Weekly Wrap-Up: Fall Fun (lots of links) and a Field Trip!

I don't know what it has been about the past couple of weeks, but we have schooled "without incident" and really enjoyed ourselves as well. I think it is a combination of mom relaxing a whole lot and the kids finally falling into a groove, and just being so excited about learning! My husband and I have said so many times over the past several days just how glad we are that we got up the courage to pull them out of school and do this ourselves.

Most of our activities this week have been centered around Fall and Halloween. We did a lot of crafts, recipes, and activities - they can all be found in this post from a link up with The Homeschool Village yesterday.

We did start a great read-aloud this week - Imprisoned in the Golden City, which is another excellent title from our Sonlight curriculum. The story takes place in Burma, and I'd like to extend that somehow next week - we have already finished our study of China, but we can certainly go back and pull in this country as well.

Miss B listens intently and would be happy if I read aloud for hours at a time (She loves a great adventure story, especially if it involves compassionate people). I have been proud of GMan, as well - he is really listening to this story with us. He usually listens and plays, which this week consisted of building the pagodas from the story out of blocks.

GMan is going to be an astronaut for Halloween, and during our trip to the planetarium last weekend we learned a lot more about astronauts and the Space Shuttle. We also learned that the pilot for the shuttle that goes up this Monday is a native of our area - my little guy even had his picture taken by his cardboard cutout at the planetarium! This will be the last shuttle mission ever, so we are eager to watch on Monday. In addition, GMan has been reading a book Living in Space to add to his love of the subject.

Miss B is still in her Harry Potter phase - she read all of the books last spring, and is rereading them now! She will be Hermione for Halloween and I'm thrilled she loves to read the books. I know there is a lot of debate over the books, but when my child reads books this difficult and discusses them with me and obviously knows the difference between good and evil, I am all for her reading them - we all love a good fantasy/magic story and I want to fuel her love of literature. (Ok, I'm off my soapbox now.)

Yesterday the kids picked out their pumpkin at a local fire station - they will carve it with dad this weekend. We had never been to this place to pick out our pumpkin and I must say the selection was great and the money was for a good cause, too.

The highlight of our week was by far our field trip today - if you have never seen or heard of Slim Goodbody you are really missing something!

We headed to the performing arts center at Georgia Tech and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and I am positive the children learned a whole lot about the human body. It was quite entertaining for the adults, as well! After the performance we headed to an Atlanta food landmark, The Varsity, and had our lunch - which is also quite an educational experience! We went with a sweet family that we have recently met through our co-op, so everyone had good conversation and fun.

Hop over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers and visit other people's Weekly Wrap-Up posts, as well.

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Fall Traditions and Celebrations - Linking Up With The Homeschool Village

Today I'm linking up to The Homeschool Village to share ways we celebrate Fall in our homeschool.

What I love about this season is that it has forced me to be intentional about fun, educational activities.

Other than Advent, Fall is my favorite time of the year. Despite the fact that it was nearly 80 degrees here today, the leaves are changing, the yard is littered with leaves, and we are making fall recipes and getting ready for Halloween.

At our front door, the topiary has orange lights (I change the lights for each season), the mums are out, and all we need are the kids and some friends standing by the door dressed in costumes! My husband and I aren't usually the type to dress up for Halloween, but the kids love it and I happily pass out candy while my husband takes them around the neighborhood.

Since we have been homeschooling, holidays take on a whole new meaning for our family - we approach everything from a learning standpoint, and I love it! This week we have learned some classical music that goes along with Halloween, and the kids have also done some fun pumpkin activities. Our favorite book is The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything - and it provides a lot of fun activities, too.

Earlier this week the kids made fall tissue paper trees out of their hand/arm tracings.

My sweet Miss B added a Bible verse to her picture about having the faith of a mustard seed. Sometimes the insight of my children is humbling.

We also made Owl S'Mores, which were a HUGE hit!

Yesterday we went on a fall nature scavenger hunt - I found a cute list online for us and we had a great time. At the end of our walk we spotted a blue heron (I neglected to get a picture because we were so excited!), but it was the highlight of the day, that's for sure!

Oh - a friend that is here each fall is our big SPIDER -- he was a gift to me from my mom my first year of teaching public school, so he has been gracing my house for the past 17 years! I think he's held up very well -- and some years we had to put him away because he scared a little one, but now everyone loves him!

This weekend we will get our pumpkin and daddy will carve it with the kids. Halloween night we are having friends come to dinner and then everyone will head out for trick or treating. We'll be sad when this season is over, but then we prepare for a house FULL of people at Thanksgiving, so we will be on to the next adventure and season of blessings.

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