Another Week Gone By

We have been busy bees over the past week.  We took a trip to Pumpkinville in VA where we enjoyed the beauties of fall.

Along with hayrides, slides, swings, things to climb and moonbounces they also had a petting farm.  The kids had fun feeding the llamas, donkeys, cows & goats...if the animals didn't snatch their food before they had the chance to feed them! Ha!



Hanging out with a wild beast




Hand over the food and no one gets hurt





I also had my first meeting, that I'm required to have, with the Home School Monitor of our public school system.  I didn't know what to expect, so I packed a bag of each of my kids work, books, lapbooks, notebooks, nature journals, etc. to show her what we're doing. It was hard to not pack a big storage bin on wheels! But, I resisted the urge and settled on their current reading books and best samples of their work from each subject.  I felt like I was going to need to prove that we are having consistent and thorough instruction time. To say the least, I was overprepared.  After taking notes on what curriulum we're using for each subject and remarking that we're using all her favoirtes she basically folded her hands and asked, "Is there anything you want to show me?"  Wow.  That was it.  So, I pulled out a couple of lapbooks to which she was very impressed with. She was very supportive and provided a packet of resources and told me to call with any concerns. She told me to enjoy them while their young, go on field trips and let them pursue their interests.  I left feeling inspired and a little more relaxed, which is actually kind of scary considering I'm really laid back this year!

As Jenna is learning all about cooking in her Home Ec course I had her bake a cake from scratch, putting her skills to use.  She found her own recipe online for a yellow cake and buttercream vanilla icing.  Aside from helping her put her pan in and out of the oven she did the whole thing on her own.

She decided to decorate it and write "Art Smart" on it (a saying from our art curriulum) so we could take it to our "art class" that day.





 

We also added the renal & digestive systems to our "people" for our studies in human anatomy:

For reading they are both putting finishing touches on their book reports.  Jared finished "Around the World in 80 Days" and wants to set up stations throughout our house representing the different places Phileas Fogg visited.  Jenna finished "Dracula" (yikes) and plans to do a diorama.  They've already picked out their books for next month's book report- "The Adventures of Hucklebery Finn" and "Beowulf".

That was our week!