Week 26 ~ Snow, Gold and Dr. Seuss

On My Mind ~ I have been thinking about the power of words lately. The words a person uses can cause great change, pain, kindness or silliness. It takes a lot of maturity and self control to be responsible with one's words. This can be very challenging for children (and grown-ups). I am finding that controlling one's words for my RAD/FASD child seems to be nearly impossible. This child of mine is always stirring up chaos and much of it is with the words she chooses to use. So, I am making a few changes around here. It is a privilege to speak and speaking is for those who are ready to be responsible with their words. This week we are practicing having periods of quiet. I am also requiring any of my children who are not using their words to enhance the conversation or lift someone else up to experience a period of silence. They understand that, for every word they speak during silent time, they will lose a dime from their allowance. I am hoping this will teach the importance of using our words wisely and responsibly.

Dr. Seuss' Birthday ~ We had a fun dinner party for Dr. Seuss. We had root beer floats with naturally colored pink whip cream, Biggle Balls (cheese balls), pickled carrots, and potato soup. I found all of the recipes in the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook. We also read a nice biography about Dr. Seuss. It was a fun evening.

Our Field Trip ~  This week, we took a field trip to a defunct gold mine a few hours away from our home. It was a long trip! Little Red Riding Hood is doing her project for the Festival of Knowledge (a science/history fair that is held at our local nature center each year) on Discovery of Gold in North Carolina. It is fascinating learning that the very first gold found in America was here in North Carolina in 1799. Did you know the only state where gold has never been found is Florida? She gathered lots of info, including a little bottle of real pressed gold. The gold was pressed so thin that it looks like a nice amount but is really just tiny bits of gold dust. The kids enjoyed walking through the gold mine.

imagine this being your only source of light in a huge underground mine

Testing ~  We spent two days of the week testing Little Red Riding Hood and Tom Sawyer. I think they both did a good job. We will see what the test results are in a few weeks. I will test Goldilocks in the next week.

Our School Week ~  Between testing, a snow day and our field trip we did not get that much "school" done this week. We did start our next FIAR book ~ Night of the Moonjellies. We will do much more on this book over the next few days, and I will talk about it next week. We also completed two more chapter audiobooks in the car ~ Bud Not Buddy and The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane. Both of these books are wonderful and deal with big feelings, including love, trust, hope, resilience, bravery, faith and compassion. We also did math, lots of puzzles and watched the musical, My Fair Lady.

All the Rest ~ It took until March, but we finally got snow!!! We got about 1.5 inches. Not much, but we will take what we can get. We have learned that snow doesn't last long here in North Carolina and got out early. It was gone by the end of the day.

Do you see Boomer in the background? He thinks you have to run very fast all the time on snow.

I am joining ~

Blessings, Dawn