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07 March 2011

Weekly Wrap-up: Busy Busy


Last Week:

We were sick, but we did do a few fun things. Raven got to try out finger painting for the first time while Monkey did a magnet-painting activity. Looked to me like Raven really enjoyed himself, and he didn't even complain much about getting cleaned up!




The idea, for Monkey, was to use a magnet to move metal objects which would push around the paint. This is right up our alley: paint, but not messy. We ended up taking 2 tries to get the job done, because regular fridge magnets are not strong enough to move even very light paper clips through the paint. That was frustrating. But then we borrowed one of Daddy's big ceramic magnets, and we were in business!



This week:

Monday: We got up and were off to a roaring start with some Postcrossing geography. We watched a clip and looked for Turkey on the map & globe.



This clip was fascinating - and now Turkey is on our travel wish-list. We had no idea there was so much interesting stuff there, and would never have guessed that so much of it would be early Christian sites!



We also practiced phonics and did some graphing for math.

Tuesday was another productive day. More phonics & math, and a science experiment. Monkey wasn't really interested in this one, although I thought it was pretty. The idea was to talk about diffusion and color mixing, but you have to maintain the munchkin's attention for more than 3 seconds to do that. This one was a (pretty) flop.



Wednesday and Thursday we sort of fit school in where we could. Some of our best friends are moving out of state, and we had a last playdate with them on Wednesday, and then went to one last playgroup with them Thursday morning. We squeezed school in around that.

One of the math activities we did was to practice "right" and "left" by hiding a quarter and pretending to be robots. The person who hid the quarter had to give directions to the robot: "Go three steps forward. Turn right." This was a lot of fun!

Now that we've done 4 weeks of the plans I wrote up, I'm experienced enough to say that I like this type of planning. It's flexible, yet gives me enough structure to get things done. I'm going to have to refine the process some, because we still have a few things to add in, and our days are getting pretty full. But I think we'll be able to do it. And the days ARE going to be more full than they were: we're starting to be doing considerably more work. I've been working on the next section of plans and they're getting close to done. I'm excited about the stuff we'll be learning and doing in the next couple of months!

7 comments:

Tina said...

That must be in the air. I've found a sudden peace in a not-so-scheduled day. It's odd for us, but surprisingly relaxed and effective.

I remember those precious days of little one and smile widely reading your post. Thanks for sharing.

Unknown said...

What a sweet little guy! Love the smile! Great job on the paintings! Fun week! Stopping by from Weekly Wrap-up!

Jessy

Wendy Williams said...

That picture of Raven is priceless! Sounds like your new planning is going really well! Stay the course!!!

Monica said...

How cute is that finger painting! Hope you all are feeling better.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ritsumei! I loved reading about your week. The painting looked especially fun! Flexible planning suits me best, too.

Ritsumei said...

I'm going to have to agree with ya'll: That baby of mine is adorable! I just love baby-business. I'm excited to see the planning going so well, and I went ahead & scheduled out a ways. We're going to try year-round school this year, though I love canning, so it could get interesting when the season arrives. Finding a balance, and perhaps choosing other interests that need to be sacrificed to make school happen is likely to be an ongoing challenge this year.

wdworkman said...

Looks like a fun week. We've never tried the magnet painting.
Janet W
http://homeschoolblogger.com/wdworkman/

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