Weekly wrap up -- February 27

So good to find ourselves right side up again this week. Mostly healthy, mostly normal schedules once again.



In addition to our regular activities at co-op and homeschool gym and swim class, we also enjoyed an evening at the wood shop to start work on the kids' pinewood derby cars. In the running this year we have a hot dog, a flag in the making, and a more traditional car. The kids have carried them around all week sanding them. They are incredibly soft! I almost hate to have them paint them.


If you have access to wood working equipment, this is a fun project and here are some helpful sites:


- Some ideas and place to purchase supplies
- The cheapest we found, if you can order it (it's through AWANA), includes kits for 8 cars.
- Various design patterns can be viewed and/or printed here, here, and here, and even more links here.
- And, we got the book Pinewood Derby Speed Secrets from the library that offered some great tips to increase the speed of your car. One simple one that my son hopes to employ is cutting away the front of your car on the bottomside. This way when the release is pulled, your car will advance earlier. Of course, in watching the way many races go, it isn't necessarily the start that clinches the race, but sometimes every second counts.


Here's an earlier project in which my daughter made a crown shaped clock. A simple flat piece of wood cut to shape, painted yellow and affixed with stick on numbers and a clock kit (similar to ones found here):




We also enjoyed a Soul Food Feast at the school we live at. Smoked cabbage, macaroni, chicken, and sweet potatoes made for a great meal. The choir sang a few appropriate selections such as We Shall Overcome and I Got Wings. We enjoyed visiting with students, parents, and staff that we don't see often enough any more. A great wrap up to Black History Month.


Friday the local schools were off and we had such a successful schooling week once again, that we headed out for a little fun in the morning (Chuck E Cheese style).


We had some cleaning up to do in the afternoon from the school week, but we enjoyed some fun, relaxing, down-time after completing our to-do list for the week. I'm just debating now if I should raise their work load. They are all completing more than a week's worth (often 5 or 6 lessons in each subject) of work in about 4 days each week and we are consistently getting more done than I even had planned for each week. A great problem to have, the first time I have had it, and I'm still debating what to do about it. Any thoughts?

Reading highlights:
- We wrapped up On the Shores of Silver Lake and jumped into Little Town on the Prairie. I hate to think that eventually we will reach the end of this series, but I know there will be more books that will grab our attention and imagination.

- Blake is nearing the end of The Story of the Greeks, which has been an interesting read. The life of Alexander the Great is an intriguing one. Such a powerful leader, an incredible mind, yet so consumed with this world. I think I would like to find a biography on him for my personal reading. Probably not clean enough for kids to read independently.


Struggles: Actually, this was a pretty low stress week. I can't think of anything out of the ordinary to log this week. Typical ups and downs, but nothing lingering or unusual. (I'll take a week like that now and then!)


Sweet memories:
- Wish I had a picture, but Faith was helping me bake one day and she made a person out of the dough while waiting for instructions. Our little "playdough" man stuck to the side of the bowl until we needed him.

- After breakfast one day, Nathan says, "I'm full." I look at him, doubtingly, and ask if he is sure. "Well, what's full?" he asks. I explain that it is when his tummy is full and won't need food for at least a little while. He clarifies, "Oh, then I'm not full, just done."


Enjoy more weekly wrap ups here.