Whew…what a week! But we’re pretty much done until after the New Year!

Our regular religion lessons were sidelined for most of the week, as we spent extra time learning about Santa Lucia on her commemoration day, as well as a brief study of the Feast of Dedication since Hanukkah began this week. We even got to read from the Apocrypha, which isn’t totally unheard of around here, but is a bit unusual.

In math, Turkey and Bunny learned how to find the volume of cones, spheres, and pyramids. Ladybug got to use a protractor for the very first time this week, and she was very excited about it! Chickadee kept working on addition, and also practiced with a calendar a bit.

Turkey and Bunny were very relieved to finish up the chapter on the cell in science, and they both did a great job on the test. I think they’re very excited to have a break from such serious learning for a few weeks…it’s been a bit overwhelming.

We finished reading Ramona Quimby, Age 8 this week. Chickadee begged me to start reading the next book, but I told her we need to wait until after Christmas. We also started Kirsten’s Surprise this week, we’re still reading through A Christmas Carol, and we’re trying to read through some of our other Christmas books, as well, so Ramona (and our regular literature) will just have to wait.

We also got to do some fun stuff this week. In addition to learning about Hanukkah, and getting to play the dreidel game, we went to Belleville’s Cathedral of St. Peter to see their display of nativity scenes from around the world (including a somewhat controversial hipster nativity). It’s been three years since we last got to go, and we discovered that the nativities were mostly different this time! We also got to take a shift as Salvation Army Bell Ringers through a Thrivent service opportunity, which was a lot of fun, and something I’ve always wanted to do!

We are going to do a few fun things next week, including our yearly ornament project, the viewing of some more productions of the Nutcracker, and finishing A Christmas Carol. But that’s all easy stuff, so really, we’re on vacation already!