Week 20 2010 - Already!!

Well, we are way past our required number of days for the year. Everything is going so well right now that we are just going to keep on going.

This week was a good week back after the testing last week. All the kids are still liking Time4Learning so that is getting done with a minimum of fuss. Even adding in more of the worksheets from the program has not been a big deal. I'm somewhat surprised at Katie. The child who used to tear up at a two-sentence copywork assignment willingly completed a two page worksheet answering reading comprehension questions in complete, original sentences.

Mary spent most of the week working on a quick 'Amelia Earhart' unit study inspired by The 39 Clues book series. We've watched a biography on her, watched a BrainPop video on her and one on how planes fly, Mary completed some vocabulary work regarding airplanes and painted a model the plane Earhart used in her 'around-the-world' attempt.

It is actually a styrofoam glider I found at Dollar General for $2 and looks more like a modern-day passenger jet, but was as close as I could get.

Here they are testing out the principles of lift and thrust.

Emily took her first 'tests' this week on T4L and was very excited to earn 100% on both of them. Mary's work with planes inspired Emily to learn more about birds and we have been reading about them. She has also been continuing to work on writing her numbers. I think '8' is her favorite number this week "because it looks like a snowman."

Katie is reading, reading, reading. I think she is averaging a "Magic Tree House" book a day. She also did a few more pages for her North Carolina notebook we are working on with her. This week we focused on some symbols of NC.

Today we went to the 'Got To Be North Carolina' festival at the fairgrounds. It highlighted NC agriculture, crafts and products. It was a great day for it. Very few people there since it was a Friday and still clean since they had just opened.

We arrived just in time for the antique tractor parade which was actually kind of cool. Then we headed over to the petting zoo area.

The big discovery of the day was that goats and camels have 'people' teeth according to Emily.

We wandered around for a while a looked at the fiber art displays watching people spinning wool and weaving. Stopped by the antique farm machinery building where there was one tractor the kids could climb on.

Stopped for some overpriced lunch and tried to keep Robbie from taking a dip while listening to Bluegrass music.

After that I finally let the kids loose on the midway.

This ride goes against every instinct as a parent. First you let them climb into a deflated rubber bubble, then a really loud air pump is attached and inflates the bubble.

Then the kids get to go try their feet at walking on water.

But, most of the time they ended up looking like gerbiles in a ball.

Mary and Katie said it was a lot of fun, but it got very, very hot in the bubble.

This was the ride chosen by Emily and Robbie.

All four of them rode the spinning strawberry ride.

By this time we were very hot and tired. All of us were ready for a nap...so we headed home to chill.

It was a great end to a very good week.

Peace,

Amy