Week 14 ~ Four weeks until Winter Break!

Well, another week is gone. It was a good week, but I am looking forward to our winter break. I'm also realizing that we are going to be going slower through our history studies than I originally had thought. For one thing, the kids are finally enjoying the 21 Activities for Kids book series. I love this series and am looking forward to sharing many of the different books and topics with my kids. I feel like many of the books complement the Genevieve Foster books that we are using as our history spine this year. We are starting Christopher Columbus and the Age of Exploration for Kids in the next week or two. We are also wrapping up Zoology for Kids: Understanding and Working with Animals, with 21 Activities in our science studies. These books are wonderful and perfect for middle school students. They have lots of interesting information and projects that pull everything together.







We started our week off learning about wood burning. In the literature book we are reading, The Door in the Wall, the young boy learns to whittle. I wanted to incorporate using wood in an artistic way but felt that whittling was too time consuming and required too much patience for my crew. Wood burning was a great alternative and I just happened to have a kit tucked away in the basement. The kids were not super thrilled with wood burning but created a bit with it.

The child looks like she is suffering so, doesn't she?

Our latest Tinker Crate was much more popular! It was all about hands. Dean constructed the hand. We did several experiments and learned lots of facts. I was surprised to learn that we have no muscles in our fingers. I love that even the teacher gets to keep learning in our little homeschool!

Anne is enjoying her tumbling class. I am happy to see all the skills she is learning in a safe environment. She moves around so fast that I haven't managed to catch many pictures.

Nutcracker season is getting closer and closer. We have more rehearsals this weekend. Then we get about two weeks off from weekend rehearsals before it really starts getting crazy! You know you are a stage mom when you pull out your winter clothes and worry whether or not you have enough black shirts for back to back  nights back stage. Yep, I am already worrying about such things!

Blessings, Dawn