Week in Review - The Sometimes You Just Have to Laugh While Homeschooling Week

Sometimes, you just have to laugh when you're homeschooling.  While, overall, we had a quiet week here, it was also a busy week of schoolwork and, at times, all of my children struggled with maintaining a positive attitude.  Early in the week, I worked with Mason and Duncan in the Ancient History Writing Lessons course they are taking.  After going over who/which clauses again, I said that we would all write a sentence with a who/which clause in it on the board. 

• I wrote:  Samantha, who loves to drink decaf lattes, went to Starbucks to buy one.
• Mason wrote:  Mason, who is very good at art, loves to draw pictures.
• Duncan wrote:  Duncan, who likes video games, hates ancient history writing lessons.

Sometimes, you just have to laugh when you're homeschooling.  I burst out laughing when I read his sentence.  Luckily, my laughter lightened Duncan's mood and he began to laugh a bit too.  I also pointed out to him that his who/which clause was perfect!

While studying with Mason for his first test in General Science, he pointed out to me that "If I chucked this book at somebody, I could knock them out with it."  I couldn't stop laughing at his proclamation.  Yes, it IS a big, heavy book.  We made a matching game with index cards to help him study for his test.

We found out this week that our swim team is definitely putting together a group of swimmers to travel to the Grand Prix meet held in Indianapolis.  Amber will be attending this national level meet with three other swimmers from her team that have time cuts.  While Amber has a hard cut in the 50 Free which qualifies her for the meet, she can also swim two bonus events so she'll also be swimming the 100 Free and 100 Fly. She's really excited about the meet as the Grand Prix series attracts many Olympian swimmers. She is hopeful that she'll be meeting some of her swimming heroes on deck.  My husband and I will be traveling with Amber at the beginning of March to her first Grand Prix - exciting times ahead!

A great personal accomplishment this month has been faithfully making lots of yummy, hearty meals for my family.  I even tried a new bread recipe this week, Hawaiian Sweet Bread - it turned out so well that it was gone a few short hours after it emerged from the oven.

Mason and Duncan started a recreational bowling league this week that meets on Wednesday afternoons.  I'm really excited because I get to see my dear homeschooling friend there each week now through the beginning of March!

In my continuing effort to play more educational games during our school day, this week we played:

• Professor Noggin's Pets (Mason and Duncan)
• Professor Noggin's Life in the Ocean (Duncan)
• Safari Search Animal Classification Game (Duncan)
  

One of my favorite times of our homeschool days is after lunch when we all gather together for a read-aloud and history.  This week I worked through two weeks of our Winter Promise reading as we are all ready to move on to study ancient China.  I absolutely love how all of my children engage in some handicraft or artwork during our read-alouds.

Amber worked on a painting that she is doing based on the frescos of the ancient Minoans.

 Mason sketched a drawing based on the cover of a book he recently read.

Duncan worked on his new favorite handicraft - Perler bead creations.

In art this week, the assignment was to use a paint and scratch technique.  First, they drew a large, fairly simple shape and painted it in with bright colors.  Then, after the paint dried, they painted over portions of the painting again, using the hard end of their brush to scratch in various patterns.  This was the first time they used this technique and they all really enjoyed the assignment.

Mason painted Charlie, the StarKist Tuna mascot.  I liked how Mason scratched little fish designs all over him. 

Duncan painted a fabulous, colorful turtle using many different patterns on the turtle's shell.

Amber did a very opulent painting of the Gryffindor lion from the Harry Potter series.

That was our week in review!  To read about what other homeschoolers were doing this week, visit the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.