Memory Verse:
Luke 18:14
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Some weeks I love to sit and write the weekly wrap-up. This is one of those weeks.
Our verse was taken from a study of the parables we are doing... it is from The Parable of Pharisee and the Tax Collector. I'm enjoying going over the parables with the children. In our Godly Play Sunday school classes the children are taught that a Parable is a Gift (the story is actually presented to them in a box - isn't that neat?) ... so very true. Miss B has been notebooking the parables as we are learning them.
There were so many moments where it was just so OBVIOUS to me that connections are being made. My friend Jess blogged about this very thing today. Less time was spent in our workbooks and doing formal "work", but we learned so much MORE in the process.
As I've explained before, these wrap-ups get printed and put in my homeschool binder, so thanks in advance for bearing with all of the little details of our week. I hope I can give you enough links and good ideas to keep you interested!
I have been writing a lot about Educating The Wholehearted Child and how this book is changing so many things for our family. One of the wonderful things I have taken away from the book is the "Check Me Out" Dependable List. We used this list all week long - morning, evening, and a few traits all day with each child. I handled the morning tasks and my husband supervised the evening tasks. Handing over the evening routine to my husband was such a relief for me... and I'm thankful he was so willing to do this each night with the kids. After the kids were "checked out" for the day, then I would read to them... a perfect ending to the day. This is the first checklist that has really WORKED for us --- made the whole week go very smoothly.
This week we did an artist and picture study -- Picasso's Girl With a Boat. (We have been using Handle on the Arts curriculum - it's marvelous for fine arts!) In this curriculum one of the activities suggested was "Fractured Faces" -- the kids' turned out great, and they had such fun one rainy morning digging through magazines and coming up with funny faces. We also spent lots of time looking at Picasso works online, and I dug out my Picasso information from when a Picasso exhibit was here in Atlanta several years ago (long before I had children!). At the end of the month we will be going to a homeschool art day at The High Museum in Atlanta ~ where they are featuring an exhibit entitled "Picasso to Warhol: 14 Modern Masters". I'm so excited to use this exhibit as the spine for our art studies!
Math has been interesting recently... my youngest has started multiplication in earnest, and my oldest really needs continued work with division before we go any farther into long division. We have been doing a little bit of Charlotte Mason's Business Math series, and this week added in some Math Mammoth for both children. This is an upcoming review I'm doing, and I'm so glad I got this! It is focusing much more on mental math and seems to be just what the doctor ordered, especially for Miss B. Again, reading The Wholehearted Child has given me courage to ditch the NORMAL and do what I think is best for my children -- which to me is more real world math!
Our 50 State Study led us to Wyoming this week. We always check out a book from the library about our state and then research further on the internet. This state study has been wonderful for us -- the kids know the locations and capitals of all the states now, and then notebooking about them each week adds to their knowledge.
Writing With Ease continues to be an excellent fit for both of my children. I love the selections they use in the first volume for narration and copywork. This week it was Mary Poppins for GMan... he had never seen the movie, can you believe that? After we had finished the WWE lessons we watched the movie one rainy evening. We've also been listening to the music constantly. Today while the kids were playing outside I hear them singing Mary Poppins music -- I love it!
Miss B's selections are very difficult, but I am so proud of the way she narrates and takes dictation. The years of reading aloud pay off, I PROMISE!!
Physical education this week was all bike riding! Most days it was rainy, but that didn't stop my bike riders. Today they even rode 5 miles at a local park, while I walked. It was so wonderful to be outside and enjoy our fall colors. The rain also caused all baseball games and practices to be cancelled -- can I tell you a secret? I was glad because I enjoyed the break from running around!
We reached a milestone in history this week - we finished The Story of the World Volume 1! Now, we are listening to the audio CDs in the car as a review, and I'm amazed and how much the children enjoy them. I made their notebooks for Volume 2, and we will begin that in the next week or so. I'm so thankful to Susan Wise Bauer for such a solid, engaging history spine! I'm also so grateful for one blog in particular -- Chronicles of the Earth. There are so many SOTW resources here - it is amazing! This resource was our favorite of the week!! (Check out other favorites at Susan's blog!)
Lesson 4 was finished in Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day, our current science text. Today, as we were sitting on the deck finishing a book, birds were overhead. My daughter said -- "They're catching thermals!". My son also has been identifying birds by their calls when he takes the dog out each morning. This week we learned about flight and migration and watched another episode of our BBC The Life of Birds (The Mastery of Flight). We are notebooking our way through each chapter and I can see a real appreciation of birds developing in my children (and me, too!). Thursday was a fun day... Miss B took a field trip to a horse barn with her Horse'n Around class she is taking at co-op. I dropped her off bright and early, so then GMan and I had the morning to shop and run errands. I got myself a brand new winter coat -- haven't done that in about 15 years, can you believe it? It was nice to have just the morning with my little boy... he's such a fun kid to hang out with! In the afternoon we had our co-op and I'm so amazed the children in my Recorder Karate class. They have been practicing and are learning so much!
Miss B and I started First Form Latin on Thursday - this, too, is an Old Schoolhouse Review, and I am blessed to receive this. We had wanted to study Latin and started a program that didn't really fit for us. First Form is rigorous and challenging, but we are up for that challenge! It is a time just for she and I to sit and learn together. GMan uses this time to play on Big IQ Kids or Dance Mat Typing.
We took a scheduled "quiet time" each day (except for Thursday, our co-op day), in which each child was to read and quietly play or work on their assigned lapbook. Miss B. finished a book she LOVED - Catherine, Called Birdy. GMan usually plays Legos and has also been reading some Boxcar children, too. I use this time to take a little quiet, too - and then catch up on any laundry or little things that need to be accomplished around the house.
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| Homemade Squirrel Food |
The final thing I want to write about is this morning... where I really noticed so many connections being made. The kids wanted to collect acorns and smash them open to see the insides. They did this (with rubber hammers!) and then added corn and birdseed to it to make food for the squirrels. The whole time they were chattering about woodpeckers and how they bore acorns into trees, and different birds and what they eat. The conversation was quite cute to listen to (I was folding laundry just inside the garage from where they were smashing), and it made me so thankful that we homeschool. Here my children were, enjoying each other's company and recounting their knowledge. We are blessed, indeed.
This post took quite a long time to write! Look all we accomplished this week. Now, if you'll excuse me -- the UPS man is bringing a new iPhone and I need to go sit in the driveway in anticipation!!
I'm happily linking with Kris for the Weekly Wrap-Up. I'm also linking with Susan for Favorite Resource this Week!
