Many Weeks in Review - Short Weeks, Sectionals, Homeschool Conference, Newport Aquarium, Iowa Tests, Stomach Flu, and Winding Down

The past few weeks have gone by in a flash and a blur, filled with everything except a normal routine!

At the end of March, my daughter and I travelled to Indianapolis, Indiana for the USA Swimming Speedo Champions Series Central Sectionals. Amber was absolutely thrilled to make the hard time cuts for two events - the 50 Free and the 100 Fly.

At 13, she was on the low end of the age scale at the meet. Most of the swimmers were between 16 and 19, with many college level swimmers participating as well. Central Sectionals was the biggest, fastest meet she has attended yet and it was a very good experience for her. While she did not make finals this time, she assured me that she would be making finals and receiving medals in the future!

While I was very proud of her and very happy that we were able to attend the swim meet, the trip was long for me. I tend to be a hobbit-like homebody and we were gone for 5 days. My husband usually drives in big cities so downtown driving was a challenge for me. I always delight in seeing my beautiful and talented daughter swim, though!

We had a short week the week of Sectionals and a short week the next week as well since the laundry attacked me when I walked in the door and I needed a day to recover. Following close on the heels of the Sectionals road trip, our whole family attended the Midwest Homeschool Convention. I had an absolutely perfectly-perfect time. You can read all about my fabulous experience in this post.

On the way back home from the homeschool conference, my whole family enjoyed a great day at the Newport Aquarium. If you have a chance to visit the Newport Aquarium, I highly recommend it. The only improvement over our day would have been for the aquarium to be much less crowded. We saw so many interesting aquatic creatures and they also had a lovely frog and Rainforest exhibit. After returning from the Homeschool Conference, Amber promptly was struck with a very violent stomach flu which completely knocked her out for most of last week. She missed three days of school here at home and a full week of swim team. Thankfully, the stomach flu did not travel through our whole house, though.

Last Friday we completed an art lesson for the first time in weeks. The art lesson focused on modeling with clay - a lesson both of my boys were very excited to do! Amber participated for a bit but soon tired so she was excused from the activity. While their clay projects are not completely done as they need to paint them when they are dry, I do think they turned out really well. My sons are used to working with Sculpey III, so this clay was quite different and more difficult with which to work. I purchased red air-dry clay from Discount School Supply and we have quite a bit left over. I'm thinking we can work in a clay project to coordinate with our Ancient History studies next year!

This week has been much less than fun for all of us. The children took the Iowa Tests this week. While two of my children don't get too bothered by the testing, I do have one child who really gets a bit overwhelmed by the tests. Regardless, we are now done with testing for another year!

I also met a new person for the children's annual portfolio review. The wonderful woman who had completed our yearly portfolio reviews ever since I started homeschooling passed away over the winter. While I was nervous about meeting with a new certified teacher, she turned out to be wonderfully supportive, incredibly helpful and full of good suggestions, and very affirming about the work my children have completed this school year. So, standardized testing - check! Portfolio reviews - check! Now, I need to start on my paperwork for our local school district. The year is definitely winding down!

In the coming week, my parents will return from their winter in Florida, we'll have a normal week of school, and look forward to the first swim meet of the long-course season. We do plan to continue with schoolwork through the first week in June but as my children finish with a subject for the year, they're done. We're going to finish up our United States geography study but we're not starting any new unit studies for the year. So, we're definitely winding down!

That was our MANY weeks in review. To read about what other homeschoolers have been doing in their homeschools, check out the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.