Story of the World Volume 4-- SO EXCITED!! #obviouslyanerd
I am so, so glad that Piper asked to do SotW 4 over the summer when we have less regular activities and we can really dig in to it. I have spent so much time this week thinking how awesome everything works out. I am SO EXCITED about SotW4! This is a book to savor and go slowly and REALLY dig into! I learned a while ago that planning too far ahead in homeschooling does not work for me. BUT I could not help myself with planning a bit for this curriculum because I really want my girls to absorb and understand things like Sputnik, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Berlin Wall; who FDR was, who Dwight D. Eisenhower was, who Ronald Reagan was; I want them to know who Gandhi was and Nelson Mandela; Khruschev, Ho Chi Minh, Mao, Rasputin...I could take a month to dig into Anastasia and my girls are at the perfect age for it. My girls have loved history in the past, but the events & people in SotW are ones that are STILL shaping our world, the effects of some of these events are STILL being felt...THE events and people in SotW 4 are ones my girls NEED to know because they will hear about them in casual conversation and they need to understand to whom or what someone is referring. I AM SO FLIPPING EXCITED to cover this with the girls--This is what I dreamed of when we started homeschooling, what came before was a foundation that we needed to set and establish, but I feel in some ways, this is where it all comes together ! Oh and Mom & Dad, you are NOT off the hook: our visit to the lake in August coincides with learning about The Suez Crisis and the Marshall Plan and I would love for you to talk to the girls about what you remember about these things.
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| We will be learning about Ghandi in Story of the World 4, but we read this book already because we just got it at the library and it peaked our curiosity. I am LOVING Lisa Genova's books. The girls are enjoying SotW 4. This Beatles book was really funny! |
- Read several chapters in Story of the World 4, created political cartoons and played a card game from the Activity book, in addition to filling in the outline and answering review questions
- played several hands of Division War
- the girls decided on Teaching Textbooks for next year and took the placement tests--they tested right where I thought they would! Even though we don't plan to start this until the fall, I went ahead and ordered Pre-Algebra for Allie because it's one less thing I have to think about. Piper can use Math 6 that we already have--yay!
- the girls memorized The Gettysburg Address--Jason and I challenged them to do this because we thought it would be a good brain exercise; in the end the girls were quite proud of themselves for having done it
- we went to the dentist for a cleaning, and Piper found a fun "dentist" game for the ipad
- Allie played tons of iCivics
- We dusted off the old Wii Fit this week and played that a few rainy afternoons
- We swam in the neighbors pool on the sunny days
We forgot how fun the Wii Fit can be--I love the balance games.
Our neighbor's pool has seats with jets for your back--I could get used to that! - Making and watching 7 Cool Homeschoolers videos
- Piper continued working on her handwriting
- Pinning things that inspire us or that we want to try or learn on Pinterest
- watching CNN Student News--last one til fall, so disappointed!
- A few weeks ago Jess mentioned Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg and it was weird because the book I was reading mentioned that book several times...it seemed like a sign (ok, maybe I am weird but it did) and I ordered the book, devoured it and have been trying to work on one exercise every single day privately. It's amazing the things that are surfacing. It's absolutely meditative and I love it! I actually ended up emailing friends asking for prayers about some of the stuff that was surfacing.
Our homeschool field day got rescheduled because of possible bad weather that never happened--so instead we had friends over. We had a sunshower in the afternoon and the kids played right through it!
Places we are going and people we are seeing...we went to the dentist this week, the girls came to work with me, hung out with some public school pals and the homeschool neighbors, of course! We went a friend's house to draw Mandala designs and had friends over on Friday.
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| Art journal cover inspired by Pinterest, created by Allie. Drawing Mandala designs at a friend's house. My husband got a laser temp gun and ran around taking the temperature of everything he aims the gun at! |
My favorite thing this week was... realizing all the events we get to cover in SotW 4 AND realizing some of them I remember very clearly from when they happened!
Things I am working on... finding great resources for Story of the World 4
I'm cooking... Red Lentil Dal, but I prefer this recipe; I taught the girls to make brown butter and how to boil ravioli this week and we did a lot of grilling!
I'm grateful for... Our neighbors who tell us to use their pool every time they see us!
I'm praying for... clarity and understanding.
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| The girls have been playing Barbies again and created these backgrounds on the white board for their barbies. Top left is lockers, top right is an Art Room and bottom right is a Cafe. Bottom left is something Allie created in the art studio--she spends a lot of time in there, doing her own thing and creates some awesome stuff! |
I rewarded my kids this week... I don't know if I would call it rewards, but we had some treats, like Water Ices from Rita's and Smoothies at the Health Food store.
Something I am ogling or have my eye on...my old Nikon D90 died last summer in DC. I didn't realize shutters have a "life" and when they exceed it, they stop working. we have been debating having that camera repaired or replacing it--technology is so much more now than when we bought that camera. I've had Jason's D7000 available, but it's big and heavy and bulky and feels awkward to me and even after 9 months, I still don't like using it...so I am looking for a small, lightweight DSLR with clear photos and minimal noise ;-)
This weekend, we are hanging out Friday night with friends, Saturday the girls are going to a birthday party and Sunday we are celebrating Father's Day by going water-tubing in the River and grilling some steaks!
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