Weekly Wrap-Up

Weekly Wrap-Up for May 26-30

[Incidentally, last night I attended an informal information session, hosted in the home of a fellow homeschooling mom, about the concept/philosophy of Thomas Jefferson Education. There was a lively discussion, led by a woman from Dallas who's really into TJEd, and what it sounds like is that this is sort of a hybrid, believe it or not, of classical homeschooling and unschooling. Which intrigues me greatly, since that seems to be the style we're falling into, as the best fit for my eldest. I also feel like a schizophrenic homeschooler (see this excellent post) since we don't totally align ourselves with one particular style, category, or curriculum, but tend to borrow from all over the spectrum, which is why maybe the best already-coined term I've heard recently is "relaxed homeschooling" ...? I was laughing with Courtney, the really cool gal who hosted the thing last night, about how I attend a Charlotte Mason monthly support group, the Austin Area Homeschoolers monthly support group, which tends to lean toward unschooling, and occasionally the Well-Trained Mind parkday. Call me a chameleon, I guess! Either way, we're not dogmatic about anything except reading good/great books together.]

Books mentioned are in the widget at right.

History/Literature: Read "Horatius at the Bridge," "Julius Caesar," "The Sword of Damocles," "Damon and Pythias," and "A Laconic Answer," from Fifty Famous Stories Retold. Read "Jack the Giant-Killer" from The Blue Fairy Book [me, partway in: "sorry, guys, uh, this is a little gorier than I expected." Ian: "yeah, it's GREAT!" sigh.] Got about halfway through A Llama in the Family, by Joanna Hurwitz. At night, we're continuing with Shakespeare Stealer.

Math: Measured and compared the two vehicles in our driveway. Played "Number Race," a Ravensburger game. Ian made macaroons, mostly unassisted, and we talked about how to get the right measurements (e.g. half of a 1/4 tsp makes 1/8 tsp.) Ian did a logic puzzle from edhelper.com.

Science: Read an article together from the June issue of Ranger Rick (Ian read more independently). Did an impromptu experiment showing how fire needs oxygen to burn when the electricity went out during breakfast and we ate by candlelight (I put a big glass vase upside down over the candle and we watched the flame disappear); discussed a bit. Watched an IMAX show from Netflix on dolphins. [Edited to add: I just remembered that we also read this book that the kids found surprisingly clever and funny: I Can Name 50 Trees!]

Writing: Did Mad Libs together. Ian wrote a letter to Alex Barton (see below), and typed up his birthday list on the computer.

Reading: Eliza read a Bob book to me, and did some phonics work on starfall.com. It's hard for me to keep track of exactly what Ian reads; I know there was plenty of Asterix, plenty of Calvin and Hobbes, some Prince and the Pauper, and some of whatever was strewn around.

Art/Music: The kids both made cards for Alex, the child who was in the news recently because his kindergarten teacher, unthinkably, had all the kids in his class say what they didn't like about him and then vote him out of the class. Barbara Curtis, an author, mom of 12, and blogger whom I read regularly, started the card project, and we were eager to participate. Ian also did his usual drawings, even a full-color one this week, which is rare. Eliza made a necklace from some beads I bought her during our last foray to Nomadic Notions. Both girls made some art projects with my sister while I was at work. Music was classical in the car and spontaneous singing. :-)