I’ll be honest…my energy for and interest in school is waning as my due date approaches. We still have two more weeks of work that I’m determined to get through before Chickadee’s arrival, though, if only because I don’t want to look at schooling all summer long. We’re still doing all of the “important stuff,” but some of our electives are a little on the overlooked side right now. On the other hand, the local public school is going to be spending the next two weeks on standardized testing, and anything we do at home will be better than that major waste of time!

I continue to be astounded by what Turkey and Bunny are learning in math. They’re doing measurements of area and volume, adding and reducing fractions, and working on simple equations. When I was in third grade, I remember the big thing being division tables, but that’s old hat around here. Turkey and Bunny are working on division with remainders, though, and they’re both doing really well with it, for which I’m very thankful. I dread the day long division enters this household…as far as I’m concerned, that’s what calculators are for!

Adventures in My Father’s World is still our favorite thing about any school day. This week, we learned about Robert Fulton and his inventions, (more than “just” the steamboat), as well as another couple of states, and continued to study the “Star-Spangled Banner.” I say study, instead of memorize, because Turkey and Bunny already know the first verse, (thank you Cardinals baseball games), and I don’t think they need to know any more than that by heart. We did use the first and fourth verses for our dictation this week, however, which led me to realize that Bunny has also memorized at least the fourth the verse, if not two and three, as well. It’s strange what children pick up on, and she seemed quite amused at my surprise when she was saying the dictation before I could!

In addition to our regular schoolwork, we’ve been getting a lot of P.E. time this week. The weather has been unusually nice for February/March, so we’ve been walking, (some of us slower than others!), kicking around the soccer ball, practicing swinging a whiffle ball bat, and riding bikes, (although I haven’t been doing that last one). Physical education is still important, even in homeschools, but it can be hard to remember to schedule it in. I try to make sure we get outside on nice days like we’ve been having, because fresh air and exercise are so important, both to health, and to performance in other school subjects. We’ve even been known to do our schoolwork outside on particularly nice days, to really benefit from the fresh air!

The real fun this week came from celebrating our first Leap Day since we’ve been homeschooling. It’s funny that this is our fourth year of homeschool, and it’s just now come up, but we didn’t start school until Summer 2008, so we just missed it the last time. Four years is a long time, anyway, so I’m guessing Turkey and Bunny wouldn’t really have remembered anything we might have done back then, and Ladybug wasn’t even one yet, so I know this is all new to her! I’m looking forward to other special days coming up before Chickadee arrives, including St. Patrick’s Day and the First Day of Spring–I just hope I still have the energy for the activities I have planned!