Spencer had his last Chemistry class this week - one more subject DONE! He has just a few drawings left for Art, and is still working on History, English, and Geometry. So we won't be completely finished by the 'official' year-end, but close enough for me to calculate final grades, and it shouldn't take long after that to finish up.
Landon has maybe a week's worth of Math lessons to finish, and is nearing the end of his Bible and Language Arts.
Kennady has just Math to work on now, and we are changing gears with that a little bit. While at the curriculum fair and convention on Friday, I went ahead and bought a couple of the Life of Fred books for her and she has been reading the first one (Fractions) all weekend. So I'm thinking that we will do a sort of combination of LOF and the remainder of her Math Mammoth book. I'm optimistic, given the initial response to Life of Fred!
Landon and Kennady and I are spending the last couple weeks of school doing a brief study of some of the important scientists, authors, and artists from Europe. Mostly listing some scientists, where they were from, and what contributions they made; listing some authors, where they were from, and a few of their best-known works. With the artists, we are taking a little more time to look at some of the artwork and do a few simple art projects based on that. I think Kennady will be doing the artwork more than Landon. He is not really interested, but she is, and since he still has Language Arts to finish up, it works out well. This past week Kennady colored some designs based on Russian folk painting. She used water color pencils and I think these turned out very nicely.
In other news... on Monday afternoon I dropped off Landon and his friend to do their first "job" for the Civil Air Patrol - the squadron worked as parking lot attendants for a charity food and wine tasting event. It was held at a swanky private school in the city, and I felt like quite the hillbilly driving around the campus in my big ol' blue farm pickup. LOL The boys joked that every security camera in the place was noting our movements. Probably true. I did not quite fit in, you might say. o.O I thought I should get a picture of Landon in his bright orange vest, but this was the best I could manage.
I hung around town and did a few errands until it was time for my choir practice, which was the dress rehearsal for the concerts on Monday and Tuesday.
Tuesday night was the regular CAP meeting, and I took Spencer to do some shopping while Landon was there. DH took Kennady to her ball game.
On Wednesday we had the end-of-year cookout for the Wednesday night kids and youth programs at church. We had a great turnout despite the drizzly and cool weather.
Friday I was at the curriculum fair and homeschool convention all day, and left the kids at home to fend for themselves. I hoped they would do their schoolwork, but wasn't surprised to find that they did very little of it. LOL I got home before Kennady and Dad got back from her softball game, and when she came in she was beyond excited to tell me that she had turned a double play and had two hits and a walk in the game so her teammates voted for her to receive the game ball!! And I wasn't there to take a picture. Bad mommy!
Questions/thoughts I have... I really am having to hold myself back from digging into the lesson planning for next year! I go through this every year - as soon as I have the books in hand for the coming year I am so eager to get started!
One of my favorite things this week... my wonderful day spent at CHAP with some good friends. I rode up with three good friends from my local homeschool community and we had all kinds of laughs and good conversation as we traveled, and enjoyed hearing some speakers at the convention. I was able to purchase or pre-order everything I still had on the wishlist for school for next year too. Attending CHAP is actually my Teacher Appreciation Week/Mother's Day treat each year!
A photo/video/quote or link to share... I want to share the link to the Blog Hop that starts on Monday morning - visit the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog to start hopping through the 5 Days of... Blog Hop! More than 65 of the TOS Homeschool Crew bloggers will be blogging every day for five days about a chosen topic. Some are directly related to homeschool, and some are family or homemaking oriented, but all of them look great! I will be blogging 5 Days of Living History here and I am really looking forward to 5 days of sharing about a subject I love, and 5 days of reading a lot of blogs!
A few thoughts and indirect quotes from CHAP speakers - I scribbled some notes so I likely don't have the quotes exactly right, but here are a few thoughts shared that made an impression on me.
I can't teach you... but I can help you learn. ~ a music teacher to student, story shared by Diana Waring
"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them...Not so with you!" ~ Jesus, in Matthew 20:25. Diana Waring mentioned this as something for parent teachers to remember also - while we are in authority over our children, we do not reflect Christ if we 'lord it over them'.Of course there were more interesting things shared, but these were the two that were easiest to condense down to just a line or two!
On the bookshelf...
- The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling Teens by Debra Bell
- Ben & Me by Cameron Gunn
- Brightest Heaven of Invention by Peter J. Leithart, along with Shakespeare's Henry V.
- The Lady of the Rivers by Philippa Gregory
A Parting shot...
Happy Mother's Day!
This post is linked to (the new home for The Homeschool Mother's Journal) iHomeschool Network - see how other homeschoolers felt their students' appreciation this week!
Posts
2 comments:
Wonderful week!!! I'm so excited for Kennady and her math.
Glad you had a nice time at the conference. One day I might actually go to one.
I just attended a homeschool convention as well. It can be a real boost! And going with friends- even better. I'll be sure and check out the TOS blog hop.
Post a Comment
I love comments! It's like visiting over a virtual cup of coffee.