Catching Up - Sept. 14, 2012

It has been a busy week! My aunt suddenly passed away last Saturday. It was a shock for us all. One of the many blessings of homeschooling is flexibilty. It was so nice to be able to take a day off school and spend it with family. One of my uncles didn't see Nico standing with me and said, "I guess Nico is in school." My mom laughed and said, "Yes, his teacher is right here." (He forgot we homeschooled). I didn't have to rush off after the services. We even went to my cousin's house and spent time with them and their children. Very special times.

 

With that we had to catch up today. I have the next 3 weeks planned in my planner and didn't want to erase it all :-) We did it though. Another thing I am happy about is splitting our 8 lessons into 4 on each day. Perfect for situations such as this. We spent today doing all 8 lessons and staying on track. It was a longer day than usual, but still finished by 2pm.

 

We had a lot of fun this week teaching a class on Robotic Arms. It is a grant program through Duke University on Engineering. Another mom got involved with it and asked if I would teach it. Mike helped me with the first one and enjoyed it so much we decided we would co-teach them all. I love that my husband is involved in what we do. He has so much knowledge and adds so much to these classes.

 

Here are some pictures from the class.

Learning about circuits. They had to add a touch sensor to their arm that had a buzzer. They also had to design their own switch. First they experimented.

Building the arm

The group!

Mike giving some instruction.

Never a dull moment!

 

Our lessons went well this week. Both boys worked very hard. I feel we are finally getting in our groove again. Summer break is wonderful, but so hard to get back into it.

 

We have been studying plant cells and animal cells in biology. One assignment for Nico was to make cell pizzas for dinner. We have been waiting forever to find the time we could fit them in for dinner....today was the day. His friend came over and they made pizzas for us. Colton said he had a great time (He is not homeschooled). They turned out delicious! I only had two pieces left.

 

Ready to make some pizzas!

Making the pizzas. They used diagrams to figure out what veggies would be what.

Ready for the oven! Can you see the nucleus and vacuoles?
 

 

I can't forget to add the fun Luca has been having. He is working on Hideaways in History from WinterPromise. It is so fun. Some of the readings are advanced for him so I modify them. The most fun is the hands on activities and building the hideaways. Our pyramid didn't turn out quite big enough to hide in, but I will get his picture standing next to it next week.....when he is wrapped like a mummy ;-)

 

Here are some pictures of Luca...having fun and hard at work.

 

A little MUS Decimal Street.

In his cave hideaway with his fire. Hanging are cave paintings. He also made a vest to wear.

Next week will be a short week for us as Nico's birthday party is set for next Friday. We take the day off of school to get everything ready. It is going to be a blast.