Week In Review - Cracker Barrel, Art Class, and Yuck!

We've been mega-super-busy and I feel the precious days of my favorite season slipping away from me too fast.  This is definitely the time of year when I wish I could just slow down time for a few weeks and enjoy the changing colors of the leaves just a little longer! 

My parents left for the winter last Friday so we made sure to spend some time with them last week before they left.  They won't be coming home for Christmas this year so we won't be seeing them until next May.  The kids and I went out to lunch with my mom to Cracker Barrel as a special treat before she left.  Then, my dad surprised me and invited us all out to dinner last Thursday night.  Honestly, I simply can't remember my father EVER inviting us out to dinner so I was very surprised.  We went to Cracker Barrel again (one of my favorite restaurants) and enjoyed a good dinner together.

As usual, we've been busy with swim team practice, youth group once a week for the older two children, and bowling league on Saturday mornings for the boys.  Over the past three weeks, all three of the children and I have had our well-child visits at the doctor (actually mine was a yearly physical).  Adding more craziness to our schedule, my boys started a weekly art class at a local college.  So far, they really like it, particularly my very artsy Mason.  The class meets through the first part of December.  Sadly, I have no pictures to show and I probably won't until their art show in December. 

Regarding the children's schoolwork, all three of them have been working diligently with their independent work and getting a lot accomplished. 

• Algebra I is starting to get a bit more difficult for Amber and she is needing to spend a chunk of each day working through her lesson.  She's also been getting out the Solutions CDs regularly for the first time this school year.  Thankfully, she is still doing well in the course. 
• Amber was quite happy to receive an A on the Module 4 test in Biology!  She is starting to learn how to best study the information so that she can remember it which will be a valuable skill well beyond the Biology course.  She cracks me up with her vocabulary terms written on her bathroom mirror!
• My boys are currently working on a three paragraph report on ancient Egypt in their Ancient History Writing Lessons program from IEW.  I'm so thrilled with this program.  My youngest, Duncan, is so very proud of his writing.
• We're still studying ancient Egypt in history.  I highly recommend Egypt's Golden Empire.  We've been working our way through this video (it's quite long) in segments and have found it very well-done and quite interesting.
• Amber and I both reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne right now and are both enjoying it quite a bit.  Whenever one of us is reading it, we always have to seek the other out to share a particularly delightful quote.  I can't believe that this is my first reading of this classic book!

On the fun, hands-on side, the boys have been working with a very, very fun product as part of their Chemistry lessons - Yuck! from Buckets-O-Fun.  I was so thrilled to receive the Yuck! samples as a review item for TOS Review Crew.  The boys have been investigating and playing with Sticky Yuck -

Snowy Yuck -

Saucy Yuck -
 
Our Chunky Yuck is still absorbing water.  I'll be posting more about our experiences with Yuck! in an upcoming review.  Yuck! was a big hit with my boys and made Chemistry lessons this week and last a lot more fun!

We also finally had a normal art class this Friday.  The class was on watercolors and was a structured, techniques class in which our video art teacher led the children step-by-step through the project.  I had to leave for a doctor's appointment before they were completely finished so I was quite happy to see my daughter's lovely watercolor painting when I returned home.

Without my guiding influence, my boys got a bit silly and added some desert elements to their pictures.  Other than the desert elements which don't really fit, I like their paintings as well.  Sigh.

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