Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Lacking Wisdom

I got my wisdom teeth extracted yesterday, so my wrap-up this week is going to be a little short. Daddy stayed home from work yesterday to take care of me and to act as substitute teacher. We are calling today a Sick Day because, well, I'm sick. There will just be lots of reading and educational computer games today, and even more playing. For me, I'll be in bed. I have some paresthesia because of an exposed nerve during the surgery, so I am praying that I will regain the feeling to that part of my lip and chin soon. For now, I look like a chipmunk. And, I'm pretty miserable.

Here is what our week looked like in the form of a collage:

1. Brynne continued learning about dogs this week: Portuguese Water Dogs, Boxers and Border Collies.

2. We were back into our books pretty heavy at the beginning of the week with grammar, copywork, handwriting, and math.

3. She also started a fairly significant chapter book (for her) called Poodle and Hound, and spent each afternoon reading to OUR dogs.

4.  Since she loves learning about the United States so much, she watched a video of "How the States got their Shapes".

5 and 7. This week, for Dawson, was primarily about DNA and The Double Helix. In history he also did a lot of work on the building of the railroad.

6. I introduced a new concept to Brynne in math that she picked up in about half a minute: Double digit addition with carrying. She also worked on another worksheet yesterday with daddy.

8. And a lovely picture of me. (If you can believe it, at the time of this posting, I am even more swelled than that!) This explains why this wrap-up is so short.

In the midst of all of this, I did stumble upon a Favorite Resource (or two) this week. Brynne has always used an abacus to do math. Anytime she wants to know an answer to a math problem, I just send her to her abacus to figure it out on her own. Cindy at love2learn2day made me aware of a FREE iPad app called Number Rack. It is a type of abacus called a Rekenrek. She also referred to a great set of lessons (about 10 days worth) using the Rekenrek. It is also a free download that uses the Rekenrek as a "visual model for strategic reasoning in mathematics". This goes along nicely with the philosophies of MEP that I posted about a week or so ago. I think this will be a fun thing to do for those couple of weeks after Spring Break, to get us back into the swing of math. Brynne loves "Fun Math", and I think this will fit the bill.

I am hoping that next week feels more productive (and that I have more feeling in my lip and chin), but I have to get some cavities taken care of on Monday afternoon, so I am not feeling too optimistic. What a couple of weeks.

I am linking up at Weekly Wrap-up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers; Collage Friday at Homegrown Learners; and Favorite Resource this Week at Learning all the Time.