Weekly Wrap-Up: Fall Fun (lots of links) and a Field Trip!

I don't know what it has been about the past couple of weeks, but we have schooled "without incident" and really enjoyed ourselves as well. I think it is a combination of mom relaxing a whole lot and the kids finally falling into a groove, and just being so excited about learning! My husband and I have said so many times over the past several days just how glad we are that we got up the courage to pull them out of school and do this ourselves.

Most of our activities this week have been centered around Fall and Halloween. We did a lot of crafts, recipes, and activities - they can all be found in this post from a link up with The Homeschool Village yesterday.

We did start a great read-aloud this week - Imprisoned in the Golden City, which is another excellent title from our Sonlight curriculum. The story takes place in Burma, and I'd like to extend that somehow next week - we have already finished our study of China, but we can certainly go back and pull in this country as well.

Miss B listens intently and would be happy if I read aloud for hours at a time (She loves a great adventure story, especially if it involves compassionate people). I have been proud of GMan, as well - he is really listening to this story with us. He usually listens and plays, which this week consisted of building the pagodas from the story out of blocks.

GMan is going to be an astronaut for Halloween, and during our trip to the planetarium last weekend we learned a lot more about astronauts and the Space Shuttle. We also learned that the pilot for the shuttle that goes up this Monday is a native of our area - my little guy even had his picture taken by his cardboard cutout at the planetarium! This will be the last shuttle mission ever, so we are eager to watch on Monday. In addition, GMan has been reading a book Living in Space to add to his love of the subject.

Miss B is still in her Harry Potter phase - she read all of the books last spring, and is rereading them now! She will be Hermione for Halloween and I'm thrilled she loves to read the books. I know there is a lot of debate over the books, but when my child reads books this difficult and discusses them with me and obviously knows the difference between good and evil, I am all for her reading them - we all love a good fantasy/magic story and I want to fuel her love of literature. (Ok, I'm off my soapbox now.)

Yesterday the kids picked out their pumpkin at a local fire station - they will carve it with dad this weekend. We had never been to this place to pick out our pumpkin and I must say the selection was great and the money was for a good cause, too.

The highlight of our week was by far our field trip today - if you have never seen or heard of Slim Goodbody you are really missing something!

We headed to the performing arts center at Georgia Tech and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and I am positive the children learned a whole lot about the human body. It was quite entertaining for the adults, as well! After the performance we headed to an Atlanta food landmark, The Varsity, and had our lunch - which is also quite an educational experience! We went with a sweet family that we have recently met through our co-op, so everyone had good conversation and fun.

Hop over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and visit other people's Weekly Wrap-Up posts, as well.

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Weekly Wrap-Up: Full of Odds and Ends

This week's weekly wrap-up is linked to See Jamie Blog... check out what everyone has been up to this week!

I don't know where this week went. Honestly. It wasn't until I looked back at the photos I had taken that I realized how much we packed into the week! Most of what we accomplished this week was tying up little odds and ends, and a lot of extra curricular fun was had as well.

Math: Miss B took a math test on Thursday that covered reducing fractions, multiplying numbers by 10, 100 and 1,000, dividing with remainders, counting money, geometric shapes, and telling time. She made a 93%! She will tell you she doesn't like math, but she told me early in the week that the lessons are getting easier and maybe that's because she is getting better at math... and (get this!) she said "I actually like math now!". Yippee!! GMan, on the other hand, loves math and is plowing right through his math curriculum. His Math Through Literature class at co-op has been a huge blessing for him.

History: We finished Justin Morgan Had a Horse and also completed a history lesson about the War of 1812. I love the way Sonlight makes history come alive for my children. GMan sat through every reading of Justin Morgan and loved the story, too. We also learned about The Star Spangled Banner and watched a Scholastic Video called The Scrambled States of America, which is a book my son has been OBSESSED with, and when I found the video he loved it. Take a minute to watch the video clip I've linked you to - it is so cute.

Science: We checked out oodles of books about space and finished learning all about our solar system. Tomorrow we go to the planetarium with daddy to culminate our study of space! We have been watching the moon all week, and tonight it is a beautiful full moon. The Oreo Moon Phases activity we did last week really stuck with both children, that's for sure!

Five In A Row: GMan finished the lapbook pieces for Mike Mulligan, and we need to put the lapbook together and make our Mike Mulligan cake.... this is first on the list for next week!

We worked our way through our language lessons, grammar, Bible study, and the other regularly scheduled events of each day. Here are some highlights from extra things we did this week:

• GMan read to the therapy dogs at our local library! Up to this point, only Miss B has read to them, but there was a cancellation this week when we went, and GMan was asked to read. He did so without hesitation and read Kool Joe three books. This is such a great way to train therapy dogs, and such a blessing for the children reading to the dogs.

• At Co-Op this week the children got to see the fire house, a service our our local fire department. They learned all about fire safety and did some really fun things. I could only get GMan to pose for a picture - Miss B was embarrassed!

• Spanish class has been wonderful this semester. Today the children learned more Spanish and also all about Mexico. Their teacher is from Mexico City and brought in clothes, food, and many other Spanish items for the children.
  

She also baked a cake which is traditionally eaten on Epiphany (January 5) in Mexico. It is a King Cake, with a baby Jesus hidden inside -- similar to the Mardi Gras King Cake. Guess who got the baby?

• GMan's last tball game of the season was this week. I can't begin to tell you how obsessed with ball this child is. He is so serious about the game, and has now gotten very interested in the Topps Attax baseball card game . The word FOCUS comes to mind when I think about it. It's very cool.

• Miss B turned a huge corner with piano this week. She has been playing for a few years now, but just recently she practices willingly and for long periods of time without my help. She loves her teacher (no, even though I give private piano lessons, I don't teach her!) and has been inspired so much. She is giving the boy next door "lessons" and his mom actually called me and told me how much he is enjoying them. Miss B is a mini-me, that's for sure.

We ended our week with a spontaneous park play date with another homeschooling family we have met through co-op. I'm so happy to see all of us becoming connected in the homeschool community, which is so strong in our area. God truly answers prayer.

I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend spent with my family - no running to ball games and no outside commitments, which is nice for a change! I also hope to prepare some fun Halloween activities for next week. Enjoy the weekend!

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Hooray for Mom Not going Nuts!

I find it difficult sometimes to do weekly wrap-up posts because I feel like we accomplish a whole lot in one week. This week, however, I was very proud of my children (and myself!).... it was a BUSY week and we stayed on track and accomplished everything on our schedule. I have been so preoccupied with the planning of a large Open House on Sunday afternoon for a sweet little baby who has just been adopted from China. My son's tball team is in the last week of its season and I am the team mom (coordinating a get together, getting medals, gifts, etc...). Add in homeschool and running the house and it was a busy week. We are taking it EASY today so I can retain my sanity.

Monday

My nine year old daughter has a Spanish class in the morning. They studied Peru and continued learning more Spanish. I enjoy this time because my son and I spend it reading books, taking a walk, or running errands together. We also did a few things about Columbus Day (and I am happy to report my daughter remembered reading Pedro's Journal and recounted to me that Columbus was not such a nice guy!), our normal math lessons and continued our study of space by reading another Magic School Bus book about stars.

I also assigned a space lapbook to my daughter to be completed by Friday. We are trying to make certain large school assignments due at the end of the week for Miss B in an effort to teach accountability. She has been working hard on it all week!

Can I say again that we love The Magic School Bus?

Tennis lessons for Miss B in the evening while mom did the treadclimber at the YMCA.... yes, I was sore the next day!

Tuesday

Read-Aloud Day! We finished our Lewis and Clark book and began Justin Morgan Had a Horse. Once again, Sonlight has chosen a wonderful book to keep my children's attention. We also started our new Five in a Row Story - Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel. I had ordered this book on CD and it is done so very well - my son listens to it over and over! Our big word this week was PERSONIFICATION! We will finish this book next week because I would like to make a steam shovel cake with the kids!

Our great discovery for the day was Read, Write & Type. I had read so many TOS Crew Reviews about this computer program and it sounded like a perfect fit for my five year old. I had been searching for something else for him that was computer-based. I purchased it and he LOVES IT! I find the crew reviews so helpful.

Wednesday

We got a little sidetracked in the morning because of our new bird feeder! My daughter looked on the back of the birdseed bag and read about the birds it attracted. So, we hung the feeder right by our family room and breakfast area window and watched the birds come all morning!

Our favorite was the chickadee, especially since Miss B had done a chickadee painting last year in art. I have pulled a few books about nature study and hope to start this with the kids soon. Our fun project of the day was Oreo Moon Phases - such a simple and fun activity! We continued with the rest of our activities - math, science, history, handwriting, grammar, etc.... and after lunch went swimming at the YMCA (more exercise for mom, aren't you proud of me?).

Thursday

This is the day when I sometimes feel as if I'm going over the edge! We school lightly in the morning because of our homeschool co-op in the afternoon. So, we just did our math lesson, language lessons and grammar, read-alouds, then hit the road. A word about grammar - my daughter is loving Easy Grammar.

We have just finished the first large section about prepositions and I am so impressed with her ability to identify prepositional phrases, nouns, verbs, and direct objects.... and she says it's her favorite subject! The afternoon involved co-op, piano lessons for Miss B, then a tball game for GMan. Everyone slept well last night!

Friday

Today we will take it easy so I can run errands and take care of odds and ends. Miss B wants to finish her lapbook and also The Chronicles of Narnia (She checked out all of the books in one from the library a month ago and is nearly finished. I'm proud of her for taking the initiative to read it on her own.)

That's it for the week. I love the way blogging helps me keep track of what we have accomplished. When I put it all into a post I can really see that we are doing good things and doing A LOT of good things! See what other homeschoolers have accomplished this week over at Adventures of Arbor Creek and Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

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