in pursuit of wild things

Last week we closed out the academic year. Our 200th day of school is always our last day. Oldest finished up his paper on Julius Caesar and with that he completed elementary school. A milestone year for him. He is typing the paper up this week and adding some final polishing but the hard work is done. Friday morning we all went out to breakfast together very early so my husband could make it to work. I passed out gifts to each child. This year we got them books. Oldest received Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Sparkles received The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. Middle Boy got a book about astronomy and Littlest received Home for a Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. Sparkles read her book twice the day we gave it to her!!! She

loved it and told me all the ways the story was changed in the movie. We then went home and I took last day of school pictures of the kids. After completing a few tests and spending time at piano practice we worked on the ancient history feast. Oldest and I prepared several dishes we had read about in the ancient history curriculum from Beautiful Feet Books. We made honey cakes, fish cakes, a Roman version of French toast, Roman eggs, figs, almond stuffed dates, and offering bread. You can find my collection of recipes on my Pinterest ancient history foods board. We found the Roman recipes to be on the extreme side…they really wanted to taste their spices!!! We put a table-cloth out and decorated with some of the kids art projects for the feast.

At the moment we are taking a two-week break from school while Oldest and Middle Boy attend Lego Camps. Sparkles will go to an American Girl history camp in July. Our next academic year doesn’t begin until the 13th of July. In between camps and short trips we will have a summer term. This summer we will continue on with math, science and a bit of history. Nothing too rigorous. In the school room I am working on clearing out papers and choosing items for the portfolios, shelving books, and finishing paperwork. Next week I will fill up the empty files and make fresh new attendance sheets and begin lesson planning. Goodbye to our third year of homeschooling.

I had very high hopes of joining a homeschool co-op this fall. Now I am not so sure. I just wanted the kids to have something fun to do with other kids and have art classes and physical education…like group sports (’cause homeschoolers are often clueless how to play things like soccer, baseball, volleyball, and football). But it now looks like this co-op is going to be mostly academic classes. Sigh…I’ll know by the end of the month. Our funny moment of the week was learning that our boy bunny Monty is really a girl! He was supposed to have neutering surgery on Monday but we cancelled once the vet told us he was a her. We just laughed! The kids immediately ran outside to gather clover for Miss Monty

since she had to fast before her surgery. Oldest was relieved she didn’t have surgery but was a bit miffed that his favorite bunny turned out to be a girl. A friend of mine is going to come over tomorrow and help us figure out if Polly is a boy or girl. My hardest moment this week was learning that Middle Boy was picked on at Lego Camp for being a homeschooler by another attendee. He took it well and didn’t let the harsh comments ruin his week…Middle Boy is pretty tough and he doesn’t care too much what other people think. But if this ever happens to Sparkles (and it will someday) she will wilt. Why do people have to hurt others just to feel good about themselves? This weeks favorite reads: Ann Voscamp  A long read but a good one. The Beautiful Ordinary  a beautiful testament Linking up with: Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers

Native American 23rd Psalm

another place to weep

Sylvan Lake was a favorite

Needles Highway