Homeschool Coffee Break: Weekly Wrap-Up: In Which We End Well

Homeschool: Part of me feels like we got nothing done this week, but I'm sure it's not quite as hopeless as all that! We didn't do much in the way of Science and Social Studies during the week, but thankfully Math and Language Arts are coming along fine. I'd really like to know why it's so hard to stay "caught up" in ALL subjects at once though.

I signed Landon and Kennady up for our homeschool group's Field Day next month. 8-) And signed myself up for the big homeschool convention! Now I have to decide whether I'm going both days or just one; and if I do want to go for both days, should I stay there overnight or make the drive twice.

And we attended the last co-op class for this season. As much as we all enjoy it, it's always a bit of a relief to have it over in the sense that it's one less thing to prepare for and run to and plan around each week. The Art and Geography class painted wooden signs representing their names - it was more of a history than geography lesson this time, as we talked about how tradesmen and business owners during the Middle Ages made signs or banners for their shops during a time when few folks were literate. We realized that similar pictograph type signs are still being used today, since brand styles are recognizable without words, as are signs such as those letting us know where washrooms or restaurants or hotels are located.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="228" caption="no reading skills necessary to know what this is!"]

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We then talked about how surnames came into common use. Some of the children painted a picture that represented their first name, some represented their last name, and some painted a sign representing where they lived or what they liked to do. I was impressed with the creativity, and a couple of kids (including Kennady) had interesting stories about how their parents chose their name.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="320" caption="yes, she was named for the hockey team. 100% true story."]

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Finally, we did get one full Science lesson in this week - one Landon and Kennady had been looking forward to quite eagerly. It was a great one to end the week with. Our lesson was about concentrations in solution and that one effect of concentration is that the freezing point and boiling point changes. We demonstrated this by making ice cream!

In Other News: It has been a busy week of running here and there...My choir practice was moved to Monday night this week, which meant I missed the homeschool group's Encouragement meeting. I was a bit disappointed, since the topic centered on courtship and purposeful dating, and a couple of families shared from their personal experiences. It sounds like it was a very interesting discussion. I met a friend for lunch on Tuesday - she and I used to see each other at least once a week, but schedules changed and it had been a year since we'd seen each other. (thank goodness for Facebook!) After lunch, I drove to Hershey to buy tickets for Game 1 of the Calder Cup playoffs. Thursday morning Harrison had an appointment, and I finally was able to get the new tire on the van! DH, Harrison, Landon, and Kennady attended the Bears game on Thursday evening (Bears lost though, boo. :-( ) while Spencer and I stayed home so we could get to the church for music practice.

Something new we are going to try - Spencer, Landon, and Kennady are each going to take a night once a week to be responsible for planning the menu and helping to prepare dinner. They've chosen their menus for next week, so we'll see how this works!

On the Bookshelf: