Weekly Wrap-Up: The One with the Fingerprints

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weekly wrap-up

Happy Friday!  I just love Fridays.  Well, really it’s the weekend that I love – a chance to relax with the family with no time constraints, no job for Dad to rush off to each morning, no outside activities to try to squeeze into a busy day, and the promise of church on Sunday.  And, can I just say how incredibly wonderful it is to be able to add that last item.  It has been such a blessing to find a church that we love after searching for such a long time.

This has been a week of getting back into the swing of things.  After going through a rather busy season of outside commitments, it’s nice to slow down for awhile.  Volleyball has ended until after the first of the year, we don’t have any fieldtrips scheduled in the near future, and we only have two more weeks of music class for this year.  It’s that time of the school year that we can all catch our collective breath and look forward to a few weeks off to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with extended family.

It’s also a time when we can really get some serious schoolwork done at home, as we’ve done this week.  There hasn’t been anything especially exciting going on, but rather we’ve just had time to hit all the basic subjects – Bible, history, math, science, reading, and writing – very thoroughly, something I’m sure most homeschooling moms can relate to.

The most fun the younger kids and I have had this week has been, once again, science.  I am really loving Science Odyssey.  This week we were talking about genetics.  The first lab we did was a really simple one of comparing genetic traits that the kids have to those that Brian and I have.  It’s a well-known fact in our family that Brianna and Josh inherited their ability to roll their tongues from Brian and not me.  They take great delight in laughing at my attempts to roll my tongue.  Although it is supposed to be a genetic trait, I have gotten much closer through practice over the years.  Megan inherited her inability to roll her tongue from me.  Does your family have any quirky little genetic traits?

Our second lab was taking a look at fingerprints, which was really cool.  Our “inkpad” was just a square of paper colored heavily with #2 pencil in which we rubbed our fingers.  Then, we placed a piece of tape on the finger, rubbing firmly to pick up the print, and we stuck the tape onto the lab sheets.

I got three extra prints – mine, Brianna’s and Brian’s – and and extra “mystery print” from one of us (me) for the kids to try to match up.  It was a lot of fun.

fingerprints[7]

We got back to writing this week, too, with Institute for Excellence in Writing, after taking a little break for our ill-fated Around the World Day event.  (You know, the ATWD that we didn’t get to do because I went to Relevant.)  I love IEW!  This week was one of the weeks in which we watch Andrew Pudewa on video.  The kids are so funny – well, mostly Josh.  He tries to have a grumbling attitude about our writing lessons because, well, it’s writing and he’s a boy.  He just can’t do it, though. Mr. Pudewa is so funny that the kids can help but laugh and get engaged with the lessons.  It’s funny watching Josh try not to laugh, then, finally, giving up.

I’m so excited with how well writing is going.  Brianna is really improving and Megan just seems to be picking it up very naturally, being very willing to add to the assignments and have fun with them.  I keep telling myself that I deserve at least one kid who loves reading and writing as much as I do.  Really, I do deserve at least one – right? – so I’m very thankful that Megan enjoys both as much as she seems to.

Those are pretty much the highlights of my week – nothing terribly exciting, but the normalcy of it is enough to excite this homeschooling mama.

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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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19 Comments

  1. I love it! Those nice, normal and simple weeks are great. Can't say enough about the value of some down time. I like the science curriculum. I am keeping notes on these since my little guy is only 2 right now and we haven't moved there yet. Thanks again for hosting.

  2. We did fingerprinting one Christmas (it was a gift for one of the kids) and it was a lot of fun. We discovered that the kids' prints match up to 1 parent but can't recall who to who right now (something like father to daughter, mother to son kind of thing).
    Have a great weekend!

  3. Ah, normalcy – it IS very exciting!! I love the fingerprinting too. I think we'll be doing that sometime soon, it's definitely something Matthew would love!

  4. Kris,

    Sounds like a great week! I have to say I'm a bit jealous – don't tell my daughter but I would love a break from swimming. But swimming is like laundry – IT NEVER ENDS!!!!!

    I am so enjoying IEW with my boys as well. We have hit our first stumbling block for Duncan (9), though, as he is having some trouble writing his narrative story. It is a bit different from writing a more factual story. Overall, though, both of the boys have been doing very well with IEW.

    Samantha

  5. I love Andrew Pudewa! I got to hear him at the Midwest convention this year and he's so funny. Sounds like a nice, normal week. Enjoy it!

  6. Sounds like a great week! We have 1 more week of "regular" ballet, and then we're finished until January!! (Nutcracker practices are a WHOLE other story.) So I'm looking forward to things slowing down here too.

  7. I love "normal" weeks. I am almost to the point in my homeschooling career that I love weekdays better than weekends because of the normalness of the days. (Crazy I know!)

    Love the fingerprint activity…

    Thanks for hosting the wrap-up.

  8. I'm glad you were able to enjoy a more relaxed week! Normalcy is a very good thing. I love the fingerprint experiment, that looks like fun 🙂

  9. I love the fingerprint lesson! Also we are beginning to use IEW and I am struggling with how to teach it. We were doing okay with it last term last year, but have yet to get back into it. I need to!
    Which videos do you use that your kids watch? I have the TWSS vids but my guys… I don't know if they would go over with them.
    http://www.5kidsandadog.com

  10. Kris,
    The fingerprint idea was great. My daughter will want to try that. She imagines herself an amateur detective. lol
    We're trying Weekly Wrap-Up this week for the first time. It's been fun.
    I enjoyed reading.
    Tammy

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