Weekly Wrap- Up: The Week We Stayed Home

We got a lot of schoolwork done this week.  My husband has been gone again for his job and rather than take off on any adventures we actually decided to spend quite a lot of time at home.  It was nice and relaxing and it felt good to feel like we accomplished a lot this week.  We did four full days of school, ran a bunch of errands (even got a jump on my Christmas shopping!), cleaned the house, and prepared a bunch of food.

Math: The boys worked in their math workbooks completing two more pages each day.  Ian and Evan should be finishing up their books in the next few weeks!  They all worked on two more pages in Multiplication games too.  The older two boys completed another set of pages in Are You a Math Genius?  One night Ian and I played three rounds of The Clumsy Thief; I won all three rounds!

Reading/ Language Arts:  We listened to another disk in our Heroes of Olympus story and several more chapters in The Viper's Nest.  The boys did a lot of reading this week.  Ian read Hot Rod Hamster, I. Q. Gets Fit and several more chapters in his A-Z Mysteries book. Evan read a few more chapters in Humphrey's Creepy Crawly Camping Adventure while Alec worked on reading his way though Unwanteds. All three boys worked in their Minecraft activity books working on crossword puzzles, word searches, and other fun games. They also worked on another two pages in all of their spelling workbooks.

Art:  The boys made some tin foil art this week; using hot glue gun, tin foil and markers they made some really neat pictures for their rooms.

We colored some Harry Potter bookmarks then laminated them and added some colorful tassels too. You can print your own copy of these bookmarks here.  We printed them out on card stock, colored them in with markers, laminated them with clear contact paper and used a hole punch to make a hole for our ribbon tassels.

We made oil pastel bubble pictures too.

Science:  Ian finished putting together his second kit from EMEE and had a great time; he just LOVES these kits and following along on the computer makes it so easy for him.  Evan and I went through his Ranger Rick magazine learning all about animals and their talents.  We also read Diving Dolphins, Polar Bears, and Sea Lions.  Alec read Backyard Birds of Summer.  We were excited to find a new bird on our beach.  We can tell it is some sort of Heron but since we spotted the bird on our beach from an upstairs window we were missing details to identify it.

Geography:  Ian and I played the Scrambled States of America game one night this week.

Life Skills:  Ian made a double batch of pancakes for himself and his brothers one morning and Alec made a double batch of waffles for dinner one night.  Both boys worked with adding and reducing fractions, measuring, and reading and following a recipe.  They did a great job too and now we have lots of pancakes and waffles in the freezer for easy morning breakfasts.  All three boys helped me clean the house; we dusted, vacuumed, changed bedding, and scrubbed the bathrooms.

Socialization & family fun:  The boys went swimming at a nearby lake with their cousins and we spent a fun day visiting with my mother and sister.  They made some new friends and played Marco Polo, held splash wars and got some ice cream from the ice cream truck. The boys and I spent an afternoon at the movies watching the new Ice Age Movie and escaping from the heat and sharing a few laughs together.  Another day, the boys and I swam from our house over to the rope swing and then over the bridge so they could jump off.  Ian decided to kayak over and it was the perfect way to spend a super hot afternoon cooling off.