Weekly Wrap-Up: Lots of Christmas Entertainment

Busy, busy time.  We've been continuing on with our Christmas Around the World study.  WP added in another book this week and that upped the content somewhat.  Now we actually feel like we're learning something.  Woot!

One of the first things that we did was actually make the fabric ball ornament from our Russia study last week.  I thought it came out cute.  We also studying Spain, France, Germany, and Sweden this week.  Some of the craft ideas seemed silly to her so she opted not to make them.  It's very interesting to learn about the various traditions in other countries.  A lot of them have been very similar to what we enjoy here but with different little twists.  And it was neat to learn about what countries many of our traditions originated.

For a hands-on activity, Mackenzie decided to make a traditional French Christmas cookie called "colombe."  It means dove.  They are cute little dove shaped cookies.  She made them entirely on her own, from scratch.  Well not entirely.  Her little sister placed the chocolate chip eyes on the birds.

While she didn't choose to do a lot of the crafts from the around the world study, she did several from her little sister's advent activities.  (Truth in the Tinsel) I think that she liked the simplicity of them.  She claims to like crafts but I sense she doesn't really like things that have a lot of steps or "pieces."  Kind of like how her mother feels about cooking.  lol

There were outside activities aplenty this week.  We hit the Scholastic Book Fair with our buddies.  She is a bonafide bookworm so that is always a huge hit with her.  She would've liked to have bought everything she saw but I had to cap her at 5.  She suckered me into 6.    Then we went and had lunch afterwards.  Shopping for books makes everyone hungry.

Our church also had their Christmas play last weekend.  Mackenzie, drama queen that she is, had a part. They performed the Christmas County Spelling Bee and Mackenzie played "Katie Collins-head cheerleader."  Her is a sampling of her skills.  All the kids did a fabulous job.  It was one of the best shows that they've ever done.  So good that our pastor asked them to perform a few numbers for the Christmas eve service.

We also got to go watch her best buddy perform in her school's holiday show.  Mackenzie was a little nervous to go because her friend, formerly homeschooled, now attends public school due to behavior issues.  Mackenzie's attitude hasn't been all that stellar lately and I think she was worried that I might be tempted to leave her there.  LOL  It did cross my mind briefly.  

Not enjoying a glimpse of a possible future. LOL

Awesome performances

Best friends!  And Kayleigh. lol

And if all of that weren't enough Christmas entertainment, Mackenzie had her informal Christmas piano recital this week too.  Shew!!!

And really, there's still more.  Tomorrow we're going to see a local theater group perform The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.   We are ready.  We read the book and watched the movie.  Ha!  Hotlips Houlihan was in it.  Woot!!  Can't wait.

Weekly Wrap-Up: The One With A Video

 Ahhh, a blessed week without a lot of happenings.  We were able to hit the books full force.  I was happy about that even if Mackenzie wasn't.

This week we were studying New Zealand.  I was this close to going there while we were in Guam but we never made it. Bummer!  My uncle lives there though so we get to see some beautiful pictures.

White Island off the coast of NZ.  How lucky is my uncle? He took took it from a helicopter.

For Mackenzie's Choose Your Own Adventure she is supposed to be making a dessert called Pavlova, named after the Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova.  There is some dispute as to whether is was created by the Aussies or the Kiwi's but most formal research gives it to New Zealand.

Unfortunately she hasn't made it yet because it isn't the best season for fresh fruit so we're waiting for our kiwi to ripen so she can make it..

She finished her reader, Red Sands, Blue Sky, a week early so I told her to grab one of the books from winter promise core off the shelf and read that.  She choose Real Kids, Real Change and it was pretty good. (Naturally it was NOT written by WP. lol)   It is about 30 children who faced some extraordinary obstacles and accomplished amazing things.  Mackenzie highly recommends it.  

For our read aloud we started The Puppet Master.  Mackenzie freaked out a bit because "we're not studying Japan right now."  A winter promise flashback it seems. LOL  I told her that we're starting our study on Japan next week.  It's not like WP, who schedules books about Africa while studying Switzerland and then, 20 weeks later, schedules books about Switzerland while studying Africa.  Overlap is fine with me.  Utter nonsense, not so much.  

We finished out last week of Math Mammoth.  You can read my review HERE.  Mackenzie is very glad to be going back to Math-U-See.  I might get 3 minutes with no math complaints next week. Woo-hoo!!!

In science, we finished out study on the digestive system.  We are plugging in language arts as well.  Writing is definitely not her favorite subject but Writing With Skill is helping her improve despite her lack of love for the subject.   Spelling Workout is also working out well for us.  It's nice and simple and gets the job done.

I finally got to see the art project she's been working on since September.  Her instructor hung them up for all of us to admire.  There she is with her coat-of-arms.  I loved what she chose to represent her: ice cream, music notes, artist's paints, cross, peace signs and field hockey sticks.  Last time I asked her about playing field hockey she said no thanks. lol

It was a great day at Young Musicians of Virginia that day.  Not only did I get to see her art, I got to come to her piano class for a little show.  Her she is playing Let's Sing Praise with her teacher.  She LOVES when she gets to play duets.

We ended the week with lunch with our favorite veteran, my honey, and our friends.  Then we let daddy go home and nap while we went to the local children's museum.  Note to self: Never again go to a museum when the public schools are out.  Never again!  What were we thinking? lol

And that was our week. Pop over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see more homeschool happenings.

Also, if you're interested in trying your hand at digital scrapbooking, check out my giveaway.  A complete edition of My Memories Photo Suite.

Weeklly Wrap-Up

I've been MIA from the wrap-up for a couple of weeks.  We've been MIA from our normal lives. LOL

Last weekend we went to NYC and this weekend we're at my dads.  Between the two trips we've done about 2 days of school.  So this week I decided that I'd show the highlights of our trip to NYC.  It was the first time for all of us and we had a great time.

Our first stop was The American Museum of Natural History.  Naturally, Mackenzie was trying to find the things that were in the movie.  That was a little tough because the museum is HUGE and there was massive amounts of unruly school groups.

Then we traipsed through Centeral Park in a quest to find The Plaza and FAO Schwarz.  Central Park was my favorite place in the city.  I now want to live by.  It's the awesomest backyard ever with none of the maintenance. LOL  It was exciting to see things that we've seen in movies or read about in books.  We imagined all of Peter Hatchers favorite spots from Tales of a 4th Grade nothing.

I have tons more pictures but I'm at my dad's and his internet service is s-l-o-w, so I'm giving up.  If you look back at some of my recent posts you can see some of the highlights in scrapbook form.  We visited Rockefeller Center, Times Square, the giant Toys R Us, American Girl, M&M world, Ground Zero, the Statue of Liberty, and the Empire State Building.

Mackenzie had her last piano lesson of 2010 yesterday and they did a little mini-recital.  Here she is playing We wish you a Merry Christmas.  Her teacher just raves about her and would like to see her in private lessons so she can work ahead even more.

Be sure to pop over to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see how everyone else is faring.