When I sat down to write this week’s homeschooling wrap-up, I initially thought that we hadn’t done much at all. Looking back at our daily to-do lists, though, the kids did get a lot of their work done. They were just so expeditious the first four days of the week that it was all easy and breezy. They finished their schoolwork before lunchtime almost every day, and a lot of our regularly scheduled activities were canceled due to weather (tennis) or sickness (piano & guitar). The rain was dreary and I felt bad for the ailing music teachers, but it was nice to have a lot of free time.

Today has been … less breezy. We’re getting there, though. Here’s a bit of what the kids worked on this week:

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SOCIAL STUDIES

History

This week in history we learned about opium! More specifically, how the opium trade led to China being forced to open up to the Western world. I was going to make poppyseed muffins to go along with the theme, but Pete spent most of the morning rolling around in his chair and whining about math, so it hasn’t happened yet.

Geography

I have once again given up on the grand plans I made at the beginning of the year regarding geography. Maybe someday we’ll complete a 50 States study, but this is not the year. I was being too inconsistent in actually working on that project, so I bought a long geography workbook and we started on it this week.

LANGUAGE ARTS

Reading

Pete finished the “Star Wars” book he’d been reading, and we haven’t been to the library to find him something new. Do you have any book suggestions for the energetic 8-year-old boy?

Poppy’s current literature study book is “Black Beauty.” She’s been enjoying it, and she’s gotten to ride a horse twice since she started the book. That was pretty much coincidental. The first time was at her friend’s birthday party, and the second was when her aunt took her while we were on vacation.

Writing

Poppy is nearly at the end of her “Writing Strands” book, and she actually asked me to order the next level. She has a wonderful imagination, and I love that she’s starting to put her ideas to paper. She’s currently working on a story that involves a great gust of wind, a cupcake and a lion.

STEM

Math

This morning Poppy told me that the work she’s been doing with fractions “is starting to make sense.” Yay! Less than “yay,” however: Pete started his math test this morning at 11, and he still hasn’t finished it. He’s currently at his make-up guitar lesson. Hopefully he’ll have a bit more focus after he jams for awhile.

Science

This week we studied mirrors, using a Young Scientists kit. The mirror we tried to make out of foil and cardboard didn’t work so well, but the kids really enjoyed the symmetry drawing exercise.

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How was your week?

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