Friday, November 4, 2011

Weekly Wrap-Up: Another 2-for-1 Week

Last week  just got away from me and I never got around to blogging.  I hate weeks like that.  So this week I’ll try to remember what we did last week too.  Maybe.  My memory isn’t what it used to be. Or even close.
The biggest excitement was that my hubby came back from Germany last week.  Woot!  Part of my busy-ness was getting the house ready.
Social Studies
We’ve been studying Australia for the last few weeks.  We liked it so much that we extended it a week.  We went to Australia in 2006 so we have quite a few resources.  Plus, some stuff from our winter promise debacle. 
For her Choose Your Own Adventure, in Sonlight’s Eastern Hemisphere Explorer, Mackenzie decided to try her hand at Aboriginal style painting.
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She wrote a mini-report about echidna’s, which I was going to share, but I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet.  So I’ll leave you with a picture I took in Australia.  I think that they’re cute, little egg-laying mammals.
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And while I’m at it, here’s a koala, kanga, and a shot from an Aboriginal village.  Look at how little Mackenzie was.  She grew to fast.
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As our grand finale, she made lamingtons.  They are traditional Aussie cakes drizzled in chocolate and coconut.  They were pretty tasty but I think the frosting recipe needed to be tripled.  I like full coverage. lol
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Next week, we’re on to New Zealand.  I have an uncle who lives there so I’m excited.  I wish I could’ve gone.
Language Arts
We’ve switched up our spelling.  We were doing it online through Big IQ kids.  However, since it was computer based and took a little longer, it was one of the first things that got pushed aside when life got hectic.  So I just bought Spelling Workout and, while not that exciting, it’s been working fine and we can take it on the road which is handy.
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Advanced Language Lessons and Writing With Skill continue to be wonderful.  WWS has got her writing narratives now and, while she hates the writing, how love how it teaches the subject matter.  Love, love, love!
For “fun”, we pulled out Winter Promise’s Children of Many Lands and read the Australia sections for editing practice.  It did not disappoint,  she found errors on every page. 
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Math
…is going.  Since we’re currently reviewing a new math product, that’s all I’m going to say.
Science
We finished up the digestive system this week.  We were supposed to finish it last week but we never actually got around to science.
She made a little digestion comic strip.
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We did a little experiment on the importance of bile.  Our dish soap “bile” broke up our cooking oil “fat.”  The way God designed our bodies is just amazing!
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Other Stuff
We are continuing to laugh our way through Visual Latin.  The last two weeks we’ve covered numbers 1-10 and present tense verbs.  We’re really starting to be able to understand the spoken language despite the fact that we don’t have to spend time memorizing vocab.  It’s so cool!
We studied Mozart and Beethoven for our composer study.  What’s not to love about them?  While my hubby was in Germany, he took a side trip to Austria and saw where Mozart grew up.  He got some pictures for us but I haven’t had a chance to look at them.  I think they’ll get a special blog post.
Mackenzie got her first ever report card.  From her art class.  lol  She got an S+ because nobody’s allowed to get an O during the first quarter.  I’ll take her teacher’s word for it because I haven’t seen any of their work yet.  The teacher is keeping it hidden.  Boo!!!
Piano is still her passion.  She loves, loves, loves it and is really excelling with her private lessons.  It’s just amazing how much progress she’s making.   Next week I’m supposed to go to class with her because her and her (super, wonderful, amazing) teacher have a surprise for me.  I can’t wait!!!
Soccer ends tomorrow.  I’m actually glad because most of her games have been at 8:30.  A.M.  Ugh!!!  She missed a couple of weeks because she sprained her foot but she’s ready for the last game.
One would think that we’d have some free time with soccer ending.  Not so much.  She got a part in our churches Christmas play.  She was really worried that she wouldn’t get a part but I had no doubts.  It’s drama 24/7 with her.  E-X-H-A-U-S-T-I-N-G!!!   I hope the play will channel some of the drama.  lol
And here’s your parting shot of my ‘lil Jessie cowgirl and my beautiful Renaissance princess.
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Pop over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see what others have been doing. 


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5 comments:

MissMOE said...

Your study of Australia looks really enjoyable. Keep us updated on how your new spelling is working out--we're currently on the hunt for a new spelling program.

Unknown said...

Kayleigh is looking more and more like Kenzie, huh? That picture from Australia could be Kayleigh in a few years!

So glad that WP didn't disappoint you! LOL ;)

Looks like a GREAT couple of weeks! Those coconut-chocolate Aussie cakes look yummy, but I'm with you on the full frosting coverage! LOL The cake-frosting ratio has to be a certain %!

Unknown said...

PS Oops! Sorry about the nicknames on our blog! I had to change them again because a family member did not like the previous one. Wonder if TREE NAMES will work? Hmmm....Oh, and did you see? Sugar Maple cut off her hair! She's got a "stack" now! LOL (I haven't gotten around to changing her sidebar photo though. (I guess that means I need to take a portrait...)

Jennifer said...

It is so fun teaching when the kids are enjoying learning. It is nice to have the flexibility to extend the topic for a week when it works.

Mary said...

I loved Core 5 - Australia and China were our favorites. It looks like you had lots of fun!

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