Week in Review::The One That Blew By

I took an accidental blogging break this week. There really was no time. So, deep breath!, this is what we did get to this week:

Around the House:

Yes, it is March, but we are still on a purging/organizing mission (our New Year's resolution). Some days, just a few things get accomplished- other days, we really go at it. It is hard to believe that we fit so much stuff in our teeny tiny house! I should have documented the number of bags going to the Goodwill. I try to at least set the timer for 15 minutes (as per Flylady) a day. That gives me enough time to purge a pile of papers or a dresser drawer.

In the School Room:

All About Spelling is still a huge success here. It is not necessarily one of those "fun" programs, but the boys can tell it is working, so they are content to do the lessons. We are half way through the 2nd level. I can tell that my 7yo is going to need to slow down a bit, but I am hoping to finish this level and start level 3 with the older boys before the end of the school year.

Time 4 Learning is working well for James (7yo). My only frustration is that not everything has audio. There is probably some reason for this, but I have not had time investigate it. Other than that, he really enjoys the lessons- especially science and math.

Using the Beautiful Feet Geography Guide, we have started "Minn of the Mississippi" in our geography co-op. I can tell this book is going to be meatier than "Paddle-to-the-Sea". There is a lot of room for exploring many topics.

                    

                    

We are enjoying Beginning Drawing with Barry Stebbing. I have not mentioned it often because we use it somewhat sporadically, but we just began disc three (drawing animals). This program has really renewed the interest in drawing around here; the boys draw on their own much more often since we started these lessons. It was well worth the $30 that I spent on the DVD set.

James' (7yo) drawings from today's lesson.

Out of the House: 

Lego Robotics- it was their last day on Monday. :( My boys loved this class.

Swim Lessons- The boys are making huge improvements. I continue to have high hopes for a more relaxing time at the beach this summer.

New in the Lesson Planner:

I am journaling our days. So often, I get to the end of the week and feel like we did not make any progress if I don't have "check" next to all of our planned lessons. I am using a plain ($1) spiral notebook. I date it in the morning and just jot down what we do during the day. On weeks like this one, when we have been crazy busy all week long, but don't seem to have accomplished much by plan book standards, it is good for me to see where our time went and what we did accomplish.

Can We Call This PE?

Paul timed the boys (at co-op) on a scooter course to see who could make the best time. After one of the more dare devilish kids crashed a few times, I called a halt to the event. Next week, I will remind the kids to bring helmets if they want to race.                                                                                                    

                                  

               

Bocce ball. This is a great game. I like that all ages can play together and the younger players often do just as well as the older ones.

I hope you all had a wonderful and productive week!!

Join Jen over at Forvever, For Always, No Matter What to see other weekly wrap-ups and link up too!

I am at little late linking up, but you can also join in over at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.