Weekly Wrap-Up ... Week One Done!

 

In My Life ~ It is so nice to see all those weeks of planning and reworking coming together.  We just finished our first week of school and it went much better than expected.  The box of goodies and fresh books to open up on the first day was a hit.  It helped so much with the transition into a fresh school year.   It is funny how things change.  When I pulled my oldest out of school, I had to be careful to make sure nothing in our homeschool appeared to be similar to public school.  That included back to school sales and new book bags.  I got so used to our homeschool being that way.  However, my three little ones never went to school and are not traumatized by it.  So they really want the transition from home to homeschool.  All of their public school friends are doing the sales and getting new stuff.  I thought back to my school days and tried to remember what the first week was like.  It seems like lots of it was helping the teacher put the room in order (where things were and whose stuff went where).  That is exactly what I did with the kids this week.

Our Homeschool ~ One of the kids favorite activities this week was making their own creative writing books.  They pasted pictures my Mother and I cut out of magazines into notebooks that they will write stories in later.

They also are excited about making a lapbook each week to review the theme of the week.  This week was Lewis and Clark (history).  They also loved putting together a puzzle based on our history theme.  I plan on having a puzzle for each history theme.  We glued it together so it will be permanent.

I will be posting a blog entry all about our Lewis and Clark Expedition out into the wilderness that we plan to take later this weekend.

My Favorite Thing ~ I really enjoyed doing our first Coming of Age evening with the kids.  We mostly had fun with it this first time.  The boys and dad made air cannons and shot each other with them.  They then made cootie catchers and started a book about what they appreciated about each other.  The girls and I did a foot bath, learned how to cut our toenails, made a yogurt and cucumber facial mask and gave ourselves facials.  The room was filled with giggles.  We then talked about the concept of "after you" (letting someone go through a doorway before you, giving up a seat on the bus, etc.).

My youngest also won the summer raffle at the library.  She got lots of books, stickers, pencils, a book bag, ball globe and water bottle.  She was so excited and very gracious in sharing with her brother and sister without even being asked.

Blessings,
Dawn