Today was our last day of the 2009-2010 school year. The day went by with very little fanfare as we have been winding down for the past few weeks. I wish I could say that long, leisurely days napping in hammocks await us for our 8 week break. Our summer plans include little napping, though.
The past three weeks have been quite pleasant - relaxed but productive and filled with some wonderful treasures. We enjoyed a fabulous overnight trip to Pittsburgh where we visited the Pittsburgh Zoo, ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe, rode the Monongahela Inclined Plane, and visited the Carnegie Science Center.
My daughter and I at the Hard Rock Cafe - I love this picture of us! Amber ordered one of the fancy non-alcoholic drinks in a souvenir cup which she was able to take home with her. She was quite impressed with her first visit to a Hark Rock Cafe.
The children and I went for a nature hike one morning at a local nature center. The day turned out to be much hotter than I anticipated. My sweet children pointed out to me that I was sweating like crazy on the trail! Our favorite part of the outing was listening to the sounds of the bullfrogs by a large pond.
For our very last art lesson of the year last week, the children completed an Art Appreciation Lesson focused on Rousseau. After reading, Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists-Henri Rousseau, we watched the video portion of our art lesson. The assignment was to draw a jungle scene in the spirit of a Rousseau jungle painting using crayons. To complete their drawings, they used the most wonderful colored pencils in the whole world - Crayola's Twistables Colored Pencils. While the assignment called for the use of crayons, we always substitute Crayola's Twistables Colored Pencils for crayons.
After the children completed their jungle scenes which took a very long time, they painted over their scenes lightly with dark watercolors. The colored pencils resisted the paint and the final results were outstanding.
I adore my daughter's picture. She used a darker watercolor wash over the top and a lighter watercolor wash over the bottom.
While difficult to see, the detail in Mason's picture is incredible. He truly created his own jungle world. 
My youngest child was so pleased with his picture. He did a great job and thought very carefully about all of the elements of his picture. He was particularly proud of his toucan!
This Tuesday we met some homeschooling friends that we haven't seen in quite a while for bowling. Everybody had an absolutely wonderful time and I so enjoyed seeing my friend. Talking with a like-minded homeschooling mom was such a delight.
Lastly, we completely finished our two year United States Geography study! Yea! I will definitely have to do another blog post showcasing their United States notebooks. The highlight of completing our study was watching a National Geographic video, Braving Alaska. All three of my children commented that they really liked the video and I highly recommend it as well. All four of us sat spellbound during the entire 60 minute video. The stories of those who choose to live in the wilds of Alaska were truly fascinating and inspiring.
That was our past three weeks in review! If you would like to read about what other homeschoolers have been doing, check out the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
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