Things are going very well this week. I find that I'm learning more and more "school" can happen around the things life throws our direction. It's flexible!!! As long as I remain flexible. :)
Last Friday we started a unit study on nutrition. I'll throw in my own selfish motives for this 'study', I have been trying to loose the same 15 pounds since... well January. I did great at first, I have been yo-yoing ever since spring! So I hope that by going "clean" with our eating as a family, I can find renewed motivation myself. (smile) It's actually working out very well!
Anyway... back to school. ;) On Friday we started by talking about the food pyramid and things we can do differently to eat more fruits and veggies. I had checked out some healthy kids recipe books from the library and they picked out a couple 'snack' recipes. They made their own shopping lists, and we made a trip to the store! Since we are doing a giant over-haul in all our eating as a family, we had some major shopping to do. Eating clean and organic is no piece of cake when you're starting from scratch! It's going wonderfully though, and with the girls being so heavily involved they are much more willing to try or eat something.
Yesterday we also made a trip up to my grandma's house and the girls and I learned to can! We canned peaches, and it was a lot of fun! I feel so blessed to have been able to spend that kind of quality time with my grandma. Also to have my girls involved, I know it will last forever. I am very thankful that being a homeschool family offers me many opportunities like this!
This week in our Africa Unit we are studying the bulge of Africa. Mostly Ghana and Nigeria. We are reading fiction and non-fiction books. We find ourselves very curious about "talking drums" (which I had no idea about and find absolutely fascinating!) and the culture of the Ashanti people. This study is going to be drawn out into next week as well. I have mentioned before that my husbands great-grandfather lived and was a missionary in Nigeria. So we are going to have "Nigeria Night" over at their grandparents next week! A couple years back they also made a trip to Nigeria to visit the school where he ministered. They have lots of photo's and pieces of Nigerian heritage. The girls also own a few African pieces they were given after their Grandma passed away last winter, she was the daughter of the missionary. So this is really a special week of study for us, and I want to get in all that I can.
Well, that's all the interesting stuff. Math and grammar, among other things, trudge forward for now! The three of us are having a lot of fun! Even the neighbor girl asks me when she get off the bus, what we learned today. My daughter loves to tell her about all the African things she is learning. So I breathe a sigh of relief... I must be doing something right! (Thank you Lord for your daily guidance!)
