Weekly Wrap-Up: The Beginning

I realized as I sat down to write this post that I am going to have to work hard at not being sentimental in every entry. It is as if I hold it all inside until my fingers hit the keyboard and then those feelings well up inside and need to be expressed. I will restrain myself as much as possible, no promises on how many times those reflections will spill out inside the words of each post.

Week One ended better than it started for us. Monday was emotionally charged with lots of feelings that surprised me at first but now I realize that I am dealing with more than the usual feelings of inadequacy. I have chosen our courses and materials with the best intentions so hopefully as our weeks play out I will relax a bit about whether I am capable of teaching high school anything.

For the first time in a long time my boys are working separately for most subjects except chemistry. For the Weekly Wrap-Up posts I decided it would be way too much to cover every subject so instead I will touch on highlights or other interesting aspects of our week.



The highlight of my week was literature. I am trying to stay astride both boys with one of their literature books assigned each week. Alongside Mr. A I am reading The Grapes of Wrath and with Mr. B I am reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: An Anthology. I have read quite a bit of Steinbeck over the years but I had forgotten how much I like The Grapes of Wrath. I feel like I am drinking the words in as I read the pages. Steinbeck can paint such a vivid image in your mind and I find myself drawn into his descriptions of nature... a complete chapter on a land turtle crossing the road and pages about dust and the landscape. The gritty parts even seem to be poetic upon reflection. Mr. A prefers his Edgar Allen Poe short stories to Steinbeck and this week he read The Purloined Letter. The Egyptian poetry was surprisingly interesting and easy to read. What a relief.

We started off our chemistry study with a couple of lectures from the Teaching Company series and two demonstrations from The Joy of Chemistry. I think we are going to like the approach of this book, having a demonstration first to build interest in the chapter discussion and explanation.


I did not realize that my boys had never made oobleck...water and cornstarch. That is what happens when you get to the last of the children homeschooling and your mind starts to blur about what you have and what you haven't done with each child. Both boys *loved* playing with the oobleck and on some level I think this sort of demonstration and the principles behind it are lost on little ones. Now that the boys are older they have some experiences and knowledge about physical properties and vocabulary to attach to the oobleck, thus making it very meaningful. Playful and educational experiences are always a good thing.

We will skip talking about math...enough said.

History, no matter how hard I try to make it otherwise, takes a center stage in our family. Perhaps it is because we tie so many interesting aspects into our history that seems to draw us in. After taking a year-long break from formal history study, both boys dug in and got started with different time periods. Mr. A is focusing on 20th Century history and Mr. B is at the other end of timeline with a study of ancients. We all like the materials chosen so far and in a future post I will relate more specifics.



Mr. B and I have made a pact to keep art at the center of his homeschool day. He has over an hour of art and music everyday of the week. I have designed a modified version of my HFA Ancient Art and the Orchestra for him to use as his base plan but we built up from there.


This week he worked with watercolor pencils using Artistic Pursuits Grades 4-6 Book 2.....jumping off from the print included to view some of Bierstadt's paintings and making two reproductions for his notebook. He also is connecting Egyptian art with his history using the Ancient Egypt Drawing Book. Lots more to come and I will be sharing projects as they come up in our weeks.

Mr. A started his welding and metal fabrication class this week. He goes every single afternoon for most of the afternoon. We miss him.



So there you are, a few reflections and the highlights of the week.

One last item to mention. Thanks Homeschool Tracker for making my life easier as we start this new year.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom



Photo from the last week...we had a picnic in the mountains the Saturday before school started. It was glorious until the thunder and lightning started. :)

Week one done, thirty-five more to go.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom