Seems like forever since I sat down for some blogging therapy. Generally, half of the words that pour from my head never make it to the published page…but it is healing to clear such clutter from my mind and soul. This tiny spot on the internet was the place I used to exorcise my daemons. A place to expose all of the raw nerves of pain that do not heal when it is kept inside. For me, the act of typing it all out was freeing. I could just let things go…or leave them on the page…making room for the peace and healing that only Jesus can sooth. Anyway, once I started writing homeschool product reviews on this page I deleted most of those posts. All of this is to say that I missed writing my wrap-up last week because of Thanksgiving. My head has felt too full and rattled this week. Even though Christmas and New Year’s falls on Thursday nights this year I’ll be on here writing my wrap-ups. This is my therapy…I need to get this clutter out of my head…otherwise I’ll have another discombobulated week like this one where my head feels too stuffed. Enough of that…on to the past two weeks.
My sweet crew was very excited about Thanksgiving this year (me too). We spent 13 months studying Early American History. This year we were ready for Thanksgiving! Not just for the food but in our hearts. The kids really wanted to participate in the holiday and to help prepare the food and meaningful decorations. Well, they really couldn’t do that with the extended family because everything is already sorted out. So we decided to have a family Thanksgiving on Friday. We made a special tablecloth with our handprints and everyone participated in preparing all of the dishes. Oldest made a hash brown casserole and helped with the special braided herb bread. Sparkles wanted to make deviled eggs. Middle Boy made some fun turkey cookies. Littlest enjoyed being underfoot!!! My husband smoked the turkey and made the cornbread dressing. I had my hand in everything but especially enjoyed the pitcher of Sangria I made just for me (I drank the entire pitcher over two days)!!! The crew’s writing assignment for the week was to tell who they wish they could have Thanksgiving dinner with and why. I loved their answers!!!!
Oldest chose Sir Isaac Newton: “…because of how he had thanksgiving almost every day in his heart. He loved God and was super smart.”
Sparkles chose Jesus: “…because he is special and I love him.”
Middle Boy chose Mrs. V (his pre-school teacher): “…because she was one of my favorite teachers and I really love her.”
I just loved their Thanksgiving papers!!! Can you tell?
Over the weekend we put up the Christmas tree and the rest of the decorations. This is the first year we put up the Christmas Village our neighbor gave us. Oldest put it up on the piano and he just loves it! We figured out the cathedral is an MP3 player!! How cool is that!!!!
Home education this week was really hard. We are all ready for a break (just two more weeks!) We are on our last Light Unit of math and will finally be at grade level in January. As we finish up our units this month we will not begin new ones until January. In science we started a book about Michael Faraday. The kids love this biography! After studying Benjamin Franklin, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesla, and now Michael Faraday they are all ready to dedicate their lived to science!!! We are loving Beautiful Feet Books science curriculum this year!!!
Speaking of science, we participated in one of the Supercharged Science online classes yesterday on electricity. My crew loved it and ended up playing with their snap-circuit set the
rest of the evening. I liked the webcast for the most part. I did not enjoy that half of it was a sales pitch…boo! I have not been happy with any homeschool based science so far…I wish I could find a science curriculum that I loved…I am open to suggestions.
We’ve also spent the past couple of weeks trying out art curriculums. We like ArtAtelier and SeeTheLight. I have a few more free samples to try out before we make our choice for next year. Any suggestions?
This weekend is a huge for the crew!!! They will be playing piano for the first time for an audience. I am so excited and nervous for them. Oldest is also I the Christmas play at church and I can hardly wait to see him!!! There will be lots of pictures next week!!!
Linking up with: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers
in pursuit of wild things 
December 5, 2014 at 7:22 am
🙂
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December 5, 2014 at 8:16 am
Good stuff!! Love the princess at the feast!! Looks like a wonderful Thanksgiving!! I bet that sangria was good 🙂
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December 5, 2014 at 12:24 pm
Yes!!! We were blessed to have Princess Anna join us for Thanksgiving…she said it was her nicest dress. Sangria is amazing…I’m going to make it every time I open a bottle from now on.
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December 5, 2014 at 8:50 am
How precious for you and your husband to build those close family memories for your children! They’ll remember those always. You are so blessed! And yes, I can identify with your sentence that half of the thoughts you have, never show up on paper – same here, isn’t that frustrating?! Blessings to you and your family,
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December 6, 2014 at 1:12 pm
Giggled at your littlest in glasses – very cute!
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