Weekly Wrap Up: the first week of school...

Ordinarily we school year round, but this year we quit at the end of May for a summer break. About two weeks ago my kiddos started complaining that they were "bored" and didn't have anything to do. Thankfully the new curriculum (Tapestry of Grace) came and I was excited, so we started early.

Folks have mentioned it seems odd to start in July, but I have become something of a homeschooling snob. I like it when the museums are empty during the school year, and the weather is cooler for the parks. In the summer everything is just so crowded. We live in Texas and it is just Africa hot right now. I would rather start early, and have no guilt taking off school for more field trips. Plus, we have a major trip to Disney planned and hopefully we will be ahead of the game by the time that rolls around.

I purchased a tablet PC and I LOVE IT! So does John. I have to wrestle him to use it. I had no idea how many educational apps there are. We found one that will allow him to do phonics on there... well, phonics and "angry birds".

Sine it was our first week, a Roman dinner to kick off our study seemed appropriate. I made roasted dormice (chicken thighs) for dinner. This was so much fun, and pretty easy to throw together. I think we might try to have a theme dinner one night each week. Next week we are studying Islam, and I am thinking of doing fallafel, or at least attempting it.





On Wednesday, we had "widdershins" day. The concept is much like opposite day for Druids. John wore his clothes backwards. But then, he does that most days. Emma's favorite part was having breakfast for Dinner. She loves waffles, and these days they are a rare treat.



We were supposed to make a salt dough map of a mythical country with geographical features. I don't like salt dough, and I didn't want to run out to the store to get all the ingredients. So we made our map edible, out of rice crispy treats. We used blue frosting for the rivers, yellow frosting with brown sugar sprinkled on top for the deserts (and the dessert :), and chocolate chips for mountain ranges. Chloe's country is quite mountainous. She loves her chocolate chips. Not surprisingly, this was everyone's favorite activity for the week.

Daddy was a substitute Teacher/engineer this week. He helped the kids assemble the catapult kit. I was so glad he was home sick, I can't even manage to assemble IKEA furniture, and those direction have pictures. This looked much more complicated! We had so much fun on our first week, I am really looking forward to next week.