Week in Review - 19 September 2014

This seemed to be a week of long days. I don't know if that makes the week go slow or fast. I am still trying to decide. Some of the long days were doing other things in the day and some was just slow unfocused children. 

Monday we began with a science experiment. I think my son was shocked that we were doing one. I don't like science experiments as they take too much time, are messy, require supplies that we don't have or don't work the way they should. This involved things that we had -- egg yolks, water and salt water. 

It even worked. We were demonstrating osmosis. The yolk in the salt water got smaller while the yolk in water got bigger.

We did some therapy with Miss K. We did various things on the peanut -- rolling and reaching and also cross over activities. 

She is supposed to pick up the animal with the opposite hand and then toss it into a bowl.

We bought a bird feeder. We have a large window in our dining room/school room so it is perfect to sit and watch the birds. I think I have seen wood pigeons, magpies, and a sparrow. We might have to learn a bit more about British birds.

I did try to pause this week and work on some hands-on projects. I love just doing the book work because that is easy to check off and we can be done but hands-on projects allow us to dig into our learning and we might even get our hands dirty. Miss K is working on a salt dough map of Africa.  It is successful when my husband can look at it and know what we created. Now we are waiting for them to dry.

J is working on his. He decided to do just a part of Africa so he could get the lake and mountains.

I did something different this week. I took our roll of drawing paper and put a piece across the table. It was just there to doodle, calculate, write Latin or whatever. It is fun to do something different every now and then.

One of my goals has been to teach the children more household things such as cooking. J is supposed to cook dinner once a week. Right now I am still in the kitchen helping and directing but he is improving. He decided he wanted to make meatloaf. He was teaching Miss K. He did everything except chop onion. Chopping onions makes him cry. I told him to used the dried minced onions but we ran out. (Adding that to my Shady Maple list.) He did great. We had meatloaf and mashed potatoes with a salad.

I made it through the week. Some weeks that is an accomplishment.

Sunday we have an English Tea at our church for the international students. I need to make something to take. Pray that we are able to connect with the new international students that have come to study here.

Beth