Sunday:
Another year has come around and during Fire Safety Week the fire department opens it’s doors for their Open House. It was windy and cold just like it was last year. That didn’t stop us from hopping into the trucks, participating in the Fire Safety Smoke House, and reviewing our exit plan in case there is a fire in our home.

I was astounded as I was filling in our assignment list for this week to find that we did not have to leave the house once during our school day. The evening is a whole different story given all the kids sports involvement, but our days were unscheduled! Anyone who knows me well, knows that this may not be such a good thing. I thrive on a busy schedule. I may complain, but I function better, and accomplish more on a tight schedule. Needless to say, by Wednesday my emotional state was suffering. Believe it or not, choosing to take Jayden to football in the whipping wind, and soaking rain was a good choice for me. I couldn’t sit at home and feel unproductive, at least if I went to practice it was giving Joey a chance to be home to do what he wanted, even if it was just to veg out on the computer.

Wednesday:
I pulled out an old (old as in had not seen the light of day in a long time) toy for the kids and I to play with. Our Quadrilla Twist Wooden Marble Maze. It was a Christmas gift to Jayden the year Papa Peter died. It was the first year he and I had planned ahead so he had gifts for the kids. It was tough to give the kids their gifts for Christmas after he had passed away. We enjoyed getting it out and finding new excitement in it though. I think it will hang out in the homeschool room, at least for a little while, until they are no longer playing with it as if it were a new toy!

Thursday:
Our theme for art this month is centered around Chuck Close. Last week we read about about him, and this week watched a kind of documentary about him and his work. Today we started work on our Chuck Close inspired portraits. I had a tough time finding carbon transfer paper to use for this project. The ladies at Joann’s looked at me as though I had come from another time period when I was looking for it! I did manage to find some so we could get started.

Friday:
We are continuing our study of the Periodic Table. This week the kids had to choose their favorite element and research some things about it. Jayden chose Calcium (Ca), and Chloe chose Gold (Au). It was funny to watch them trying to draw a diagram of each element because each one has so many protons, neutrons, and electrons. Especially gold with 79 protons& electrons, and 118 neutrons. Chloe had to draw 6 energy levels.