Tour 1 Week 14

 

There's nothing quite like the homemade gifts of affection from young children.  All their sweetness and innocence and unabashed love for their mother manifested in one hand-drawn, crayon-colored, construction paper masterpiece. 

Or cookies. 

They do know their mother well.

The week started with Valentine's Day and ended with Oldest Boy's birthday.  His 19th birthday.  Nineteen. 

Somewhere in there it also snowed a bit. 

He measured nine inches. The youngest two boys never knew the snow playing glory their older brothers experienced while living in the Cleveland area for five years. They would spend hours outside building igloos and snowmen and forts and who-knows-what else. Youngest Boys happily enjoyed their fraction of that experience during the only snow-filled week we've had in Indiana in a long time. 

Of course Older Boys were sent outside to clear enough snow so that their mother could get to her physical therapy appointments and the grocery store. A.K.A. the only places I go anymore. Except when I stop into the craft store for nothing in particular because it's my Happy Place and sometimes I just need to aimlessly wander the aisles of fabric and yarn and paints and vinyl and all the pretty things. 

Still Getting Use out of the Abraham Lincoln Hat

We did manage to fit in some school work in between outside playing time and the requisite hot chocolate drinking that comes afterwards.

This week we learned about Wealthy Industrialists, Public Libraries, Buffalo Bill, Eastman's Camera and Immigration. We also continued learning about Saint Damien of Molokai, John Philip Sousa and Winslow Homer. Our art project was a watercolor resist of a snowman scene.  We reviewed what we've learned about lines - the rule of thirds for the horizon as well as using lines to create movement within a picture. It was a very timely project to paint given the recent snowy weather.

We ended our week celebrating Oldest Boy's 19th (!!!) birthday. He enjoyed a relaxing day of pizza-eating, video-game-playing, movie-watching and tinkering with (upgrading) his computer.

That was our week!  I forgot to take a picture of the books we used this week, so I'll add that later if I can - if only for my own memory when we come around to studying the same topics in a few years. 

I hope you're staying safe and surviving February! 

~ Dori