Most of the games at our local pinball museum are also for sale, and I was saddened today to discover that they’d sold both Shaq Attaq and Bride of Pinbot. They were, respectively, my second-favorite and Rockford’s very favorite pinball game in the building. I had neither a favorite nor a second-favorite pinball machine until a few months ago, when one of Pete’s friends invited him to his pinball birthday party. After that, the Butterscotch Sundae family went to the pinball museum several Sundays in a row before finally and sadly concluding that our budget could not support that much pinball.

Today the children and I returned after a weeks-long absence. We went with a few other families from our Monday co-op, and the owner gave us a presentation on the history of pinball before setting the kids loose to play for awhile. Poppy threw him off a little with her question: “What’s with all the ladies on the pinball games?” He explained that it was because the makers of the machines were advertising to boys, since boys were the ones with the freedom to go gallivanting about playing pinball, thus we have ladies on the pinball displays. The burgeoning feminists in our crew were not impressed.

So we started the week with no school at all, because we were all sick and tired, and we wrapped it up with a field trip to the pinball museum. It was kind of a weird week, I guess. Here’s a bit of what the kids did this week beyond recreation history:

History

This week’s “Story of the World” chapter discussed the Trail of Tears. The kids listened to the chapter several times and did some map work, and today we made Cherokee Fry Bread:

Cherokee Fry Bread
adapted from the Manataka American Indian Council
1 cup flour + extra as needed
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 cup milk
cinnamon sugar
honey

Mix ingredients, adding more flour if necessary to make a stiff dough. (I needed an extra half cup.) Roll out the dough on a floured board until very thin. Cut into 2- by 3-inch strips and drop in hot cooking oil. Brown on both sides. If your oil is quite hot, it’ll only a minute or so. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and serve hot with honey.

I thought it was delicious, but Poppy didn’t care for it and Pete wouldn’t even try it.

Language Arts

Reading

Poppy has started reading “Serafina and the Black Cloak” for our book club, and Pete has been re-reading one of his “Star Wars” universe graphic novels. I’ve been sick all week, and when I get sick I lose my voice. So our “Harry Potter” read-aloud has fallen by the wayside a bit.

Vocabulary

I gave each of the bookclub girls a notebook to jot down thoughts as they read, and one of the other moms suggested that we also have them use it to record words they don’t understand. They’re going to share one new vocabulary word at our next meeting. So far Poppy has written down “camaraderie,” but I don’t think she’s looked it up yet.

Poppy and Pete are also continuing their WordlyWise 3000 studies.

Writing

Pete is still very reluctant to do much writing on his own, so it’s nice that his WriteShop curriculum has me doing most of the physical writing. This week he was supposed to dictate to me a memorable holiday event, and he told me about the time his sister accidentally punched him in the face and knocked out a loose tooth on his birthday. Sweet, sweet memories.

Grammar

We’re near the end of the Grammar Island practice book, and I’m impressed at how well the kids are retaining the information. They get especially excited when they identify a pronoun, or as we like to call it — “a noun that’s lost its amateur status.”

Memorization

The kids have been working on memorizing the names of the US presidents in order. We’re up to Grover Cleveland, but I think we probably need to go back and review Harrison through Lincoln because we didn’t spend much time on that segment.

Math

I’m thinking about getting Beast Academy for Pete to try out once he finishes his current curriculum. I think Poppy might enjoy it, too, but I’ll probably just go with the first level and let her use it as review.

Wanna read more about homeschooling? Check out the Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers weekly linky thing!