Homeschool Mother's Journal: In Which There Are Some Surprises

In our homeschool...  we tried to fit in a lot of social studies this week, but in the end I'm not sure we got any more done there than usual. I have come to the conclusion that this year will be European History and Culture only - there's no way we'll get to the Americas and do them justice!  We have only one lesson left in Science so that's good news.  We took a break in our Composer study this week - so we could spend a bit more time listening to Scott Joplin's ragtime.  I think it's safe to say that Spencer had a very productive school week as well.  Even though we all took most of Thursday and Friday off from schoolwork.  On Thursday, we had a party to celebrate the end of co-op (it always ends just in the nick of time - just at the point where I am ready to aim the tennis ball mortar at my own head because I'm tired of teaching! LOL), and on Friday I had the kids focus more on Home Ec than on academics. ;-)

We had Armenian Pizza for dinner one night (Social Studies!)

It was so simple, and very good.

Spencer's drawing lessons were about perspective.

At the co-op party, Kennady's drama class put on their play, Poppin' Proverbs...

and displayed some work from Art class.

In other news...  We had a great Easter service on Sunday morning, and a bit of time to relax after our lunch.  In the afternoon we headed to Hershey for the Bears game.  It was a good game, but the Bears didn't get the win.  Landon and Kennady were winners though - Kennady won a prize pack of a lunch cooler full of little goodies; and Landon won a pair of tickets to the Bears first home playoff game!  Nice surprises!

Surprise! I got a decent picture of Landon in his CAP uniform!

Friday evening we had company.  We had a few anxious moments (a surprise I could have done without), because we planned to grill, but the gas grill wouldn't work! Thankfully it's in need of just a new hose, so we don't have to replace the whole thing.  DH dug out the old grill and we gave it a quick cleaning and rigged that up as a charcoal grill.  Old school!

One of my favorite things... many favorites to choose from this week! Celebrating Resurrection Day, of course! But on the "surprise" scale, my favorite thing was getting the mail on Tuesday.  There was a package for me from my youngest brother.  It included a note with a couple of pictures of his little son - my nephew who will soon be a year old, and whom I have yet to meet; and a t-shirt for me.  Turns out my brother was at the Calgary Flames game where they 'retired' Al MacInnis' number and got a commemorative t-shirt for me because he remembered that MacInnis was my favorite player.  So now Richard holds the honorary title of My Favorite Brother.  ;-)

     

Questions/thoughts I have... could I possibly use Write with WORLD for a high school student next year and make it "worth" the credit?

As I mentioned, we're only getting European history/culture/geography covered this year with Landon and Kennady.  I was planning to do Notgrass' America the Beautiful with them next year.  So I could do history/culture/geography of the Americas with them the following year, right?

Lots of stuff rolling around in my head as I count down to the first curriculum fair at the end of this month!

A photo/video/quote or link to share...
National Geographic Photo Galleries has some of the greatest photos.  I keep wanting to use them as wallpaper, but I can't decide which one I want! This is the one that first got my attention.

On the bookshelf...

• The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens by Debra Bell
• The Duchess and the Dragon by Jamie Carie
• Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran
• Ben & Me by Cameron Gunn

Finished The Guardian Duke by Jamie Carie, and can hardly wait for the next in the series to come out!

A Parting shot...

This post is linked to The Homeschool Chick - see what surprises other homeschoolers experienced this week!