Weekly Wrap-Up - Getting in the Groove

I enjoy reading about other homeschooling families' weeks over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Lots of families are on their first week of school, and others are just a few weeks in. I get inspiration and ideas from the homeschooling community and wanted to participate in the wrap-up this week. So, here's our week in a nutshell:

Monday: Just a general get back in the routine kind of day... the fun thing for the day was learning to play dominoes! We also started Lentil (our Five in a Row title) and my daughter began Carry On, Mr. Bowditch. We are continuing learning about the US Constitution and finishing our science unit about weather. The new thing added this week was an independent Bible study for my nine year old - Jesus in the Spotlight. She seems to like it. Monday evenings are my daughter's tennis lessons, which she really enjoys.

Tuesday: More of the same.... I taught (and Miss B caught on very well) mixed numbers and improper fractions. Horizons Math gets five stars in my book for making new math concepts easier because of the slow and gentle way they are introduced. My son is loving the Horizons Kindergarten book, too. We cleaned pennies for a fun science experiment and to reinforce their introduction in Kindergarten math.

In the afternoons we read library books after lunch, have an hour silent reading/rest time and then on to anything extra (this particular day I give piano lessons 3:30-7:00, so the kids go to the sitter's house) Speaking of piano - Miss B has a twenty minute practice time as part of her morning routine each day. In the beginning she complained, but now I think she looks forward to her time in the piano room.

Wednesday: We continued with our schedule - seems to be working. The first hour and half in the morning are spent with my nine year old working independently out of her workbox (daily grammar, math, Writing Strands, Bible Study, science notebooking) while I instruct my five year old. He and I work on math, First Language Lessons, and our Five in A Row story. I also listen to him read aloud (this week I gathered readers about our flag to go along with Lentil). The kids did thumbprint art for grandma's birthday cards and their own enjoyment.

Tonight was also our family dinner/book party in celebration of Lentil! We may try and make this an occurrence with each book. It keeps us on our toes and is a great way to involve the family in our endeavors.

Thursday: Morning schedule as normal, trying to get as much done as possible so we can go on a field trip tomorrow. This was day 16 of school for us. It is going very fast! I spent a lot of time reading aloud "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" to Miss B and "The Lucky Baseball Bat" to G Man. Miss B also started the Simple Schooling online unit all about dogs (it was the freebie this week and it was great!). We took the dog to the vet, so this was perfect. We sang "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain (per Lentil again!) and had our SQUILT lesson. For recess today it was just too hot so my son wanted to practice pitching and bouncing the ball in the garage. He set a goal of bouncing 1,000 times and he DID IT! I was proud of him - counting to 1,000 for a five year old is tough stuff.

Friday: Field Trip to The Center for Puppetry Arts

Check back next Friday for another weekly wrap-up!

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Puppets!

What a fun Friday we had! We went to see Rumplelstiltskin at the Center for Puppetry Arts. The one hour show had two puppeteers who used marionettes to tell the classic fairy tale. I know my children were entertained, and Miss B in particular was amazed at how much skill it took to coordinate all of the puppets. When the puppeteers came out at the end to explain their jobs she was mesmerized. We toured the exhibits at the center after the show and learned all about different types of puppets. There was an entire section devoted to Jim Henson, which made me want to Netflix some Muppet Movies over the coming weeks! As I also revealed in the seven random things about me, I once wanted to be a puppeteer for Sesame Street, so I loved the exhibit!

Best of all, we went to a puppet making workshop, and Miss B and G Man got to make their own Rumpelstiltskin. (In this picture my son has the monkey puppet we received for joining the center.)

Miss B. chose to make her puppet a girl!

We bought two puppet kits to do at home next week. I had purchased a membership to the center through Groupon, so everything was discounted today, which always helps! Members got front row seats and free puppet workshops.

I'd like to try and get the original fairy tale from the library next week to read with the children. I found the graphic (at the top of this post) online and it is from the original version which was put out in 1886. I can tell that a lot of what we learned today "stuck" with my kids. G Man told his dad all about the "marionettes" and was quoting lots of funny things Rumplestiltskin said, while Miss B was very interested in the mechanics of the puppets and asking lots of questions.

This is a little detour in our curriculum, but part of the beauty of homeschooling is that we can pause to appreciate the beauty around us. We read all of the time and soak up as many cultural activities as possible. I don't think there is a written curriculum for this, it's just the stuff of a well-rounded life.

Since we were downtown, we went to daddy's office and picked him up for lunch. He took us to a new restaurant, Home Grown, which was just opened by a friend of his from high school. It was AWESOME! I had a french toast sandwich which was stuffed with bacon, spinach and tomatoes, cheese grits, and a sweet tea - probably not the most healthy lunch, but it was delicious.

We made a quick side trip to visit my sorority little sister and take some books and toys to her three and one year old. I love it when my children are excited to pass down things they really enjoyed. In this case it was a full set of Sesame Street letter books and a Leap Frog Fridge Phonics set.

I promised the kids on the way home we could go to Wal-Mart and visit the Coin Star machine. They had counted all of their saved change early this morning and told me we had about $14 in coins. The Coin Star Machine gave us a voucher for $13.68, so I think the kids' calculations were quite accurate. What did they get with their spoils? An Etch-A-Sketch (can you believe we didn't have one?), silly bands, and a gallon of milk (since we needed it at home, they let me use their money for it. Cute.)

All in all, a great day! We're settling in to watch the Braves game now, and everyone is stuffed from lunch so I don't have to fix dinner. Happy Weekend!

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