What a Week!

This week was a perfect example of how learning is a lifestyle. We are all learning and growing daily. There is great value in book learning, but there is also great value in hands-on learning. This week had a nice mix of both.

Art ~ We started the week out with a Grandmother-Daughter-Granddaughter day out. This was my Christmas present to my Mother, and we were finally able to go out for our all gal multi-generational adventure. My Mom decided that she wanted to go to a pottery place. Once there, she decided to try glass fusion. Anne and I painted pottery pieces. We all had a lot of fun and I can't wait to pick up the pieces after they are fired.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) ~ Anne had the opportunity to videotape a church performance that her friends were in this past weekend. She used both of our cameras (which can record and take pictures) and set them up in different locations. It reminded me of my Father, who is a photographer. She did a good job and the movie came out nice. DH helped her splice the two films together, and they are burning them on DVDs. It was a good first experience for Anne.

Dean also had some fun with STEM activities this week. His latest Tinker Crate arrived. The theme was gravity. This crate was more challenging for him than some of the more recent crates. He stuck with it and got most of the experiments to work.

Science ~ We sure didn't have to go far for our nature study this week. Our neighbor's tree crashed into our yard during a windstorm on Wednesday morning. You can read about it here. The kids learned about the tree and also played in it for the past several days. It is still in our yard since the neighbor is getting bids to determine who to have clean it up. I suspect they will play in it more over this weekend.

The kids are inside the tree and you can't even see them. They can stand up all the way inside.

Anne on the top of the tree

Standing on the side of the tree. It is very wide and was more than 60 feet tall.

Home Economics ~ Anne sewed elastic into her pointe shoes to prolong their life. She is growing out of them; but her dance teacher doesn't want her to get a new pair until after the Showcase performances, because she won't have time to break in a new pair of shoes. Dean took all of the light fixtures apart and cleaned them. They both made molasses sugar cookies and muffins this week.

Physical Education ~ No one could ever say these kids don't get enough physical education. They have added an extra 1.5 hour class to prepare for the Showcase dance performance at the end of the month. They are now up to 8.5 hours for Anne and 4.5 hours for Dean. Next week Anne will be adding one more hour of pointe bringing her to 9.5 hours of dance. Dean graduated once again from his latest series of physical therapy (PT). He will continue an intensive at-home PT program that hopefully will keep him from needing more PT for the next six months. 

All the Rest ~ Plenty of book work happened this week as well. They each completed a chapter book. The kids continued with their study of elections, progressed through the War of the Roses in history, started new math books, continued with creative writing and listening to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. They also completed Life of Fred Kidneys. Lastly, they took several literature review tests from the Help Teaching website that I will be posting a review about soon. 

Blessings, Dawn