Weekly Wrap Up ... 2011

On the Heart and Mind

Last year I saw on another blog about picking a word to live by or concentrate on each year.  That idea has been on my mind for a few weeks.  I want to implement that idea in my own home.  After much thought and talking to others, our family decided that Calm is the word for us for 2011.  We will be working on calming down our schedule as much as we are able.  I am also making changes to help us along in having a calmer household.  I will be sorting this coming week.  If it is worn, torn, collecting dust, waiting for repair (and can't be easily fixed), it is out of here.  I also got rid of all of the kids' socks and replaced them with the exact same style and color.  The girls, who wear the same size, now have hot pink, and Tom Sawyer has navy blue and Tim has gray.  I will be streamlining other areas in similar ways.  We are also going to be working on softening our vocal tone around here.  There is just too much yelling in this house.  I hate to admit it, but everyone is guilty.  Improving the tone of our voices will go a long way to achieving a calm home.  We also will be adjusting how many things we try to accomplish each day.  Life is not meant to be the race we often get caught up in.  I want to stop the rushing.  So being calm is on my mind.

Around The House

What a mess.  We left town a few days after Christmas for a quick trip.  It was nice to get away but the house is a mess,  packing mess, Christmas mess, birthday mess, New Year's Eve mess.  You get the idea.  Oh well, we don't start back to school for a week so I have some time to clean house.

Family Time

We took a great trip to the capital of our state.   We went to four museums ~ art, history, natural history, and a children's museum.  In the history museum, we saw a visiting exhibit on George Washington.  It was great and we enjoyed it.

Tom Sawyer thought George Washington's artificial teeth were gross.

Here the children are admiring George Washington

on his favorite horse, Blue Skin, for which the Smithsonian

made a great effort to create the exact measurements of both.

The children's museum was really crowded.  The kids and parents felt a bit overwhelmed.  However, everyone liked seeing the IMAX movie, Tron Legacy, in 3D.

The kids also really liked the pirate ship.

 We also enjoyed the natural history museum. 

It is a nicely done museum with lots of hands-on activities.

Little Red Ridinghood examines the size of a T-Rex skull.

We had planned on seeing the Norman Rockwell exhibit at the art museum but decided that it was just too expensive.  We enjoyed the free parts of the museum and the free parts of the Norman Rockwell exhibit. I love seeing the kids enjoy art.  Each child was animated about their favorite piece or pieces of art.  Mommy loved the gift shops at all of the museums.  Shhh!  We won't talk about what I spent.  It is all in the name of education.  We also were able to go to the homeschool consignment store.  This is the best homeschool store I've ever found, with new and used stuff.  I love it.  That was a very fun hour!!!  There was also a pool in our hotel. The kids got about 5 hours of swimming. Note to self ~ It is very much worth $10 extra for a room when an indoor pool is included.

Learning time

Learning is always going on ~ take our mini vacation for example!!  I am busy revamping our last 17 weeks of school and schedule in the name of Calm.  There is tons of fun stuff on the horizon.  I will share our school plans in a coming post.  However, here is a peek at some of the new things we will be adding into our days.

We will be dropping Latin for now.  Everyone is a bit burned out on it.  We fell off the wagon when it comes to Nature Study, again.  I hope to get back on the wagon.  All is well, though.  The love of learning is what is most important.  They will learn what they need, as long as they have a love for learning.

To see more Show and Tells, please see Canada girl.

Blessings,

Dawn