photo of the week (and homeschool journal)

How Luke went dressed to church last Sunday...

(What a ham! Dave said people thought he looked ready for law school)

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I think God might be having me in a season of readjusting my thoughts on what school "looks" like, i.e. more hands on, less seat work. Maybe. Either that, or He wants us to put the kids in public school because the struggles I've had lately are making the grass look a whole lot greener on that side of the fence. In the meantime, I'll continue to tweak until I feel a knowing and a peace about the path of education God desires for our children.

So in addition to our usual workbook activities, the highlights of the past couple of weeks:

• went to a friends house for an alphabet scavenger hunt, snowman garland craft and to enjoy fellowship
• constructed a gingerbread house for a contest (Brie read and helped make the recipe, cut the templates and dough shapes, iced together the house and decorated it. Since we wouldn't be eating this one - it would be on display for a few days leading up to the contest - I suggested making a birdhouse gingerbread construction and decorate with some items birds might like to eat and other dried beans and seeds.)
• read books on snow and the beach
• listened to a vintage Christmas tape which includes songs, stories and a guessing game
• painted some wooden letters as part of the Christmas decorations on our house (and learned why we must thoroughly clean paint brushes after each use ;) )
• listened to a children's story program on a Christian radio station
• played veterinarian/animal rescue
• played "Indians" - e.g. Brie was a squaw and Ben was her papoose
• watched a DVD on African animals
• explored outside to witness the changes winter brings (e.g. ice, snow on the ground, chipmunk holes)
• went to church for a family night and to watch The Polar Express - discussed how the end of the movie is a good parable for how it might be when we get to see God for the first time
• colored another picture from our Australian Color and Learn book - one which showed underground houses in a mining community - had the kids draw pictures of what their own underground house might look like. Both drew windows (the real underground homes don't have windows) and explained they could look out them to see the animals - the burrowing kind.
• Reese drew more superhero pictures and storylined about them. He also made new words out of the words, "peace" and "candy cane"

Looking back, it's a real hodgepodge of activities - not one you could tie up in a nice theme-y bow as I tend to do, but I realize these were among the most enjoyable moments for the kids...and for me.