Wrapping up the Week - 4/15

What we are reading ::

The Spirituality of George Washington

Reed of God

listening to: One Thousand Gifts, it's free right now on Audible.com

Family Reading: The Marvelous Land of Oz

Bob just started reading The Fellowship of the Rings to the boys

Around the House :: We switched some of our "theme" dinners around the last couple of months.  We moved our soup night to Friday.  It's easy to have a simple, meat-free dinner with soup.  We moved our pizza night to Sunday.  Lately we have been eating a big breakfast when we come home from mass, it's been a great was to use up leftovers!, a bit later we watch a family movie, and then we order pizza. As the weather gets warmer we may skip the movie to do more outside activities.

Around the Kitchen ::  Grilling season is upon us ~ finally!  Anyone have any recipes/suggestions for doing veggies on the grill?

Education ::  Due to the fact that I still can't find those darned George Washington books I misplaced a couple of weeks ago, I had a minor epiphany that I really need to be more organized.  I can't afford to waste time looking for things.  In general I feel like I am a pretty organized person, but I need to step it up in the school department.  Everyone is getting older, with more things to do, and I do them a huge disservice by wandering around looking for papers when they are ready to go.  So, I am thinking a binder of some sort is what I need.  The ideas have started swirling and I will see what I can get together this weekend.

Jacob's independent project lately has been learning how to make Lego movies.  He is taking pictures of Lego mini-figures with an old camera phone and downloading them into iMovie.  He has made some interesting little movies!

Jacob~4th grade ::  Horizons, The Tale of Solomon the Owl, Vocabulary, Handwriting/Copywork, IEW

Jonah~2nd grade ::  Math-U-See, various readers, Handwriting, Phonics-Explode the Code

Sarah~1st grade ::  Math-U-See, various books, Handwriting, Phonics-Explode the Code

This week our Five in a Row book was , Follow the Drinking Gourd

The kids were familiar with the story, we have a music CD that has the song on it, with a bit of an explanation before the song starts.

We have a living history museum in our area that has several houses that were on the Underground Railroad.  They will have more meaning to us this time around as we have learned more of the background story.

Monday:  We read the story and located the places mentioned on the map.  We then looked at another, larger map that showed some of the various routes that the slaves took towards freedom.

Tuesday:  Talked a bit more in depth about slavery, why it was started etc.

Thursday:  We read our main story, plus a story called An Apple for Harriet Tubman.  Then we read The Patchwork Path and did a freedom quilt craft.  I was sort of floundering for a craft this week and I just happened to pick this book up from the library.  I had never heard of freedom quilts before.  The craft turned out cute.  

We also watched a short dvd about the Michigan Underground Railroad.  Several famous abolitionists lived in Michigan: Sojourner Truth, Fredrick Douglas, and Laura Haviland just to name a few.  So much history right in our own backyard!

Friday:   Our final read of Follow the Drinking Gourd and then Barefoot: Escape on the Underground Railroad, Freedom River and then as a review for the younger kids, ABC USA.  In the book, U is for Underground Railroad.

Thanks for tagging along on our week.  Join in the link up to share your week too.  Last week we had the largest number of link-ups yet, thanks to all those who link up and all those who are reading!

Next week (4/22) I won't have a Wrapping up the Week post or a linky due to Holy Week.  We will spend our week focusing on Holy Week and finishing up First Holy Communion notebooks for Sarah & Jonah.  Hope you have a most blessed Holy Week and Easter!