This was finals week for me! I am officially finished with my first week back to school, and I finished with straight A's. That has never happened to me before :) Weeeee! I love that I'm going back to school, and I love that my kids see me working towards a dream.
OK, on to our week. Here's what we did:
Monday:
The girls had their annual testing bright and early. Elise went first. I eavesdropped from the kids room while she tested, and it was well...hilarious.
Tester: Why do we have laws?
Elise: So people don't go cray-cray
Tester: What language do most people in the United States speak?
Elise: Spanish
He he he! Both girls did really well on their tests. Millie tested way above level in reading, science, and history. She's right on grade level for everything else. Elise tested above grade level in math, and on grade level for everything else.
After testing, we had a surprise visit from some friends. We ended up going to a playground for a few hours. It was a beautiful day, we all had a great time!
Tuesday:
Today Millie had a really great piano lesson. Afterwards, we went to playgroup at a park. The kids all played together really well, it was pretty sweet.
Wednesday:
DIY Club day! Today our friends met up at our house, and we left on a Light Rail adventure. The kids had to navigate their way from the light rail station to the Mall of America completely on their own. We were there of course, but they weren't allowed to ask any adults for help. They had to rely on map reading. Millie really knew her way around. If for some odd reason, Millie had to go to the MOA on her own, she could totally do it. We all had lunch at the mall, and then came back home.
Thursday:
Today I woke up early and brought the girls down to the farm. I needed the day to myself to do a science lab, finish up the last of my school work, and take my Earth Science lab final. It was a great day! I loved having some alone time. After my lab final, Bud and I grabbed some pizza at Black Sheep. A date!!
Friday:
Today I slept in as late as possible. It was great!! After lunch I picked up the kids from the farm. It was so great to see them again :) They showed me the brand new baby kitties that were born that morning. Soooo sweet! Meow :)
The weekend brought a birthday, the Style Pile, another trip to the farm, and Mothers Day brunch. It was a great weekend!!
Find out what other homeschoolers did this week, here!
The girls will do a little delight directed learning.
This week was so nice! The weather is great, and from what I hear, it's here to stay. Hooray! Here's what we did this week:
Monday:
The girls did their school work in the morning, and then we left for the last day of Gale Woods Farm! Their class was shorter than usual because the last 45 minutes was set aside for a parent tour. It was fun to see what the girls had been doing for the past 8 weeks. They both made really nice friends at class.
Tuesday:
Piano was cancelled today because Millie's teacher was in a car accident :( She'll be OK, but is very sore. With our gift of time, we did a lot of school work in the morning, and went to playgroup in the afternoon. We had to stop by the U of M to pick up an ipad for Millie to use for a DIY.org camp that she's doing through 4-H. It's an intro to acting camp. She's having so much fun already!! After that we went to playgroup and played with friends at a playground for a while. The sun cooked my back, and it felt sooooo good!!
Wednesday:
"A structure that holds 10 pounds"
Today we did school work in the morning, and then met up with friends at Fort Snelling State Park. Elise had been looking forward to this date for a week! She exchanged Pokemon cards with a friend, while Millie and her friend played on the beach. Spring is so beautiful, and so SO welcome, it was fantastic to sit outside and chit chat with another homeschool mama for a few hours. While I made dinner, Elise was busy working on *something*. Turns out, she was building "a structure that holds 10 pounds!!" She was pretty proud of herself :)
Thursday:
Amazingly, we had a stay-at-home day!! It was so nice. The kids acted like they hadn't been out and about in years, they were so stir-crazy. Grrr. I had class in the evening. Millie and Elise went to the Humane Society with their aunt to register for the Walk for Animals, and then played with cousins until 9:30. I had the house to myself for a couple hours. It was nice, although I didn't get as much done as I had hoped to.
Friday:
Today did school, and then had an impromptu playdate at a friends house. It was supposed to be at a playground, but it started raining. Boo. Everyone had fun, anyway. Millie and her friend scootered up to the local coffee shop to get a treat. I love having a kid that's exploring her independence. I remember that feeling when I was little. Freedom!! In the evening, we had 4-H. Millie and a friend ran the Cloverbud activity, and the club had a competition to see who could make the best costume out of newspaper. It was so much fun (even for me!).
This weekend will find us doing the Walk for Animals, deep cleaning the 4-H building, and spring cleaning the house.
Find out what other homeschoolers were up to this week, here.
It's time to start the cycle over again! Here we are, back at the beginning of time, studying ancient history. I'm so excited, and so are the kids. We took last year off from history to study geography, and boy did we miss it! I have a lot of fun things planned this year.
I'll be using A Little History of the World, by E.H. Gombrich as my spine, and adding on a lot of projects and videos to enhance our hands-on and visual learning experience.
Without further ado, here is our 25 week ancient history plan:
Week 1 - Early People: Read Chapter 1 - Once Upon a Time
Usborne World History - Browse through the "early people" section Make mini javelins. Have a throwing contest at the park.
Read aloud: The Clan of the Cave Bear
Watch a couple videos about ancient people:
Week 2 - Greatest Inventors of All Times
Read Chapter 2 - Greatest Inventors of All Times
Artistic Pursuits lesson "Look at Cave Art"
Watch a video about nomads in Lapland
Week 3 - The Land by the Nile:
Read chapter 3 - The Land by the Nile
Read aloud: Tirzah
Millie to start reading: The Cat of Bubastes
Artistic Pursuits: Murals
Watch all the episodes of The Egyptian Code on Netflix throughout the week
Week 4 - Sunday, Monday...:
Read chapter 4 - Sunday, Monday
Do an activity from History Pockets
Read aloud: Tirzah
Millie to start reading: The Cat of Bubastes
Watch a couple Lego videos!
Week 5 - The One and Only God: Read Pyramids! pages 7-20. Make scarab soap carvings
Read chapter 5 - The One and Only God
Read aloud: Tirzah
Millie to start reading: The Cat of Bubastes Week 6 - Ancient Greece:
Read chapter 6 - I CAN READ (very short chapter)
Read Ancient Greece, pages 62-71
Go to Christos for lunch :) Greek food!
Watch a few Greek myths (Mythic Warriors on youtube! Way too many to list here)
Read aloud: Black Ships Before Troy
Week 7 - Ancient Greece:
Read Ancient Greece! P. 80-93
Artistic Pursuits p. 70 - make pinch pots
Read aloud: Black Ships Before Troy
Watch this video while the kids are sculpting
Week 8 - The Enlightened One:
Read chapter 10, The Enlightened One and His Land
Read aloud: Black Ships Before Troy
Have the girls fill details into a caste pyramid as they watch this video
Read Chapter 11 - The Great Teacher of a Great People
Learn and practice writing in calligraphy
Read aloud: The Tao of Pooh
Watch this video while they're writing in calligraphy:
Week 10 - Ancient Greece: Read Ancient Greece! P. 94-100
Do this character defining project
Millie's reading: Pardons Price (Diane Yoder) Week 11 - Rome: Do an activity from Rome History Pockets Week 12 - An Enemy of History: Read Chapter 14 - An Enemy of History
Go to the Childrens Museum and make paper Week 13 - Rulers of the Western World: Read chapter 15 - Rulers of the Western World
Watch this video
Read Knights & Castles p, 19-24
Learn to play Chess
Read Aloud: Joan of Arc the Lily Maid Week 19 - Knights & Castles: Read Knights & Castles p. 34-43
Bake rose petal bread
Read aloud: Joan of Arc the Lily Maid Week 20 - Knights & Castles: Read Knights & Castles p. 56-64
Artistic Pursuits - Medieval embroidery p. 85 (just read, don't do activity)
Teach the girls to cross stitch
Read aloud: The Lacemaker and the Princess Week 21 - Knights & Castles:
Read Knights & Castles p. 75-84
Make a book of birthdays (use fancy lettering and all that)
Read aloud: The lacemaker and the Princess
I'm late to getting my weekend update up because I was busy filling my head with encouragement and teaching ideas at a homeschool convention! I'm back at home now, so I'm going to write about our week, and then spend some time sifting through my bag full of goodies from the convention. Squeee!
Here's what we did this week:
Monday:
Mooo, Gale Woods Farm! I can't remember what the girls learned about this week, but I know they made cookies. The hallway smelled so good. Another thing I can't wait for them to make me once they get their packet of recipes on the last day of class :) Prior to leaving for class, the girls did their school work. Millie is trying really hard to master adding, subtracting, multiplying, and diving fractions, working on her spelling words, and reading The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate. Elise has been working on her reading.
Tuesday:
Today we got up early for piano lessons. In fact, we got up so early, that Elise and Bud were still sleeping when we left. :) Millie had a great lesson. Afterwards, we came home for a quick snack and then left to meet up with our playgroup at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts to see the Habsburgs exhibit. It was so amazing! It was so cool to see actual suits of armor, jousting outfits, artwork, sleighs, carriages and clothing from that family. I need to learn more about them, now. After that, the girls and I went to Snuffs Malt Shop for lunch and...you guessed it...malts. :) Fun day!
In the evening, the girls had play practice, so Bud and I snuck away to Stillwater to have dinner together at a little pizza place. We had a loaded baked potato pizza. Mmmmmmm! That was the first time we had been on a date together in months and months.
Wednesday:
A stay at home day! Today we didn't leave the house at all. My car actually sat in its parking spot for over 24 hours without moving. It's a record! ;) The girls worked on their school work, of course. Elise finally passed All About Reading Level 1!! She said "I feel so proud of myself." She should! She started out the year saying, "the one thing I DON'T want to do this year, is learn to read." What do you know? She's turning into a pretty good little reader :) I'm so proud of her!! While Millie worked on her school work, Elise took it upon herself to make a raft out of craft sticks, fill the tub, and test the flotation of her raft when it had different plastic animals on it. Then, she made a new doll for the dollhouse. I love that she will keep herself so busy!
Thursday:
Today we did school work, ran some errands, and got ready for Friday. Knowing that Friday would be a BIG day, we took it easy most of the day.
Friday:
The BIG day!! The girls spent the day at their grandmas house. Around 4, Bud went to get them, and took them to their Share the Fun competition through 4-H. It was a looooong competition. They didn't get home until 11 PM! Their play didn't win, but they had a lot of fun practicing together.
I got to go to a homeschool convention! It was so fabulous! Here are some highlights from my experience:
We stayed at a swanky hotel that looked like a castle inside. We each got our own bedroom, that had super comfy beds, and down comforters. Each room had a huge flat screen TV (for a total of 3), and we had a super yummy breakfast in the morning (a make-your-own waffle bar!). It was so fun!
I know my kids are still learning a lot, because we're out and about doing cool educational things on a regular basis. The part I am uncomfortable with, is that we've been out and about too much. I really need to cut back. Ugh. It's hard. Socialization really is a problem for homeschoolers. There are simply too many options to be out socializing!! Here's what we did this week:
Monday:
Today the girls did their school work in the morning, and in the afternoon we were off to Gale Woods for farm class! Millie dissected a chicken (!!). She loved it, and was surprised at the density of the heart. Barf! I'm so glad she did that at class, and not on my kitchen table :) I'm not exactly sure what Elise did in class because she doesn't come home with many details. After class we went back to the house we were house sitting at, to do some final clean up. While we were there, the in-laws came home. It was so nice to see everyone after so many months.
Tuesday:
Piano was cancelled today. It was like receiving the gift of time! Our house is in shambles, as we unpack from our house sitting gig. I used my bonus gift of time to organize and clean. It was fantastic. In the afternoon, we met up with friends at the Science Museum. They have a new exhibit that is a play structure made entirely out of tape. The kids had so much fun there! They also listened to a talk/demonstration of flames. It was really interesting. I'm learning so much as a homeschool mama!
Wednesday:
SciGirls!! Doesn't it seem like we just had SciGirls?? This one snuck up on me. It was a great day. The girls learned about robots, made a robot arm in their groups, and then we went to the Apple Store for a tour. The girls made videos, and took home their videos on USB bracelets. Fun times! While Millie was at SciGirls, Elise spent the day with her friend Charlotte again. I'm so thankful that they were willing to take her for the day again! She spent part of the time reading Bob books :) At least she got a little schooling in!!
Thursday:
Today we did school work in the morning, and then spent the afternoon at Good Times Park with my friend and her kidlets. It was really nice :) The kids love that place.
Friday:
This was supposed to be our big academic day of the week, but the girls were swept away to the mall with Grandma and Aunt Kinsey. :) How could I say "no" to quality bonding time with Grandma and Kinsey, when they'd been away for months and months?? I couldn't. So, I spent the day doing school work (History museum, lunch with Bud, etc). Lunch with Bud is school work?? It was that day! :) It was so nice to go on a date without kids! It had been a very long time.
The girls have been spending 3 evenings per week practicing for their 4-H Share the Fun skit. They're having a blast!
That was our week! It was really nice (but too full!). Find out what other homeschoolers did this week, here.
"You know you're a homeschool mom when you have rodent
bones in a baggie in your purse."
Is it really Friday? This week flew by! It was cold and snowy again, so I'm glad the week went by quickly.
Here's what we did this week:
Monday:
The girls had farm school at Gale Woods Farm again. It was fabulous as usual. They love that class so much! Since it was so cold and snowy, I went to Starbucks to do homework. I got so much accomplished! Before Gale Woods, I met up with a friend for breakfast, which was super fun. I honesty felt like I ate all day, though. Breakfast with a friend, lunch in the car, a treat at Starbucks... I'm ready for warm weather so I can go on walks!
Tuesday:
Millie had piano lessons in the morning. The girls wanted to forego playgroup today, because the neighbor kids were all on spring break, and they wanted to hang around the neighborhood. Understandable, since we'll be leaving in a week or less!
Wednesday:
Today we were back in our normal school routine. The girls did all their school work in the morning. In the afternoon, they had a class at Dodge Nature Center, where they learned all about bones. They even got to dissect owl pellets! For the second part of class, they got to explore several stations in a barn. The most popular station was definitely the "knuckle bones" game station. Good times.
Thursday:
This was the first day all week that we didn't have to leave the house (until evening). It was so nice! The girls did their school work in the morning, and spent the afternoon playing with the neighbor kids. I had the entire afternoon to do school work and clean the house. In the evening, the girls had their first Share the Fun play practice. It's always fun for them to see their friends. I am so happy that we happened upon this particular 4-H group. The kids are all really great.
Friday:
Academics? We don't need no stinkin' academics! (I don't really mean that, but that seems to be our philosophy right now. We're still doing better than last year, so I'm OK with it). Today we thew caution to the wind, picked up cousin Patrick, and went to the farm. We needed to boil the sap that Grandpa Howard collected from his maple trees. It took so long, we weren't able to stay for the whole process. It was so nice to sit by the hot fire!! The kids spent a lot of time playing "veterinarian" with Grandpas vet medicine books and Millie's stethoscope. They had a couple (willing?) victims playing along :)
Well, I have next year *almost* entirely planned out. I have earth science and ancient history detailed out in two future blog posts. It has all the links I'll need to refer back to throughout the year. I just need to make my supply list so I know I'll have all the supplies on hand (you know, so the experiments and projects ACTUALLY get done).
The big thing I have to work on is a homeschool group. I need something similar to what we were part of when Millie first started homeschooling in 2nd grade. It's the part of our homeschool journey that we're missing right now. I know, I know, how could we possibly add anything into our week?! I'm not too worried. Next year will be different. I'm known for making everything work out, so I imagine I'll do the same thing next year ;)
Have a great week! Find out what other homeschoolers are up to, here.
