The princess definately is the "artist" in the group.
The oldest...let his imagination run wild...I am glad to see the attempt as normally he does not like "artsy fartsy" activities. Whether it is maturing or just because he is in a group, I don't care...he is trying.
In Botany, they put together terrariums made from pop bottles...the Princess' is growning well. I think the boys drowned theirs and it did not help that the youngest took it on himself to shake it up to look for the seeds when his did not sprout...lesson learned!
They also did a study on leaves, culminating with these wreaths made from the leaves they had collected.
They are continuing their "Journey" of Around the World in 80 Days, and really enjoying it. They read about 4 chapters a week and the part they do not like is the worksheets they are assigned to review each session. The older two have paragraphs and sentences to write each week, whereas the youngest is not assigned these yet (altho I he has mentioned that he might like to try some of these)
Last Monday, the youngest had to pick an animal from India and had to write a report and do a picture of it. He choose peacocks (actually peafowl he has learned) because our neighbor has two peacocks and a peahen that often roam in our yard. The neighbor has given the kids a fist full of peacock feathers that had molted and the little man took some for each child in class...it was a huge hit!
As far as the home part. The kids seem less than anxious to get the work done, becoming a little bit of a battle to get them moving, but this will be temporary. I was doing Mystery of History for world history, but in order to make life easier for me, have opted to move to Story of the World and save MOH for their highschool years.
The oldest is the only one doing US history currently, he is going through a workbook and should be done with this by Christmas break. From their he will do small studies on the US presidents, learning a little more about each, once that is complete, he will be using a curriculum on www.raisingrefounders.com. I went over it and it is an awesome curriculum and free at that. It is true history, not the watered down and twisted history often taught today. (the younger two are currently doing world geography instead of US history and will roll into the history once these units are complete.)
I have been handling the kindergarten group at the coop. I put that I would like to help with this group but I was the only parent to "volunteer" for this, so it is just me. I am a little frustrated with it, as initially I was given a list of books to read with them and a science curriculum to use with them, however none of the 5 are ready for this, so I am having to backtrack all the planning I had done. Last week we covered dino's this week I think we will do senses. The problem is that with only 2 1/2 hours I really cant teach much that will be retained. It is not the idea of the coop that I teach them the ABC and 123, that's their moms job, so I really am trying to figure out how to keep them busy, productive and learning something.
On top of this, I was given a case of pie apples by a friend at church, I now have learned to can pie filling...I canned 12 quarts, however two did not seal. I was going to reprocess them, but the kids and my beloved ate them. My beloved has also learned that he likes the syrup used for the pie filling on toast.
The kids and I salvaged bunch of the seeds from the apples and will see if we can grow some apple trees. These apples came from a grove of trees near townsend and are old, so I pray that if we get them to grow, they will not be to far off of the apples we took the seeds from as they are beautifully tart for the pie filling.
We are back in the boat of praying about my beloved's job. He is due again to renew orders, again praying for a waiver to come through so that he may continue to work (this is old!!!) He is applying for a couple of jobs (full time/perm). With the changing of the guard mission, there should be new openings that he is more than qualified for.
HE has been going bow hunting this week, but he has had no luck (he is not an experienced bow hunter...waiting for rifle season now) He has seen, an owl, a porcupine waddling along and climbing a tree, deer that were to small to consider, and a variety of other creatures...I told him he needs to carry his camera, not his bow he may have better luck shooting something!)
All in all, a productive week.
