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Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Better Late than Never

We were out of town this weekend and I have been behind since we got home. Therefore, our wrap-up from last week is late and we weren't prepared to start this new week! Ughhh! I hate that! Here is a short synopsis of what we got done last week.


Dawson ~ 8th Grade

We are knee-deep in the Age of Exploration. We were learning about Christopher Columbus this week and went to the driveway to draw out the measurements of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria with sidewalk chalk. You can't see the lines, but they were basically about the size you see here. Not very big for all they were trying to carry.


In science we discussed the different ways water freezes depending on the amount of salt in the water. Water definitely does not freeze as fast or as solid when it has salt in it.


The Swiss Family Robinson has actually been boring to Dawson. I think what is frustrating for him is that they basically had everything they needed to survive. And they always seemed to find exactly what they needed, if they didn't already have it. It annoys him that the father knows everything about everything and how to do everything. He doesn't feel like it's very realistic. I tend to agree. They don't make being stranded on a deserted island seem that much like a hardship.


Brynne ~ 1st Grade

We have been doing a lot of studying about Jesus' last days, which has included a nature study. It's been a great way to demonstrate key points about Holy Week. We made a Last Supper craft that turned out really great. (Catholic Icing has lots of great printables. We did a Nativity set at Christmas that was just as great!) I loved how Brynne told me about various disciples and their role in Jesus' last week.




We went on a purple nature hunt. I wish we would have done this the week before when the lilacs and wildflowers were in bloom. We actually had some trouble finding any purple foliage, but did manage to find a couple.



We also went on a fragrance nature hunt. Again, there wasn't a lot of fragrance going on, but we did our best. What is so funny about Brynne is that she thinks lots of things stink. So, the things I thought smelled good, she didn't like.




We plan to do lots of Notebooking next year, and I found out from our fragrance walk that she is going to love it. We did a notebooking page about the fragrances and she drew pictures of different things. She really got into it.


I try to turn anything we do into "school". Last week Eli (our public school first grader) had a class musical called "A Caterpillar's Voice". He had the honor of playing the caterpillar. Soooo, since we were going to be attending the musical on Thursday afternoon, I made Brynne a Notebook of activities to do about the musical. We covered things like characters, setting, story pages and a word search. I found all of her activities here. And by-the-way, my son did amazing as the caterpillar! He took his role very seriously!


We are continuing to learn about how to tell Time. We have primarily used living books, her homemade paper plate analog clock and this little jewel in the photo below. I received it free from CSN, in exchange for a review. The review will be coming in the next day or so. It has been a wonderful tool for her to use and she has loved it! She wants to play with it every day!


And that (finally) was our week-in-review.

You can check out other homeschools at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

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