Next week is our Spring Break though the weather has been so amazing here that I keep trying to convince myself it must be time for Summer Vacation! A lot of people have asked me if I have a hard time keeping SuperKid motivated to work when the weather is so nice. Actually, I have a hard time this year keeping SK motivated to work regardless of what the weather is doing. It's just that kind of year, ya' know? The weather, however, makes it hard for ME to stay motivated. I love being outside for the warm weather. My boys? Not so much. Sigh . . .
Anyway, we've actually gotten a lot of work done in the past month and just this week I was telling Mr. Wonderful how much SK has accomplished. Hurray! My goal is to finish off the year feeling productive and proud of what we did this year - and not to be frustrated by the memory of the challenges we faced in the first part of the school year. We'll see how that works out for me . . . :-)
On St. Patrick's Day, SK played in his first full-blown Piano Competition. It was a great experience - he felt very proud of himself. He's just been playing for a little over a year, and I really am amazed at how well he plays. He thought he performed well and it turns out that he was right (we weren't sure since parents were not allowed to listen to the performance). He earned the highest rating - Unanimous Superior - which means that both judges gave him the highest mark. Congrats, SuperKid! Next up is our homeschool group's talent show (he will play Linus and Lucy - a song that he loves) and then in May he will play in a Duet Recital. All great experiences for him!
Sunday, SuperKid received his Arrow of Light Award. The highest award in cub scouting, the Arrow of Light signifies a scout's readiness to bridge over to Boy Scouting. Again, he and we were very proud of his achievement. Many thanks to the leaders and other adults who helped him accomplish this goal!
Monday we stayed focused and got a lot of schoolwork done, despite my urge to tell SuperKid to play Wii all day so I could go out and sit in the sun. :-) I will blog about our curriculum choices at another time, but I should mention that Monday was our first day of Saxon 6/5. We completed 5/4 last week (we did about half of it last school year) and SK was super-psyched to dive into the new book! It's always nice to see enthusiasm for math - and really, who isn't motivated by a clean crisp book that starts with some simple lessons? The first lessons are really building SK's confidence that he can master this book. Saxon's approach of jumping back and forth between concepts can seem a bit counter-productive at times, so it's nice that they let the kids build up some momentum and pride at the beginning.
On Tuesday, we enjoyed a homeschool program at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. The program was about mythical creatures, and the instructor did a fantastic job of discussing not only the scientific basis (or lack thereof) for some of the best-known mythical creatures, but also just helping us think about what the world was like when these myths were first created.
Wednesday was our Classical Conversations Day. We gave our family presentation, which was a lot of fun. We introduced our family members and then talked about how our new puppy has helped us better understand God's love for us. SK has not been studying his vocab so he totally tanked in the surprise vocab game, but he made up for it by winning the math game later in the class. Several families referenced our speech during the class, which made SK feel really proud!
Yesterday's highlight was a Nature Walk with the binoculars SK won during a speech contest at cub scouts. The binoculars are pretty weak, but I don't think he knows that. It's not like he's ever seen a good pair, so he really doesn't know what he's missing. We noticed the plants budding, examined some fungi, talked about decomposing (which we studied earlier this year) and noticed squirrels, frogs and birds in their natural habitat. A great way to enjoy the nice weather and get school work done!
Today SK went bowling with our homeschool group, had a tennis lesson and a kenpo lesson in addition to his school work. This evening we're all kicking around relaxing - the perfect ending to a great week!
Thanks to Kris at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers for hosting this post in her Weekly Wrap-up! Very fun to participate - I love reading the other posts!
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