltwater ... )
As always, thanks for sharing!
I'm blessed to have happy readers too! Hmm, that library photo looks familiar :) I'll pass along this list to my oldest. She's a huge Warriors fan, although I cannot keep up with all the characters in that series. I love to read - mostly nonfiction right now but there's something so magical about escaping into a wonderful story!
I've got a reader too. I just can't keep up with him. My little guy is in love with books too, and snuggles them to sleep each night.
We simplified a lot of things this past year and it has been refreshing. We've found we really like having 2-3 days where we don't have to go anywhere. It has allowed for plenty of relaxing learning, ability to get really involved in something creative, and of course plenty of time to get lost in a good book!
Have a wonderful Easter :)
The way you jam pack so many cool activities into your week never ceases to amaze me! Really! I'm going to have to check out this Lego Learning more. Need to get Jeremiah off Minecraft once in a while!
Mary - glad to be back with Collage Friday! Packed week as always! Enjoy your holiday - and HE IS RISEN! Love ya
Have you seen this? I thought Id share with a fellow lego lover in my county
Lego’s In the Library Exhibition
Exhibitors and patrons of all ages welcome!
Tyrone Public Library
Lego’s in the Library – Exhibition
Children, Youth, & Adults
Bring your prebuilt item
Show and Tell
Meet and greet with other Lego lovers
Take your creation home
Date: Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Time: 10:30 a.m. – 11:15 a.m.
We have used so many of the same resources. I love WWE 2. We also have No Stress Chess (and Once a Pawn a Time is cute too) and we loved reading Chester Crickets New Home after we read The Cricket in Times Square. The Witch on Blackbird Pond is one of my favorite read alouds. Such good stuff!!
OK, i need your address- I will send your boy some socks- PRONTO!!! ;0)
Wow, what a week, Mary! :)
You know my girls are HUGE readers, and I love to lose myself in books, too. I don't always make as much time for this as I'd like. My girls read, and frequently re-read...so I understand Anna completely. She has some good books on her list!
LOVE all those LEGOs!!!
I'm trying really hard to show self-control here, but quite honestly I am totally Jealous!!!! I have been looking longlingly at LEGO education packs for a few years now and they just are not in my budget. So I will be watching as you and your boy have a blast with these sets and waiting patiently for the day when we can get one. :) Thanks for the hosting...
Beginnings and endings are bittersweet sometimes, aren't they?! Blessings to you in this new season:)
Tell Anna thanks for the book recommendations...I haven't heard of a couple, but I looked at the links and I bet my girls would enjoy them:)
Thanks for hosting Mary- hate that I missed you in Atlanta - it was more hectic than I counted on. BUT - I had some great time with the new family baby (so precious) and I did enjoy the Real Refreshment Retreat - Hope you had a wonderful Easter!