Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We Reach the Halfway Point

Homeschool:  On Monday we finished reading the book Ancient Chinese Civilization (which I really liked, by the way), and I encouraged the kids to try sketching some Chinese dragons.  Kennady did, and wasn't too happy with her effort.  Landon didn't even try it, although I'm sure he could do a good job.  We'll come back to that another time, I guess.  We talked a little about some of the games that were invented by the Chinese centuries ago that are still being played today, and wound up playing our own round of Chinese Checkers.  I've had this game, which came from my grandparents' house, for years and believe it or not - I have never taught these kids to play Chinese checkers.  Now they know.  (I won, of course)

Chinese checkers board that used to belong to my Dutch grandpa

On Tuesday I had a day full of meetings, so the kids mostly worked on their own.  In the afternoon I got together with some of their students (and their moms) that will be our group's graduating class of 2011.  We are starting work on planning the commencement exercises.  I am helping the group's director with the planning since her children are younger and this is her first year as director - and I had a student graduate last year.  And apparently I was outspoken enough about what I liked and disliked from last year's commencement that I was asked to help with planning this year.  Weird.  Anyway, on Tuesday evening, the fellowship group met to share ideas on social studies curricula - which somehow morphed into a discussion on teaching reading.  And the phonics vs whole language debate.
On Wednesday we managed to get science done first thing in the morning.  We talked about the difference between weight and mass and tried rigging up our own balance and spring scales to demonstrate.  The spring scale was a bit tricky, I think it would have worked much better with a skinnier rubber band.



Also, Landon got working on the placement test for Saxon math.  What's very odd is that he ASKED me when he could start on it.  I was thinking maybe next week, but since he was bugging me for it, I gave it to him! And Kennady completed another lesson in HomeEc, which meant she made dinner - tacos!

Thursday was another morning school day, and the afternoon was spent at a friend's place working on co-op lesson planning while the kids played fell in the mud.

Schoolwork happened on both Friday and Saturday this week.  Landon will be starting Saxon Math 8/7 on Monday, and Kennady will be starting Grade 4 Math.  I think we'll have her 'caught up' to where she should be in Math in plenty of time for the start of the next school year.  Thank you, Schoolhouse Rock, for all your help!
 In Other News:  Since Monday was a school holiday (except for my kids!) I took Harrison back to Baltimore on Monday afternoon.  He didn't have class, but did want to get into the school's studio to do his sports show.  We had snow on Tuesday which cancelled our scheduled choir practice.  That didn't bother me too much because it meant I could attend the homeschool encouragement group I mentioned!  Harrison is staying in Baltimore this weekend so I didn't have to make that drive on Friday.  I had great plans to do another round of spring cleaning today, but somehow never really got going on it.  I blame my husband - he let me sleep until 11am, only waking me because the coffeemaker had turned off but "the coffee is still hot if you want some"  8-/  Don't get me wrong - it's fantastic that he let me sleep late!!! But 10 would have been late enough, and I would have had fresher coffee.  Just sayin.
On the Bookshelf:

• The Scribe by Francine Rivers
• The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory  (King Henry VIII was a madman, in case you didn't already know that)
• The Frightened Man by Kenneth Cameron  (a Jack the Ripper mystery - just the thing to read before bed, am I right?)
• Quitting Church by Julia Duin (you know a non-fiction book is going to be good when you cry during the first chapter)

I finished a truly awful book, Bespelling Jane Austen this week and tell you why I think you shouldn't bother reading it here.  And DH and I watched an absolutely fabulous DVD called Mountain of Fire on Wednesday night, and I tell you why I think you really should see it here.   Lisa, who loaned me the DVD, also loaned me some books by the same guy, so you might be seeing those 'on my bookshelf' in the near future.
Parting Shot: