Weekly Report: Week 20

20 Down, 16 More To Go!

It has been a few weeks since I have posted a report. I sure miss posting about our homeschool happenings, but time just slips by and I don't schedule in the time to accomplish this task.

The month of February has been filled with fun outings for the kids.

We have been to the Woodland Park Zoo with other WTM families. For photo's see Wordless Wednesday 2-20-08. I can't wait until our next outing with these wonderful people.

Went with another family to see Dan Parker (click HERE to see a video about him)who is 1 of 6 certified Lego Certified Professional in the WHOLE world. His store, City Blocks, is located in Freighthouse Square, a huge old building (3 blocks long). He is a full time Lego artist and his shop is in Tacoma, WA. It was amazing to see what the folks at the store create. There was a Statue of Liberty that was taller than me, a replica of the Space Needle that was as tall as Jessica, they were working on a Lego sign that was a picture of a TV show host Jane Pauley's face, and so much more.

Our friends son ask Mr. Parker what he would have to do to be professional Lego designer when he grew up. Mr. Parker's reply was:

* get good grades in school
* read about all sorts of different things so that you have a good knowledge base
* study mechanical things
* don't just work with Legos, experiment with woodworking, painting, etc.
* design things that aren't of interest to you (he specifically told him to make a mosaic of a rainbow and flowers and he told him to make a model of a pink My Little Pony)

Here is more information about him and a couple other picutres we took that day:

We also stopped by an Russian Market to see the different types of food is sold in Russia. It was really neat experience, but I felt like I was in a different land because everyone else was talking Russian, I couldn't read any of the labels, and folks were looking at me a little strangely because I was taking pictures of things in the store. LOL Here are a couple pictures form the market.

Went on a nature walk with another family. See Green Hour Challenge #2 . We also did a little nature walk in our backyard: Green Hour Challenge #1 .

Attended a Leap Year Party. The kids made Leap Year cards, filled them out with things they enjoyed, what they might be doing in 4 years, etc. and the host of the party will mail these to the kids in 4 years (the next Leap Year). What a neat idea! We played a dice game (goal is to get to 29 w/o going over), went fishing, the boys played a little football in the rain, and more. It was a wonderful get together.

One subject/activity we have because since our last weekly report is: Green Hour Challenges by Barb at The Heart of Harmony. If you have wanted to add nature studies to your routine, but just don't quite know how to go about accomplishing this activity, are intimidated by them, or think adding something like this would take up to much time out of your day(s), you must check out these challenges. She assigns some reading pages from Handbook of Nature Study and also provides an assignment to accomplish for your nature walk. All you need is 10-15 min. to do your nature walk. To find out more, check out Green Hour Challenges.

BTW, if you would like to add some nature notebooking pages to these assignments, I have created some for my children and would love to share them with you HERE. To see our Green Hour Challenges, click HERE.

What about our core subject??

Jessica completed her report on the Green Sea Turtle for her Home2Teach online writing class. If you would like to read her report, click HERE.

I haven't shared the kids artwork in ages. There masterpieces are in the slide show below.

With Zoology, we are finally finished with insects (YEAH!!!), and are now learning about birds. I am sooooo happy. A couple pictures from class are included in the slide show below.

And here are a few other pictures from weeks gone by:

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful weekend!