The blow by blow of our week.

We were actually really busy this week. We were going and going all week. Learning was very informal this week. Mostly just fit in a few books here and there and discussing different things we noticed in them.

Monday- We didn't do any school in the morning. Sophie had a friend over most of the day. Her friend goes to public school and this is Spring Break for her. So the girls had a great time playing almost every game in our game closet and getting out all of Soph's stuffed animals. Ian was a bit jealous that Sophie played with her friend and not with him. They didn't really want him to play with them. I tried to play other games with the boys to distract them.
In the mail I received two new CDs that I got via Swapa CD. Debussy for Daydreamingis really lovely. Great quiet music! Sophie was excited to listen to The Children's Corner. After listening to the Classics for Kids programs on Debussy last week she was really looking forward to hearing this one. Sophie's new favorite is Golliwogs Cakewalk.

Tuesday -We started our day with our FIAR book Harold and the Purple Crayon and talked a little about perspective and how to draw to show depth. We really looked at the artwork in the book and read a few other books about drawing. Sophie really liked The Fantastic Drawings of Danielle. Ian really liked the Blackboard Bear books and The squiggle. He especially loved being able to identify the Great Wall of china in the Squiggle.

I had book club in the morning. This is a mom book club. We read books and discuss while our kids all play. It is a little loud and at times crazy but we do get in some good discussion even with all the distractions. This month we discussed the book Dancing Skeletons. This isn't a book I would recomend for a pleasure read but it was really interesting and I learned a lot about the culture and habits of the people in West Africa.
In the afternoon we headed to Santa Cruz with some friends to see the beach and the aquarium. The kids had a great time there and didn't want to go home.

Wednesday - Our library day. We went to story time and Sophie got to use her new library card to check out The Borrowers Afield and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. She is very excited to have a library card of her own. I didn't tell her that the only reason I wanted to get her one was so I could but more items on hold. I am only allowed 10 items on my card. Now, with hers, I can have up to 20. So far I haven't needed her holds yet.
After the library we always head to the park to play for a bit. We went to one of our favorite parks and played a long time with our friends.
The movie The borrowers was in the mail (netflix) when we got home. So the afternoon was spent watching that and discussing how different it was then the book.

Thursday -I actually got a book on Georgia O'Keefe from the library and we looked through it first thing Thursday morning. Sophie doesn't quite understand abstract art. She loves the flour pictures and even teh skull pictures but doesn't quite get the ones that are just waves of color. We talked a little about warm colors and cool colors while looking at some of these more abstract pictures.
We went on our hike with friends. This hike was about a mile up to a farm. The kids loved seeing all the farm animals.
If you can't tell that is a rabbit Sophie and Henry are looking at.
Everything is so green and the path was lined with poppies. It was really beautiful. Henry insists he is a baby and requires me to hold him lately. So I was pretty tired by the time we got back to the car. But the kids had a great time and broke out the magnifying glasses (we have carried them around this week since Green Hour assignment #8 is to get up close) to view a bug that was on the path.



That afternoon we again got around to reading Harold. This time we talked about the pies he eats and how much pie. This lead to a discussion on fractions and parts. We got out paper and cut out pies. Then we cut each pie into fourths, thirds or whatever. I showed the kids my measuring cups and we talked about how many 1/3 cups could fill the 1 cup. This of course lead to baking. The kids wanted to make cookies. So we used our fractions to bake cookies. They loved this. Then they went outside to play. And well.... the mud was a lot of fun for the kids. I had a lot to clean up. I had to listen to Debussy for Daydreaming while I threw something together for dinner. I can't even recall what it was. It must have been good.

Friday - Sophie decided she wanted to go with me to my aqua fitness class at the YMCA this morning. She can swim quite well now so I let her come. I am one of the younger ladies that attends this class so it was quite exciting to have such a little girl come to class. She did well keeping to the corner and not bothering anyone. She informed me that she wants to come all the time now. I had to explain that she can come once in awhile but not every time. She thought this was alright since "rec. swim is more fun then class".

Friday is our shopping day so we went to the grocery. But first we went to to Ross to see if they had any sandals. It is getting too hot to wear socks and shoes so we went in search for some summer shoes. We got lucky. Ross had some croc like shoes there in each of the kids sizes. Ian was really excited because he and Henry were able to get spiderman crocs. Ok so that isn't school related but it took up most of the morning.

We actually did some school in the afternoon. I turned on our Story of the World CD and we learned about Julius Ceasar. Then we looked through our Roman News book. I can't say Sophie was totally interested so that was that. The boys took over and handed me book after book to read to them while Sophie drew pictures.

We then went to the park where a story teller was going to be putting on his storytelling show for a group of homeschoolers. He told an Anansi story which thrilled the kids since we have read so many Anansi stories in the past. He also told a Juan Bobo story we had never heard of. I think we will have to check some out of the library next time. The kids of course had to play at the playground for a bit after the show. But hunger took over and since I hadn't brought snacks we headed home.

The kids played the rest of the afternoon. Sophie read and Ian and Henry played with the Knights and Castle. Then they watched a few more Classic Pink Panther cartoons while I made dinner.

That is our week in probably too much detail. We went a little light on school and heavy on play this week. We certainly didn't cover all our subjects but fit in quite a bit of other things. We will have to get back in the groove next week. We didn't even get around to doing our Green Hour Challenge even though we did carry around our spy glasses.
A quieter week would be nice.