Friday Wrap Up ~ Staycation

We had a lovely Staycation with Daddy.  We did a few local field trips, got through my colonoscopy, and the kids played for hours while I planned our last nine weeks of school for this year.  I can't believe this school year is almost over.

The first photo is what our dining room table looks like right now.  I have pulled out all the books that we own for the last nine weeks and made lists of library books we still need.  We will be covering pioneers, western Indians, and the railroad in history.  Science will consist of simple machines, blood, the circulatory system, the ear, moon cycles, and Thomas Edison.  We will be using Beyond FIAR for Thomas Edison.  In art class, we will be doing Paul Gauguin and Van Gogh.  Literature will be working our way through more of the Little House series with the Prairie Primer.  I love this part of the planning!

The kids did an awesome job on their Ants project for the Festival of Knowledge.  They were very engaging and knowledgeable during their interview.  I was impressed with all they remembered.  The judges were impressed, too.  They won first place in the "Build a Bug" category.  The prize for this category was a FREE sizzilin' science party valued at about $200!  I think I was way more excited than the kids.  They were happy, but I was bouncing off the walls with joy.  We are going to use this prize for an end-of-the-school-year party, and each child will get to invite four friends.  A scientist will come to our home and perform tons of experiments with the kids for 1.5 hours, and all I have to do is worry about the food.  SO COOL!

We went on a field trip to the Thomas Wolfe house.  I was very pleased with how the visitor center was hands-on and child-friendly.  Tom Sawyer (9) loved the old fashioned sewing machine.  He spent a lot of time exploring it.  When it was time for our guided tour of the house Thomas Wolfe lived in for 10 years, the kids were given "I Spy" books.  They enjoyed finding artifacts in the home. The house was very interesting.  Thomas Wolfe's mother ran a boarding house during his childhood.  There were so many bedrooms and fun little stories.  This is a "must see" if you are in town.  The cost of the house is 50 cents for kids and 1 dollar for adults.  We also went to the Greenville Zoo which I talked about in the last post.

Our bathroom home improvement is going well.  The bathtub was refinished this week.  Hopefully, early next week the plumbing will be replaced and hooked up.  I can't wait to take a bath in this lovely tub.

Next week is one year since we started a grain-free, egg-free, dairy-free, soy-free, chocolate-free diet.  It has been an amazing year.  Tom Sawyer has improved so much. Corn seems to be the very worst thing for Tom Sawyer to eat.  However, he has a great deal of trouble with all grains.  We have gotten chocolate and dairy back in moderation.  We are used to this way of living now.  I will be doing a post on "a week
of how we eat" soon for you, Kristi!

I am joining Collage Friday this week.

Blessings, Dawn