Weekly Wrap-Up: We Are Taking a Walk Edition

The theme of our week has been spring: spring restlessness, spring pollen, and spring sunshine. The outdoors called to us everyday and it was hard to keep on track. We finally decided yesterday that today we would take a long hike to the river as a reward for getting our weekly work done. Sometimes we just need something to look forward to and to encourage us to be diligent at our work.


Not that we did not go outside everyday this week to spend some time in the garden. We also managed to squeeze in our cattail study during our daily walks. Completing a year-long study of cattails has sharpened our awareness that we do not usually pay much attention to the ordinary things around us. If you would like to read about our cattails, you can click over and read on our nature blog: Spring Cattail Study.

In our other subjects this week, we are feeling the pull of the end of the year as we approach our final goals for this term.

Physics: Started the last module in the text and that made the whole week seem lighter for some reason. What a change from last week.


Literature: They finished Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde along with a short writing piece to pick a scene from the story and rewrite it in a dramatic play format. They both did a great job at this including dialogue and stage directions. In our discussion I asked the boys if they liked Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde more than Frankenstein. They both agreed that Frankenstein, since it is much longer, was a more complex and intriguing book to read. If they had to pick between reading the two, they both said they would pick Frankenstein.


Geography: Iraq. What a fascinating week of informal discussions about this country. I gave the boys a very open-ended sort of assignment this week with notebook pages from History Scribe. They were to complete the Desert Storm War, the Gulf War, and the Iraq current events pages. They found that most sources had a bias one way or the other as they tried to gather information on the internet. We started watching a instant view on Netflix called The Voices of Iraq. The concept was interesting but the images were way too graphic....let's just say torture and extreme punishment were shown. We watched about 30 minutes before we all agreed that we had a good idea of the living conditions now and under Saddam Hussein.


Along with those notebook pages they also completed pages for Judaism, Zoroastrianism, and the Bahai faith. They also gathered current events for Afghanastan and Israel this week as part of their ongoing study of current world conditions. These are the sorts of assignments I really enjoy with my high school age sons....for the first time we are sort of on an equal standing when it comes to school subjects. I am learning right along with them and it is a great place to be. As a sidenote: The boys do their current events reading the very first thing most mornings, even before our official school time most days. Student News Daily is a great source of a variety of stories and I think it is a good fit for high school age students.

Writing: The super-essay is coming along with the key word outlines all written and organized. The first draft of the first essay is in the works and I am eager to see how the boys do with this daunting assignment. They have a good attitude about it so that is always a plus.


Art and Music: Same old thing, nothing of note this week except perhaps to share my enthusiasm for the progress I see in their pen drawing work. This has been a long process but I see how each week they have built up a confidence in their own skill and style. Sketch Tuesday was completed this week and Complete A Sketch too. Violin and trumpet was routine but enjoyable...I love listening to their various study pieces as I go about my business each day.

Robotics was not accomplished this week due to some outside activities with friends but I am assured that they will make it up next week. My youngest is still plugging away at Rosetta Stone Spanish....he will not finish this year but he is fine with carrying it over to next year.


The notebook pages shown in this entry can be purchased at Currclick.com. Click over and do a search for History Scribe and Geo Scribe.



Read other Weekly Wrap-Up posts over at Kris' blog: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

That's our wrap-up for this week....now we are off for our hike to the river.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom