School's in Full Swing

It's been an incredibly busy week.  I'm not complaining (at least I'm trying not to)--it's been a good busy.  But I'm telling you, when Friday hits each week I am wiped out!  I've even had two Pepsis today!

It always takes a little while to get fully into the swing of school.  First we have to get the schedule down pat, figure out what the day is going to look like with the new age of little ones, and how we're going to maintain the household while juggling school and extracurricular activities.  Then the next stage of the school year involves getting deeper into each subject.  The first couple chapters of a new year always seem to start pretty slowly, reviewing information and laying a solid foundation.  THEN we get into the meat of the subject and that's where we've been the last couple weeks.

Our history has been really fun this week as I'm seeing everything connect in Briana and Destry's minds.  We're studying the age of revolution and I've enjoyed hearing them discuss the effect the reformation had on various countries and their revolutions--from England, to the United States, to France.  We're also thoroughly enjoying our study of The Scarlet Letter  and I can't wait to hear more of their thoughts next week since we finished it this week. 

We've been studying dinosaurs with the younger kids and they're having a blast.  We've read lots of books, pretended to be paleontologists, measured out the length of some dinosaurs, practiced drawing dinosaurs and all kinds of fun stuff.  We should finish this unit up next week so I'll post more then, but I'll share just one teaser photo this week.

Part of what makes things so busy is all the running I'm doing now--and not the tennis shoes and jarred knees kind!  Easton had art class on Monday, Destry had violin lesson and symphony on Tuesday, Briana and Destry taught soccer for the elementary PE class on Wednesday (which Easton loved!), Destry had music theory and a piano lesson Thursday and Briana cleans house for a lady every Friday.  Oh how I wish I could have scheduled all this stuff on one day to get it over with.  Maybe next year. . .

 Easton is really taking off with his "reading, (w)riting, and 'rithmetic".   Reading is coming much easier for him now and he is enjoying it.  He doesn't love to write, but he does fine with it and he *loves* math.  One day this week he asked if he could do six pages in his math workbook.  (shrug) Sure, why not.

Arts and crafts is still his very favorite, however.  We finally got to this super easy craft idea my friend Kat shared several weeks ago and it was a major hit. 

 You start by hot glueing crayons across the top (or side) of a canvas.

 Then you use a hair dryer to melt the crayons so the wax runs down the canvas.

 You have to hold it really close and hold it still for a little bit to get the wax hot enough to melt.

 We put cardboard under the canvas during the project and I'm glad--it was a little messy, but not too bad.

 They were super pleased with their finished projects, even though Easton has started thinking he's too big to smile for pictures.

 Using the kids' artwork to decorate their rooms makes us all happy.

I'm thankful it's Friday even though I'm not sure why.  It's not like I don't have just as much to do on the weekends as I do throughout the week--in fact, we're hoping to get our last 35 chickens butchered tomorrow.  Maybe it's just that Daddy is home on the weekends--it's great to have a partner in this busyness!