...

If we value the pursuit of knowledge, we must be free to follow wherever that search may lead us. ~ Adlai Stevenson

Friday, November 2, 2012

Week 8... Busy with Halloween...

Week 8 was, for the most part, a good one. We didn't get to everything I had hoped, but we did do a lot!

~* Sunday *~
Cooking lesson for The Girl - we made lentil soup with celery, onion, carrots, bay leaves, and mustard greens - delicious!

We read You're on Your Way, Teddy Roosevelt!... all about this president's childhood (did you know he was homeschooled for much of his childhood?)

And we read The Ghost of Nicholas Greebe.. a nice, ghostly tale for October!

I introduced The Boy to multiplying with decimals with a printout from Math Mammoth.

The Girl and I went through another chapter in Life of Fred Apples (review work), and did a Math Mammoth lesson on adding whole 10's. 

We read more of The Graveyard Book at bedtime.


~* Monday *~
We read a lot: Mozart Tonight; The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from a ghost story collection; a story from Tales of Little Grey Rabbit (mostly for The Girl, but I noticed The Boy listening in); and more of The Graveyard Book.

The Boy continued working on multiplying with decimals. He seems to be getting the hang of it quickly!

The Boy worked on a couple of pages on nouns in Writing Skills; did a picture study from Intermediate Language Lessons; and studied his spelling words.

The Girl read to me from Reading Pathways, and then did a picture study lesson from Primary Language Lessons. I had her dictate all her answers to me, and asked for complete sentences - she did very well with this!

We read about cells, and started an experiment on osmosis, using potatoes, from How Nature Works

We watched part two of NOVA's Becoming Human.


~* Tuesday *~
 A light day...

The Boy returned to fencing after missing two weeks due to illnesses in the house (first he was sick with a cold, then I got an ear infection). He had a blast and hopes not to miss any more classes!

We read Ghost Ship and Wicked Jack, as well as Mummy Math -- I really recommend Cindy Neuschwander's math storybooks... they are very child friendly, educational, and just plain fun!

The kids carved their Jack O' Lanterns.

We watched The Corpse Bride for the first time, and enjoyed it very much!

We put the finishing touches on Halloween costumes.


~* Wednesday *~
HALLOWEEN!

The kids spent the entire day in costume. I had to work, but turned into a witch as soon as I got home!

We read from The Graveyard Book. While this book only has, I think, 8 chapters, it is still taking us a while to get through, as each of those 8 chapters is quite long - we never make it through a whole one in a single sitting!

We went trick-or-treating in the rain. We visited Petaluma because they have an awesome downtown store trick-or-treating program, and then we went to D Street - a street lined with mansions, almost all of which were decorated insanely for the holiday! So we got soaked, but still had a blast!

We came home, had pizza, and read a couple of Samhain stories from Circle Round.


~* Thursday *~
We started the day with reading Spirit of Tio Fernando: A Day of the Dead Story.

We ran errands: dropping of ballots at the drive-through drop-off office; getting milk from a friend's farm, where the kids played walnut wars with her kid, pet the goats, chased a few chickens, and so forth; and we paid a visit to the police station to clear up a traffic ticket (expired tags... oops!); and we finished up with a visit to the pet/pet supply store for meal worms and we bought The Girl a little brown and white mouse as a personal pet. She named it Emily.

The Boy further reviewed his spelling words, and made a bubble chart for a book he wants to write.

The Girl read aloud from Reading Pathways, and then a few pages of Little Bear's Friend. She then proceeded to watch a couple of episodes of Little Bear, and spent some time comparing the book and TV show.

The Boy cleaned out his water dragon's (Athena) terrarium. The Girl set up her mouse's new home, and laughed hysterically when Emily (the mouse) ran so fast on her wheel that she flipped over and fell off!

The Boy discovered the TV show Smash Lab. It now ties with Mythbusters as his choice of entertainment!

We finished up the evening with a little more of The Graveyard Book.


~* Friday *~
On today's agenda...

National Lampoon's Vacation (Fridays are now our "official movie night"!)

Park day, after I drop M off at a local lake for some fishing.

More of The Graveyard Book, and we're going to read The Carnival of the Animals.


~* Saturday *~
On the agenda...

Fall housecleaning - it is time to start getting prepared for all the upcoming holidays!

Perhaps some local hiking, maybe among the redwoods.

Some fun reading.


~* Bits & Pieces *~
The Boy is about 3/4 of the way done with The Headless Cupid. He's also reading David Macaulay's Built to Last and is eagerly awaiting a copy of Unbuilding. He uses these books to help with his computer-based construction programs. He is rereading Dog Days as well.

We're almost done with The Lightning Thief at long last - so close in fact, that I went ahead and picked up the second book on audio cd!

I have finally caught up on my reading!


Hope everyone else had a good week! Enjoy your weekend as well!

3 comments:

  1. I read The Graveyard Book several years ago. Great time to read the book. Mythbusters seems interesting I have only watched a few epidsodes. Perhaps I should record a few for my oldest. Great week.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We have Spirit of Tio Fernando and always read it on All Souls. The kids wanted to eat Mexican last night, but I just didn't have the energy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. "...but turned into a witch as soon as I got home."

    LOVE it!

    ReplyDelete

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Emerson

Thanks for stopping by! I love comments :)