Precious Moments

This week began our first full week back at school since before Christmas.  Yes, I know.  Our winter holidays were a little long this year but I guess that is the advantage of homeschooling 🙂

Last week ended with a smattering of snow:

which the little ones played in for as long as they could,making and throwing snowballs:

as well as making mini snow men:

So cute!  Afterwards they snuggled up together with teddies and blankets and watched the dinosaur movie, again.  For the umpteenth time 🙂

The weekend went by in a whirl with chores earning the children money; hospitality on Sunday and finishing it by meeting some friends up at the park.  I particularly enjoyed laying the table with some beautiful roses.  I do love roses:

So pretty:

We used the Portmeirion dishes Gary’s parents bought me for Christmas, and for the first time ever we had enough pudding bowls for everyone!

I’ve been collecting these since Gary and I first got married, 18 years ago.

Monday was first full day back.  I had a lot I wanted to get through, but I needed to plan the day without T because he was due to take his Physics exam the very next day.

Monday we all did maths, had a morning meeting where we finally finished Who is God?  meaning we could move onto Who am I? on Tuesday.  We are coming to the end of the Mystery of History Volume 3 and read the lesson about Robert Boyle.  I also read some of the Ancient Mesopotamia book The Golden Bull, which we will be doing some project based learning around.  The older ones then went off to study their chosen areas.  T finished reading The Golden Bull, L carried on with Anatomy and Physiology whilst C began a music theory course.  The Littles and I began our Dinosaur unit study, which they were very excited about.  A7 watched the first lesson in this course.

I had them give a quick presentation about all they had learnt.  I had decided to do this as a simple way of keeping tabs on their independent learning.  L read out the essay she had written on the negative effects of smoking on the lungs and larynx:

C had managed to complete 7 (!) music theory lessons which she excitedly regaled to us all, the enjoyment and understanding obvious:

The younger two presented everything they learnt (with me helping with prompts) about the dinosaurs:

I counteracted B and her grumps by having her help me in the kitchen.  She took out her mood on loads of salad veg and was a happy bunny once more at the end!

Also we have plans to build a large shed/outbuilding (for the teens to use with their friends and for everyone to use as a school/project room) and needed to spend time clearing the back of the garden.

The older children spent their time doing this and earning some money to pay for their chosen activities, whilst I finished off some of the activities with the little ones for our Mesopotamian Unit Study.

I though L13 looked remarkably like Margo from The Good Life (!)

Tuesday was the dawn of T’s very first IGCSE.  He had a 2 hour exam in Physics in the afternoon with a second exam next week.  He has obviously been a little worried about it so we have all been giving him a little leyway.  The girls did his chores for him, and did half an hour of maths.  They visit the local school attached to our church each Tuesday morning, helping with the morning assembly, often acting as characters in the Bible, and teaching the little ones all about God’s word.

Tuesday afternoon, whilst T was at his exam, the girls and I did some work on their dinosaur unit, colouring in dinosaur masks and watching Disney’s Dinosaur movie, whilst I finished up a guest post for Beth at 123homeschool4me.

Tuesday evening A7 had her first ever trampolining lesson.  L13, who has accompanied her for support, was delighted to be asked to step in for the second coach who was running late.  So fun to watch my girls doing something together which they clearly enjoy.

Wednesday we got back to some sort of normality.  The day began with maths followed by morning meeting, where we did some Bible, a lesson from the Mystery of History on the Quakers and discussed the children’s project time the next day.

T spent the rest of the morning on a physics paper in preparation for his next exam, C continued with her music theory class, completing another 2 lessons and giving a great presentation on what she had learnt.  L spent her individual subject time reading The Golden Bull in readiness for her project time the next day.

Lorna and co came over for Biology IGCSE.  I taught the older ones and their two friends about reproduction using a melon, a kiwi and some wiggly worms…..yes I know, the mind boggles.  I thoroughly enjoyed the teens’ embarrassment and promised myself we should do it again someday……(post forthcoming)

Wednesday evening, C13 went to her singing lesson.  She has just received a credit in her Grade two singing exam, and was going to take Grade 3 in pop music.  After a chat with her father, she decided it would be a good idea to learn to sing harmony.  She really wants to join the worship band at church, with her brother, and thought this would be helpful.  She had a very successful first lesson in harmony singing and came home full of the joys of spring.

Later on that night, T went to his small group, which is now meeting once a week.  He just loves going, meeting his friends, learning about God and leading worship every so often.  The leaders are so encouraging and I can see his confidence and enjoyment in playing the guitar growing all the time.

As a side, he is currently building his own base guitar from scratch and had put a bid on an amplifier to use with it (on ebay).  He won with a bid of just £2!  It seems music in its various forms is becoming very popular in our house!

Thursday was just a normal day at home, with a bog standard morning of maths, morning meeting and individual topics.  This time C13 read The Golden Bull, whilst L worked on some Anatomy and Physiology and T completed some Physics.  The Littles and I made some dinosaur dress up and had a bit of fun doing the ‘Dinosaurus Rumpus’!

After lunch we spent the afternoon on project based learning.  This term we will be revising Mesopotamia with the older ones, whilst continuing the little one’s learning on this fascinating time in history.  The littles and I made a ziggarat as part of the Mesopotamia unit we currently doing.  This will take pride of place in the Mesopotamia city they will be building for their project this term.  The older ones primarily did their research for their projects, although L managed to squeeze in a bit of hands on fun too:

Later on in the afternoon our friend Sarah came to visit to say her good byes as she starts a new life in London:

Today we will be spending doing a condensed version of a normal morning, after which we will spend whatever time is left of the morning doing household chores.  Lorna and her two will be joining us at 1 when T and B will go to my mum’s house (peace and quiet) and study Business Studies IGCSE and Psychology IGCSE which they have chosen to study independently together (slight oxymoron, I know).

The girls, young and old, will be doing some home making, beauty and health learning using all the lovely courses over at School House Teachers.

I really enjoyed this week.  It has been just the right amount of busy, really productive and fun.  Here’s to another 4 weeks of similar productivity!

Hope you guys all have a wonderful weekend full of fun, family and fandabidosy times 🙂