Week in Review - Ski Hats, Chemical Reactions, and Picasso

We started our school week with a much-enjoyed three day week-end.  Amber's good friend had a birthday bowling party so we tweaked our week a bit so that she could attend.  The party was about 40 minutes away from our house so the boys and I went to the library and out for pizza while Amber was at the party.  Afterwards, we ran some much needed errands to the fabric store and the grocery. 

Amber needed fabric for her sewing course.  We so enjoyed looking at all of the wonderful fabrics and picking out fabrics for her ski hat and pillow projects.  This week, Amber completed her ski hat and a ski hat for her little brother.  She is working on completing a ski hat for her other brother and two pillows. 

In history this week, we left the Ice Age behind and moved on in history to Ancient Mesopotamia.  We watched two great videos:

• Ancient Mesopotamia from Schlessinger Media
• Mesopotamia:  Return to Eden, Time Life's Lost Civilizations.

We started working on our Ancient Mesopotamia lapbooks from Hands of a Child and completed all of the scheduled readings for the week in Winter Promise's Quest for the Ancient World curriculum that we are following this year.  I also gathered the perfect boxes for model ziggurats which I plan to have my boys build next week.

While I did not get as far in my boy's science curriculum as I had planned, the boys did enjoy a hands-on lesson about chemical reactions.  We are using Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry and we're currently working through a chapter on chemical reactions.  We exploded a sandwich bag using a vinegar, water, and baking soda combination.  My youngest, Duncan, was so thrilled to get his volcano out that he made at Vacation Bible Camp.  He was so eager to mix the baking soda and vinegar in his little cup to make it ooze out all over his volcano.  Lastly, the boys used salt and vinegar to clean pennies.  I am planning some more fun, easy chemical reaction experiments for next week.  The boys LOVED this hands-on science lesson!

In my daughter's Biology class this week, we looked at the water samples we took from a local pond under our microscope.  While we didn't see any living little creatures in three of the samples, we were both very excited to see little living creatures in one of the samples.  I was chuckling to myself listening to my daughter talk to the microscopic organism, telling it not to try to hide behind the tiny piece of dirt on the slide.  Very cool lab.  I'm so beginning to wish I had purchased the add-on camera for the miscroscope!

This week was one of those weeks where we had a lot of living interfere with getting all of my plans completed.  We simply ran out of time some days to get everything accomplished that I wanted to get done.  My husband, boys, mother-in-law, and her boyfriend went to the county fair late this afternoon so we weren't able to have our weekly art lesson.  Of course, with my artsy Mason, art study was pursued this week on his own.

Mason checked a book of Picasso's paintings out of the library and decided he wanted to try to recreate one of Picasso's paintings.  I think he did a really great job!  I was particularly impressed with Mason's use of color. 

In the category of "homeschool mom enrichment," I attended a wonderful presentation one evening this week about homeschooling through high school in my state.  I'm so glad I took the time to attend.  I learned so much and received a fabulous binder full of information that I know will be helpful in the years ahead.

Lastly, I finally couldn't stand my long hair any longer (you can see a picture of me with my long hair in my School Pictures post) and I had it all chopped off until it is just tuckable behind my ears - my favorite hairstyle.  It's SO much easier to deal with on busy mornings, and really, when aren't my mornings busy?

That was our Week in Review!  If you want to read about what other homeschoolers were doing this week, check out the Weekly Wrap Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.