Tour 1 Week 11

 

Like most people, I didn't want Christmas break to end.  

And yet, I did. 

There's nothing quite like the feeling of content that comes with facing a much-deserved break from the normal, often-demanding, routine of daily home school life. The idea of days, even weeks of gloriously unstructured time was the well-earned reward for surviving the first part of the school year. 

In a pandemic.

With everyone home. 

Together. 

All. The. Time.

I'm always overly optimistic with my plans for time off. 

"I'll clean and organize everything!"

"I'll finish craft projects!"

"I'll catch up on all the grading and transcripts!"

"I'll plan and organize everything for next semester!"

You get the idea. 

I believe we all struck a decent balance of relaxation and productivity over the break. As I mentioned in my previous post, we played games, watched movies, and generally just enjoyed not worrying about things like calculus.  And while it can be a lot to have so many people together under one roof all the time, most days I remember to be grateful.  My boys are all safe and healthy and I get bonus time with my college kid around, so really that's all that matters. 

This week we started where we left off in our history timeline and learned about Abraham Lincoln, The Civil War, Clara Barton, The Homestead Act and the Emancipation Proclamation. 

Between learning about Abraham Lincoln and reading the Little House series, we decided to build some log cabins. Lincoln Logs are one of those toys that gets forgotten in our house, but whenever they're brought out, the two youngest enjoy playing with them. 

The six year-old is playing with them as I write this.

We learned about the New England States and added them to our geography notebooks.

Our science adventures in Zoology took us to the Bamboo Forest in China where we learned about Pandas and Birds. Our science demonstration used a variety of "tools" (chopsticks, tweezers, pliers, etc...) to represent different types of bird beaks and we rated how easy it was to pick up things like nuts, seeds and (gummy) worms.

It was an exhausting, yet satisfying week of learning together. We put off our sewing and quilting lesson until next week. Next week's lesson is stitching/embroidery, which everyone actually did this week anyway. They see their mama stitching and grab their own projects to work on.

 The 10 year-old is working on a hummingbird pattern and the six year-old is stitching something...orange. 

The last stitching project (that wasn't crochet) that I completed is a common quote by Mother Teresa. I changed the colors a bit and made the word "Great" blue instead of orange and changed "Mother Teresa" to "Saint Teresa." I love how it turned out and was proud of myself for actually completing it. It makes a nice decoration in my desk area. 

In other news, The Husband and I have embarked upon a Healthy Habits Challenge for the next six weeks. We both need to lose weight and get healthier and this opportunity presented itself at the perfect time. 

He found the challenge through a friend and we decided to both join the Facebook group of participants. I like that the challenge focuses on things to DO instead of things to limit - with the exception of not having sweets or alcohol. You tally your points each week and also keep track of your weight and can earn prizes for your progress. We aren't really in it for the prizes - we felt that having group support and accountability would benefit us, though. Having the specific "tasks" has been very helpful. It's much better than a general "I need to eat healthier and exercise more" kind of mentality. So far so good, but it's only been three days.

Pray for us. 

That was our week! It feels good to be back to our full school routine. One can only function in unstructured limbo for so long.  Next week the two college students start back with very full schedules. They're both continuing online and are excited about their classes - Oldest Boy may be just a little worried about Calculus 2.  

Here are some resources we used this week:

Books:

• Catholic Schoolhouse Tour Guide and Art Book
• Sassafras Science Adventures in Zoology
• Farmer Boy (read-aloud)
• Abraham Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books
• B is for Battlecry: A Civil War Alphabet 
• What Was the Battle of Gettysburg?
• Who Was Clara Barton?
• Abe Lincoln's Hat
• Abraham Lincoln (Venezia)
• Gettysburg
• Civil War on Sunday
• Abraham Lincoln for Kids
• A Perfect Time for Pandas
• The Big Book of Birds
• Eagles
• Tracks of a Panda
• Endangered Pandas

Other Resources:

• Catholic Brain (Adventure Catechism and Saint Videos)
• BrainPop - Lincoln, Civil War, Civil War Causes, Pandas, Birds
• Stack the States
• American History for Kids 
• PBS Learning Media

Here's to a safe, productive spring semester of learning!  

~ Dori