Weekly Wrap-up: Pretend

Baby C dressed as a chef

Except for the announcement of his birth, Baby C just doesn't make it in the blog that often.  So I figured on his 8 monthiversary I would start with him.  He and Little M had a great week of playing pretend.  Here he is dressed up as a chef.  He also dressed up as a princess, a dragon, a wolf, and Mom this week.  He had a little help from his big sister and brother but he thought each costume was just hilarious.  He is beginning to be quite the comedian and, much to their delight, is starting to interact with Ms. Q and Little M.  I am so happy to be able to spend this time with my children and I am glad that they are able to spend this time with each other and build, what I hope will be, very close relationships with each other.

LittleM dressed as a knight

For school this week we finished up a lesson about ancient China and tried our hand at some Chinese style painting and calligraphy.  I think Ms. Q did an awesome job on her art work!  We started some readings about the Greek Wars (you know the Peloponesian War right?) and found a cool craft at Lesson Pathways to make Greek style shields.  Little M and Ms. Q really had a blast making them and I barely got a picture taken of their work before they starting using them.  Sometimes I'm not sure if Ms. Q is listening to my lesson and I get angry when I ask her questions and she says she can't answer them.  What I keep in mind is a stuffed horse named Juliet, a car named Albert Einstein, King Narmer's throne, Ashurbanipal's library, and a message from Marathon.  All of which I have witnessed being acted out in our play room this week.

Ms. Q's Chinese style painting and calligraphy

Greek shields

Weekly Wrap-up: Yoga Time

So far so good I guess with that New Year's resolution thing.  I mean it IS Thursday and I am writing a post.  So I'm going to toot my own horn for a second.  Bear in mind of course that the future of this is uncertain.

Anyway, we had a pretty fun week.  We started out the week celebrating the Eastern Orthodox Christmas at Babcia's house.   For school, we talked a little about Ancient India and Ancient China.  Now that we are following a chronological study plan for history we only get a little snippet, unlike when we would do a whole unit.  But we did learn about Confucius and the Buddha as well as the caste system.  Both the kids enjoyed learning some animal yoga poses (see picture above) and we have had plenty of snow this week.  Each day  the kids have spent some time outside playing in the snow.  Which I think is wonderful but I also wonder about.  Why do they complain about going out to play when there is no snow and it's only slightly cold but when it is utterly freezing outside with snow they plead to go out?  I won't complain though.

We finished our week with a play date with some new homeschooling friends we met recently.  The kids enjoyed a fun craft and an afternoon playing.  I would call this week a great success.

New Year, New Resolutions

I usually stay away from New Year's resolutions but I think that this year calls for one.  I have been struggling with writing new posts for this blog and I would like to make a change.  I have had some difficulty deciding when to write since we are longer doing unit studies and lapbooks.  It was so easy to create a post when we had finished the unit and add some pictures of the lapbooks. 

So here is my resolution: I will commit to writing a new blog post each week on Thursday evenings. 

There, that feels better.  I am also going to change my idea of what I want the blog to be about.  I started writing to chronicle our homeschool but what I've realized in the last year and a half since we started homeschooling is that there is not always a line between our lives and our homeschool.  Therefore, I am going to chronicle not only our homeschooling but are lives.  This blog will be more than a homeschooling blog it will be a family blog.  Hopefully something my children will enjoy reading and something that will help our extended family feel more connected.  Hopefully this will be a resolution I keep.