Weekly Wrap-Up: The Kids Talk Me Into Hermit Crabs

The kids at Chick Fil-A earlier this week... I love the Instagr.am app on my phone!

It's amazing what a difference a little warm weather can make. I do love a bit of cold, but at heart I am a native Floridian and I just think I am happier when it's warm outside! Much of our week was spent outside - so everyone slept well this week (and LATER, because of the time change) and I did more laundry due to the dirty clothes from playing outside!

If you didn't catch the posts about music this week, you can catch them here (piano advice) and here (general music resources). Hopefully they were helpful and I'm so grateful to many people who left comments with additional thoughts, ideas, and resources. The blogging community is an endless font of knowledge!

In our homeschool this week we finished our study of seashells, using a Download n Go unit. The children REALLY enjoyed this, and on the last two days of the study I let them do it together while I disappeared. They sat with the iPad and completed their questions, watched videos, and just learned a lot in general. We went to the pet store and purchased everything for our crabitat, and tomorrow we will be the proud owners of hermit crabs. (Am I crazy?) If you have any hermit crab tips, please leave me a comment!

Gman has been going through First Language Lessons - we love this program! He has been reluctant to narrate for me verbally, but I know he loves to write and draw. When we got to the lesson with The Boy Who Cried Wolf I had him write a little narration for me. I was SO PROUD of him...although he can be your typical six year old - all over the place and quite energetic - (what boy isn't?) most of the day, when he sits down to write he means business.

Miss B has been writing letters to a penpal in Ohio a couple of times a week and I need to get her journaling and writing more. That is my goal for next week. I have a book here called "The Magic Pencil" and we are going to do some of those activities.

Our Story of the World chapters this week were about Moses and the Ten Plauges... fascinating stuff for kids, and moms! We read the chapter in SOTW, but also are reading through the section of Exodus where it occurs. I know I say it every week, but SOTW is a hit!

Miss B has bumped up into the next math book, and the first 20 lessons are a gentle review of concepts from the previous book. Here is where I see a benefit in year round schooling, because we didn't stop for two months between grade levels, and she has transitioned so easily into this new level. Thank you, Horizons Math!

Yesterday was crazy hats and shades day at our co-op. We didn't go so much on the crazy end of things, but the kids did make their own hats here at home, and Miss B sewed all of the buttons on hers, which was quite a task. I love how they turned out!

Lots and lots of reading was done this week. The kids each have a favorite series right now. For GMan, it is the Cul-de-Sac Kids, by Beverly Lewis. GREAT books, similar in length to Magic Treehouse books, so perfect for first chapter book readers.! For Miss B, she is enjoying The 39 Clues. She started these last year and read the first five, and picked up the next three at the library this week. I love the way they incorporate history.

Read-alouds include The Wonder Clock, Mara (Daughter of the Nile) , and any Matt Christopher baseball book GMan can get his hands on! Yesterday we went to the doctor and we were all in the waiting room with our books - the nurse complimented the children on their behavior and reading and I was very proud of them. Oh -- I'm reading The Read Aloud Handbook. I highly recommend this!

Music is humming right along. Last weekend Miss B earned a superior at a piano competition. This was her third year in a row, so she earned a gold cup trophy. We have also been preparing music for GMan's co-op class each week. I'm having so much fun teaching this. When it's all over I'll do a post about what we've been up to the past ten weeks.

We are reviewing a PE curriculum, so that's gotten us out and moving ~ in addition to tennis and baseball. Both kids are enjoying it, but I need to be more active myself. This is something I struggle with, so please encourage me if you can!

A final thought - the longer I homeschool, the more I realize one of the largest goals I have is bringing our family closer together. I want our children to depend on their FAMILY for support, and not a network of friends. Friends are good to have - in monitored doses. I believe, however, that children today are "farmed out" too much and begin to see their peers as the experts on life. It warms my heart to see my children playing with each other and depending on each other so much. When it comes down to it, this is what is truly important. If I can nurture their relationship with God and their relationship with each other, I feel I have done my job well. Believe me, this week I've heard some "unsocialized" comments about homeschoolers and it initially makes my blood boil, but then I take a deep breath and look at my own kids and realize the naysayers have NOT A CLUE!

Here they are trading baseball cards - probably not Miss B's favorite activity, but she wanted to spend time with G and she knew he would want to do this. They sat outside for a good thirty minutes one afternoon trading cards. Wow, I love homeschooling.

I'm linking up today with Kris - check out other homeschoolers' weeks, too!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Back to "Normal"

This week we are back to "normal", or whatever that means for us! It's been a bit of a harsh reality.... we had loved the relaxing days over the holidays, and then a week of snow (even though we schooled throughout the weather) just slowed everything down quite a bit. We took the day off on Monday (since dad was home) and resumed Tuesday.

Now that our Co-Op has started we do not have much school on Thursdays (co-op is 12:30-3:00 and piano lessons right after). We always choose a great book to listen to on CD on the way there and back (this time we are working on Heidi - I had forgotten how I LOVE that story). If you click the link for Heidi you will find a free .mp3 audio download! How cool is that? We got ours at the library, but I found this and thought I would share. Here's what the co-op classes for the kids look like this semester:

Miss B:
No-Sew Blanket Fun
Hands On Projects

GMan:
I Want Candy! (a fun math class)
Music and Movement (taught by yours truly!)

I cannot tell you how much I love our co-op. We are comprised of nearly 100 families and just over 200 children. The class offerings are amazing, and the friendship and fellowship is the highlight of our week. I am thankful to be a part of such a talented and devoted group of families.

The rest of our week broke down like this:

Math: lots and lots of drills for Miss B, preparing for her final test in this book. She is not a huge fan of math, but I have started giving her little rewards along the way and it is helping. GMan loves math and begs me for timed drills each day - he is quickly zipping through the first grade Horizons book.

Grammar: I am confident Miss B has her prepositions memorized and we LOVE EASY GRAMMAR! More First Language Lessons for Grant - this week included initials, abbreviations, and spelling of the winter months.

Spelling: Sequential Spelling - we are up to test 70 now for Miss B. She can spell recommend! Yippee -- that word always confused me growing up.

Reading: Miss B continues to read whatever she can get her hands on.... this week she began The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. GMan got ahold of some Boxcar children readers and loved them, so they kept him busy this week. He also wants to read a Magic Treehouse so badly all by himself, but he usually peters out after 10 minutes! The kids also read to the dogs at our local library - the P.A.W.S. Canine Assistance Program - they do this once every couple of months and just love it. Here they are with Kool-Joe and Zoe.

Reading to Therapy Dogs is so much fun!

History: We completed Story of The World (Volume 1) chapters 2 and 3, about the Nile River and Hieroglyphics and Cunieform writings. This has been so interesting for the kids. They work in their notebooks while I am reading to them, and we do the map activities together after I read. I love the way it incorporates geography! We are nearly finished reading The Boy of the Painted Cave to go along with this section of SOTW. What an excellent book. GMan's favorite book this week was Bill and Pete go Down the Nile, and he loved practicing his cunieform and hieroglyphics! This afternoon we will paint rocks with their favorite symbols.

Wow -- no science this week -- unintentional, but we just did not have time, so next week we will get back to that. I think we may devote one day to science activities. I am still trying to get a definitive plan for science, but I like the kids to choose what they learn in this area. We also need to get back to Miss B's writing program - she was doing so well before Christmas and I don't want to lose that confidence. She writes letters and also writes summaries in her SOTW notebook, but we need to do more.

Two last tidbits. I am so proud of Miss B for finishing knitting her first project!! (well, she is 1/2 way finished) She has been working with a friend of mine to knit a pair of fingerless gloves, and she finished the first one last Sunday! Yeah Miss B!!!

My favorite part of the week was going to dinner in downtown Atlanta with my husband then to see The Blue Man Group! We had a rare entire evening to ourselves and enjoyed every minute. The Blue Man Group was incredible... we laughed so hard we almost cried and the music was so awesome. Go see them if you get the chance -- but don't take the kids because it gets a little adult in sections.

I hope your week was good - and go see what other homeschoolers have been up to at Kris' Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Weekly Wrap-Up: Snow & A Broadway Musical

Today I'm linking up with Kris, at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for the Weekly Wrap-Up.

The big thaw is underway in the southeast.... here's what left of the snow in our backyard ~ funny to see green grass with snow in the background. The swing set and raised garden beds are literally an ice skating rink (which provided lots of fun today for the kids!). While all of the traditional schoolchildren in our area have missed FIVE days of school, we have schooled each day. If there is ever a week where I needed confirmation that homeschooling was the way to go, this was the week!

**Before I go any farther with this post -- I know the font size, etc... is wonky in this post! I cannot for the life of me figure out why. But, it is late, and I just want to get to bed and trust that the readers will be forgiving (just this once!).

I'm going to start breaking my weekly wrap-up post into subject areas.... I think it is easier than breaking it into days, which is my normal approach. Here goes:

Math: Miss B is doing well with long division and drawing symmetrical shapes. We continue to drill the math facts - normally that has been done on an iPad app, but this week I pulled out the dreaded WORKSHEETS. Both
kids drilled every day and guess what? It did not kill them! GMan is officially half way through his Horizons 1 book and LOVES math. Is this my child? Where did he come from? Today at the library he picked out Go, Fractions.

History: Dad was home for three days of the week (since his office was closed) and took the time to relax with the kids and watch the entire series from The History Channel - America, The Story of Us. We had gotten this set for free last year (through a special promotion for educators) and I am so glad we own the series. I learned so much, and the videos kept everyone interested.

We also worked through Chapter One in The Story of The World, Nomads and The First Farmers. I am loving SOTW because of the engaging stories and short, succinct lessons. We are supplementing with readings and activities - and TONS of videos and library books. Right now we are reading The Boy of The Painted Cave, which both of the children are enjoying quite a bit. They continue to work in their notebooks, which consists of the maps and activities from the activity guide and also some narration sheets I made. Miss B writes her own summaries, and I let GMan dictate them to me. It is working well.

Reading: It was a perfect week for our Five in a Row story, Katy and the Big Snow. Check out my post about it here. Miss B finished another Percy Jackson book and is rereading one of the Harry Potter books. I have to get her reading more things other than this Sci Fi genre, so I think she will be starting Anne of Greene Gables this week.

Science: We did a couple of Pop Bottle Science activities this week - both very simple and quick, but demonstrating important principles. One was about inertia - we took our bottom half of the pop bottle and put an index card on top - with a quarter on top of that. When we flicked the index card off the bottle, the quarter fell in the bottle. Cool. The next was dealing with the centrifugal force of the earth - simply demonstrated by putting a marble in our bottle and spinning it to watch the marble stay on the sides of the bottle. I love these experiments for GMan.


Next week we starts a Topps unit, so we'll be spending more time on science.

Grammar & Spelling: Easy Grammar for Miss B and First Language Lessons for GMan. Miss B is doing Sequential Spelling and we had four "tests" this week. I love this gentle approach to spelling.

Field Trip: What an amazing time we had seeing the Broadway production of Beauty & The Beast this week. We weren't sure if we would be able to make it to downtown Atlanta because of the icy road conditions, but once we heard the roads were ok, we were on our way! I had seen the show before, but it never ceases to amaze me what an elaborate and entertaining show this is. Miss B invited a friend of ours (who is 6 and loves princesses) and her mom to come with us. We had a great time! This was the highlight of our week.

Miss B and her friend (The Princess Lover!) at the Fabulous Fox Theatre

Miscellaneous: Both children are entering a homeschool literature fair which will happen at the end of February. The fair entails choosing a book, then doing a book report, display board, and hands on project. We did this last year and it was such a wonderful experience. Miss B has chosen Calico Bush for this year, and GMan has chosen The Grouchy Ladybug. We are starting these projects now, so Miss B has been learning to knit as part of hers - a dear friend of mine has been spending a lot of time with her helping her make a pair of fingerless gloves. We met at Starbucks the first chance the roads were clear this week, and she had a knitting lesson.

Gman and I checked out lots of ladybug books today and found an idea to make your own ladybug catcher - and of course we will raise some ladybugs soon!

As I look back at the week I see that the fine arts are lacking, especially art. In the coming weeks I'd like to start our composer of the week and a few more art lessons or classes. Miss B continues with her weekly piano lessons and has a competition coming in March. GMan will be getting music each week in a co-op class I am teaching for his age group.

We all appreciated the pace this week. Everyone was forced to slow down and stay put, which suited us just fine. Next week co-op begins and it's back to business as usual!