Weekly Wrap-Up

A couple of weeks ago, I began making up a weekly schedule and printing it off for each of the girls. This accomplishes a few things: they like highlighting off the things they've completed, I can see at a glance how much they still have left to do, it's an easy way to keep a record of what we've been doing, and most importantly, it's given me freedom from our pre-written curriculum. I love the Winter Promise program, but if it's all there staring at me, I feel like I have to do it all. Homeschooling is suppose to be flexible -- or at least, for me it is!  But I'm a box-checker at heart, and I tend to become a slave to something that was intended to help me. Making my own schedule frees me from that. Seems like a ridiculously simple solution, but it took me months to figure it out.

Last week Kathryn finished up Horizons 3 math, so she began Horizons 4 this week. I love that homeschooling allows us to work at our own pace, at an appropriate level for each child, no matter what we call their grade number. I actually really dislike the concept of being in a certain grade, but I we go with it for the purposes of state record-keeping, and because it's easier to explain to friends and family. Anyway, Lindsey is still doing Life of Fred, and that's going fine for now, but I'm already considering what I want to do when she finishes that.

I bought both girls their own nature-themed copywork books from Queen Homeschool because I've discovered that Lindsey loves copywork. It's one of the few school-related things she enjoys so far, so I want to encourage that!

We've added creative writing to our weekly schedule, and I'm using lessons from The Write Stuff Adventure. This week the girls both wrote about a spider, based on the itsy bitsy spider song. Kathryn's story amused me greatly. Lindsey did a good story last week about being the only person on earth and then hearing a knock at the door.

Handiwork is something both girls enjoy. Kathryn has done some cross-stitching before, but Lindsey is new to it. We bought a few small (not overwhelming!) cross-stitch sets for the girls and they wanted to start on them right away! This kind of thing is great for practicing patience, too! (I love these kinds of homeschool days!)
In geography this week, we're starting our "visit" to the continent of Africa, which is really cool since it's the only one I've ever been to (other than North America)! We actually even have a few things around the house that we brought back from our trip last summer, and we have lots of photos! Kathryn was labeling the Namib Desert on the map this week, and I told her I'd seen and taken pictures of it from the airplane: that still amazes me!

Despite a few parts the girls have both declared gross (like when the boy has to lick sweat off cow noses to keep from dying in the desert), we're enjoying a new book called Facing the Lion: Growing Up Maasai on the African Savanna. Last week's visit from Beth, with her first-hand stories of women in Uganda and Zambia, and those great necklaces made by the women there, was a perfect intro into our study of Africa.

We still use News Current for current events. Lindsey and Kathryn both read it, and Ken and I always learn something from every edition ourselves!

Nature study this week was quite literally right outside our window! See yesterday's post for photos of a pair of red-tailed hawks having a meal in our yard!

For assigned reading this week, Kathryn began Pollyanna, and Lindsey finished up Understood Betsy. I have no problem choosing books Kathryn loves, but Lindsey has disliked all my picks so far. I don't think she liked my explanation of it being like food; if you're accustomed to junk food, you don't love fresh veggies, and if you're used to twaddle, you don't love good books. Oh, well -- we'll get there! And she is reading it without too much complaint. But suggestions for twaddle-free books for teens are very welcome!!!

Our Bible reading this week has been in Job; heavy stuff to explain to a nine-year-old, but I do love the part where God answers back because I love imagining things like storehouses of snow. The girls have started making pages for their Bible notebooks. Our goal with these notebooks is to cement their learning, and to have a lovely record of what we've been studying.  I'll share some of those pages soon.

Weekly Wrap-Up: New Stuff!

Last time I did a weekly wrap-up, I mentioned plans for some changes. We've been implementing those changes this week, and I am pleased with how it's going so far.

One big change is simply in our morning routine/schedules. Lindsey loves to sleep late, but with the promise of a Starbucks on the weekend as incentive, she has gotten up and ready by our goal of 10AM every day this week. "Ready" means showered, dressed, breakfast eaten, teeth brushed, and bed made. Last year I worked hard on developing the habit of a morning quiet time, and it's been a great blessing. But the past few weeks, I've been trying to figure out when and how to incorporate my work-out without messing up my habit of quiet time. After some experimenting, I've figured out I do best with tea & quiet time immediately after I get up, then a workout, then shower, then breakfast. All of that means I have to get myself up on time (6:30ish - 7AM) to get all of my stuff accomplished to be ready by 10AM, too.

The way we start our school days has changed significantly, too. At 10AM, we meet on the sofa to start our school day with prayer and Bible reading. This is the main how of how we're shifting our focus back to what's most important, reflecting our priorities by starting the day in God's word. For months, I've felt the importance of this, and I've been searching for ways to implement this focus in practical ways. So I read "The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach," and was delighted to find some answers I'd been seeking in regards to the hows of what I'd been wanting to do. Once I had bookcases {yay!}, I raided other areas of the house and ordered a few books online to stock our new Bible reference shelf.

Now we have a chronological "One Year Bible" we read from every morning, an illustrated Bible dictionary, a Bible commentary, a Bible concordance, the fabulous "Victor Journey Through the Bible," a couple of other Bible translations, "Family Guide to Biblical Holidays" (which we'll work into doing as unit studies), "What the Bible is All About for Young Explorers," a Bible atlas, and more. After our morning reading time, we pull out a couple of these and see what we can find to expand upon what we've learned in our reading. We haven't officially started creating a Bible notebook/portfolio yet, but we've talked about ideas for them, and will begin those soon. To help me learn more about what I'm teaching, I'm working through "30 Days to Understanding the Bible in 15 Minutes a Day."

More new stuff: 

• we've re-instated daily copywork
• we're trying to do at least one somewhat fun craft each week
• we're doing a weekly creative writing assignment, currently using "The Write Stuff Adventure"
• we're doing a weekly art lesson, mostly using "The Wonderful ART of Drawing Horses" by Barry Stebbing
• we're re-instating focusing on a weekly character trait.
  This week was appreciative, with 1 Thessalonians 5:18 as our coinciding verse
• I'm assigning a novel for each girl to read (one to a few chapters each day, depending on length), and we'll be re-instating narration (totally new concept for Lindsey) next week, I hope.

Lindsey is still totally loving her tumbling class, and currently trying to master her back tuck. Kathryn is still loving Girls In Action, and this week, she enjoyed meeting two ladies from Romania who work as missionaries. I think our readings, like in "Cry From The Streets" have peaked both girls' interest in missionaries.

My aunt Beckie currently has five 6-week-old Schnauzer puppies in her care, and the girls spent a few hours  at her house loving on the pups yesterday afternoon. I consider that a great nature study. {grin} Now they are begging and begging for us to let them have the one pup who has not yet been claimed. Confession: it is very hard to be the reasonable-thinking mom here when I'm just a puppy-loving girl at heart!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Sick Days

Would everybody in our household PLEASE just stay healthy?
Kathryn wasn't feeling well this week; not sure what she had exactly, but she sure didn't feel good. Already in this very young year, we've had three weeks when one of the girls wasn't well. When one of us is sick, I'm even more thankful that we homeschool because we can still do some of our work, and I don't have to send them off when I'm not sure if they are all better yet. Here's how Kathryn spent most of the week, camped out on the sofa with her pillow, books, and stuffed animal pals...
This week, we've "visited" Canada, continued with all of our readings, Lindsey kept with Life of Fred in math, and both girls are working on typing skills (and having a blast doing it) with Dance Mat Typing. I had only planned to assign a lesson each week, but they both love it so much they asked if they could do a lesson each day. They've already met a belly-dancing hippo named Dainty, a flamenco-dancing flamingo, a break-dancing turtle, and a giraffe that does the limbo. It's silly fun, but they both feel like their typing skills are already improving. And it's free! (Free is good!)

It's extremely windy and drizzling a very cold rain today (brr!), but if we don't blow away, I hope to get a bit more organizing done this weekend so it'll be easier to start on some of those changes I mentioned in yesterday's post. I'll also be eagerly anticipating another package from Amazon. Is it just me, or does a package at the front door get you just as excited as a little kid at Christmas?

Weekly Wrap-Up

Funny how homeschooling is a total learning experience for ME. Not just in learning alongside my kids (which is great!), but in learning about my kids: their learning styles, their preferences, their strengths and weaknesses -- and what to do about all of those.

Even though our Winter Promise curriculum is written to a wide range of grade levels, I don't think Lindsey  fully "gets" that yet; it's certainly not how things are done in public school, and it'll take a while before she stops thinking that way. She seems to feel like she's doing third-grade work if I assign too many of the same things to her and Kathryn, so I'm working on finding other things to incorporate for Lindsey, and I've decided that she doesn't need to do all the same activities as Kathryn. This semester is her first doing school at home full-time, so there is a big learning curve for both of us.
She does enjoy the travel journal portion of our study, though:I think we all agree that our favorite book right now is "A Cry from the Streets: Rescuing Brazil's Forgotten Children." It's about a missionary family, and their journey of faith as they seek to follow Christ in helping the street children of Brazil.

Theoretically, I have planned to do tea time with the girls each week, but it hasn't happened in quite a while. This week I actually wrote it into our schedule, but I hadn't really prepared goodies and all of that, so I considered skipping it until I realized how much Kathryn was looking forward to it. We went ahead and made a pot of tea and threw a fancy tablecloth on the table. Voila! Tea time. (I'll do better about preparing next week!)Even though I look sooo sleepy, I love this photo of me and the girls doing a bit of snuggling after Bible reading and prayers, just before bedtime. My super-cozy wrap (super clearance sale from Coldwater Creek) is the envy of both the girls.I know there will be many more changes in our school days to come, but all things considered, it's going well. Even in the frustrating times, there has never been a moment where I did not absolutely feel called to do this, so I know the Lord will equip me for any challenges. This is His work. My kids are really His, but I'm so thankful He has entrusted them to me, and allowed me to be their mom.

Weekly Wrap-Up

I'm so delinquent in posting this, but that fits with how our week has gone.
A few quick highlights:

• Our rusty old furnace (heater) finally died. A very good thing it wasn't a couple of weeks ago when the high was 20 degrees. But it sure made getting out of the toasty bed in the morning rather difficult, so our school days started late every day this week.
  
• Lindsey started tumbling class and loves it.
• Kathryn started learning to crochet in GA's (Girls In Action) at church, and loves it.
• We got a new furnace.
• Lindsey got strep throat and has felt miserable the past couple of days.
  

Figuring out how to do school with both girls is proving difficult, but in ways I hadn't anticipated. So I'm still tweaking things, still praying for direction about specifics. I know this is where they both need to be, but I just have to figure out how to make it work well for them both. For instance, Kathryn loves me to read certain things to her, but it's distracting if Lindsey's doing something else. I'm not yet accustomed to having to work around things like that. Kathryn is very thorough; in fact, she tends to be a bit of a perfectionist, which is something we're working on. And she tends to dawdle. Lindsey, on the other hand, tends to rush through things; she does her work, and I can't find specific fault with it, but I know it's not the best work she's capable of doing.  So I have to help Kathryn learn not to get upset if she makes a mistake,  and I have to help Lindsey learn to take her time and do things to the BEST of her ability.

For the time being, they are both still doing Winter Promise "Children Around the World" for geography and culture studies. We just began Barry Stebbing's "Wonderful Art of Drawing Horses" for our art lessons, and I think they're both going to enjoy that. I might do it along with them, because it looks fun. Kathryn and I loved his "Joseph the Canada Goose" last year.

Kathryn is close to finishing up Horizons 3 in math, so we'll start on Horizons 4 when she's done with that. I stumbled across a math curriculum called "Life of Fred" for Lindsey, and although I'm not yet convinced that it is the most effective program, she doesn't hate it, which is saying quite a lot. It's math told as a rather amusing story about a boy named Fred; we're doing "Pre-Algebra with Biology."

Last year we did quite a few things that we haven't been doing this year -- yet. So we're working on adding them back in. Things like poetry, copywork, and more Bible study. I'm letting the girls choose a poem they like (for now) to copy and asking them to memorize at least part of it; by reading it aloud every day, that's pretty easy to do. We're using Lamp and Quill for our Bible curriculum, plus adding a weekly memory verse. We're also trying to start having family Bible-reading time most evenings.

And now, because every post is better with pictures, and because anything we spend this much money on deserves to appear in a blog post, I give you this photo of our brand new furnace in our lovely attic...

Please feel free to oooh and aaah over it.
(If you haven't already, check out yesterday's post for Kathryn in our take of a Norman Rockwell painting!)

Weekly Wrap-Up: a very BIG week!

Last Saturday, Kathryn spent a large part of the day getting ready for and participating in her daddy's wedding. She got home in the afternoon, and had just a little down-time before we headed to a fun crafty party at a nearby art studio. The theme of the party was based on the American Girls Felicity books, so Kathryn and several other girls made a pomander, made soap, began a cross-stitch, decorated cookies, then enjoyed hot cider.This week was our first week of Lindsey being home full-time for school, but we had a very light week. There was just too much other life stuff going on to get really in-depth for school. We mostly did crafts related to learning how other countries and cultures celebrate Christmas. Most of the week, our school table looked something like this...We learned a bit about Christmas in China, and made a pagoda-shaped paper "lantern" with a silhouette of the Holy Family inside. We learned of a Ukrainian legend about a poor woman who had no money for gifts or decorations: a spider built a web around her Christmas tree, and the web turned to silver the next morning. So we made our own silver spider web out of glue and glitter.We learned about the Star Man (instead of Santa) in Poland. One tradition I liked is that they scatter straw on the floor under the dining table to remind them that Jesus was born in a stable. An angel would be a common decoration on their Christmas trees, so we made paper angels.We made clothespin dolls of Saint Lucia as we learned about Scandinavian Christmas celebrations. If we observed this tradition in our family, Lindsey would be the one to dress as Saint Lucia and serve us coffee on Christmas morning because she is the eldest daughter. Both girls have read the American Girls Kirsten books, so they were already familiar with this. I think Lindsey wanted hers to look more like her, but Kathryn had a vision of Kirsten in mind, and had to have the candles on the crown as well.Both girls were on a roll, so to speak, so Lindsey made a felt ornament for the tree. It's a star with the year in the middle, and each point has an initial for each member of our family. She's never done any sewing, so this was a great little project!Kathryn made a manger out of popsicle sticks and a baby Jesus out of a wooden clothespin.I'm just about all crafted out after this week!

The very biggest highlight of our week was when Lindsey's adoption was finalized! See yesterday's post for details!

Weekly Wrap-Up: Changes

My mind, apparently, is ready for a break. I have thirty-thousand things swirling around in there as I try to figure out exactly how I'm going to get into the swing of things with two full-time at-home homeschoolers, since this is Lindsey's last day of classes. I want her -- and all of us -- to love doing school at home, but it will involve some changes and some continued de-programming from nine years in the public school system. 

Anyway, for now, we are taking things pretty easy. We're doing things like coloring nifty Dover Nativity "Stained Glass Coloring Book" pages, reading, snuggling, and yes -- we're getting math and all that done, too. Lindsey is looking forward to joining in our country studies and having her own Travel Journal and passport like Kathryn in our Winter Promise "Children Around the World" program. I have almost made the decision to go with Teaching Textbooks for Lindsey's math, but haven't placed the order yet.  Feel free to chime in if you have thoughts to share on that. 
A little of this week's snuggling.
We are blessed beyond measure, and we all know it, but there are quite a lot of changes going on. They are all good, I think, but we are all feeling some tension. Just to name a few: Lindsey's adoption will be final next week; this is her last day of classes; Kathryn's dad is getting remarried this weekend and that means two new step-siblings as well; the holidays always mean out-of-the-norm visitation schedules; this will be Lindsey's first Christmas with, as she puts it, a "real" family. Even good changes involve some stress. Kathryn and Lindsey had some good sister-time yesterday; Kathryn cried on Lindsey's shoulder and told her she's stressed about all the changes. Lindsey can empathize more than anyone as far as that goes, I believe. Both girls told me about it separately last night, and it warmed my heart. They missed many growing-up years together, so this beginning of a sisterly bond is an answer to prayers. I am also praying that once we have that signed piece of paper in hand saying Lindsey is our daughter, that she will feel more peace and permanence, and will begin to believe more deep-down in her heart that we will not ever leave her.

Weekly Report and a Happy Surprise

A happy surprise arrived in the mail last week: a package from my blogland friend Deanna with all sorts of goodies from Russia and the Ukraine! She had emailed me when she saw that we'd been studying those countries and said she'd like to send a few things, but I didn't know she meant all this! Blogland homeschool friends are great! Kathryn was beyond delighted because she has been talking about wanting Matroyshka dolls since she first learned of them, so it was like Christmas when she saw those in the box! We sampled the chocolate candy, and oohed and aahed over the pretty places on the postcards. Ken looked up how to pronounce the animal names in Russian; I guess this is a baby book? And it's so weird to look at the Bible in such an entirely different language.

This week, we "visited" Italy. We learned why the Tower of Piza leans, and that it was built as a bell tower. I never knew any of that, but I love all that I learn as we study! We touched on a bit of ancient Roman history, and decided we all want to see Venice in real life someday.

As far as our other subjects go, it's just been a normal week, plugging along and trying to get back into the swing of things after a week off at Thanksgiving. But we do have one big announcement: next semester, Lindsey will be doing school at home full-time, rather than continuing in the 2-day/week classes. There are many reasons for this, which I'll go into later, but the short answer is that we feel this is best, and much prayer about it has confirmed this decision for us. When we first told her, she was upset, but she soon got excited about it. God is good. :)

I have much more I want to blog, but things have been super-busy. Most of my computer time has been doing business stuff. But I have updated the WorleyArts blog, if you want to see some of what we've been doing there! I promise to get more things updated here at Rose Cottage soon, too...

Homeschool Weekly Wrap-Up

I really like doing these posts. One of these days, when I finally "slurp" my blog into a Blurb book, it's going to be a great way to keep a record of what we've done! Wouldn't a blog book be a fantastic Christmas gift? {ahem! hint, hint!}

This is another of those two-weeks-in-one posts because last week was busier than usual with a field trip to the Atlanta History Center, tea time with Granma, and a weekend Powwow.

In addition to all of that, we studied Russia last week. One of the suggested activities was playing a game of chess. Since I don't yet know how, Kathryn and Ken played one evening. In this photo, Kathryn is seriously contemplating her next move...
She enjoyed reading about ballet, was amazed at how huge Russia is, and has added Matroyshka dolls to her Christmas wishlist.

This week, we've studied Romania and eastern Europe. Kathryn was fascinated by the intricate lace made in Romania. The site we visited had a book of instructions for beginners, but it still looked a bit too involved to me. Maybe we'll attempt that when I'm feeling more adventurously crafty.

Kathryn and I both love a new site we found, called Quest for Compassion. There, kids can play games, but the main focus is learning about the country's language, culture, and prayer needs. For instance, in Ghana, Kathryn learned that most people live on less than $1/day and we played a mosquito-squishing game to help us remember the great need for malaria medicines and mosquito nets there.

In Studying God's Word, one of the lessons had the beginning of a story, and Kathryn had to finish it. She did so great! So now I'm thinking of getting Story Starters to encourage her in creative writing. It would be great for Lindsey, too.

Lindsey decided to have a better attitude about her classes this week. She's still hanging in there, but it's definitely a source of stress for her.

A family project this week was our thankful tree (see yesterday's post). We're adding to it every day.

We won't do any formal school next week. Just life. We'll certainly be working on some homemaking skills, as the girls are planning to help me cook our Thanksgiving feast!

Weekly Wrap-Up (2 weeks!)

I didn't do a weekly wrap-up last week, so this will be a two-in-one. This one will lack a whole lot of how-we-did-its, and just touch on some of what we've done. I love to do posts that might help other homeschoolers, but sometimes I just want to keep up with what we've done. This post is mostly one of the latter.

I am seriously re-evaluating some things about our homeschool, and plan to spend some serious time praying about some specifics. Lindsey will be at a sort of caffeinated teen retreat called D-NOW (Disciple Now) this weekend, and Kathryn will be at her dad's, so I'm going to use that time to focus on listening to God on what He wants me to do/change. I'll be sure to blog about it -- later.

Last week, we studied France. Some of the things we took note of in our study: the Louvre museum, the thought of eating frog legs and snails, the 300+ types of cheeses they make there, and the Eiffel tower. Did you know that the Eiffel tower has 2.5 million rivets, 1652 steps, is 984 feet tall, and grows by six inches in the summer when the metal expands. Kathryn has added it to her list of Places I Want To Go -- she's been adding to it as we study different countries. I can't wait to see how long the list is by the end of our school year!

This week, we "visited" Germany. We were amused by some of the funny-sounding names of towns, like Worms, Frankfurt, and Hamburg. Kathryn wants to visit Neuschwanstein Castle, and thought it was cool that I could actually remember the fall of the Berlin Wall.

For one of her free reading books last week, Kathryn read Where the Red Fern Grows. I couldn't remember how long it had been since I read it, so I re-read it -- and cried like a baby. I am such a sap when it comes to books about dogs or horses.

In Biology, we finished up Unit One: The Basics, and reviewed a bit. Kathryn thought at first that she didn't know the answers to the questions I was asking, but when she stopped and thought, she knew them all. Hurray for retaining information! I am enjoying this Christian Kids Explore Biology book. This week we moved into Unit Two: Plants. So far we've diagrammed a plant, explored some plants in our garden, and learned about photosynthesis. She is itching to make the terrarium suggested for this week's hands-on project, so I'm going to have to rummage for the necessary supplies.

Kathryn read about outer space in her "News Current" magazine, and has decided that Saturn would not be somewhere fun to visit, due to the crazy storms, terrible temperatures, and lack of air that humans can safely breathe. She also learned about how Mars has been explored, and about craters on the south pole of the moon that have temperatures of -397 ℉! I love that amidst all this great current event and scientific info, the writers of the magazine remind us, "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands." (Psalm 19:1)

Lindsey had a light school week, since she had no classes on Tuesday due to the local elections. She is ecstatic about D-NOW (Disciple Now) this weekend because she's been hearing about it from friends in her small group. It is THE big event for the youth at our church, and talked about all year long. The theme this year is Crazy Love, which should be great. God used that book to speak volumes to me! And for a costume contest part of the event, Lindsey and friends will be dressing up as Frostys (as in, the chocolate ice-creamy milkshake from Wendy's). Can't wait to see that -- and yes, there will be photos!

When I was at the homeschool moms' support group meeting on Tuesday night, Ken taught the girls to play "Heart and Soul" in parts on the piano. Lindsey plays the middle part, and Kathryn can play the high part and the low part -- not at the same time, of course! Sometimes he'll play with them, or sometimes he'll play the bass (hanging on the wall in this photo) while they are on the piano. While this is not exactly perfect piano form (you'll notice if you look at their hands), it's still music, and it's still fun!

The weather was gorgeous this week, but we still didn't get outdoors as much as I would've liked. However, we did find time for appreciating the roses that are still blooming, noticing a little inch-worm on a gerber daisy, watching butterflies that Kathryn hopes are the grandchildren of the ones we raised, and doing a bit of kite flying. We also finally did a nature study!

I'm really looking forward to my time of re-assessing things this weekend, and just spending some good time with God. One of the wonderful things about homeschooling is that we have the freedom to change things ANY time throughout the school year.

Weekly Wrap-Up

Like I said in my previous post, I've felt crummy all week. So we didn't do any cool cultural evenings. We didn't get outdoors to do any cool nature studies. But we did do the essentials, and that's yet another reason I'm so grateful that we are able to homeschool.

This week, Kathryn and I visited Spain and Portugal. One of the things we do as part of our Winter Promise "Children Around the World" lessons each week is add stickers to our Travel With Me maps for the country (or countries) we are visiting. The countries are all labeled in red. Water forms are labeled in blue. Major land forms are labeled in green. You can see our little "travel guide" children, and other stickers of things such as the Flamenco Dancer and The Running of the Bulls for this week, or Tulip Farms and Windmills in The Netherlands, a sheep to represent wool in the United Kingdom, and a potato to represent the Potato Famine in Ireland. Kathryn really enjoys adding the stickers, and the map is displayed at her eye-level in our school room all the time. When we finish Europe, we'll have a new map for a new continent.

Each week we have a few cool websites to visit, for things like a virtual sight-seeing tour of each country, or something extra like when she explored old Spanish galleons online. Some weeks we have additional "cultural experiences" books to read, like this week's Find Out About Spain, which was full of all sorts of fun facts. Kathryn was fascinated by bull fights (and felt sorry for the bulls!), and I was astounded when she read to me about an annual food fight festival held on the last Wednesday of August each year in the Valencia region of Spain; this festival celebrates the harvest, and is known as La Tomatina.

Kathryn really is learning so much about geography already -- and so am I! This makes it more fun, and we don't have memorize a bunch of boring facts or learn everything all at once. Our globe is getting used more often this year, too!

Kathryn chose our memory verse for the week: Philippians 4:6. We've continued working on Studying God's Word Book D, and she told me she likes the activities in this book better than in the previous ones. In her Prayer and Personal Involvement Journal we're learning about basic needs we all have, like a safe place to live. Part of this week's study referred to things like having shelter after a natural disaster (like a tsunami) or in a war-torn country. I hope this will help us all begin to have a greater appreciation of how greatly we are blessed. The other part of this week's lesson was about Foster Care. I think, because of all we've talked about for the nearly two years we've been going through the process of adoption (getting approved & all that), that Kathryn has a better understanding of this than the average 9-year-old. But I'm very glad this topic is covered!

Lindsey missed classes on Tuesday because she wasn't feeling well, either. She made up her work, and felt good enough to go to choir practice and youth group Wednesday night. On Thursday, she went on a field trip with a group from school to see the play Julius Caesar at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. She was most impressed by the fake blood used in the stabbing scene, and that was the first question she asked when they had a question-and-answer time with the actors after the play. {grin}

Lindsey was very impressed with herself in knowing much of her Physical Science stuff before looking it up. She said she felt smart. I hope this sort of thing, as well as last week's excellent grade on her English essay, etc., will begin to build her confidence in her ability to learn. I don't think she's had a lot of positive experiences/feedback in school in previous years. We just found out that she'll be having yet another new English teacher; I'm disappointed about this because she was really doing well with the interim teacher (who I though would be the teacher for the remainder of the year).

Last week was Lindsey's first Sunday helping lead worship in Kid's Church, and she loved it. This week will be her first choir performance at church. Kathryn had another Brownie meeting this week; I wasn't crazy about the Halloween crafts they did (we don't do Halloween), but the crafts did give me some ideas for crafts here at home. The acorns painted to look like pumpkins were cute, though!

Stop by to see Kris for more of this week's "Weekly Wrap-Up" participants.

Weekly Wrap-Up

The rain -- and more rain -- has kept us indoors most of the week, but last Sunday was gorgeous, and we started the week with an unexpected nature study of a strange creature we identified as a tussock moth caterpillar. (See it here.)

We're trying to be more intentional about studying the Bible. Lindsey and I haven't quite worked out the best way to help her make this a habit yet, but we're working on it. Kathryn is using Studying God's Word Book D, and she has been reading The Child's Story Bible on her own. We read it together in her kindergarten year, and both loved it; I learned quite a bit from it myself! It was Kathryn's idea to begin re-reading it, and I think it helps her see the Bible as all inter-related more easily than reading a verse here or there in her "regular" Bible.

This week in "Children Around the World," we visited Northern Europe: we saw the Alps in Switzerland (it's easy to find great photos online) and enjoyed some Swiss chocolate (Lindt = yum!); we took a sight-seeing tour of Norway (here); and we toured a tulip garden in the Netherlands, which reminded us of the gorgeous tulips we saw when we visited Biltmore Estate in the spring (Yes, of course I included a tulip photo in that post!).

Kathryn is enjoying reading Mandy, by Julie Andrews, and eagerly anticipates however many chapters I tell her she's allowed for the day. I love having such excitement about good books!

In math, Kathryn is still doing great about finishing a lesson each day in Horizons 3. She's been learning to calculate perimeter and area, had been doing more with division, fractions, and multiplication, doing more word problems, and continuing to review other skills.

For handwriting this week, Kathryn finished up her thank-you notes for birthday gifts she received. For current events, she read in GWN: News Current about modern farms in the United States, and about some of the many challenges they face. Though I don't require Lindsey to read this (yet!), she did pick it up this week and read much of it, too.

Lindsey is still hanging in there with her classes, though she still does NOT love school. We were very proud that she worked hard on an English essay on themes in The Call of the Wild, using MLA formatting. She didn't procrastinate about doing it, and earned a very good grade on it! Way to go, Lindsey!

Lots of online stuff for Lindsey: Her new Spanish teacher has set up a website where they practice vocabulary and take quizzes. Not sure how well I like it, but the concept is great.  Her American History teacher has a class blog where he posts something, and the students must all go comment on it for part of a class participation grade. Another neat concept.

Lindsey and Ken have started a new daily photo challenge to improve their photography and learn more about their cameras. They must read a page in their camera manuals each day (Lindsey is using my D40, since I've upgraded), and take a photo every day, then do a blog post about it. I'm sure Lindsey would love for you to visit her blog and see how she's doing with it so far.  :)

Weekly Report

Kathryn had a bit of a cold the first part of the week, and Lindsey had no classes this week, so we took things a little easy. We did quite a bit of reading, reorganized closets, and spent time sitting on the back porch enjoying the cooler weather. We all love fall!

Lindsey worked on a report for English class, but had no other assignments on her off week. Both girls updated their blogs. Kathryn did a few Horizons math lessons, and played some multiplication games on the computer. We talked about the book she just finished on George Mueller (Father to the Fatherless), and I may have her try writing down a bit of her narration.

This week in Biology, Kathryn and I learned about the biosphere and what ecology is. She's getting better at finding the definition of her vocabulary words in context.

She also finished up the travel journal pages for Ireland. Thursday evening, I made Irish Stew, from our Usborne "Little Round the World Cookbook," but used beef instead of lamb, as called for in the original recipe. Lindsey said it is her new favorite meal. I am a little bit in love with the Rachel Ray enameled blue cast iron stew pot my mom gave me. (Thanks, Mom!) 

After supper, we played "hot potato" with one of Ken's juggling balls. This weekend I plan to make another suggested recipe, Irish Cinnamon Apple Cake. If it comes out tasty, I'll be sure to share the recipe.

Kathryn is enjoying her Brownie meetings, and I think she feels all official with her little sash. She's working on more patches.

Lindsey has joined a team to help lead worship in Kid's Church, so she'll be on stage dancing and singing as the K-3rd grade kids worship. Next Sunday is her first weekend, and Kathryn has been helping her practice.  This would really be fun to do a few days every week (if we're not too lazy!); it helps Lindsey learn the routines, it would be great exercise, and it's a fun way to worship God, too!

Hope your week has been great!