Wrap Up~ Third Week of October

After Poetry and Math, we started with a story from the Character First curriculum. I bought this at a homeschooling convention years ago and we enjoyed the stories then, but M-9 wasn't old enough to remember. It's fun rediscovering our old treasures.

Five in a Row~ Truman's Aunt Farm was a fun, silly book which is just what we needed for a stressful week! Social Studies: Family Relationships, Language Arts: Homonyms and Homophones, Art Appreciation: Stylized techniques for faces, and Humor in Illustrations, Math: Tally/hash marks and Groupings, Science: Ants/Insects. We didn't have any in depth discussions on any of these topics which was just fine. It was a quick, relaxed study on a wide range of topics. We did go on a bunny trail while talking about homonyms that led us to some books that look really cool. I want to pick some up!

After L-15's fainting spell on Monday, the week really went south for me. I was just plain stressed out about my kid's health and didn't feel well myself. I went into low gear and made it through the week. There were piano and violin lessons, church activities and the Primary Program to practice for, L-15 had friends over to make cookies for a bake sale they had and my driveway was the location for painting set pieces for our upcoming fall musical. In between, I cocooned myself in my room and watched my favorite show (Parenthood) on line. Should I be embarrassed to admit that? Blogs are funny because they always show the best moments of the week, but some weeks are really, really boring or just plain bad.

M-9 spent a lot of time playing with her dollhouses~

and the boys spent lots of time reading and building with Lego.

When we have days or even weeks like this, I could get worried that everyone is "falling behind" but my kids work at their own pace and there is no "behind". On an episode of Parenthood the parents of Max were concerned that he wasn't being challenged academically. I'm so glad I don't have to worry about that because the kids challenge themselves. If I'm not structuring their time, or rather the content of their time, they have more opportunity to be creative and follow their own interests and to rise to the occasion in the things they are responsible for.

(As usual, the only person I am addressing in this post is myself. It helps when I remind myself of these simple truths.)

Next week's Wrap Up promises to be even more boring since it is already Thursday as I am writing and we have had a house full of coughs, fevers, sore throats and stuffed noses!