Weekly Report... My son, the writer...

This has been an insane week.

On Monday, I was reinstated to my job. Also on Monday, M fell and broke his arm quite badly.

Tuesday, we simply tried to recuperate from Monday.

Wednesday, follow-up doctor's appointment, and surgery consultation, followed by a meeting with the nicest Med-Cal worker ever!

Thursday, I made it back to work finally, cleaned out my desk for the summer, etc.

Friday, M had surgery. We were at the hospital from 8:30 am to almost 4 in the afternoon. Good news though - the surgery went extremely well! M has full feeling and movement in his fingers, and can now stretch out that elbow that was splinted up all week. The doctor told me the metal apparatus will be on for about 6 weeks, just like a cast. Depending on how quickly M heals, he may be able to return to light duty at work as soon as mid-August!!!

Oh, and today, the car broke down. It totally overheated and started leaking coolant everywhere. A friend came and towed me/it home, and will look at fixing it, all for the price of parts and a good dinner, if it can be fixed. Lesson here? Good friends are priceless!

I got so many offers of help, prayers, positive vibes, and more this week. I have to say I feel so blessed and honored!

Now, on to homeschooling stuff...

My Son the Writer
I realized something this week. The Boy has turned into a writer. No, he's not writing essays, or book reports. And yes, I'd like to teach him proper letter format, and so forth. But he writes, on his own, with no nudging. He keeps a journal - definitely some inspiration from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series going on there - he makes lists, writes instructions for his own contraptions, writes dialog for animations, draws his own cartoon strips, he's even started a book... somehow, behind my back, he started to just write.

Every year I have looked at writing curriculum for the "reluctant" writer. Programs that offer to break it down into "bite-sized chunks" or "simple steps". After a week or two, these writing programs would invariably get set aside for one reason or another. They never clicked with The Boy.

I have read, and as of yesterday re-read The Writer's Jungle, which is anything but a writing program. It is more of a guide to freeing up your children to enjoy writing. And it hit me that when we set all those guides aside, and I stopped pushing other than copywork and oral narrations, it did indeed free The Boy up to write.

So what am I doing with all these writing programs I have piled up? Selling them off. We won't be using them.

What Else We Did
We read a little more this week. They are enjoying Smoky House (one of my all-time favorite books!), and The Girl is enjoying the mermaid tales. The Boy has almost finished Son of Neptune.

We watched both the first and second Addams Family movies, and really enjoyed them, though we all have a slight preference for the first one. We watched Thor, and talked about Norse mythology.

There were a few episodes of Mythbusters, and How It's Made.

There were also popsicles, gardening, caring for the chickens, and all those day-to-day things. We didn't make it to any outside activities, due to M's arm, but we'll be back in full swing next week.

In Other News
I am doing very well at maintaining my 40-45 pound weight loss. The problem is, is that I am maintaining... not losing, and I still have 20-25 pounds to go! I decided to re-clean up my diet, which I have gotten a bit lax about recently. You see, I keep thinking somewhere in my head that "oh, I can eat whatever I want now that I've lost so much weight" and "I don't want to be one of those weirdos that is always worrying about what they eat."

I lost a lot of the weight following a low carb diet, with of course exercise thrown in there. But, I've been reading, and researching, and watching documentaries, and I feel a need to shift away from such an animal-product-centered diet. I was a vegetarian for about 6 years, and vegan for two of those, so I know it is something I can do. But at the same time, I enjoy a good steak, or some chicken in a salad, and I love fish. So where am I going with all of this? Here. This means I can add back in some grains and such, which is actually quite a money-saver too compared to the typical low carb diet. And I can try out breakfast treats like these.

Hopefully, if I focus on whole foods, and hop back on that treadmill, the scale will start to slowly move down again!

Anyhow
Hope you all had a good week! As always, check out Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers (in my sidebar) for more families sharing their homeschooling weeks.

Tuesday Woes...

Just as it all seems to be getting better, something like this happens...

We went out with my sister yesterday to look at a piece of property she is considering. M decided to explore off trail, and ended up falling off a 10-14' embankment. He broke his radius close to the wrist, and the broken bone lifted up and jammed into the wrist, fracturing that. Thankfully my mom took the kids so I could focus on him for the 6.5 hours at the ER. He's splinted up, sleeping at the moment (pain meds are helping with that). He'll be having surgery later this week to attach a metal rod with screws to his arm, possibly getting a metal plate in his wrist, and they said something about a possible bone graft.

This is problematical in a couple of ways... one - we're having to apply for state disability. Looking at all the guides and calculations, it looks like he'll be getting approximately the same amount as he was bringing home when he still paid child support. Not a huge issue, except that we're taking over house payments in full soon, and while I have my job still, I am off for the month of July. Two - we have to apply for state aid for the surgery, consults, etc. as well.

I am not looking forward to all this paperwork, and then waiting to find out if we'll get it or not. Nor am I looking forward to the recovery from all this. I know M is in a lot of pain already - how will it be after the surgery? I know we'll make it through, even if we end up making payments to the orthopedic surgeon forever. I am just a bit tired of all these bumps in the road!

Hope your Tuesday is better than mine! I'll stop whining now, and just remember to be grateful that he isn't hurt more, and that we even have the option to apply for help from the state!

Monday Musings... Morning Basket...

Edited to Add: I just got word, literally minutes ago, that my layoff notice is officially being rescinded! Financially this could not have happened at a better time, though I admit I was looking forward to being at home with the kids more... at least I have 6 weeks off to enjoy with them.

I am feeling very inspired by Wildflowers and Marbles' Morning Basket, which you can read about here and here. So much inspired in fact that I have decided to set up my own, which I plan to start using with the children next week. I think summer is a good time to try something new like this, as long as it is gentle and not very demanding since, after all, summer is a time to relax! Anyhow, I'd like to see if this routine is something that would work well for us before I launch into it full on this fall! Due to the above news, mine will be an Afternoon Basket though.




I do have a lovely basket to use already at hand. It is a strong, sturdy affair made of sea grass, so it also has a lovely smell. Right now it is full of miscellaneous homeschooling papers, perhaps a book or two, so I plan to clean it out first.




Then comes the fun part... filling said basket with books! I've been considering very carefully what all to put in the Morning Basket, and have come up with:


Tales From The Odyssey (which we've already started!)
An Everyday History of Somewhere
Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare
Stories of Rocks & Minerals
and
Turn Homeward, Hannalee (this last because there are some local Civil War days coming up!)


I think this will easily get us through July, then in August, I can switch it up! We'll still keep our bedtime reading intact as well, which generally includes some reading to The Girl while The Boy reads on his own, and then a whole-family story.

What We're Up to This Week:

Another quiet week on the agenda:

~ I work every morning this week, and am taking my dad to a doctor's appointment.
~ The Girl has roller derby practice
~ The Boy has a piano lesson.
~ I think our one fun excursion for the week will be Park Day!
~ I've gone ahead and started sorting through more clutter, and "summer cleaning" has commenced! I want the house in uncluttered, spick-n-span condition before fall.
~ BIL is finally actually moving out, so soon we will be moving lots of bedroom furniture about the house. The kids are very, very much looking forward to having their own rooms! I have a plan for this too: 1. Steam-clean the BIL's bedroom once he's moved; 2. Move our stuff into the master bedroom; 3. Steam-clean and hopefully paint our old bedroom for The Girl, move her stuff in; and 4. Clean out thoroughly, and perhaps paint, what will now be just The Boy's room. See? Very organized! We'll see if it really works out as well as I have it working in my head.

And that's our exciting week! Of course there will be reading (see sidebar for what we're reading now), arts and crafts, some TV and computer time, swimming/splashing about in the pool, chickens to care for, a veggie garden to weed and water... and so before we know it, the week will flash right by.

Hope you all have a good week!

Sunday Speculations...

“Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.” ― A.A. Milne 

Wise words from a wise man

Weekly Report... A Very Quiet Week...

On Monday, I posted that we would have a far more peaceful, and less busy, week than the one before, and indeed we did! Not much going on outside the home, which has left me feeling a bit less harried. Although we did go to a beach on Sunday with my mom and sister, which was lovely. M went out fishing with a friend... probably the easiest Father's Day yet!

What We Did Do
Reading: We finished listening to Peter Pan on audio book. Tomorrow, I will pick up Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief to start listening to--this is The Boy's recommendation, and The Girl is very excited about it!

The Girl and I are down to the last few pages of The Ordinary Princess. We'll finish that up today or tomorrow, and move right into something else. Eventually, I think I may read Magic for Marigold to her, or perhaps The Light Princess.

We are also down to the last pages of The Children of Green Knowe, then we'll start Ginger Pye. I finally tracked down a copy of Smoky House--had to order it from England to get a reasonable price!!--so we'll read that a little later this summer.

I need to get back into reading Treasure Island, since we haven't made any progress with that this week.

I finished reading through Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books, and tried it yesterday with The Girl. She was so much more receptive to it than to phonics instruction books! Having a story line to follow seems to make an immense difference.

Other: What else did we do? Well, there were several episodes of Mythbusters and The Waltons. Swimming/splashing around in our little pool. Eggs to be collected from our chickens. M's birthday to celebrate, quietly at home, with homemade presents from the kids. Roller derby practice. Art projects and water balloons. Some computer animation. Lots of teddy bear and American Girl doll play. Today's still anticipated Summer Solstice celebration at park day, if it doesn't rain!

A General Note: A while ago, I bought a second hand copy of Further Up and Further In, a Narnia-based unit study program. I looked through it, and promptly resold it because it did not resonate with me. Too many plans for some weeks, not enough for others. The premise is delightful... a year of study based off some of my all-time favorite books! So I started considering other options for next fall, then circled around to the idea of putting together my own Narnia study. Maybe. I haven't decided yet, but I love the idea. I could work in mythology, particularly Greek and Norse; poetry; Shakespeare; Sherlock Holmes; E. Nesbit's books; fairy tales; and much more--all the works that helped inspire the Chronicles of Narnia. It is still very much a vague, floating-around-in-my-head idea.

On the whole, a laid-back week. Next week will be more of the same. When July hits though, I'll be a stay-at-home mom, at least for a while. I plan to finally finish cleaning and decluttering the whole house, and to start a Morning Basket of sorts. I think I may try reading An Everyday History of Somewhere to the children, to aid us in our summer study of California. I think it might be easier to read from one book on this subject, rather than many historical fiction titles! I do have it on hand too, so I'll have to give it a try.

Hope you all had a good week! Drop by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups (link in my sidebar).

Monday Musings...

On the agenda this week...

Reading

• Finish The Children of Green Knowe, and start Ginger Pye
• Finish The Ordinary Princess with The Girl, and start A Little Princess
• Start reading Dinosaur Bone Wars
• Read about California Missions, and re-read The Song of the Swallows
• I plan to have The Girl work through a few lessons in Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families, with the new (and pretty) alphabet cards I printed up for her. She'll also either read from a Dr. Suess book, or practice in Phonics and Reading Pathways.
• The Boy wants to finish The Son of Neptune, and then probably the third Nathaniel Fludd book. I think he might also like The Sea of Trolls.

Planning

• I am working on a fairly gigantic list of all the books I would like to share with the children over the next year or so. Not a plan mind you, of what to read at a particular time, just a list of books we can pick and choose from, books I don't want to forget to read with them. 
• I'm also reading through Teach a Child to Read with Children's Books (which you can download for free here).

Activities
A much less busy week than the last one!

• M's birthday on Wednesday. I think we're going to head off to the redwoods for the day, since he and I are both taking the day off from work.
• Park day with a special focus on the Summer Solstice on Friday -- a potluck and some crafts/games.
• Roller derby and piano lessons.

Other

• Probably a movie or two, and a documentary or two (I think I have one in my Netflix queue about redwoods... hmmm)
• An art project or two, or three.
• Maybe a science experiment from this book.

What are your plans for the week? Will it be a laid back one, or hectic? Whichever it is, enjoy, and stop by this blog post - some good thoughts here!

A Good Interview...

From an unschooler...

Meet Kate Fridkis, Who Skipped K-12 and Is Neither Weird nor Homeless

Weekly Report... This Was a Busy Week!

It really was a busy week!

 Sunday

We started off with a trip to the San Francisco Opera, to watch The Magic Flute, which was amazing!

Monday 

We headed off to the beach to celebrate a friend's 11th birthday! The weather was perfect--warm and sunny, no clouds, a little wind...

I got to take a long walk down the beach while they played. They buried each other, splashed a little in the very mild surf, ate delicious pasta salad, and had a very good time! And just in the name of all honesty, there was an argument that involved flying sand and a plastic bucket. That almost resulted in us simply packing up and leaving, but instead we managed to calm down and talk it through.

Tuesday

A comparatively relaxed day! We hung out and watched Brady Bunch reruns, the kids played in the pool and ate popsicles. I started reading The Hunger Games to myself; more of The Children of Green Knowe, Treasure Island, and Just So Stories to the kids.

Wednesday

Wednesday started out early, with a trip to Cal Skate for our end-of-the-year homeschool party! We had a blast! M was unfortunately at work, but the kids and I skated to near exhaustion. We elected our new board for the upcoming year, donated a huge bag of books to the free curriculum table (and I only brought 3 new books home), played "Simon Says Red Light Green Light"(on skates), and all the kids raced.

After that, we stopped for lunch with friends, which was lovely, and were talked into rejoining our homeschool 4H this fall.

We wrapped up the day with swimming at home, watching the chickens, and some more reading (see Tuesday above). The kids were wiped out and went to bed with no problem!

Thursday

Another calm day. I worked an extra hour (supplemental pay), then had a lovely treat at my mom's house with blackberries, mango, and chocolate. We came home and just hung out together... there was Wii bowling, The Addams Family movie (first one), art, stories, and delicious shrimp quesadillas for dinner!

I also started my training for the upcoming Mudman challenge! Our whole family is going to participate, so we're all going to be "in training". Thankfully I've got a whole gym setup in the garage... a Bowflex, a treadmill, free weights, and one of those big rubber balls for crunches and so forth. Still recovering from that workout... We're really excited about this challenge! The kids will be doing a non-competitive 1 mile track; M and I will be doing the (also non-competitive) 3 and a half mile track. I've lost 46 pounds so far, and feel so much better that I think I can get ready for this challenge in 3 months!

Friday

Park day! We saw tons of moths everywhere, as all the California Oak Moths are hatching. We got to see friends, relax in the shade (it is hot here these days), the kids played water balloon toss, and more! A lovely, relaxing afternoon.

I am hoping next week will be a little calmer. This week was a lot of fun, but a bit tiring! I have two weeks of work left, so we'll have limited field trips for at least that amount of time. I do want to start actually focusing on Cassia's phonics work again--I printed out some new alphabet cards for work in Easy Lessons for Teaching Word Families, to use in conjunction with Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways.

On Another Note

My plans for July, since I'll be at home, are home and homeschool focused: I want to finish getting through all the clutter in the house, and reorganize a lot. In homeschooling, I want to finish deciding on what we'll be using, and come up with a sort of syllabus for each child--I'm thinking sort of along the lines of Oak Meadow's approach. You can see a sample of their approach here (pdf). If not a syllabus, then at least a general plan of what I would like them accomplish in language arts and math. Science and history are a bit more flexible!

Hope you all had a good week! Check out more weekly wrap-ups over at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers!

Monday Musings & A Field Trip...

Yesterday we attended our first opera! We saw the dress rehearsal for The Magic Flute, after getting a marvelous backstage tour--we got all this special treatment as one of our friend's husband works as a tech guy for the opera.

 

Waiting outside before our tour...

 While we were waiting, we saw some costumes being unloaded!

 

 Inside, we met the "Chinese inspired" two-headed dragon monster from Act I.

There were lion creatures...

A million and one ropes and pulleys for the stage crew to manage...

At the top, they looked down... and it was a long way down! (I think I heard roughly 100+ feet)

Back outside after the opera, and who can resist posing by giant heads?

Not to mention the faceless head...

And naturally I am very proud of The Boy for finding the statue's nose!

The opera itself was marvelous! We read a story book version the night before going, so we could follow the story easily. The costumes and set were interesting... all the backgrounds were digitally transmitted through fiber optic cables. A lot of it resembled crayon scribbles. I'm not sure how much of the scenery and costumes I really liked, but they were bright and effective! Anyhow, I digress - the singing was fantastic, there was good humor, and we all enjoyed it much more than I even thought we would! The Girl loved Papagena, and The Boy got a big kick out of Sarastro, whose bass voice actually rumbled at various points as it was so low!

What We're Up To This Week...

A beach birthday gathering for a friend, same age as Bug now.

An end-of year homeschool roller skating party.

Roller derby practice.

More reading work for The Girl.

Microscope work. M repaired his microscope and the kids have been investigating various items ever since. I plan to start working through The World in a Drop of Water with them.

Reading, reading, and some more reading. I'd like to finish The Ordinary Princess with The Girl, who has asked for A Little Princess next. I'd also like to finish up The Children of Green Knowe, and then read either The Chimneys of Green Knowe, or... darn. I had something else in mind, but can't remember it now!

We're going to start learning about the California missions. Perhaps we'll drop by the local mission as a quick field trip.

Piano practice and a lesson for The Boy. We're looking into violin lessons for The Girl (maybe group lessons).

Other Notes...

For the first time since The Girl started kindergarten with us, we're taking two separate directions in math next fall, as the kids definitely thrive with different approaches. The Boy wants to return to Teaching Textbooks, while with The Girl, I'll be using either a combination of Math Mammoth Blue Series and Evan-Moore Skill Sharpeners OR ???. Something with hands-on, good visuals, etc. I may need to research this a little more. She's somewhere at a 3rd/4th grade level, and we don't mind backing up a bit if it will help in the long run.

Hope you all have a good week!

Weekly Report... Moths and More...

Another week of summer gone--thankfully we still have quite some time left since I don't plan on starting school back up until September (what can I say? I am a traditionalist when it comes to school schedules). Anyhow, here's what we have been up to this week.

Reading

This week we read more in The Children of Green Knowe, as well as several stories from the Just So Stories. The Boy remembered the whale story from our dip into Oak Meadow several years ago! These stories have been a lot of fun, and I would like to read The Jungle Book to them sometime in the next year. We also read about trees in The Story Book of Science, and some more of Treasure Island. I read a bit more of The Ordinary Princess to The Girl, as well as Peter's Old House and The Flowers' Festival (Elsa Beskow). The Boy and I are very much enjoying Swallows and Amazons. We are nearly done with Peter Pan on audiobook, and the kids have requested we start the Percy Jackson series next.

The Girl read from Dr. Suess books this week, in addition to continuing work in Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways.

The Boy read a couple of books about Henry Ford and cars. He is still reading The Son of Neptune, along with various editions of the Guiness Book of World Records.

Nature

 A picture from Wikipedia

We had a moth hatch this week - specifically a California Oak Moth (see my slightly blurry picture to the right) After watching it raptly for some time, the kids released it near the oak tree out back.


There are plenty of these moths hatching at our favorite park... here's the underside of a table that was caution-taped off due to pupae everywhere!

We also watched a documentary called In the Company of Wild Butterflies, and it was fascinating! So much about butterflies that even I didn't know. For example, did you know that when butterflies emerge from the chrysalis, their proboscis is in two sections, and by extending it rapidly several times, they "glue" it together into a tube shape?

And by the way, our mosquitoes all died. We are growing a nice crop of oyster mushrooms though, and ordered some Shiitake plugs to try growing as well!  I also ordered the book The World in a Drop of Water, and can't wait to try it out with the kids.

I almost forgot! The Boy and I built a pinhole projector, and we all saw a bit of the transit of Venus! We're keeping the projector for future cosmic events.

Other

Besides all the reading and nature, the kids played Scrabble Junior and Sorry. They've been all kinds of busy at my mom's house. The Boy designs a lot of cars with his car design studio from his birthday, and The Girl is piecing together a patchwork quilt for one of her dolls. They still watch a lot of nature shows there too. They've played in our little pool; watered the veggie garden (which is growing by leaps and bounds!); fed the chickens; searched delightedly for eggs; collected rocks; gotten filthy playing outside; all the things kids are supposed to do on summer vacation! The Boy is also making nice progress in his piano lessons.

I've been re-reading Pocketful of Pinecones and Lessons at Blackberry Inn. I plan to read through all of Charlotte Mason's Home Education over the summer as well - it is only one volume, but dense! I'm tossing around an idea I gleaned from a message board and Waldorf research... of rotating monthly between a history focus and science focus. Food for thought if nothing else! Any thoughts on this?

I have three weeks of work left, and then we leap into the unknown. Oh, there is a chance that another position might open up, that the secretary taking my job might apply for. Too many "might's" for me to take it very seriously at this point.

Also upcoming, we have: a trip to an opera on Sunday; an end-of-year homeschool skate party next week; M's birthday in another week and a half; and of course Father's Day, so there won't be any boredom setting in yet!

Hope everyone else out there had a good week too! Don't forget to drop by the upgraded and updated Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more weekly wrap-ups!

Happiness is...

Sunshine breaking over the tree tops in the morning. I water the garden before work while sipping coffee! It is a lovely time of day, very fresh, all the birds singing...

Finally being happy with loosely knit plans for the upcoming year!

The chickens clucking away in their hutch/yard. We've gotten 5 eggs so far, and Cassia is truly delighted her chicken lays turquoise eggs! Some Ameracaunas lay ivory eggs instead. Sometimes we just stand by the fence and watch them peck about... a friend of mine last night compared it to the simple pleasure of just watching a newborn, and I could instantly connect with that idea!

Checking the garden each day for new surprises. We have baby squash and tomatoes everywhere! My epazote has doubled in size, the corn is getting very tall, and the cantaloupe plant is blooming like crazy.

Watching Cassia at roller derby practice. She is gaining confidence and skill every week!

Reading. The kids and I are enjoying our plethora of books (see my sidebar). I re-read The Relaxed Homeschool by Mary Hood, and felt... well, relaxed! I read and really liked The Girl Who Chased the Moon. Of course I have this list to read through still, but there is plenty of time for that.

Relaxed afternoons - no lessons to hurry through, few places to go. We've been watching movies, enjoying the hatching of a couple of caterpillars we collected, playing with the microscope, playing board games, and so forth. Today we'll be checking out the transit of Venus! We have a telescope (to be used for projecting, not viewing through with this), and a homemade pinhole projector.

Hugs, giggles, tickling, laughing together.

Our family of pets grew... Updated...

We have five new additions to the family... chickens!

Their names/types are: Selena, an Ameraucana; Aphrodite, a Plymouth/Barred Rock; Matilda, a Golden Sex Link; Sequin, a Rhode Island Red; and PolkaDot, another Plymouth/Barred Rock. We are raising them for eggs, not meat. Three of them are already egg layers, and the other two should be laying in the next few weeks. Of course, they may take a brief break from laying, due to having to settle in their new home.

Anyhow, we are all very excited about this--we've been talking about it for almost 5 years!The kids helped build the new hutch and some nesting boxes, as well as a roost. Tomorrow we're finishing fencing off the garden area so they can run around in there as well. I think in addition to delicious and healthy eggs, it'll be a great learning experience for the kids!

Weekly Report... Summer Week 2...

We're still being lazy, definitely in summer-mode! The weather has been gorgeous lately - clear, deep turquoise skies, lots of warm sunshine, evenings staying light longer... my only complaint about this is that it makes it harder to get the kids to go to bed on time, since they do still have to get up in the mornings through June.




What We've Been Up To...

Swimming/playing in our pool (a smallish above ground one, good enough for splashing around in on warmer days!)

Listening to more of Peter Pan, and watching every version of the movie we can find.

Reading Native American stories, and about their ways of living; Treasure Island (we'll watch both versions of the movie when we finish the book); Children of Green Knowe; more of An Ordinary Princess; and a bit of Swallows and Amazons. The Boy is still reading The Son of Neptune, along with various books concerning Henry Ford and cars. The Girl is slowly working her way through some Dr. Suess books. I think at this point, one of the major roadblocks in her reading ability is that she has no confidence that she can do it. I am trying to help her see otherwise.

The Girl has fallen in love with old Brady Bunch episodes, and The Waltons this summer. Too funny! I'm better with her watching these shows than a lot of the tween garbage that is out there today. Besides, I loved the Brady Bunch growing up!

The Boy continues to work on computer animation, piano lessons, model building, drawing, and so forth.

And there have been plenty of popsicles...






We captured some mosquito larvae this week, and the kids are watching and charting their growth cycle. Next week, I hope to start reading The Story Book of Science to them again. I also came across an intriguing book called Life in a Bucket of Soil, which I may add in this fall. I have Donald Silver's Amazing Earth Model Book, which has a fantastic underground scroll art project that would match up nicely with the Bucket of Soil book!

Next week will also involve more reading on The Girl's part. Hopefully, she will soon understand, and believe, that she does have the tools to be a reader. Confidence is what we need!

Hope everyone out there had a good week too. Drop by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers for more Weekly Wrap-ups later today. And she has a giveaway going on!