in pursuit of wild things

The only reason I chose that title for the wrap-up is because the silly Sonny and Cher song adhered itself to my brain. I loathe getting a song stuck in my head…makes me a little nutters.

Last weekend we went to the park for some outdoor fun and a picnic before the autumn rains set in (supposedly in just a few hours from now). Several homeshooling families said they would play too…but only a couple of families ended up at the park with us. The kids still had a great time. Sparkles invited one of her friends over for a sleepover for this Friday night. We’ve never entertained the privilege of hosting a sleepover before…see how tomorrow night goes. Sparkles is so very excited and has been counting down the days. She’s also attending another sleepover next weekend. All wonderful things for a social butterfly!

Last week I joined a learning community called Future Learn. I am currently enrolled in a six-week course on Hadrian’s Wall and a ten week course called Shakespeare and His World. The first course is offered through Newcastle University and the second is through the University of Warwick.  So far I am really loving these classes. I’ve learned about identifying ancient landmarks through aerial photography, life on the Roman frontier, and tons about Shakespeare. Oldest will study Shakespeare next

year with the Lamb’s text primarily and then one of the easier plays if he is ready. He saw Macbeth earlier this year and loved it. I’m hoping another play will be available to see locally again. I’ve passed all of my quizzes perfectly so far. On the quiz I took earlier today I had to read Roman military headstone inscriptions and answer questions about the individuals the headstones described. I had to understand Roman military ranking, Roman numbers, and military positions. Fascinating! I think this would be a great resource for homeschoolers with highschoolers or topically very interested upper middleschoolers.

The crew and I also made a huge change in our life by visiting another church. Oldest would have nothing to do with the kids in his age group at the church we were attending. I want him to make friends but it just wasn’t happening. I’ve been praying over this for so long…leave or stay. I asked the crew about it Sunday morning and they all wanted to visit anywhere else…Nobody argued, nobody wanted to stay. So I picked a church nearby and we went. The kids loved it, even Oldest liked his age group (a near miracle!). I asked them about visiting somewhere else and was shut down. If they are happy then I am happy. Maybe we have finally found a place to be…or maybe my children have inherited their mother’s bothersome restlessness…

All things homeschool are going quite well…except we lost our science lab books. I’ve looked everywhere for these two books all week…nothing. Frustrating…hopefully I can get a replacement manual from Thames and Cosmos. Oldest is working very hard on his ancient Egypt paper. I gave him time off from his writing curriculum while he works on his first major writing assignment. Tomorrow he will also begin an art project and plan out his edible Nile River mapping project. I’ll share his work on the next wrap-up.

Littlest loves preschool and wants to share his upcoming birthday with his pre-school class. My little man is about to turn four before the end of the month. He loved his class but keeps asking me for “school work”. He wants to learn to write numbers now. I had originally planned to work with him after his first yearish of preschool was over…Littlest doesn’t agree. Why are little ones in such a hurry to grow up?

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers