Back to school! Yay!!!
Or something. We've sort of drug ourselves back through a sea of snot and stress. Oi. Not our best week. We got stuff done, but nothing flowed easily; everything required powering through and plenty of will power. But... it wasn't our worst. No major tantrums or fights. That's something. We're gradually finding our groove again.
I did my first phenology wheel over the Christmas break. It was fun. I plan to do one again... after this ridiculous below zero weather quits for a while. I don't want to mess around outside, particularly not since we found that some mildew got into my scarf and hat: they're the only ones in the box so far that didn't stop stinking when washed. Bummer. But I didn't love them, and now maybe I can find something that I actually like to wear. The search is on! But we're not doing nature study, not outside anyway, until the weather gets at least slightly more decent. Temps rising enough that windchills are above 0F would be a good start.
They're so pretty, though, and I'm looking forward to building another one. The Charlotte Mason Nature Journaling group is all a-buzz about these. I'm debating doing a big one that would (theoretically) be filled out once a week all year. That would be fun. If I could stay on top of it. It's hard to give myself permission to have blank spaces.
Things we accomplished this week:
We read things.
We did some math.
We did a little art.
We practiced the violin a little.
We kept trying, even when it wasn't perfect.
We checked out the new microscope that Nana and Grandpa gave us for Christmas. It's pretty awesome. I figured out how it works (after the Daddy figured out how the batteries are installed), and got it set up. It's been a while since I did anything with one of these! The kids started learning, not only how cool it is to look at stuff under magnification, but also:
Don't Touch The Slide
That's an important lesson, as they discovered. Particularly the littler ones. Dragon was so excited about the microscope. He was the one that kept at me the most, while we waited for all of this year's holiday crazy to settle down, and he looked the longest, and took the more turns after the others had their fill. And he was the one that woke up this morning wanting to get it out and look at MORE STUFF through it. He suggested we go outside and get some leaves... I love his optimism. Not a lot of leaves around here right now!
In addition to his regular school work, I caught Hero reading the big book of fairy tales he asked for a while back, but then didn't get around to for months. That was fun. He's made some pretty good progress through it in not much time. It made me smile to see him seeking out good literature on his own. I'm glad that I didn't push him, when we got him the book: his relationship with these stories will be different for them being entirely voluntary.
Miss Kitty roared back into her phonics work. We reviewed the Learn to R.E.A.D Notebook and its Review Pack last July, and I discovered that she was not quite as ready as I'd thought: she was unsure of almost all the letter sounds when we started that. And she had to work to get them all. It's taken some time, but she's finally completed five lessons, and we're finally using the cute little books from the Review Pack. She was pretty delighted by them: first coloring, then reading silly things. I'm pleased with her progress: she'll be 5 in a few days, and she's doing quite well with her reading.
Altogether, we're ending the week on a pretty positive note. We didn't freeze to death (in spite of windchills down to -24F, and a couple of days where it never got above 0F real temps -- and then the wind blew. It's been chilly. Just as well that we didn't have much in the way of outside commitments this week. At the end of the week, we're getting back into our routine, and remembering how school goes, and how to make this thing work.
We practiced the violin a little.
We kept trying, even when it wasn't perfect.
We checked out the new microscope that Nana and Grandpa gave us for Christmas. It's pretty awesome. I figured out how it works (after the Daddy figured out how the batteries are installed), and got it set up. It's been a while since I did anything with one of these! The kids started learning, not only how cool it is to look at stuff under magnification, but also:
Don't Touch The Slide
That's an important lesson, as they discovered. Particularly the littler ones. Dragon was so excited about the microscope. He was the one that kept at me the most, while we waited for all of this year's holiday crazy to settle down, and he looked the longest, and took the more turns after the others had their fill. And he was the one that woke up this morning wanting to get it out and look at MORE STUFF through it. He suggested we go outside and get some leaves... I love his optimism. Not a lot of leaves around here right now!
In addition to his regular school work, I caught Hero reading the big book of fairy tales he asked for a while back, but then didn't get around to for months. That was fun. He's made some pretty good progress through it in not much time. It made me smile to see him seeking out good literature on his own. I'm glad that I didn't push him, when we got him the book: his relationship with these stories will be different for them being entirely voluntary.
Miss Kitty roared back into her phonics work. We reviewed the Learn to R.E.A.D Notebook and its Review Pack last July, and I discovered that she was not quite as ready as I'd thought: she was unsure of almost all the letter sounds when we started that. And she had to work to get them all. It's taken some time, but she's finally completed five lessons, and we're finally using the cute little books from the Review Pack. She was pretty delighted by them: first coloring, then reading silly things. I'm pleased with her progress: she'll be 5 in a few days, and she's doing quite well with her reading.
Observation is the heart of science, so I think the line between art and science is very porous. We practiced both observation and recording our observations with our watercolors. It's the second time we've done this kind of activity, and I'm very pleased with how it's working.
Altogether, we're ending the week on a pretty positive note. We didn't freeze to death (in spite of windchills down to -24F, and a couple of days where it never got above 0F real temps -- and then the wind blew. It's been chilly. Just as well that we didn't have much in the way of outside commitments this week. At the end of the week, we're getting back into our routine, and remembering how school goes, and how to make this thing work.
3 comments:
We love looking at things under the microscope! It's like a whole different world.
What a great week. I love the watercolors!
Blessings, Dawn
Sounds like a good week of getting back into the school routine, except for the cold weather and sickness! Love the artwork that went along with your science study. Happy New Year, and thanks for linking up!
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