Week

The girls had been saving for a while and last Friday they were finally able to buy a new Mario game for the Wii...so we had a little family Wii & Pizza party:

Last Saturday, October 23, we had a little homecoming party for my parents' return from their summer home:

On Sunday, the leaves were starting to peak, so we went on a leaf walk through our neighborhood:

We saw these people who must have gotten lost on their leaf walk:

Then, I spent some time finding some wonderful new homeschooling websites: Harmonic Mama, Secular Homeschooling,  Just Enough and Nothing More.  Then, I went out to finish shopping for A's birthday and also managed to get some Christmas shopping done!

Monday we had co-op.  We all love co-op!  We all feel really comfortable at co-op and we are all making friends.  The girls are off in their own element when we are there, playing and giggling with the other kids. I am finding women who love to cook and try new recipes and are adventurous eaters, this week we were discussing our apple picking plans for next week and what we can do with the apples...apple curry soup, banana apple peanut butter bread...these women cook like I do!  I love the idea of unexpected ingredients in main dishes, like apples with chicken or tomato soup loaded with vegetables.

In addition to talking about cooking and recipes, there was discussion about wine.  I need to try malbecs.

And a disheartening discussion about how all of the main empires lasted for approximately 200 years and the United States has been THE country for about 200 years and is in a state of dependence (on oil and even money) and how that may be our fall....

A and I were both under the weather Tuesday, but we managed to get through Math, a new writing assignment, spelling, Chemistry and handwriting.  Then we began "The Story of the World" all cuddled together in my bed...and I am very optimistic that this is going to be an amazing experience!

A began reading Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and she LOVES it!  And I mean LOVES it...she chooses to read over watching TV, making clay things, playing Wii....  I used Drawn Into the Heart of Reading as a guide for non-fiction books when we were studying our state, but A and I began using the Fantasy component and the worksheets for the Fantasy component from the Student Activity DITHOR book.

Thankfully we were all feeling better Wednesday, the girls loved our writing program so much that they both wrote their stories and decided to share the stories on their blogs: A's story & P's story :)  It was interesting to see how they each took the assignment and made it their own! We also did math, our first chapter of Story of the World, another spelling test, worked on learning where the various counties in our state are located:

On Thursdays, I run the Storytime program at our library, so we did math and history.  A and I talked about A Wrinkle in Time.  Then we did a really cool experiment where we changed water density with salt and made a raw egg float!

Then my mom picked the girls up, took them out for Chinese food and then brought them to her house for their first sewing lesson of the year!  They were both SO excited, as they both ADORE my mom and LOVE sewing!


Then, on Thursday evening, we had the Library Halloween Party, which was a blast!  Our children's librarian and my friend, Chrissy, really showed her total awesomeness!!

Today, Friday, we decided to watch a National Geographic documentary on pyramids since we have been learning about ancient Egypt.  P decided to get out our old wooden blocks and try to build a pyramid as we watched.  I am just...blown away...it makes my heart so full to see my girls embracing education in this way--it just feels so natural and SO RIGHT! After the documentary, the girls read a book we got from the library that explains hieroglyphs and then leads them through an adventure where they have to solve a mystery using the hieroglyph symbols.  P did math (A is begging for Teaching Textbooks and obstinate about Life of Fred..argh!) , A completed a worksheet on Mood in A Wrinkle in Time and now we are meeting up with our neighborhood homeschool park pals for a Homeschool Park Halloween party & parade!!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!