Our Before and After China Weeks and Thanksgiving

We managed to do school work right up until I left for China.

Jack and Hannah, working on Geography.

We're 21 weeks into a 36 week book, only 13 weeks into our school year.  I have no worries about finishing this one, despite them taking time off from Geography while I was gone.

Our last Art project prior to the trip was Lonely Highway from the 4th grade Home Art Studio DVD.

As you can see, it was about perspective.  They used sharpie and watercolor pencils.  Interestingly, we see a view much like the top picture every year when we drive to Nevada in the summer.  Except there are no power lines.  Or anything else.  For miles and miles.

Our first art project after the trip was also from the same DVD.

This project was about differences.  The difference between organic and geometric shapes,

and the difference between warm colors and cool colors.

Miss Katie hit a milestone this week!  Remember her phonics program?  She's done with book 2 now!

We'll be starting book 3 next week!

Really, I promise we do more than just art in our homeschool.  But who wants to take a picture of kids scowling at a math book, right?

The camera comes out when they're making things.

Like this 3D sculpture, which, honestly, was kind of a flop project.

Still, there's value in experience and following directions.

Hey, look!  It's Josiah!  While I was in China, he got injured at boot camp.  The army sent him home and said he could try again in 6 months if he wants to.  Both boys' cell phones needed fixing, so we took a trip to the phone store.

Brianna did a mini masterpiece on black canvas with the Kwik Stix.  

Silly panorama shot of everyone at the Thanksgiving table.   I thought about trying to get an actual picture picture of everybody on Thanksgiving, but without Zach's family and Annaliese here, I guess my heart wasn't really in it, because it never happened.  

I printed some Thanksgiving coloring pages, and we colored between the main meal and the pie course.

I teasingly said we were going to have a coloring contest and the winner was going to get the biggest piece of pie.

They took me seriously and did their best coloring.

Eli even brought out extra light.  Plenty of pie was had by all.

This guy totally beat me at Star Wars Battleship.

Still getting over jet lag (I'm up at 4 most days), still trying to process my experiences in China, still working to get back into the home and homeschool routine.  But I'm pretty excited to be at my lowest weight in at least 2 years.  I'm almost at the 40# goal I set for myself in June.

Now comes all the Christmas shopping, crafting, and preparations.  I think most years I see the holidaze as an interruption to our structured world.  I'm hoping to embrace the chaos this year and be more relaxed about what gets done and what doesn't.  It's been a long time since I've really enjoyed Christmas.

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