Weeks in Review - Back to School, Lots of History Reading, and a Glittery Fairy Dress

We are definitely back to school here and find ourselves VERY busy at home!  This past week marked our 5th week of school so this Weeks in Review will cover the highlights of the past 5 weeks.

We started back to school mid-week on Wednesday, August 17th.  I've never started our school year mid-week before but I wanted to start getting us back on the school routine track yet found we needed just a few more days to recover from THREE solid weeks of championship swim meets marking the end of long-course season.  So, we had two regular days of school and then spent Friday touring our local Federal Reserve Bank and science center.  If you have an opportunity to tour a Federal Reserve Bank, I highly recommend it - I think my husband and I learned more than our children!

Our second week back to school was a short week as well.  We left on Thursday and took a fun, overnight trip to Pittsburgh to visit the Carnegie Science Center and the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium.  We greatly enjoyed two delightful dinners out at the Hard Rock Cafe and Primanti Brothers.  Yummy!  We were a bit disappointed in that we were expecting the science center to be fairly empty since I thought most children would be back to school...and they weren't yet so it was quite crowded.

We spent most of our time at the zoo visiting the aquarium.  Amber and I, in particular, took a very leisurely stroll through the aquarium, stopping for long periods of time to view the fish and other marine animals.  We are both more aware of marine animals now since Amber is taking Marine Biology this year.

Our third week of school was a "completely normal" 5 day school week which gave us all an opportunity to really get back to the books and a regular school routine.  I spent the ENTIRE day on Saturday of our third week of school shopping for a dress for Amber to wear to Homecoming!  Yes, my home educated daughter was invited to a local school's Homecoming dance.  Hopefully, now, well-meaning folks will stop expressing concern over the fact that my daughter will never attend a formal dance in high school. 


Our fourth week of school was another back to the books week filled with high anticipation on the part of my daughter for the big dance.  We made it through our school week, and Amber had a WONDERFUL time at the Homecoming dance.  She was so lovely, I got a little teary-eyed when I first saw her all dressed up.  Amber even wore a little bit of make-up for the very first time.  Sigh.

She attended the dance with friends from swim team.  I fretted and worried all night but she had a great time.  She loved wearing her dress and having a fun night out with friends.

So, that brings me all the way up to this week!  While all of my children are taking a full range of subjects this year, this week I'll focus primarily on history.

In history, we are reading A LOT.  We are using Sonlight for history for the first time this school year.  Amber is taking a heavily tweaked Early American History course (1/2 of Core 100 with lots of books added), and Mason and Duncan are taking Early American History (Core D).  Between history readers and read-alouds, Mason and Duncan have already read or are currently reading:

• The Corn Grows Ripe  
• A Lion to Guard Us
• Walk the World's Rim
• Pedro's Journal
• Secret of the Andes
• Peace Child
• A History of US Volume 1:  The First Americans:  Prehistory - 1600
• Vostaas:  White Buffalo's Story of Plains Indian Life
• Pocahontas and the Strangers.

We haven't done any fun, hands-on history activities - we've just been reading a lot.  We do have a great field trip planned for the end of the month to tour a reproduction of the Santa Maria.  So, hands-on history is coming up again in the near future!

To bring this weeks in review to a close, I will end with five random statements that relate to our school year thus far.

• Duncan was quite proud to achieve the level of Expert Touch Typist in his typing program.  I feel quite confident that my 10 year old son will soon be a better typist than me.
• Speaking of my sweet Duncan, he recently beat both my husband and me in Scrabble (my very favorite game).  Since I fancy myself a bit of a Scrabble player, I was pretty impressed by his skill.
• With the short -course swimming season in full swing, it seems that one or more of the kids are ALWAYS at the pool.  Amber practices 8 times a week, Mason practices 6 times a week, and Duncan practices 3 times a week.  Thankfully, both pools in which they practice are close to our home.  
• We are using more textbooks this year than we've used in a LONG time...and I really like it.
• One of my favorite parts of my day is singing classic hymns with my boys during their individual Bible classes.  I wish we sang some of the classic hymns at our church but we sign contemporary Christian music.

That was our WEEKS in review!  To read about what other bloggers did this week in their homeschools, please visit the Weekly Wrap-Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.