The Weekly Wrap-up: Sprouts, Romans and Country Ham

This week has had its moments, but it's really been a good week! I like those!

Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, of course, and was a school holiday for us. I hadn't intended to take the whole day off, but I was still getting the house back in order after a weekend of company so it was a laid-back day. We did watch Dr. King's speech on Youtube and did a couple of fun printables about him.

Tuesday brought back our regular schedule (whatever that is, right?). We got every thing done on my lesson plan, so that is always a successful day! One highlight from this day was the conclusion of our *bean seed project*. In science we are studying botany with Apologia's Exploring Creation with Botany and are really enjoying it. For the 12 previous days we had been charting three bean seeds, each in a ziploc bag with a wet paper towel. However, one was placed in the refrigerator, one was hung in the window and one was placed in the closet.

It has been a fun experiment! We confirmed what we had been studying: that seeds don't need sunlight to begin growing. Our seed from the closet was *off the chart* in growth. The one in the window had barely started to sprout and the one in the fridge had done nothing (or so it seemed).

It was fun to open up the sprouted seed and compare it to our drawings of the parts of a seed--a great visual lesson! Oh--and the kiddos promptly bagged back up the other seeds and put them both in the closet:)

Our light box with our herbs is doing very well, too. Well, I should say the basil and cilantro are doing well. The dill not so much. It was fun this week to pick basil right out of our box with which to make a fresh batch of bruschetta for dinner!

We have been studying Julius Caesar this week in history--so interesting! The kids would beg for me to continue reading (I love that!). They really enjoy coloring pages or doing activities from the SOTW activity book while I read to them.

Wednesday wasn't too eventful. We got all of our work done, made it to The Princess' Girl Scout meeting, hit the neighborhood to sell some GS cookies and had an awesome night at church (I teach a kids' class on Wednesday nights). I go to bed exhausted on Wednesdays-ha!

Thursday brought us another busy day. The Princess wrapped up her first Total Language Plus study. We really are liking those and can't wait till next week to start the new one. I have to brag a bit on Mr. B, too, he's doing so well in Language Arts as well. He also started a new reader this week. We continued to read about Rome and made Roman-style mosaic art work during history. (Can you tell Mr. B loves FlyGuy?).

Friday was Field Trip Day! Whoo hoo!! While I hated to lose two days of schooling at home this week, we hadn't had a field trip in a while and those are so educational and fun that I wasn't about to pass it up. We toured Broadbent Hams in a nearby town. They specialize in Kentucky country ham. We were able to learn about the curing process and even see it in progress. It was really fun!

I have to say I splurged on some amazing bacon in their gift shop:) They had these awesome different flavors like sun-dried tomato and apple wood! Plus they had nitrite-free and I just couldn't pass that up, it's hard to find here. Besides I like to support local businesses.

This was such a productive week! I am actually looking forward to sitting down this weekend and lesson planning for next week, I'm anticipating a great week.