Weekly Review - Homeschool Co-Op Open House

In our home: My rib is continuing to heal.  I was still restricted this week on what I could do.  Jared has worked hard making up for my lack.  He deserves a vacation!  Mr G turned 11 months this Wednesday.  I cried as I looked back at his baby pictures.  How can he almost be 1 already?  This time last year, I remember feeling like I would never hold him.  And now I have been blessed with 11 months with my son.  What a precious, precious gift.

11 months old!

Mr N thought it would be a good idea to put on my make up while I thought he was sleeping.  Not good!  He was literally covered in lipstick and powder, and put my hair product in his hair.  I still love him!

The mess I found

In our homeschool: This week we attended the open house put on by our homeschool cooperative.  Miss O was in a princess ballet, and Miss R completely surprised us by being in a dance with her art variety class.  They were both so sweet.

Miss O in her new Rapunzel dress Jared bought her for her princess ballet - $5 clearance sale!  Love it!

Co-op has been great this session.  Miss R was in a nature class, and two art classes.  One of the art classes was all about creating - from an "I'm Special" box, to a diorama.  It was very hands-on and crafty - two things I'm not too good at, but she loves.  We were so blessed she could take that class!  The other class was all about different mediums of art - singing, dance, drama, etc.
O was in an American sign language class, the princess ballet, and a class on the days of creation.  They both have started to make friends.  While they are at their classes, I get to be in the nursery with my boys.  I love caring for all of the babies in the nursery and getting to know the other moms who are in there with me.  For one class I also get to be in Mom's Room - a "free" hour to chat and encourage one another...oh, us moms are good at talking!  =)

In our homeschool this week Miss R has finished up her study on God's Names and started one on prayer.  She has also finished up her main science book.  I have made plans for our last month of school. Crazy!

What's Working: Nothing new to report here.  It has been good to get back into morning Bible time with the kids and I sure do miss being physically able to clean and play afterwards.

What's Not Working: Well, maybe "not working" is too harsh, but I do want to experiment with how I schedule R's books.  Being our first year, I followed AO and SCM's recommendation on spreading books out, for students to savor them rather than devour.  But, I may have spread them out too thin.  Most books we visited one time/week.  So, for the next month, I want to try focusing more closely on a book for a whole week and doing "projects" with the book (like in The Heart of Wisdom Teaching Approach). The "plan" (always subject to change!) is to do history for a week, then the next week do science.  Then I will evaluate if I liked this grouping better/she got more out of it.  We shall see!