Weekly Wrap-Up: Back to "Normal"

This week we are back to "normal", or whatever that means for us! It's been a bit of a harsh reality.... we had loved the relaxing days over the holidays, and then a week of snow (even though we schooled throughout the weather) just slowed everything down quite a bit. We took the day off on Monday (since dad was home) and resumed Tuesday.

Now that our Co-Op has started we do not have much school on Thursdays (co-op is 12:30-3:00 and piano lessons right after). We always choose a great book to listen to on CD on the way there and back (this time we are working on Heidi - I had forgotten how I LOVE that story). If you click the link for Heidi you will find a free .mp3 audio download! How cool is that? We got ours at the library, but I found this and thought I would share. Here's what the co-op classes for the kids look like this semester:

Miss B:
No-Sew Blanket Fun
Hands On Projects

GMan:
I Want Candy! (a fun math class)
Music and Movement (taught by yours truly!)

I cannot tell you how much I love our co-op. We are comprised of nearly 100 families and just over 200 children. The class offerings are amazing, and the friendship and fellowship is the highlight of our week. I am thankful to be a part of such a talented and devoted group of families.

The rest of our week broke down like this:

Math: lots and lots of drills for Miss B, preparing for her final test in this book. She is not a huge fan of math, but I have started giving her little rewards along the way and it is helping. GMan loves math and begs me for timed drills each day - he is quickly zipping through the first grade Horizons book.

Grammar: I am confident Miss B has her prepositions memorized and we LOVE EASY GRAMMAR! More First Language Lessons for Grant - this week included initials, abbreviations, and spelling of the winter months.

Spelling: Sequential Spelling - we are up to test 70 now for Miss B. She can spell recommend! Yippee -- that word always confused me growing up.

Reading: Miss B continues to read whatever she can get her hands on.... this week she began The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. GMan got ahold of some Boxcar children readers and loved them, so they kept him busy this week. He also wants to read a Magic Treehouse so badly all by himself, but he usually peters out after 10 minutes! The kids also read to the dogs at our local library - the P.A.W.S. Canine Assistance Program - they do this once every couple of months and just love it. Here they are with Kool-Joe and Zoe.

Reading to Therapy Dogs is so much fun!

History: We completed Story of The World (Volume 1) chapters 2 and 3, about the Nile River and Hieroglyphics and Cunieform writings. This has been so interesting for the kids. They work in their notebooks while I am reading to them, and we do the map activities together after I read. I love the way it incorporates geography! We are nearly finished reading The Boy of the Painted Cave to go along with this section of SOTW. What an excellent book. GMan's favorite book this week was Bill and Pete go Down the Nile, and he loved practicing his cunieform and hieroglyphics! This afternoon we will paint rocks with their favorite symbols.

Wow -- no science this week -- unintentional, but we just did not have time, so next week we will get back to that. I think we may devote one day to science activities. I am still trying to get a definitive plan for science, but I like the kids to choose what they learn in this area. We also need to get back to Miss B's writing program - she was doing so well before Christmas and I don't want to lose that confidence. She writes letters and also writes summaries in her SOTW notebook, but we need to do more.

Two last tidbits. I am so proud of Miss B for finishing knitting her first project!! (well, she is 1/2 way finished) She has been working with a friend of mine to knit a pair of fingerless gloves, and she finished the first one last Sunday! Yeah Miss B!!!

My favorite part of the week was going to dinner in downtown Atlanta with my husband then to see The Blue Man Group! We had a rare entire evening to ourselves and enjoyed every minute. The Blue Man Group was incredible... we laughed so hard we almost cried and the music was so awesome. Go see them if you get the chance -- but don't take the kids because it gets a little adult in sections.

I hope your week was good - and go see what other homeschoolers have been up to at Kris' Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

What We Do For Bible Time

It's been a couple of weeks since I linked up with Rebecca, at Mom's Mustard Seeds. Today I just had to write about what has been going on in our house for the past several days, because it is very exciting to me to see my children learning to love the Bible so much.

To go along with Rebecca's theme today - REST - I have to preface all of this by saying we are trying to make a concerted effort to not do as much this year. We are limiting extracurricular activities and just keeping what we feel is valuable for all of us. In fact today, my daughter was given the chance to take a Spanish class (for free!) and she chose not to do it, because she said she didn't want to become too busy. I was proud of her.

Each morning we sit at breakfast and have a devotion. We are using a new book, and I think it's just perfect for my nine and six year old. In addition to a Bible verse and short anecdote each day, my kids have come to see this as our "calendar time" - we look at the date and our calendar at the same time.

After our devotion we read a larger portion of the Bible. Since the beginning of the year, we have been working our way through the book of John. My daughter's Sunday School teacher issued the challenge to read through the book in the month of January, and sent a reading plan to the children. We finished John today! Today my daughter started to mention how conflicted Pilate seemed when Jesus was to be crucified - observations like these show me she is now thinking more deeply about the Bible. The stories are no longer STORIES to her, and I love this. I also love how much I am getting out of our readings together - seeing the stories through my children's eyes makes them fresh and exciting for me. What a gift.

We read out of The Discover's Bible for Early Readers. I highly recommend this Bible. I find myself reading from it even when the children aren't around, because I like the simple way it is presented. It is not, however, babyish by any means.

After our Bible reading, we work out of the scripture box. I have posted about this before, and it has been one of THE best things we have done in our homeschool so far. Our whole family is committing verses to memory this way - hiding them in our hearts.

Today after our readings, we were looking up the text for a children's sermon I'm helping with this Sunday. We got out the storybook Bibles each of my children have and my daughter sat down to read to my son - all of a sudden, my son was running upstairs to get his Noah's Ark and act out the flood story.

They spent half an hour together, reading stories and acting them out. This WOULD NOT be possible if I didn't homeschool. I can't believe I ever thought it was ok that my children had to leave God out of their school days! Thank goodness I saw the light!

I'm trying to be intentional about giving everyone in our family enough REST - I think this rest leads to a deeper yearning for and understanding of the Bible, and just for happier families in general. I believe REST is what is lacking in our society today.

Do you have a Bible time/curriculum that you just love, or something that your kids just can't do without? Let me know!