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This week at Home, October 19 - October 24, 2009

The Home crew had a busy homeschool week, here is a look at some of the things we did, in and out of homeschool...because of course, the learning never stops:

Early in the week we had our Classical Conversations classes, this week we dissected a crayfish. I teach the 4th/5th grade class, which has 6 boys and 1 girl. It was about what you would imagine...I tried to stay with the physical parts on the outside of the crayfish, but at some point the boys tore into it, looking for the heart and brain and finding instead, the spine. The lone girl in the class fled when body parts began flying. !!!

We also started playing the Irish Tin Whistle for music theory. I had a difficult time playing the D scale on that durn thing..but for some reason I was able to play "Mary had a little lamb" Well- Go figure. **This lesson series on youtube helped me out , saved my bacon, really!

We had the monthly learning record meeting with out charter school teacher. We went through all our work for the past month. It went well, as always, but it always stresses me out a little the night before..

Josie and Meg continued with their readings for Sonlight Core 6 for history and literature. Meg is going through it at a double pace, Josie at normal speed. The 3 littles began reading
A Child's History of the World for Sonlight Core 2. We read about Monks in Monasteries.
I gave up reading Red Sails to Capri...the kids had little comprehension retention, why beat a dead horse...but I think I will finish it myself, I'm hooked into the story now!

Amie and Demi started new math books, they all wrote essays for a writing assessment, and Meg had a high school Science class and photography/year book class. Meg had a violin lesson. Josie, Amie and Demi all had piano lessons.

Josie, Demi and Amie had an art lesson, Meg and I went to a bagel shop and had our history discussion and worked on Science homework. This is the day that Teddy does not come to our house, his mom is home this day and works with him at their house. Later, we took Emma to the vet to have her stitches removed.

We completed the bulk of our schooling one morning and then headed out to the skateboard park for p.e.

That same evening, Demi had a hockey game and Josie had her very first fencing lesson. Josie is my Eeyore child. If you have an Eeyore child, you will know what I mean...it was very exciting to watch her immerse herself wholly into this class. She loved it.

Friday we took advantage of returning hot weather to head to the beach, thinking this might be the last nice beach day of the year. The kids body-surfed and rode boogie boards..again, I count that as P.E.!

Meg had another riding lesson. We've ended our relationship at one stable where she was working for lessons- it began to be a negative experience...I was kind of hoping her enthusiasm would wane...but she called around and found herself a new teacher and a new stable. I like her initiative! So, the horse craziness continues. We informed her that this year we could not continue to pay for any riding lessons...so she has come up with some interesting ways to earn money, -dog walking being a more traditional way, playing on the corner at the local antique district is the other, more non-traditional way she came up with. This weekend, the owner of a restaurant invited her to play for his patio customers. She would do this several days a week, if we would let her...but my parental caution holds me back, we let her do it every few weeks for a few hours.

We came home from her surprise invitation to play at the restaurant...and Amie and friends were inspired to set up shop on our street and play the tin whistle and clarinet for money. They hope to take it on the road soon...

It's been a busy/productive week, thanks for visiting!

Labels: homeschool, school year 09