Our Week In Review

I think we’re starting to get back into a routine!  We’ve had lots of learning, lots of fun, and, unfortunately, lots of headaches.

Rosie Girl started a Short Story Workshop through WriteAtHome.  The first week, she had to do her least favorite part of story writing and develop characters.  I think she might write lots of fan fiction because the characters are already developed for her!  In any case, I was quite impressed by what she turned in.

Wild Man started IEW (Institute for Excellence in Writing) this week.  I started him on Level A (4th-5th grade) so it would be pretty easy for him.  He and I are both pretty happy with it.  I said it was a “Home Run”, but Wild Man clarified that it was a “Stand-up Triple”.  Anyway, he likes it.  He started this week with reading a paragraph and then writing the three key words for each sentence.  Then, he rewrites the paragraph in his won words from his key words.  He learned one “dress-up” this week, which is to combine sentences using “which” – in other words, making a “which” clause.  For the first few weeks, Wild Man will write or type one assignment per week and dictate the other assignment to me.

Rosie Girl had finals at public school.  For Art, they just watched a DVD about Van Gogh.  In Choir, she had to answer an essay question about Mozart.  She figures that she wrote about twice as much as her friends did!  She has been in two plays about Mozart, watched at least one documentary about Mozart, watched Amadeus, learned about Mozart in Choir, and is learning about Mozart in piano since she’s playing a Mozart sonata.  Clearly, she was fortunate in the choice of topic for that question!  She feels like she did pretty well on the rest of the test as well.

Wild Man is a little behind in History mostly because I haven’t kept up with reading to him.  I’m trying to read to him regularly and get him caught up because we are supposed to be studying the Civil War.  We are reading Across Five Aprils as a family and the kids and I are listening to Dragon’s Gate, which is a literature assignment for Rosie Girl but I thought would also be beneficial for Wild Man.

On Wednesday, both kids and I went to the Senior Nutrition Center.  It was the birthday party for the month, so we helped pack Meals on Wheels, but also helped serve 50 meals to clients at the center.  After lunch was Bingo and both kids got to play.

I had a headache that started Wednesday night, but became a migraine Thursday morning.  I was supposed to have lunch with a friend, but wasn’t up to going out, so she came to the house.  Mr. Math Tutor was a sweetheart and made us sandwiches and my friend brought some soup.

Rosie Girl sang with Show Choir on Thursday night in the high school’s Pops Concert.  By that evening, I was feeling really awful and was planning to stay home while Mr. Math Tutor recorded the concert.  About an hour before the concert, I took a cocktail of medications and strong coffee so that I felt well enough to actually go – and I’m so glad I did!!

The concert was excellent.  The Choir sang several songs in their black skirts and white tops with cumberbunds then changed into their “Bohemian” costumes to do a medley of songs from Rent.  Rosie Girl had a great time.  She isn’t going to be doing Show Choir for spring semester so she can focus on her piano music and the piano festival, so we’re glad that the concert was such a good experience.

 

Rosie Girl was up very late Thursday night because she had so much adrenaline going.  But, Friday was a teacher’s workday, so she was allowed to sleep in.  Friday night, she went with some friends from school to an all-night skating event, although, she only stayed until about 12:30am.  She’s pretty excited that she’s starting to feel part of a group of friends at school.

Next week looks to be less exciting, but I could stand for a little bit of boring routine right now!!  Check out Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers to see how others have done this week!