The Weekly Wrap-Up: Monopoly, Monks Supper & a Presidents Fair

Here it is, nearly the middle of February!  I have to say that so far this has been our very best winter of homeschooling.  And what I mean by that is the winter months of January and February are always my hardest months of the year.  Generally, we have fewer activities with our homeschooling friends, we can't spend much time outside and the days just seem dreary and monotonous.  

This year our homeschool group kicked off our co-op in January and it has really made such a difference in these long winter months.  Having classes and activities to look forward to just perks up my spirits and keeps things exciting and fun for us all.  

So while I may not especially like those early Monday mornings, the co-op classes are SO much fun and I'm so thankful that we have them!

(practicing in our co-op choir class)

In our regular school work, things moved along quite nicely this week.

We started learning a new Scripture passage for the month of February: I Corinthians 13:1-8.  Last month the kiddos learned Proverbs 15:1-8...such a great passage for me, too!

We are still liking Singapore Math and the kids seem to be doing well with it.  The Princess has been busy learning all about fractions this week and Mr. B has begun some division.  

Both of the kiddos have finished up their Getty-Dubay Italics handwriting books for the year and are now writing their way through some Scripture copybooks in the Italics style from Center for Essential Education.  I found their booth a couple of years ago at a homeschool convention and loved their products!

Language Arts are going well.  Mr. B has been enjoying a new website called Reading Eggs (review coming soon!) along with his regular grammar lessons.  The Princess is really liking her current literature book, The Sign of the Beaver.  And even if grammar isn't her fave subject, she's doing well in it.

This week we started Vol II in the Story of the World history series.  We had meant to start it at the beginning of the school year, but we took longer to finish Vol I that we had planned.  That's okay though, we loved every chapter of ancient history and are now excited to *enter* the Middle Ages.  This week we began learning how Christianity was brought to Britain, how the monks shared the Gospel and how they lived.  So on Thursday night we made *Monk's Supper*: lentil soup and bread.  I actually was headed out to dinner for our homeschool group's monthly moms night out so I didn't eat with the family.  However, when I got back home I heard nothing but rave reviews for the soup!  And The Princess informed me that they did not eat butter on their bread either--just like the monks.:)

(Monks Lentil Soup)

Science is moving a little more slowly than I had anticipated as well, but I have found it's a bit more difficult to study botany in the winter time..ha  I'm looking forward to Spring to do some of the activities that we've had to skip over for now.  We are finding botany to be fascinating though.  This week we discussed orchids and the kiddos drew pictures of their favorite orchid.  Wintertime is a good time to use some YouTube videos in your science when you can't go outside and we do that often.

(The Princess' orchid)

(Mr. B drawing his orchid)

I also introduced them to Edith Holden's very own nature journal, The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.  It's funny how books that I've bought in years past just because I like them now come in very handy in our homeschool.

(The Princess reading Edith Holden's book)

We didn't focus much on extra-curricular subjects this week.  Instead we spent all of our extra time working on our reports and displays for our homeschool group's Presidents Fair which was today.  Any of the students in our group who wanted to participate chose a particular president to report on.  Then today we all gathered at our church for the fair.  It was a lot of fun!  The students had the option to make their reports and displays as detailed and elaborate or as simple as they wanted to.  We were a little more heavy on the display side than the report side since we got signed up for this a bit late.  The kids were proud of the projects though and we all enjoyed the fair.  Each student received a certificate of participation.

(working on a display table at the fair)

(Mr. B with his display on Andrew Jackson)

(The Princess with her display on James Monroe)

(the participants)

Did I mention that we are participating in a postcard swap from around the States (all 50, in fact) with fellow homeschoolers?  Erica from Confessions of a Homeschooler coordinated it and we are really having fun getting postcards in our mailbox!  Since we are the family from Kentucky, I have been searching diligently for KY postcards--who knew they would be so hard to find in our town.  I have a couple of places to check out this week though, since it's not quite time for mine to be mailed yet.

(the 3 postcards we've received so far: Kansas, New Hampshire and Hawaii)

We've also had a Monopoly game going on around here.  It's been going since Monday night.  We just keeping playing again every night after dinner until bedtime.  So much fun!  Looks like it's going to be a tough battle to bankruptcy..haha

Now I'm ready for the weekend!  We're off again to Lowe's in the morning for another Build & Grow session.  The kiddos can't wait!

I hope your weekend is wonderful!  Be blessed!

This post is linked to the Weekly Wrap-up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.