In truth, our weeks were not that different. Week 2 was truncated because of Labor Day. We managed to get all our work done but it was squeezed into 3 days instead of 4. It wasn't until Friday that I realized that I had skipped science for 2 of the 3 days...oops! No wonder we'd had been able to get it all done!
History:
Hannah and Grace moved on to study the Ice Age. This is not a topic I've studied at all. Granted it is important to keep in perspective when studying this subject that most of what we know is theory and there are more than one theory. We studied the book Life In the Great Ice Age.
It is the story of a boy named Jabeth who is supposed to be a descendant of Noah. It follows the Tower of Babel and theorizes what life would have been like for those tribes that separated at the tower and went their separate ways. The idea behind the ice is that the flood would have caused just a dramatic climate change that the earth would have experienced the opposite of a greenhouse effect, freezing the earth instead. The book explores this idea.
The girls made rainbows in week 2 to remember God's promise to us:
Sean wanted to make a rainbow too--his turned out more abstract!
And then in week 3 they recreated cave art after reading about a mammoth hunt:
Elaina studied Columbus in week 2, and then followed him up with the study of a few Spanish explorers in Week 3. We quickly decided that those Spanish guys were not the nicest as we read about how they came looking for gold and effectively killed off the indigenous people.
Handprint Nina, Pinta, and the Santa Maria. She loved doing this.
Exploring the New World!
Science: As I mentioned we missed a bit of science. This week we did much better. We are still studying pollination but will be moving on next week. We studied how things like hummingbirds, butterflies, moths, and bats aid in pollination. I had no idea that so many animals and insects were involved in the process! And each were created for a different type of plant.
Gym: We started ice skating during week 3. It was in the 80's outside so that made it very difficult to go into a frozen ice rink! But the girls were so happy to be back on the ice and really had a good time. We also attended our Fall Fitness during week 2, but we played hookie during week 3 because it had rained all night before. And in Fall Fitness much of the time is spent in the grass, wet and muddy or not.
Week 3 was probably the most busy our weeks would get. We have a few things that are scheduled on bi-week or monthly times. This week they all landed on the same week. This will happen periodically but thankfully not often.
Monday the older girls had a class at the Wildlife Sanctuary. A friend of ours set this up for older kids. The youngers will go do something with Mommy! Hannah and Grace enjoyed a "behind the scenes" tour of the Sanctuary. They will do this once a month for 8 months. They're very excited and looking forward to it!
Tuesday we had a field trip to Apple Valley Orchard.
Honestly, we were a little disappointed in this field trip. Now we've experienced some awesome field trips to Orchards and that probably does raise the bar a bit. But they greeted us with a myriad of rules (many, such as no kids in the salesroom, are obviously meant for school groups but we were told we had to abide by them anyway even though if we had come back an hour later, on our own, we could have brought our children into the salesroom with us). After the rules, they sent us on our way to give ourselves a self-guided tour and pick a few apples from the orchard. Again, on our own. I'm not really sure how that constitutes as a "tour" in any way, shape, or form but we enjoyed the time together and that is what is important. And next time we'll take our business to an orchard that really does well with field trips, like Little Farmer.
Thursday is going to be our busy day every week. This is the day we began ice skating. Immediately following that we have art class. Several families have pooled together to hire an art teacher and she teaches our older children some of the finer points of art while we teach our preschoolers. And then, every-other-week, we'll hurry home to eat so that Eric can take the girls to their STEM meeting. That was this week. They built little robots and made a hovercraft from a CD and a balloon.
And then, if we had not skipped, we would have had Fall Fitness on Friday. Phew. On a typical week we'll just have Thursdays full (and Fridays for a while yet). And of course an occassional field trip.
This week we also went to Old World Wisconsin on Saturday with my brother Calvin and his fiance Remi. Eric and Hannah were unable to join us (Eric had to work and Hannah was under the weather) but we still had a good time. Though part of my heart got left behind at home and that always steals some of the joy.
Next week promises to be a little slower paced! We are looking forward to that.
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