Weekly Wrap-Up ~ planners, field trips and apples {oh my!}

This year I’ve been trying to give ds8 {3rd grade} a bit more responsibility  when it comes to completing his school work.  Up ‘til now we’ve been using a  tweaked version of the workbox system, mostly as an easy way for ds8 and dd6 to find the schoolwork that they need to do each day. 

But I wanted something more for ds8…I absolutely love my Well-Planned Day Planner and I remembered that they have a Well-Grounded Middle Schooler planner {for grades 4-8}…after researching this planner a bit more, I thought it would be perfect for ds8. 

And wouldn’t you know it, but the very day I decided to order the planner, I received an email stating that all planners from The Home Educating Family had free shipping for one week…I placed my order and we received the planner in the mail two days later.  This past weekend, while filling out my planner, I also filled out ds8’s planner.

There are still a number of subjects that ds8 cannot do independently {due to the nature of the curriculum}.  For instance, both his grammar curriculum {First Language Lessons 3} and his writing curriculum {Writing With Ease 2} require parent involvement.  I still include these assignments in his planner along with subjects he can complete independently, that way he can see all of the work that he needs to complete for each day.

Ds8 is a box-checker {like his mama} and I think he secretly enjoys this new addition to his school day.

In science we began studying Mercury…the planet closest to the sun.   This week we spent most of our science time reading about Mercury from our textbook, Exploring Creation with Astronomy.  After I read aloud from our text, I had the kiddos {mostly ds8} narrate the information they learned.  Ds8 is still talking about Mercury’s long days {equivalent to about 59 earth days} and short years {equivalent to 88 earth days}.  

We also completed three of our current read alouds this week.  We were listening to Ginger Pye on an audio cd that we borrowed from the library, and I was reading The Family Under the Bridge to the kiddos every night before bed.  I was also reading Catching Their Talk in a Box {our missionary read-aloud} during our morning circle time.  So next week we’ll begin at least two new read-alouds, any maybe begin listening to a third book on audio cd.

On Wednesday we enjoyed our first field trip of the school year…a visit to our county fair.  We spent the morning weaving our way through cow barns and horse stalls.  We witnessed sheep shearers at work and a farrier giving a horse a new set of shoes.  I wrote a lot more about our fun at the fair in this post.

I had planned on working on our second assignment from our Autumn Nature Study ebook {geese and ducks}, but our field trip to the fair provided us with the opportunity to observe some horses up close…so I chose to skip ahead and have us complete our third nature study assignment {horses}. 

Today we spent most of the day at my in-laws’ house canning applesauce…we came home with 13 quarts of yummy applesauce for our pantry.   We also brought home nine quarts of canned green beans, courtesy of my in-laws ~ Grandma’s beans are my kiddos’ favorites :)

And don’t worry, we also fit the rest of our schoolwork into this busy week…Bible, spelling, reading, writing, math, geography, history… :)

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