Term Two: Week Nine ~ Library Antics, Mammoth Reading, and Puzzle Progress

Week nine of the term and our final FULL week of the term. All three boys will simply be in finish or wrap up mode during week ten. I don't like to start unit studies or new chapters of things (like math) and then have to stop for the holidays, so when we get to the end of a unit or a chapter a few days before the end of a term, we just stop. If all goes well in week ten, all three boys will score a few "bonus" days of holiday.

Monster started the week with some Sunday night puzzle work... 

A typical "afternoon" reading session... we cover all our science, history and geography with quality books from our library. We also read one chapter of the Bible per day, one story from The Moral Compass by William Bennett every day, and we just started working our way through a world myths and legends book so we read one of those each day too. 

Munchkin asked for the box of small plastic animals one morning and got to work creating an elaborate game and story with them. 

 Our beautiful, big agave flower continues to grow and bloom.

Another night of reading aloud means more puzzle progress for Monster... 

Munchkin decided to test out the "card trick" we read about in Eddie Woo's math book. 

Two more nights of puzzle progress... 

 More baby steps towards "normal" as we are now allowed INSIDE the library when we gather our "click and collect" reserves. We aren't allowed past this point where Munchkin is standing, and we aren't allowed to browse or touch the books on the shelf, but just being IN the building makes me happy!

Munchkin says... "Help! I'm being eaten!" 

Final night of puzzle work for the week... Monster is pleased with his progress... 

 Left Photo: Read aloud selection for Monster and Monkey

Right Photo: Independent reading for Monster

 Independent reading for Munchkin...

 WWI read alouds for Monster...

Independent selections for Munchkin... 

Read alouds for all three boys... taking some detours off our planned curriculum 

 I read our ENTIRE Elmer collection to Munchkin one afternoon so that he would sort through the books and part with some so they could be returned to the library.

I've begun an important unit study with the boys about slavery and racism and we will continue this through the remainder of this school year I imagine. 

 More WWI read alouds for Monster

 All three boys really enjoyed Eddie Woo's math book and Wonder was a favourite for the week and we had several LONG read aloud sessions where we focused ONLY on Wonder. Now to watch the movie...

Term Two: Week Eight ~ Puzzle Progress, Natural Learning, Rashes and Rain

We are getting down to the business end of this term. The end is always hard... especially with winter setting in. So we grit our teeth, work hard, and know that our reward is a much needed two week break.

We continued to treat Munchkin's rash at the beginning of this week, but it healed very quickly, and by Wednesday night he was sleeping peacefully all through the night again. We were able to cease all medication and various creams and potions by Thursday morning. The above photo was taken Sunday afternoon and shows dramatic healing from the previous week. 

This week's pile of books came out of the garage quarantine at 4pm. We will be starting a racism unit study which we are all very excited about so that makes up the bulk of this collection. We are close to the maximum number of items for our SIX library cards, so we will now need to focus our efforts on doing some serious reading. 

This is a VERY blurry photo that proves we were able to get outside this week. It continues to be a rather rainy winter. We still desperately need more rain to officially break our drought, but it does make it hard to get adequate Vitamin D and exercise. 

Another cute drawing that Monkey drew recently... 

Despite the colder nights... Monster still gets down on the floor in the evening and works on his puzzle. This one is proving difficult but he is making steady progress. 

 One day this week Munchkin pulled out the Lego Chain Reaction book and got to work...

 He was so engrossed and engaged in what he was doing that I allowed a natural learning day and scrapped all formal, structured schoolwork for him...

Lots of learning occurred as he used trial and error and problem solving to get his creation to work as it should. 

Thursday night puzzle progress... 

Friday night puzzle progress... 

Monkey has been kind enough to allow Munchkin to borrow and read his Treehouse book collection, so Munchkin spent some time reading these... 

Our completed read alouds for the week: Space was read to all three boys, The Camel Who Crossed Australia was read to Monkey and Monster, and the two First World War books were read allowed only to Monster. I managed to finish War Horse without crying... it was a beautiful story! 

 All three boys are still enjoying the How to Train Your Dragon series and are thrilled that automatic renewal is still in effect at the library.

 Munchkin enjoys this little series and continues to read and re-read it.

We are trying to read this book EVERY day. Someone put it on reserve so we will have to return in in the coming week.