Weekly Wrap Up

We had a wonderful, crazy, busy week!

On Sunday, we went to my Uncle's house in the city for an awesome dinner!  We began our "Drawn into the Heart of Reading" curriculum this week with biographies.  To prepare and "Kick off" as the say in DITHOR, the girls interviewed my aunt and uncle!  And we filmed it with our videocam!

This is something that my mom has talked about doing since we were kids, but no one ever did.  Since I put all of our VHS on DVD, I am determined to do this stuff and get it on video!  Family stories, childhood stories, funny stories, what life was like 60, 70 years ago ...in our family!  Priceless stuff...I am so, so glad that I got it all on video!

On Monday, the girls have co-op...and when you show up anywhere with a camera...they put you in charge of the memory book!  But I am really excited about being part of creating the Memory Book for co-op!  I love my camera and I usually have it with me no matter where I am...and now I have a great excuse to take TONS of pictures at co-op!!  

When we got in the car after co-op, both girls were exuberant.  "Co-op is the most fun thing ever!"  "Co-op is like school, but FUN!"  "Can I have ------ over!"  "Can I invite ------- and -------- and -------- to my birthday party!?!!"  I am so happy to see my girls making new friends, learning new things (Latin, drama, recorder) in a relaxed, happy environment.

Our co-op is about five minutes from my grandma's house...so after co-op, the girls and I went over to hang out with my lovely grandma...and as planned, they interviewed her, so we got even more priceless stuff on tape (or DVD, rather)!

Tuesday was sort of a little bit rough.  We don't do our homeschooling lessons on Monday because we have co-op, so our homeschooling week begins on Tuesday.  Last week, I had gone over something and then sat on the couch, blogging or reading blogs or researching stuff while they did their work...but on Tuesday, I was determined to catch up on laundry and housework, so while they did their lessons, I dashed off to vacuum or collect laundry or dust or whatever and A didn't like that.  She refused to work if I wasn't there.  She said that she hated co-op, she hated homeschool, and she missed her friends.  I pointed out how she got in the car after co-op and told me how much she loved it; how Jason and I have asked the girls many times how they feel about this and they are always positive and how she had played with her public school friends on Saturday and had more plans for this Friday and Saturday with them and she could invite them over anytime.  She said more hurtful things.  I left her alone for a little while.  This is what I have learned to do with her.  Eventually she came to me, crying and apologetic and told me that she didn't mean what she had said.  We talked about what her feelings really were-that I should sit there while they worked- and I explained my position-I have a lot of things to do.  I don't often play the mom card, but I did that day and I find myself doing it more and more.

Wednesday was a MUCH better day :)  Actually, Wednesday was a Terrific day!  While the girls did school, I got the winter clothes out, had the girls try things on during a break and got an idea of what each of them needed.  We finished lessons around 1pm and went shopping!!  We caught a lot of great deals and got some things that we all loved - Mommy included ;-)

The thing on my head is a tea cozy that my Uncle brought back from Italy and gave to me on Sunday, but it was a funny photo and broke up the post a little ;-)

Thursday I started my Storytime program at the library, which went really well and was a lot of fun!  We got some really great, happy, exciting news!!

Thursday evening Jason and I celebrated the seventeenth anniversary of our first date...because we are dorks...no, because we like to celebrate!!  We drank Chimay Grande Reserve and reminisced and appreciated our life together.

The girls have spelling and vocab quizzes today.  We've worked through three chapters of "Life of Fred" and they love it, but I find there is not enough actual exercises, so today they are doing some worksheets that I printed on-line (maybe there is just that much 'school' left in me, but I want to make sure they can do word problems!).  They have a fun writing exercise to do and a character web to create on Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I also have an art lesson planned.  I've ordered "Story of the World" both the text and the activity book and am looking into timeline options...we have plans to begin that soon...

This weekend, Jason is taking a class and I am working on Saturday during the day.  We have plans with friends on Saturday night and Sunday we are thinking of either staying home and resting or heading into the city for some fun...we'll see how we feel on Sunday!