Weekly Report

We are finally back on track from a month of hit or miss homeschooling. October was a crazy month, and from what I read on other blogs, it seemed that way for several people. Granted, we are learning ALL the time and not just from books. We encountered wonderful learning opportunities and took full advantage of them. We listened to Mary Pope Osborne's Odyssey series on c.d. (twice) as we drove 13 hours to Iowa. We hung out with Poppy, Nana and other family members for almost 3 weeks. The boys watched several military shows with Poppy and Animal Planet with GG (great Grandma)...they were in heaven because they do not get much screen time at home. Nana created many works of art with the boys. The list goes on. We were able to do some book work, but the experiences they had with family were just as important. Especially since we don't get to see them that often.

Anyhow, we had a full week of lessons and feel real good about getting back into the swing of things. I was hoping to have pics posted, but that isn't going to happen this week. Here is the breakdown of what we did...

Monday-Errand and preparation day...Usually we attend a hs story time at the library but we were unsure if they were having it due to Veteran's Day being observed (turns out they were), so we got together with some friends at the park for a few hours. Kids had a great time playing. Oh, we also had our first letterboxing adventure. What a blast! We are so hooked and are going to continue doing it as a family. Collin has been put in charge of designing our family's stamp. If you do not know what letterboxing is, check out these websites www.atlasquest.com and www.letterboxing.org.

Tuesday-Had some trouble motivating Magnus to "do" school today. He said he is bored because it is too easy for him. I have been doing a lot of reading and researching about "giftedness" and strongly feel he and Thane both "fit"...in totally different ways though. And not just because they are "smart" but because of other reasons as well. So, I called the Administrator (Collin) and we are going to come up with ways to challenge him and make it more interesting. Collin is a good resource because he, too, is gifted but totally fell through the cracks in public school. Anyhow, I'm sure I'll be posting more about it in the future. Back on topic..Read about Ancient Africa in SOTW and "painted" our hands and feet with geometric patterns like they did for celebrations. Magnus worked on his spelling and is having a bit of trouble with words ending in "ck". He wants to leave the "c" out. He is also working on common and proper nouns in First Language Lessons. We changed math programs and the one we are using now is totally different from the one we were using. We are having to "learn" the "basics" all over again, but with their system. Magnus is a little bored with it so we are pushing on through to the more challenging lessons. Thane even sat in on the lesson and is picking it up. We went to Biology club in the afternoon and learned about animal tracks. The moms were all very unhappy with the lady who was leading it. She is not very encouraging or patient when dealing with our kids. We are anxiously awaiting the return of our beloved Mr. Kyle in a few weeks.

Wednesday-um, can't remember. Boys had AWANA and Thane earned another patch! Collin and I went to our kickboxing class. We're not talking punching and kicking air...no...we're talking contact! I have pink boxing gloves! PINK!

Thursday-We had to get caught up on science so we read the entire unit on birds. We are going to set up a bird "habitat" area out our windows so we can observe them. The boys are going to make bird houses out of milk jugs and feeders out of pine cones and peanut butter. We continued working on math and with the abacus. Also worked on spelling and nouns. In the afternoon we had our first book club meeting. See previous post for info.

Friday-I am sick, but still had a full day...dedication! We stayed in our pajamas all day and burned candles and listened to classical music. It was wonderful! We are going to have many school days like this. Learned about Ancient African stories in history and did some coloring pages and maps. The boys love maps (just like their mom and grandma!). Worked on spelling and grammar some more. Thane has been working on phonics and writing his ABC's. He was something else today. I don't think his mouth shut once. Talking and singing and "telling stories from his head" all day!

I know I am missing some stuff and next time will hopefully be a bit more interesting. I'll try to add more stories and things. Anyhow, thanks for reading!

Happy Homeschooling!