Weekly Wrap: Stick fort and sunshine

The Homeschool Highlight of the week? Definitely the sunshine and the stick fort! We’ve enjoyed glorious spring-like weather. Sunny, clear skies and lots of outdoor time. That called for a stick fort, outdoor picnics for lunch and reading a book – all sprawled out on a beach towel.

Here’s a few highlights from the rest of our week:

Nature/Science: A woolly caterpillar find when hunting for Winter Weeds and Seeds. We also found out that even though our surroundings look brown and drab in winter, if you take the time to look closely, you will find beauty in this season too.

Winter Night Sky – a fun time outdoors – pj-clad – watching for the ISS fly over and in awe of the full moon.

Art: A big thanks to Terry Holliday for hosting the February Art Show! The Art for Homeschool Show results are in. Littlest girl was awarded second place for her chalk pastel, Tree Reflections!

Math: Still successes with Teaching Textbooks and the Key to Series. Supplementing our regular work with Key to Decimals and Key to Fractions has boosted confidence. Third grader is working her way through the online sample Teaching Textbook lessons (in addition to her regular Saxon Math 3rd grade). We’ll definitely be letting her join the ranks of Teaching Textbooks students for fourth grade.

Plus, next Wednesday I get to learn straight from Cindy West and her Heart of the Matter Conference session on Living Math.

English/Grammar: Middle girl asked if she could move up to level 3 Rod and Staff Grammar. Why hadn’t I thought of that? Seventh grader recently moved ahead to the 8th grade level. We love R&S! Sixth grader says he loves everything about Rod and Staff.

Tapestry of Grace/History: Middle girl is still loving Pippi Longstocking. We plan to find a tv version to watch via Netflix over the weekend.

Definitely some harder topics for the middle school crowd. Studying the 20th century, we’ve been through the two world wars, the dust bowl, stock market crash and the Great Depression. But, with the Biblical worldview Tapestry weaves, we can always see God’s hand in history. As Tapestry author, Marcia Somerville writes, “History is His Story.” Sixth grader read The Children of the Depression this week. Seventh grader is still enjoying Mary Poppins. Both older children are following along in The Idiot’s Guide to the 20th Century (our spine history text for these four units of Tapestry, Year Four). We’ve also thought about and discussed our unit celebration projects. They especially love this part of our Tapestry studies – making and creating display boards of what they have learned or focusing on their favorite topics.

As a side history note: We’ve been following along the PBS series, The American Experience. We’ve watched the four hour special on Ronald Reagan. Last night we watched the Kennedys. Eldest girl has stayed up with us and learned quite a bit! This compliments our Tapestry studies so well.

Allergy Friendly Living: Continuing my series here on Hodgepodge for those that might be interested.

Valentine’s Day: We love our homeschool group! A party on Monday included crafts, Valentine exchange, games, fun and fellowship. And, on the subject of love, I shared mine and Hodgepodgedad’s love story on Habits for a Happy Home. Click Window Love Letters. Hodgepodgedad also shared The Habit of Moral Living.

Sickness: In the background I have been making sure all were well hydrated. Wiping surfaces and disinfecting because we had one confirmed strep. I even went and had my throat swabbed because I’ve felt run down for a couple weeks. Thankfully negative! And so far, so good on the rest of the Hodgepodge.

Celebrations: this weekend we celebrate Hodgepodgedad’s birthday and his parents’ 48th anniversary!

Heart of the Matter Online conference: There’s still time to join in the fun! Are you attending?

That about does it for this week’s Hodgepodge Homeschool Highlights.

How about you? Raise your hand if you are ready for spring!