In my life this week… Ontarians celebrated Family Day this week. We had a completely lazy and very rejuvenating day together. Then, after two normal days, Mr. 16 and Miss 14 wrote the Waterloo Math Contests, so that was another unusual day. The next day Miss 14 and Miss 11 went to a birthday party which became an impromptu sleep over due to a snowstorm.
We went for several walks to count birds for the Great Backyard Bird Count, but on one of them we were chatting too much and all the birds were silent. On another walk we saw and heard a bird we could not identify. The crows flew away for the weekend, and I did not notice any feathered friends at the bird feeder. So we submitted a grand total of two chickadees and two blue jays. What a dismal showing! Maybe next year will be better.
Partially inspired by the Papua natives we’ve been reading about in Wambu, Miss 9 started carving a boat this week. She was astonished at the amount of work it took. With help from the other children she has made considerable progress in hollowing out the boat.
In our homeschool this week… We kept on working, but all the events and the sniffles made progress slow. Our teens finished studying for the math competition, having done a test a day for the last two weeks. The little ones kept up with their work fairly well. I bought a book of Bach recorder duets and the girls have really been enjoying it.
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share… The Waterloo Math Contests are a wonderful resource for teaching thinking skills even if you do not plan to enter the competition. Past tests with detailed solutions are available, and we use them to study. Note that the tests are difficult, so do not be discouraged by low marks. Out of the tens of thousands of students who write each contest, almost none get perfect scores.
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing… The library, judo, catechism, friends, math competition, beekeeper’s meeting.
My favorite thing this week was… Again there were so many things! Here are a few:
- Watching everyone work on Miss 9’s boat.
- Taking Family Day off from schoolwork.
- Shopping for groceries with my teens. We came home with all sorts of goodies, including a sugar cane, two discounted dragon fruit, and a cart full of cauliflower.
- Finding Miss 14’s picture in the paper for her writing prize. Actually, she had a picture with the article and another one on the front page sidebar.
- Enjoying a real winter storm.
- Surviving more than two hours of driving in the storm, 1/3 of it with snow so thick on the ground and in the air that I found myself driving on the wrong side of the road! I’m thankful the snowplows soon came out. Miss 14 told me we would be talking about it for a long time. I suppose she’s right; we were making memories.
- Playing many sessions of Rummicub, a game Grandma calls Tile Rummy.
Questions/thoughts I have…I’m so thankful to be enjoying this storm from inside the house!
Things I’m working on…
- Homeschooling.
- Dejunking and spring cleaning.
- Getting fit.
I’m reading… Acts. I am also reading The Odyssey (the version by Samuel Butler) , Mindsight, Fit and Fabulous in 15 Minutes, and Folks, This Ain’t Normal. I finished Girl in the Gatehouse, a very pleasant read.
With the kids, I’m reading Acts, Little Town on the Prairie, Rozemarijntje Gaat Naar School, and Wambu by Piet Prins. Wambu is a difficult book to read. It portrays life among the headhunters and is emotionally wrenching. However, confronted with the politically correct idea that missionaries destroy cultures, the children need to see that some cultures are evil and terrifying and that the people are overjoyed to leave the darkness and death behind. I’ll write more about it later. One more thing. Although I’ve been forgetting to mention it, we’re also still enjoying The Story Bible for Older Children.
I’m grateful for … A winter storm. Smiles. My wise, encouraging husband. Club soda mixed with lemon juice.
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This post is linked to The Homeschool Mother’s Journal and to Weekly Wrap Up at Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.
Sounds like a good week. We have very windy (again) snowy conditions today. Hubby said it is very slippery outside, but we need to return library DVD’s or get a fine. Guess I’ll see how I feel in a bit.
Do you have a good califlower soup recipe? If it’s mashed at all, and other things in it, I could probably tolerate it. And I do have raw veggies around at times, especially celery, carrots and green peppers. But I’m not one to eat raw veggies, they need to be dipped, mashed and/or drowning in some sort of yummy sauce. I wish we did live closer, it probably would help me.
I do like the idea of what your MIL does. I could find a pitcher, the size of the water I want to drink, and have it just for me in my fridge. Hmmmm, you’ve got me thinking now. If I make it out today to the library, I just might stop by WM and see what they have. Thanks, that’s a great idea.
I posted a cauliflower recipe just for you! 🙂
How’s the water drinking going?
Family Day sounds like a wonderful holiday! 🙂 Spending time together is always awesome. Congrats to your daughter on her writing prize! That’s great. No storms here in PA this year, at least no significant ones. My husband is glad since he works outside, but my kids are sorely disappointed. 🙂 Hope your weekend is blessed!
I hope you got a storm this week. We did, and it was nice and wintery.
It is so interesting what you said about the politically correct ideas about missionaries. I have never thought about that before. My kiddos are still pretty young, and I’ve had a hard time finding a resource about missionaries for them, but it is something I want to teach them about.
I hope you have a great week!
The best resource is a missionary from your own church, of course.
But books are good, too. This one would be too intense for your little ones, I think.
What another eventful week you’ve had! Last year, we studied the Eastern Hemisphere and had lots of chances to see how missionaries affected the evil belief systems there. So many people were grateful to have their fear filled lives turned around. Why don’t the politically correct people go and ask the native themselves? Living in fear is a terrible state!
I’m curious to see which books you read for your study last year. Now that we’re into the topic, it’s good to get a few more books into the house.
Our local homeschoolers write the University of Waterloo math competitions through our support group–we do a group order of the tests and arrange proctors for the grade 7-pluses who want to write them. It’s not hard to set up.
Yes, we do it the same way; but for those who don’t these are good as practice tests, too.