Weekly Wrap Up

Weekly Wrap Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers

In my life this week: Hubby was out of town all week, so it was a bit different than usual. I had quite a few reviews due, so it was a bit of a squeeze. Tex, as usual, was a big help. Thanks, buddy. My SIL announced she is pregnant, so we are all excited for them. This new baby with be their third child. Nanny and Poppy visited for the first time since their return from Iowa and the kids were so excited!! Oh, and our washing machine broke, and got fixed. The guy made $95 for a ten minute visit. I doubt the part cost more than five bucks. Anyone looking for a career change? He said he can't keep up with the demand...

In our homeschool this week: It was a quiet week, more or less. We had the Bookmobile here on Wednesday, along with friends for lunch and fellowship. The kids loved Awana on Wednesday, and worked hard on memorizing their verses. The nice gentlemen there gave us the extra pizza they had to take home. Thank you, guys! All Three of the Amigos love their Who Am I? Bible study from Apologia. They listen to the cd while they are eating breakfast each morning. Firefly is progressing with her All About Reading and likes to play Reading Eggs and Ooka Island. Ladybug and Cowboy also love their Reading Eggs lessons, and have enjoyed a brief trial of K5 Learning (review on Monday). They all *heart* Math Rider! Nanny worked with Ladybug on her reading and said she is doing very well. Cowboy is also doing quite well. I think we will do more book work and some notebooking/lapbooking next week. All of these online product reviews have taken us away from that and we miss it.

What we did for "Fun Friday": It was a rainy day, which means it is a good day to stay inside around here since you practically need a boat to get around parts of our yard when it is wet. The kids played a few "games" online (Ooka Island, Big Bibletown), colored in their doodle books, tried their hands at I Spy, worked on paper dolls (the girls), and listened to Adventures in Odyssey. You can listen to episodes online at OnePlace and even watch episodes at Jelly Telly.

Helpful homeschooling tip or advice to share: Character First. I truly believe that if you are developing your child's character in the right direction, then the rest will not be far behind. You can give your child a Harvard education, but if his character is not solid, what was the point? But a child who has godly, admirable character can get far in life, no matter what situation they are put in. I did posts recently focusing on character traits and resources: Our Favorite Character Resources and the ABCs of Character. Another old favorite of mine is Bible Pictures of Godly Children.

Favorite site this week: Cute printable paper dolls for the girls in the family. Use card stock. Here are some Betsy McCall's dolls  and  and some more Besty Mcall's dolls, and two pages from Marilee (Marilee One and Marilee Two) of links to more, including Hedgie cut outs with clothes.

Places we went and people we saw: We basically just went to Awana and church. Without Hubby around, I am not so enthusiastic about taking all the kids out. While I might be used to handling them alone (with Tex's help, of course), without that "break" at the end of the day (Hubby usually puts them to bed and tells them a story), it is too tiring to go far from home.

My favorite thing this week: Visiting with my mom and dad. We all missed my folks a lot.

What's working for us: Online classes/activities/lessons are great. They work in a pinch when you haven't planned anything else, or when you are not feeling 100% (I had a headache most of the week since our weather was so variable). However, I'd have to say that if you are beholden to them (like having to use them for a review), then they can be a bit of a burden, too.

Things I am working on: I am still working on fixing up our "library" and study room. That was my February "Just Learn to Do It" challenge for myself, and I got a good portion of it completed. However, there are still a few shelves in the back and hallway that need more organizing, as well as a bunch of games to sort and cull. This month's challenge is to finish my yoyo quilt top so it will be large enough to cover our dining room table. 

Check out my Yoyo quilt update

I am very happy about moving the buffet from the back to the dining room. We had to move our huge big tube tv to do that, but I actually prefer the tv in the parlor. It has a couch and is more conducive to seating large groups. Our eventual plan is to get a flat screen that will fit in the armoire (the other tv is one inch too big) so that we can close the door on it, and pretend it isn't there. Anyway, I have arranged many of our daily supplies and books into the buffet in the dining room which makes them much more accessible. I wish I had thought of it long ago.

What we read: I must admit that we mostly listened to Adventures in Odyssey this week. Maybe we will read more next week.

What we watched: For pizza and a movie night we watched The Real Macaw on Netflix. It was a treasure hunting adventure with a talking ex-pirate parrot as the co-star. The macaw was a bit rude at times, but mostly it was fun.

Don't forget to enter my Movie Double Feature Giveaway to win a copy of Three Hearts or The Mighty Macs for your Family Movie Night! The giveaway ends March 9th.

Something to share: We told Firefly and Ladybug that they were going to be flower girls in Bubba's wedding and they were both very excited, but wanted to know what they were going to have to do. I said, "Well, mostly you will just walk down the aisle and toss flower petals on the ground as you walk." They considered that for a moment, then Ladybug said, "I guess that's okay...as long as it is flower petals and not horseshoes!" Seriously. She really said that. How funny. I just love kids.

A friend of mine heard this story and suggested that tossing some horseshoe confetti in with the flower petals would be just the thing to do (since Bubba is a farrier, of course). I found some horseshoe confetti online. What do you think?

How was your week? See how others fared this week by checking out the Weekly Wrap Up at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Blessings,