End-of-the-Week Wrap {more new books, Mr. Science, & co-op fun}

Yes, I know that it's already the beginning of a new week, ...but I am just now getting a chance to wrap up this past week. You'll forgive me for being a little slow to do that, right?

It was a really good week! We're enjoying lovely early fall temps and the weather has been so nice. I still feel like we're struggling a bit to get to find our school groove, but I know we'll get there. Life doesn't stop so that you can "do school" and life has been very full lately--and it doesn't look like it's letting up any time soon.

So the laundry is piling up again and there's dust on all of the furniture and I'm sleepy by the afternoon from getting up earlier than I'm used to yet. But that's okay. We're loving life and I feel like I'm learning new things every day and not just the kiddos!

Oh--and did I mention that I got to meet up with some of my blogging friends this week, too?! So much fun! You can read more about that here.

In our homeschool this week....

We added in several new subjects with the ones we started with our first week. We added Writing With Ease (both kiddos), Sequential Spelling (mainly for Mr. B, but The Princess is working along, too, for good practice), and Apologia's Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day (both kiddos).

The jury is still out on WWE since we're just beginning to get into it. Any writing is a challenge for Mr. B because he just doesn't like it; however, I am trying to challenge him this year in that without completely discouraging him. He doesn't really challenge himself in that so it takes a little bit of outside pressure, if you know what I mean. He did fairly well this week though.

{Mr. B and his timeline from Grapevine Studies--which are a total hit!}

Our new science is off to a good start! I am excited about our topic this year and I think the kids are, too. We began by learning a little about currents and how they work in the world's oceans. We created our own "current" using a water-filled dish with glitter sprinkled on the water then adding air with a couple of hair dryers to make the "current". Hands-on experiments are always fun!

On Tuesday of this past week we had our monthly gathering with our homeschool group. Each month our gatherings look different. This month we had a guest speaker: Mr. Science! We had seen him this past summer at a library program so we were looking forward to seeing him do some fun science experiments again. And he didn't disappoint! It was a fun-filled morning of learning about God's great world! (On a side note: I just heard that Mr. Science will be a featured speaker at all three of the Great Homeschool Conventions this next year).

We ended our school week with co-op classes with our group. These are going amazingly well this year and we're having so much fun! The highlights of co-op this week were:

1) practicing public speaking by introducing Lego mini figures