Weekly Wrap Up: Back to Reality

Last week we didn't do any "formal" school work, but we sure learned a lot while on our trip in FL. To mention a few, we learned about mollusks, seashells, and other sea creatures, low and high tides, birds, alligators, crocodiles, bear safety, and the cycle of the mangrove tree. Needless to say our trip to FL was fun and educational, and the kids didn't even notice! They were also great sports and hopped right back into our school routine on Monday morning very well! (Thank you, Lord!) I shared more info and pics over at our family blog.

Our week was pretty "light" due to my daughter's birthday and Veteran's Day this week, and that did help us ease back into the swing of things around here after an entire week off. Some fun things we did this week included going out to shop for our Operation Christmas Child Shoe Boxes, raking the leaves that invaded us while we were away, and K had piano lessons. K was so happy to get back to her lessons, because she missed two while we were on vacation!

We wrapped up our Seashell Unit Study Lapbook. It has been a blast washing all the shells we brought back with us. We have some craft ideas for some of the shells, but the children are really excited about simply having a collection of shells, so we won't use all of them in our crazy craftiness. I will post pics of our lapbook/notebook very soon.

We are still reading "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare as our read aloud book, and we're all enjoying it. The topic of Puritans and Quakers in the book is lining up nicely with our history lessons in "The Landmark History of the American People From Plymouth to the Moon" by Daniel J. Boorstin. (I love it when this all matches up so beautifully)! T and K finished their independent reading book, "The Courage of Sarah Noble" this week, so that means a book report for next week. I haven't decided what type of book report to do. Do you have any recommendations? So far we've done a book jacket report, comic strip report, basic report, and a postcard report.

To help keep the children's weekly school work and projects in order, I have started using what I call the "Weekly Work Folder." On the left side I put in all the assignments they need to do on the left side, and when they're complete, I transfer them over to the right side. Once the week is complete, I take the folder downstairs (where all our school books and files are stored) and I file each child's work in the appropriate subject folder. This makes putting together the end of the year portfolio much easier because I can go to my son or daughter's math folder and pull out a sample from the beginning, middle, and end of the year to add to the portfolio. Eventually, when the children become more independent, they will each have their own "Weekly Work Folder."

I'm linking up with other weekly wrap up posts over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Click over to read more posts like this (and some not) to connect with other home educating families and get encouragement and maybe some inspiration too!