Week in Review

This was a great week!  That probably stands without saying, because I'm not likely to be posting about it if it wasn't, right?  Anyway, this was our second week "back to school" since C. Bear was born, and things really went pretty smoothly considering.  We finished our family read-aloud, Just David, this week and the kids loved it.  I read this book on my own a couple of years ago and posted a review about it here.  I was excited to share it with the kids and was glad that they enjoyed it as much as I did.  We were all sad when it was done.  It was one of those books where we felt like we were saying good-bye to a good friend when it was over.

For our character training this year we have been reading from the book Created for Work during our "School Opener" and we read a couple of great chapters from it this week.  You never know how much your children retain from things like this, but it is good to see them making connections with great ideals and you hope that through repeated exposure they will eventually incorporate them into their lives.

We purchased a new camera this week so that H. Man could be Doug's  "Campaign Photographer".  In addition to his regular studies H. Man has spent the week learning everything he can about photography.  He read the entire camera manual in two days and has taken hundreds of pictures.  He really is showing a lot of talent, and I am now constantly asking him how to do "this" or "that" on the camera.  Here are some of his candid shots of our school week. I hesitated to post them, because I don't like seeing pictures of me, but they give a good taste of our school week, so here they are:

(Writing time.  In my defense, this was our transition from snack time to writing time.)

We did spelling every day this week, which is a real accomplishment since we have had the tendency to skip it on hectic days.  We have loved The Writing Road to Reading this year.  Not only has the boy's spelling improved a lot this year, but I-Mac's reading ability has really flourished as well.  For those of you who don't know,  I-Mac is dyslexic and we have tried so many different things to help him learn to read proficiently.  This program is the first that has really seemed to click with him.

We are reading about The Renaissance and The Reformation in history right now.  The kids loved the chapter about Michelangelo and DaVinci in A Child's History of the World.  We spent some time after reading, looking up various works by each artist and we all hope we can get to Italy some day to see them in person.

G. Diddy did a great job of sitting still and paying attention during our reading times this week, which is a huge achievement, because he's our child that I'm sure would have been labeled with ADHD and been medicated, if we had put him in the Public School system.  

I. Mac on the other hand gets tired of listening to Mom lecturing. ; )  Actually, I think this was exasperation because H. Man was taking his 50th photo of him for the day. 

In addition to school work, we spent lots of time outdoors in the beautiful spring weather, working in the gardens and just having fun.

We even fit in a field trip to the park this week.

H. Man also got to take a "field trip" with his dad this week to Fillmore, Utah to hear him speak at the Millard County Constitution Party Convention.  

H. Man got his first experience as Campaign Photographer,

and they met some wonderful people.

Granted, our house could be cleaner, and the laundry is piling up, but we accomplished a lot this week. With a new baby I find the need to take joy in the things I am able to do, and try not to worry about the ones I'm not.  That could be a good formula with, or without a baby.  I just hope this next week can be as productive.