Weekly Wrap-up ~ Haven't Done One of These in a While (Prairie Primer: Silver Lake Week 1)

I haven't done a weekly wrap-up since early December. That's because we have been on Winter Break. We stopped school the Friday before Christmas Eve and resumed this past Monday. It was some glorious time off! We weren't really excited to start back with our studies, but we had an excellent week! There were no bad attitudes and no transition days to get back into things. I attribute that to us finally having our groove and a schedule we all enjoy. It's a good mix of must-do's and get-to's. All was well until today when Brynne came down with the flu. Our schooling came to a screeching halt, but we accomplished so much that I didn't feel bad at all about us taking today off.

By the Shores of Silver Lake

We have moved on to reading By the Shores of Silver Lake by Laura Ingalls Wilder. This week had us learning that Mary has gone blind due to scarlet fever and the family has moved away from Walnut Grove and the house on Plum Creek.

We dug into a deep study of bacteria, viruses, and germs (fitting, huh, with Brynne "catching" the flu from Macie).

We read Micro Mania by Jordan D. Brown, Viruses up Close by John Shea, and Bill Nye the Science Buy's Great Big Book of Tiny Germs.

We watched Bill Nye the Science Guy: Germs and Flu Attack! How a Virus Invades Your Body.

We started a couple of fun experiments: Which Surface Has the Most Bacteria? and Can Washing Hands Decrease Bacteria (from the Bill Nye book)? We have set up both experiments and are now observing every couple of days.

We also learned about the parts of the eye by using See All You Can See.

General Studies

• Math had us dividing four digit numbers by a one digit number. 
• We moved along in Fix-It Grammar, feeling a little rusty from our break. 
• Our Bible lessons have us learning about 12 year old Jesus escaping to the Temple. 
• Eli is reading another book in the Middle School series by James Patterson and Brynne finished one of the books in the Dear Diary series and jumped right into another one. She loves this series. 
• And, of course, we were so happy to get back to our morning meeting with Carl Azuz at CNN Student News (we are even planning a detour to Atlanta on our vacation this summer to tour the CNN Headquarters. Anyone know how to schedule a quick meet-and-greet with Carl?)
• I wanted us to get back into our WriteShop program, and had plans each day to do a lesson. We started out Monday learning about the parts of a letter of invitation. And that's as far as we got. We ran out of time every day. I have got to figure out how to fit this into our schedule.
• We are also trying to fit in some time to learn about the state where we live. We ran out of time most days, but the kids did draw the State of Missouri by looking at the Atlas.

Health

We had a hands-on health lesson with a trip to the dentist. Shamefully, the kids have not been to the dentist for regular cleanings since we moved to Missouri. I was very proud of them for going back to their appointments without me! While one was having an appointment the other was doing math, grammar and reading in the waiting room. Then they switched.

Eli got an all-clear, but Brynne has two cavities. They did learn a lot about their gums, proper brushing and flossing, and received some cute little tooth hour glasses to help them time their teeth brushing. They came home ready to apply all they had learned.

I might grab some books and throw in some extra lessons about good dental hygiene next week.

And that was our first week back. Pretty good, I have to say. Now here's to hoping that Brynne gets over her flu so we can resume schoolwork next week, and that none of the rest of us get it!

Have a great weekend!