Weekly Wrap-Up: The one with the hair, the clay pots, and the guitar solo

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Weekly Wrap-Up

Happy first Friday of fall, y’all! I love fall. It’s my favorite season and I’m so happy that it’s actually felt like fall this week. I’ve been able to keep my windows and doors open and enjoy the fresh air. I especially love being able to keep my bedroom window open at night so that it’s all snuggly under the covers when the temps dip down overnight. The only downside to that is that it makes it hard get up in the mornings.

It’s been great running weather, too. I’ve run three days this week. I love when it starts out cool, but is perfect by the time your body temperature is up.

This has been an interesting week with science. We’re talking genetics, which is always so interesting to me. For example, Megan and I are the only ones in our family who can’t roll our tongues. Josh and Brianna inherited that from Brian. My mom and my sister can’t do it either, so I’m not alone in having the recessive gene.

My kids couldn’t help but be blue-eyed, since Brian and I both are, as well as our parents and I know all four of my grandparents were, as well. I have brown hair, but two of my cousins have red hair. Brian has red, too, as do Josh and Megan. Brianna is strawberry blond. We’re not quite sure where the blond came from.

On Wednesday, we looked at our hair under the microscope. We had lots of variety – a red from Megan, a blond from Brianna, and both a brown and grey from me. I may be going grey, but at least it’s going to be pretty and white like my dad’s. It was really cool to compare the differences between my brown hair and my grey. (Ignore the air bubbles.)

hair strands under microscope

I put off the lab we usually do on Tuesdays until last night. It was a survey of family members to see who has which inherited traits. We had dinner at my sisters with my cousin’s family. That meant my kids could interview an aunt, a grandparent, a cousin, and some second cousins, rather than just our immediate family.

I’m not sure they thought it was as much fun as I did, but I am easily entertained.

In addition to the Crash Course videos that we enjoy, we’ve also been trying out Standard Deviants Accelerate to supplement biology and health. I read some reviews online last week and they’re currently (until Nov. 15) offering six month’s free with no credit card info required, so I thought why not? They have options for several subjects for middle and high school and even some AP courses.

So far, we mostly enjoy it. Some parts of the videos are annoyingly silly, but they have good information that suits our purposes. There are also quizzes after each lesson, so I can make sure we got the important parts, and vocabulary definitions. Some lessons even have short activities to help review the material.

It’s set up so that each student can have their own login information and you can check their progress, but we’ve just been doing them together since we’re just using it to supplement.

It’s art week in history, so we made coil clay pots on Wednesday. I was quite surprised at how much Josh got into that. He’s not typically too excited about art projects.

Making clay coil pots

Last Saturday, we traveled an hour and a half away to hear Josh’s music school perform at a venue arranged by his instructor. We grumbled a bit about the drive, but it was their best show ever! All the kids did great.

We teased my parents and step-parents. Two weeks prior, Josh’s school had a performance in the school parking lot about 5 minutes from where my dad lives and 20 minutes from where my mom lives. Neither set of grandparents were able to come, yet they both drove to the venue 1.5 hours away.

We’re kind of glad it worked out that way, though, because the show this weekend was a much better show. I wish I could show you the video I made, but I don’t feel right about posting it without the other parents’ permission. Josh has a guitar solo on Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ and he nailed it. The crowd started cheering about halfway through. Brian and I were so proud of him!

Maybe I’ll see if I can get permission from the other parents and post it next week.

This weekend, I may wind up with some alone time. Brianna has to work, Josh may go to a friend’s, and Brian and Megan are going somewhere with my niece and brother-in-law. Y’all know I love me some quiet time at home alone. Enjoy your weekend!

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Kris Bales is a newly-retired homeschool mom and the quirky, Christ-following, painfully honest founder (and former owner) of Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. She has a pretty serious addiction to sweet tea and Words with Friends. Kris and her husband of over 30 years are parents to three amazing homeschool grads. They share their home with three dogs, two cats, a ball python, a bearded dragon, and seven birds.

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9 Comments

  1. I love genetics and inherited trait stuff. I’ve always found it so interesting! And those pictures of the clay pots in process is making me want to dig out some clay to play with.

  2. I love this time of year too.
    Wow! The microscope pictures are really neat.
    Sorry about the double link-up…I’ll never try to do that from my phone again!!!
    Your posts about homeschooling the middle and high school years are very encouraging.

  3. Looking through things the microscope is awesome. I also liked your survey of family members to see who has which inherited traits. I remember discovering the genetic traits of eye colors during one lesson.

  4. I can’t roll my tongue either although both kids can. And I love that you let them have a brown and grey hair! All in the name of homeschooling.

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