Weekly Recap: October 22-26, 2012

As so often happens, our reading this week sparked additional interests.  M8 was reading A Confederate Girl:  The Diary of Carrie Berry.  As we read, we found directions for using sock to make a doll.  I mistakenly thought the project was going to be too much.  M8 was determined so we made a sock doll.  M8 did all of the sewing herself.  I was really pleased and impressed with her commitment to the project.  She also found the clothes for the doll and drew the face.  After discussing the options for eye, nose and hair, she settled on a Sharpie pen for the facial features and yarn for the hair.

I always find it interesting when my children approach challenges in ways that are unique and unexpected. If I had been drawing the face of a doll, I would have made an endless number of practice efforts on paper before I attempted using a Sharpie on cloth. In fact, I probably would have done the marking in pencil first and then gone over it with Sharpie.

My dauntless 8 year old grabbed the Sharpie pen and in several deft moves revealed the perfect face for her doll. There was no hesitation. As far as I know, this was her first effort at drawing a face on anything other than paper. It was almost as if she were uncovering a face that was already there but I was too blind to see. The doll is beautiful and my daughter is, understandably, a very proud mother.

H13

High:  Grammar - I enjoyed marking the dialogues.

Low:  Math - Graphing was difficult.

S10

High:  Reading - I liked Call of the Wild.  (I just need to add that I gave him the book on Thursday and he finished it by Friday morning.  Of course, I got White Fang from the library today.)

Low:  Latin

M8

High:  Latin

Low:  Grammar - It takes too long.

Me

High:   Reading.  We are enjoying Anne of Green Gables so much.  S10 absolutely ripped through Call of the Wild.  H13 finished Gone With the Wind and admitted that she loved it and was glad she read it. Sometimes it is so tempting to indulge our passion for reading and let everything else go. 

Low:  Physics and history.  While we did do some history this week we are still stalled on physics.  I think that I will need to devote a week in November to catching up in physics.