Weekly Wrap-Up: Valentine’s Day Edition
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This week ended on a great high note: our homeschool group’s annual Valentine’s Day party. I’m not sure what the final headcount was, but there were lots and lots and lots of kids. Everyone had a great time. They consumed massive amounts of pizza, cupcakes, juice boxes, soft drinks and various and sundry other forms of sugar. They ran like little wild things outside, limbo-ed and played with friends inside, decorated Valentine’s bags and handed out cards. A great time was had by all…including the poor, unsocialized homeschool moms. 😉
We started out the week a little rough. I’m totally blaming the full moon. Someone, whom I will allow to remain nameless, had a temper tantrum of massive proportions, but, I was able to handle anything on Monday because I knew that Monday night was Mom’s Night Out! Once a month, the moms in our homeschool group get together at a local restaurant for food and fellowship. It’s always a wonderful time. I rarely go in a bad mood because I’m so excited about going, but, on the couple of times that I have gone in a bad mood, I certainly haven’t left in one! It’s such a blessing to be able to spend time with other Christian homeschooling moms who know exactly where I am and what I’m dealing with. This month, we met at a local Mexican restaurant. Let me just say…yum!
Our reading bingo has been working great this week. I am personally thrilled not to have to listen to the same book every day. And, on an even better note, I have noticed a sudden improvement in Josh’s reading. His fluency and his confidence have improved noticeably in just the last couple of weeks. Yay!
I’ve been working with all the kids on the Dolch sight words (I’m a big advocate of combining phonics and sight words) and I’ve been really impressed with their retention. This is a really big deal with Josh who, a few years ago, had major retention problems. We literally did the same pack of ten cards for months. Now, I think I’ll be ready to update the card packs by the end of next week, after having started them on Monday.
Unfortunately, science and history have been kind of ho-hum again this week, although I did find Clovis a very interesting fellow to read about (which may turn into it’s own post later when combined by a quote I read from Newt Gingrich about adolescence. I’ll leave you hanging on that one). We’ll be getting into more interesting areas next week, though. Particularly in science where we’ll be learning about geology and looking at some really interesting rocks I’ve managed to gather from a variety of sources. We’ll probably spend more than a week on that unit.
Wednesday night, we went to the dollar movies. Just in case you’ve considered going to see Marley & Me, let me just say: don’t! We were so disappointed in that movie. It was marketed as a family movie and we saw the previews for it during other family movies that we’d gone to see. A friend warned me that there were a couple of risque scenes, so I thought we were prepared.
Um, no. There were several scenes that the movie totally could have done without, along with coarse humor and language. We kept thinking that, with it being PG, surely it wouldn’t get any worse.
It did. We walked out. It was bad enough that Brian went to check the billboard to make sure that it wasn’t actually PG-13. It should have been, but it wasn’t.
While I was upset that we had gone and let the kids see and hear that garbage, I was thankful that we were able to turn it into a teachable moment to discuss with the kids our values and the fact that sometimes we make poor choices. We were able to discuss the fact that when we realize that a bad choice has been made, we should walk away from it, regardless of the money, time or whatever that we have invested. Even though I wish we’d never gone to see the movie, it was all bad since our kids got to see us make a stand for our values by leaving.
So, that’s our week in a nutshell; how was yours? Be sure to post about it and sign up with Mr. Linky. If this is your first time to join us, be sure to read the Weekly Wrap-Up guidelines.
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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.
I’m a little glad the valentine’s party is over! Wow, forcing the children to make 23 valentines – what fun I had 😉
Sounds like a nice week. Sorry about the movie-but I think you did thed right thing. You’re children will remember that.
Thanks for the warning about Marley and Me. Wow! So disappointing. We have a somewhat crazy yellow lab and I thought it might be a therapeutic movie for me to see. 🙂 I think I’ll pass though.
Sometimes I am surprised at the movies that get the PG-13 rating, and sometimes surprised at the ones that do not.
When I remember, I like to check out the Plugged in Movie Review. But, as you mentioned, even with a little warning you kind of assume PG is safe for older kids.
~Erin
I haven’t heard of Plugged In, I’ll have to check that out. But 5inTow’s suggestion reminded me that commonsensemedia.org (I think) is another good one.
I am surprised about Marley and Me. 🙁 We did have a fabulous Val party, didn’t we?
Wow! I hadn’t heard that about Marley and Me, but then again, everyone who told me about it has been all adults who went to see it sans kids. Funny how when you see a movie with just adults your perspective is different than when you have little ones in tow.
Karen, that's true. I actually would probably have enjoyed Marley & Me if Brian and I had gone to see it. For adults, aside from the language, it would be a pretty tame movie with some funny scenes. However, having the family there gave it a whole different perspective.
The party and Mom’s Night Out sound like so much fun!!
This link might be helpful. I haven’t looked up the other one that was shared. Kids in Mind tells you exactly what is said or what is possibly objectionable.