I love that we can do school in our pajamas, in tutus, in silly hats, and in our kitchen.  Last week was a rough week, we all really need to stop getting sick.  This week we have been home all week and totally focused on learning.  We have continued our study of Egypt, and finished our Pyramids of Egypt Science kit.  We learned about sundials, hieroglyphics, and lots of other amazing things.  We have been playing games every day.  Above you can see the kids playing the money game, also called first to a half dollar.  I put real coins in a container with sections.  The center is half dollars and a die.  There is a section for pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.  They roll the die, take that many pennies, then keep exchanging them for larger coins as they can.  The first to get a half dollar wins.  It is a great fun way for them to practice counting money and recognizing coins.  I use real coins because not only is it better for them to learn it is also cheaper than buying plastic coins.  We play Qwirkle every week now at least once, and we play Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders.  Other favorites are Catan Junior, Ticket to Ride, Cootie, and Uno.  We are certainly a game playing family.  Two weeks ago we introduced them to the Game of Life.  My parents stayed after dinner and we all played it together.  Then we played again twice the following week.  This weekend we may try Sorry and Parcheesi.

Every week we do play dough or clay.  We also have cloud dough, lavender scented, and Eliza LOVES it.  CJ doesn't love it, but will play with it occasionally.  We have done our binder daily this week, and progressing in chess every day.  We have a book teaching it step by step, along with a coloring book and cd of songs telling how the pieces move.  The games begin simply with one pawn, progressing to two pawns, slowly adding pieces until the kids are completely comfortable using all the pieces on the board.  They love chess, and ask to do it every day.  Other weekly activities are pattern blocks, puzzles, lacing cards, tracing center, legos, and building marble runs.  This week all of those activities have been done repeatedly.

This week I also started teaching them poem types.  We learned about acrostic poems, and wrote them.  Today we will type them on the computer, print them out and decorate them to hang on our wall.  We learned about Jane Goodall and the Wright Brothers.  Today we are working on three digit addition with regrouping.  We have been working on sight words, reading comprehension, and we have done art lessons and craft projects.  We learned about synovial fluid lubricating ball and socket joints using our human body science kit.  I really feel that this week has been very productive.

We went to Florence Griswold two weekends ago.  The concert was enjoyed immensely by the kids, and they did some great crafts, and we all loved the new exhibits.  With the snow and being sick we haven't taken any other field trips recently.  We have done some classical music appreciation, and discussion about aspects of music and instruments.  We listened to different pieces of music illustrating different tempos and accented and unaccented beats.  The kids have really been working hard all week on lots of different activities, and have shown great effort in all their work.  So last night we took them to see the Lego Movie as a treat.  What a great family outing, we all loved the movie.

This weekend we are going to Florence Griswold again, and maybe somewhere else.  We are going to do some projects together and do some baking.  Next week I want to start studying a different area of the world, and start studying more United States history and geography.  Next week we are going on a field trip somewhere, not sure yet where, as it depends on the weather.

This week has been a real treat, where we didn't have to go anywhere, and were able to really focus on spending time with each other and learning together.  It makes me feel better about those weeks where we spend a lot of time running errands and are too tired to really spend good time on learning activities.  It is all part of the journey.

Weekly Recap

The kids learned about football, watching the Superbowl :)  All kidding aside, it was a nice evening snacking together, cuddling, and watching the game.  We had a very relaxed day of learning that day, focused mostly on cooking and making together, and practicing sight words with Eliza.  She has come a long way in her reading skills, but we practice daily, to be sure she keeps progressing.

Our favorite part of the week by far was our trip to the CT Science Center to see the new exhibit Lost Egypt.  The kids spent two and a half hours in that exhibit alone.  

 There were actual ancient Egyptian artifacts, and a real mummy, in addition to the many interactive parts of the exhibit.  I think this has been my favorite temporary exhibit there yet.

Of course no trip to the Science Center is complete without a trip to kidspace, as well as a change of clothes in the car!

The rest of the week we have been focusing on reading books on Egypt, doing our binders daily, puzzles, games, listening center, magnet center, educational television, cooking and baking together, computer and kindle time with Starfall and educational kindle games, and playing in the snow.  We learned about triangle types, and cleaned and organized the kids' rooms.  We even did a Valentine craft kit.

The kids helped us make dinner a few times, and they learned about a carpenter's level and other simple tools.  It has been a relaxed week, as we are still getting over being sick, and getting through snow storms.  It has been a good week together, and I am looking forward to this weekend.  We are going to the Florence Griswold Museum Saturday and Sunday for several special activities, including a Kidsploration concert, with Steve Elci and Friends, CJ and Eliza's favorite singers.  There will be art and craft activities for the kids, and new exhibits.  Rich took Sunday off so we could all go together both days.  I will be sure to take some pictures.

One of my favorite things about homeschooling is the ability to adjust lessons, and move things around as much as we want.  We can do a science lesson at 8 at night in our pajamas.  It means we can spend an hour playing together reviewing what we learned by teaching it to our stuffed animal friends.  And most importantly I can see every little thing my children learn by watching them play, watching them journey farther into childhood, farther into their education, and amazing me every step of the way.