Homeschool Discoveries

Collage Friday 2012-01-13

We resumed our regular school schedule this week after a three week Christmas break.  Here’s a few highlights from our week:

1. Grandma Karen visited one day this week.  Here she is reading “Little Man in the Map” to all the kids.   Miss M will participate in a Geography Challenge at our homeschool co-op in May, and the challenge for the 2nd graders is to memorize the location of all the US states.   Miss M wanted lots of prep time, so we started this week!  We’ll be using this book as well as a few iPad apps (and standard blank paper maps) for learning and practice all semester.

2. Mr. E and Mr. K relaxing on the couch with a bit of music on a shared MP3 player today.  Sometimes music is the best thing to soothe the savage beast…or stir crazy little boys as the case may be!

3. Mr. K is potty training.  He’s our “class clown” so it makes life interesting.  He is just as likely to do as pictured (or jump in the empty bath tub, or run right past the potty into the next room) as he is to execute the act of pottying appropriately.  We still have lots of work to do in this department, so I am planning on just as many interruptions to our school day next week as potty training continues!

4. At our homeschool co-op,our assembly time speaker was a “history player” from the Minnesota Historical Society portaying Maud Hart Lovelace.  In this picture, Miss M is dancing with “Maud” to the music of a record playing on a Victrolla.   “Maud” talked about her life story, and how life has changed since the turn of the century — a very fun presentation

5. It’s not uncommon for Mr. E and Mr. K to have some time to play games on the iPad during our school day.  I set Baby J down on the couch next to them for a moment, and he quickly leaned in next to Erik to see what was going on.  So cute!

6.  Here’s Miss M hard at work on her RightStart Math level C lesson.  We completed three lessons this week.  This included spending a fair amount of time reviewing subtraction strategies on Monday and Tuesday that may have gotten a little rusty over break.

7. This was perhaps the top highlight of the week — 50 degree weather on Monday and Tuesday.  In January! In Minnesota!  The kids were asking why we had no bubbles or chalk or jump ropes handy (Hmmm…maybe because it is really still winter?), so I was kind enough to dig some out from the basement.  Reality returned on Thursday and Friday with some more seasonably cold temps.  But this is still a very warm winter by Minnesota standards — I don’t think it has gotten below zero yet.

I’m linking up this week with:

Collage Friday @ Homegrown Learners and with the Weekly Wrap Up @Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers