This week really started last Friday for us. It really was a great and successful first week of summer. We had a lovely balance of growth, work around the house, learning time and play. Hopefully, the rest of our summer will be as lovely as this week.
Dean's Artist Retreat ~
Dean had a wonderful experience on the artist retreat. It was better than I had even dared to dream it would be. All of the kids got along great and they had a wonderful time creating together. Dean came back with lots of positive stories and feelings. I am so glad that he had a great experience. This post is already picture heavy, so I am going to save the art work for his transcript post.
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| The five student artists |
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| Sketching in nature |
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| What a view! |
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| They took a class with some local Roanoke students. |
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| The Roanoke Star |
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| Nightly music jams |
The Scent Seekers Exhibit ~
We went to the scent seekers exhibit at the Arboretum this week. I sometimes think the exhibits at the arboretum are hit or miss, but this one was fantastic. The kids were able to smell a large variety of scents that have been used to make perfumes for thousands of years. They even got to make their own scratch and sniff scent cards. The only glitch was the kids started in the middle of the exhibit and missed the beginning part that told them to cleanse their senses with the coffee beans provided. Since they didn't do that between scents, they ended up giving themselves headaches. Because I was trying to keep up with them, I missed the beginning, too! I really need to go back and reinforce the importance of following a sequence. I have noticed this issue a few times recently.
Work and Play ~ We cleaned the garage out this week. We emptied it to the walls, swept it out and put about half of it back, but in a more organized fashion. I think I found a year or two supply of weed wacker string. The rest of the stuff was donated, put away in different parts of the house or thrown away. That feels like a really good accomplishment. Now there are just 12 spaces to go, including the back building. This house is too big but will be way more manageable once it is sparsely filled.
We were invited to a music jam party at a friend's house. This is going to be a semi-monthly occasion over the summer. The teens jumped on the trampoline, giggled with their friends, played a few songs, and ate tons of food. The adults talked about summer plans, played some music or listened, and ate way too much food. Fun was had by all and we will go back again.
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| What a cute bunch of teens. |
Movie of the Week ~ We watched Holes this week. We had never seen this movie before, and we enjoyed it very much. It was much better than I expected, and we liked all of the layers and twists in the movie.
This kids did their end-of-year state testing which was the last "must do" to complete the 2017-2018 school year. I feel so blessed to homeschool. It has been a wonderful journey. I can't believe another year is done.
Blessings, Dawn
I'm glad Dean had a good experience at his camp. Now he'll look to other new experiences with greater confidence! :) (I hope)
ReplyDeleteCongrats on finishing your state testing. We don't have to do that here, but it seems to be pretty common for many states. I wonder if it will change where I am. (I hope not!)
And you're inspiring me to work on my garage . . . but it is mostly my husband's domain. For me to mess with it would be kind of like him messing with the kitchen. So I think I'd better leave it alone and tackle a different project instead. :)
Loved reading the update! So glad Dean enjoyed his camp. I don't ever go in our garage if I can help it. It's old, detached, and not big enough for my full size van so I can pretty much ignore it. The local animals love to visit it...lol. Raccoons and opossum mostly, the occasional skunk.
ReplyDeleteI did go through our books and donate 7 or 8 boxes of books. It was a lot of fun and very freeing to let go of some that just never get read.