Weekly Wrap-up of Sorts: 12/12-12/16...

It has been a lovely week. Each day we are up early, since I work mornings, and so we get to see amazing sunrises like the one in this picture from my phone. I feel blessed to live in such a beautiful area! It has also been a cold week--frosty ground; icy car; kids layered up in mittens, scarves, and jackets for their morning car ride to their Nonna's house.

What have we been up to this week? Well, Bug has been reading away. He's now reading Redwall, which I think he'll really enjoy, and he is about to start The Early Human World, which I think we'll read together. He was looking through an old book of my dad's about prehistory, and I remembered we had The Early Human World tucked away in the bookcase, so I think it is time to bring it out! I know he'll be excited about his upcoming gift books: The Throne of Fire for Yule, and the Percy Jackson set for Christmas. Yes, we celebrate both holidays... the more the merrier!

Cricket and I are enjoying her books as well. We read some more in Erik and Britta, we read Peter and Lotta's Christmas, and we read a very interesting and clever book of poetry, Mirror Mirror. Each poem is read twice, once from beginning to end, then with all the lines reversed.

Together at bedtime, we have been very much enjoying this book...

It is well written (naturally... I mean look at who the author is!), and full of loveliness and goodness without being saccharine. I am sorry we're almost done, especially since I haven't yet chosen our next book, although I'm thinking maybe The Squire's Tale? Any suggestions?

Besides all the reading, we're getting ready for the holidays. I did most of the shopping already, primarily online, though tonight M and I are going out, sans children, to pick up a few last gifts. The kids made their gifts for their dad and I this week... tie dye shirts! We have an awesome friend that set up a park tie day afternoon. I'll have to post pictures. The kids did a shirt each for themselves, and then did a shirt each for us. We also need to finish cleaning the house, which, being that we're home so much and using everything, always looks cluttered. And we want to make gingerbread cookies. We're watching Christmassy movies and things, like The Simpsons Christmas Special, How The Grinch Stole Christmas (the Boris Karloff version), a few versions of The Christmas Carol with this one being the favorite, and more. Beetle had another piano lesson this week, and is on the last two songs in his third book! He has gotten a lot better about practicing lately too.

I feel really good about my decision to drop any formal science and history studies. I'd rather read to the kids, or have them watch a documentary on a topic they're really interested in than try to have them follow someone else's dictates. This week, they've been watching a series of science videos that's pretty fun: The Science of Disney Imagineering. And we're learning a lot about the Victorian age, gearing up for this weekend's trip to the Dickens Faire - very exciting! I remember loving it as a child, and am hoping they'll enjoy it as much as I did. Both are dressing up for it, so I'll be sure to get some good pictures.

Let me see, what else did we do? Well, Cricket read another reader to me, the last one at this level and then she moves up. I am having her read them each 4-5 times during the week to build fluency. We did some math-- hands-on measuring after reading Measuring Penny, and a bunch of pages in their Developmental Math books. The kids basically have four points each to hit daily... Bug needs to read (never a problem!), do some math, write, and practice piano. Cricket has phonics work, reading, handwriting, and math. Everything else, and there's a lot of everything else, is gravy! We haven't made much progress with our Spiral Scouts projects lately, so I am planning to really ramp that up after the holidays. We're also planning a New Year's camping trip with a friend. It'll be very cold, but what better way to start a new year than on a mountain, outdoors?

Hope you all had a good week too!