Homeschool Discoveries

Last February I remember feeling like we really needed a bit of a break around President’s day.  We had a few special things going on so we ended up taking a bit of an “unplanned” break at this time last year.   With that experience in mind, though, I planned a “mini-break” for President’s Day weekend this year.  We had a fun day last Friday, and didn’t do any regular schoolwork Monday-Wednesday this week.  With a light day last Thursday, it essentially amounted to one week of work stretched over two weeks. 🙂

On Monday, Tony had off for President’s Day.  The kids were excited to finally take Daddy with us to The Works (a small science/engineering museum), followed by a special family dinner out to a Chinese buffet restaurant.

Tuesday, the kids enjoyed a relaxed morning playing at home, followed by a long-requested trip to Homeschool Open Gym at the Gymnastics gym the kids had a class at in the fall.  Mr. K is finally old enough to participate, so I think we’ll be going more often the rest of this spring.  My mom came for a visit on Wednesday.  She is planning to take each of the kids out in turn on special outings. Miss M picked a shopping trip with Grandma a couple weeks ago.  This week was Mr. E’s turn, and he picked a trip to an indoor Archery range!

Then Thursday and Friday it was back to business as usual.  It went better than I expected for only having a two-day school week.

• Miss M started the Division chapter in Math Mammoth 3B, and Mr. E did lessons from Right Start B on greater than/less than and Subtraction.  We also read aloud from Life of Fred Apples.  Only two chapters left!
• Mr E did two lessons of Logic of English Foundations, and Miss M wrapped up List #26 in Logic of English Essentials.  Spreading a spelling lesson over two weeks was not good for Miss M however, and she did much more poorly than usual.
• We continued readings for US History focusing on 1815-1860, especially the pioneers.  Miss M read “Sarah, Plain and Tall” and started the sequel, “Skylark“.  We also started “Bound for Oregon” as a bedtime read aloud and “A Pioneer Sampler” for daytime history reading.
• We’re really wrapping up our science unit on Rocks and Minerals.  All we have left is for Miss M to make a cover for her lapbook and maybe add a few pictures in the extra space. 🙂

Here are a few more photo highlights from our week:

Clockwise starting in upper left (whoops, forgot to number the pictures this week!):

• Mr E proudly shows off his very first archery target
• More snow! An additional almost six inches of snow brought the neighbor kids out to our backyard for snow fort building in the late afternoon on Friday.  Seven kids worked together to make a huge fort!
• Having fun with legos during during our break
• Mr. E in a basket…with a paper phone?!?  All the kids ran around with paper phones pretending to talk on them and “install apps.”  Who knew paper phones could be so much fun?
• Miss M practicing her guitar.  She is continuing to enjoy lessons and improve steadily!
• Nearly complete Rocks and Minerals lapbook

Have a wonderful weekend!

I’m linking up with Collage Friday, The Weekly Wrap-Up, and It’s a Wrap!