School 2012-2013: Weekly 6

You know, there are so many stories about Joseph in the Bible. I think our favorite has been, this week, the story of how Joseph was favored then he is sold into Slavery (by his family), becomes famous (so to speak) then is humbled and drawn back down into despair and then raised once again by God into fame. It is a good reminder that God is always there even during the times when He may seem oh so distant. When we are struggling with money or marriage issues or a broken leg or even cancer, He is still there watching over us and protecting us! The kids decided to draw the picture of Joseph being thrown into the hole by his brothers. This is one of the sadder stories that shows that even your family is not 100% trustworthy. How sad to not be able to turn to your brother and say look at what I did or got and have them be happy for you. But it goes to show how much sin has been and still is in our world. Jealousy to name just one!

We finished up our study of Hammurabi in SOTW and his reign. You know I am sure there is a lot more to learn about him then what we did, but from the skimming of the surface he seemed like he had the right idea for running a country. Yes, I know he was not running a democracy, but his idea was if you did not take care of your people all heck breaks loose. And so many of the rulers of that time just did not take any consideration of the people. If you were not in power you were nothing and you were either killed for no reason or taxed to death.  OK, without getting all political on you, I wish our government cared a little more about the people and not so much about making more and more of the mighty $$$$.

Oh boy! We dissected a flower this week with Apologia's Botany. YEA! It was actually really fun, however, I am glad I did not wait to take the picture. LOL! Everything is wilted and looking kinda ragged now. Anyhow, we were able to take apart a beautiful flower and see the male parts and female parts and labile them and learn about reproduction. We were able to realized that God did not just make them beautiful but functional and that plants actual rule life here on earth. We CAN NOT live without them. No plants, no animals, no life! We were also able to recognize clearly that there really is a Creator. The flower has many of the same parts as we humans do and reproduce in a similar way. (Thank God there were no questions asked when that was brought up!)

On the flip side to that, I did not know that all the petals put together have a specific name too. Corolla, yes, sounds like the car. I always just thought they were all called petals only. We even took out our microscope and looked at the pollen on the anther. Oh, how I wish I could have shared a picture with you of what we saw. It was extremely interesting. The kids really enjoyed getting out their microscope. We do not get a chance to use those too much. So as you can see by the pictures, there are a ton of new names that we learned. I think we will have to review this diagram we made many times over the next month or so to help us remember everything.

Our Geography term this week: Cave! Cute pictures!

On a really happy note, my son has stopped complaining about his creative writing. I think it has finally hit him that it is not nearly as hard as he thinks it is. This week he actually said…wait for it…are you sitting? He said, "Mommy, I don't want any help yet. Let me think about it for a few minutes and then we will run through it together!" WOW!!!!! I was shocked! I was so happy to hear those words. His stories are still very simplistic, but man oh man I am so happy to hear him put it together. I still write it out for him on a separate paper, because I figured out that one of the overwhelming things for him was to not only try to come up with the story, but then try to remember it as you are trying to write it using correct spelling, punctuation and capitalization. So once he gives me his story idea, I write it on another paper and he copies it. I think by next year he will be able to do the whole thing himself, but for now I am helping him to not be so scared of writing. He is really good at copy work. He has been doing that for years now, so this year we added the new idea of making up the story too! I am proud of him!

My daughter is doing very well in her reading. However, she still says (outside of school) that she can't read. I don't get it. I think anything outside of her regular school work is too overwhelming to her. That is OK! I get her to read things outside, on packages etc. as much as I can when we are out and about just to get her used to reading things that are not "school" items. But I wish you could hear her. WOW! She is really trucking along. We read a 2nd grade 40 page book in 2 sittings with very little help from me. I was SHOCKED! She will be my reader for sure!

We started Art this week, Atlier Art. I am so excited about it. I forgot to take pictures of the art work. But that is OK, because we are not done with it. They still need to color it. Our project this week was to draw a horse and carousel. My daughter is still having a little hard time taking up the WHOLE page with her drawings, but I am sure that will come in time. Her drawings are much bigger then last years teeny tiny drawings! My sons turned out great, and yes, Mom had to get into the act too. I'll take pictures this week after they are colored and share them with you!

Well, I am sure you are all tired of the same old close, but it is true we had a great week again. I have to admit, I really thought I was taking on way too much this year and over committed myself with other things after school, but my schedule is working out very well! After all I am out Mon, Tue, Wed and Fri after school and out every Mon, Wed Thurs night every week. It is a bit overwhelming, but we are really getting everything done. The house and laundry are getting done weekly, the menu planning and grocery shopping are getting done, the family is getting fed and all the school work is getting done daily! And I am not feeling stressed, too much about it!

Anyhow, you all have a great school week and we will see you on the flip side of week 7!