Bird's-Eye View of the Week: If Spring Is Here, then the End Is Near!

As warm(er) weather arrives, I am reminded of end-of-year reviews and Closing Programs and approaching curriculum fairs, and I've gone into a sort of panic mode as I find us behind. What have we done?? What do I have to show for it?? Will my child be put back in public school where they do SUCH  a much better of record-keeping, a fact that clearly makes them better equipped at teaching??!! Does the following week sound like slacking to you?

HISTORY

Educating at 5 am. Yes, it's history.

We could call the AmblesideYear 3 schedule: Keeping Up With the Tudors ..and the Hanoverians. Mei already so gets the vast disparity and therefore horrific breach of class Prince William caused when he married Catherine the Commoner. See? History is relevant!
And about Jamestown. FYI, the original colony of Virginia wasn't confined to the mid-Atlantic, but extended south to the Carolinas and north to New Brunswick.. (see here) Save that for Trivia Night

GEOGRAPHY
"Marco!" "Polo!" She hates the water game but enjoys the subject. Here is an area that we've definitely dragged on. MP should've made it to Cathay two months ago, but onlyrecently crossed into Kashgar.
But we're catching up. Helping to focus us and "show what she knows", we are using In the Hands of a Child.com's "Marco Polo" lapbook unit combined with Jimmie's Collage "Ancient China" lapbook  and reading suggestions on Homeschoolshare.com . We're also cooking up tastes of the Middle East and creating blog post cooking lessons. Check out: Cooking Mei's Way: Chicken Tagine.

SCIENCE"Science in a Supermarket" continues to inform all of us humorously.  Lately it's been soap and detergents. We requested laundry detergent samples from all of our Easter guests (cheaper than buying four different boxes) and will be using them to critque differences--if any!--in cleaning power. Hmm.....


MATH
Mei was DISAPPOINTED when I announced we
would take a week off of math to catch up on other subjects since she had alreadycompleted Math-U-See Gamma. (At least we were ahead on SOMETHING.) But...woah! Excuse me? My child who "hates math" disappointed to take off a whole week? Turns out she couldn't wait to start the new level, Delta. Wow, Steve Demme, looks like another satisfied customer! You can quote her on your site if you like.
And having completed only ONE unit of division, she announces it, sagely, to be SOOOO much more interesting than  multiplication!

FIELD TRIP
Took in Theatreworks USA's new production, "We the People." What a raucous way to teach the complicated (and snoozable) Three Branches of Government, the Electoral Process, and How a Bill Becomes a Law. A highschool student runs for class president simply to pad her college applications, but the Fab Revolutionary Four show up to set her straight about being a public servant.
Don't know how Washington and Jefferson would feel about being portrayed as hipped-up rockers cranking on Fender Stratocasters painted in the Stars and Stripes, but if Mei came out of there understanding the Balance of Power (and she did), then I approve.

So that's a quick recapping of one of our waning weeks in Ambleside Year 3. How about you? Feeling pressured or do I have to hate you because you're so well-organized, maybe even ahead of schedule??

Check out more slackers hard-working homeschoolers at Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers AFTER you leave me a comment. ;-)