Weekly Wrap Up ~ #4

No school for us on Monday! Dad had the day off and we enjoyed getting to spend extra time with him.

Our new thing for this school year is to "Start with Art" on Tuesdays. K (7-year-old daughter) is loving this because last year I pushed it to the end of the day which meant we sometimes ran out of time and I would just skip art lessons. I really enjoy the Artistic Pursuits book we're working through and it is something all three of the children can do together. This week the children chose a stuffed animal or plastic animal figure to sketch.

The children ask (beg) for computer time every single day. I would love for any of you to share your favorite free, educational websites in the comment section of this post. I recently lost all my bookmarks due to a computer problem we had, and I need to find some new sites!

This is the third week we've shared about our little nature study. On Thursday our first butterfly was born or hatched. What is the proper term for this? We are hoping the other three soon follow! This is a black swallowtail butterfly. The butterfly habitat we have is very small, so we will be releasing them very soon, and also because an adult butterflies lifespan is very short! This butterfly is absolutely beautiful!

We also did a little bit of gardening this week. We took a field trip to a local green house and saw hundreds, maybe thousands of beautiful mums! We planted some mums, ornamental purple cabbage, and pansies in our planters along our walkway! We hope to be tilling up a garden plot in the next few weeks to prepare it for spring 2011 planting! I seriously have a hard time following any sort of science curriculum because we do so many nature studies. This winter we'll be more consistent with our Considering God's Creation lessons.

This weekend our church is participating in a missions project. We will be providing a meal for a local organization that helps homeless and hurting individuals and families. We baked some cakes to help out! On Friday evening we will go help make sack lunches, and sort through mittens and hats to pass out. On Saturday, Dad and one or two of the children will go with him to help serve the food.

We finished reading Pedro's Journal this week, and the children are almost done with Pocahontas and the Strangers. We are really enjoying reading through and praying for many different Native American tribes! Social Studies comes alive through literature. We are doing a lot of reading, oral, and written narration.

How about you? How was your week? I know for many home educating families this was week #1 of school. We have completed four weeks now, and the routine and habits have gotten easier, and I am thankful!

To read more weekly wrap-ups, head over to Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!