Weekly Wrap-Up

I came across the idea of a weekly wrap up over at Weird , Unsocialized Homeschoolers and I like the idea!

I am hoping to be disciplined enough to post weekly. In the mean time we are well into the fourth term and here's a little of what we have been up to.....

It's exam season here for Josh who is writing his Cambridge AS level finals. Not sure who has to remember to breathe more, me or him! So far he has written 3 physical science papers, 1 English and 1 math paper. He has 4 papers to go and on November 5th he will be done with home education! I can scarcely believe how the years have flown and we are immensely proud of his achievements to date.

The younger two and I have got into a good rhythm this term, all working together on various days and then Keren working alone on others. 

Her art has taken up much of her time and she is doing incredibly well , attaining very high marks in theory and practicals at art school. Some of her work was recently chosen for an exhibition at the opening of a local school art center. She has had two all day art practical sessions this term and though she comes home exhausted, she is loving art school.

Last week the two of us enjoyed attending an art exhibition of Cape artist, James Thackwray. His work is distinctly South African and captures the daily lives of the Cape Malay people during turbulent times in our history. The Bo-Kaap and District Six are featured in his works too.

The younger two and I attend free Afrikaans lessons once a week at the local library. It has been fun and the kids are doing well. In a recent test they achieved 65 and 75 per cent. One of them attaining higher marks than me! It has been rewarding to see their confidence grow when speaking the language and taking part in a class setting. Keren has enjoyed it so much, she has decided she wants to learn many languages and has started teaching herself Swahili with and on line course.

Zak has enjoyed his monthly tekioo class.

He made this awesome DVD rack.

 He has enjoyed a couple of outings too with fellow home school kids. The skate park, a drumming workshop and ice skating were all a big hit. 

He attends basketball practice at the local Waldorf School twice a week and is loving that.

Zak is number 24.

They have played two matches so far this term. Sadly for them they lost both games. The teams they played were high school teams and their team is from age 9 to 13. Their next game will be a more even match as they will play against a team from a primary school.

Zak has attended his monthly Chaeli campaign meeting where he serves as a mentor to the ambassadors.

 He is trying out a two month free trial of online math. He is enjoying Aleks math on the computer and is learning new skills daily. 

The three of us wrapped up our unit study on Mesopotamia and have moved onto ancient Egypt . We are also doing a study on India and enjoying reading "A Passage to India". We plan on making an Indian meal next week for hubby's birthday.  

We have also enjoyed reading "When Whales Go Free", a story set in 1912 about the establishment of a whaling station at Plettenberg Bay.

We have read a book of short biographies of Polycarp, Alban, John Oldcastle, Cranmer, Wishart, Chalmers, Bonhoffer, Nate Saint, Moiseyev and Graham Staines. All remarkable men who didn't give in and chose to do the right thing even in the face of great danger.

Keren has a new student, a young boy who is keen on cooking. She will be teaching him to cook and bake every second week. Last week she had her first session with him and they made meatballs in tomato sauce and a chocolate cake. He is a keen student and it is a great way for her to earn some pocket money.

 She practiced preparing the meal the night before she gave the lesson.

 Lovely for me to have a night off cooking!

We received bags of granadillas from a friend and Zak and I got busy in the kitchen too.

 He made a delicious granadilla cordial and has made a yummy granadilla yogurt fridge cake a few times. Josh has declared it to be his favorite desert!

We received a coin exchange from Korea with an informative letter about their currency.

We enjoy these exchanges and use them as an opportunity to learn about different countries and cultures. The kids found and marked Korea on their maps. We sent off a package of SA coins to the family in Korea.

We have enjoyed some beautiful spring weather and on occasion, ditched the books in favor of an early morning beach walk with our crazy dog. I love that we have the freedom to do so.

 We have seen all sorts washed up on the beach such as giant jellyfish, beautiful shells, shark egg cases and a poor little baby seal that seemed to be dying. 

That morning we spent ages on the beach waiting for the SPCA to rescue the poor little thing. 

Sadly the little fellow didn't make it and died on the way into the SPCA. 

Yesterday we enjoyed our nature club outing to the Littlewort Trail at Newlands forest, a beautiful trail that we have not done before.

Just what we needed at the end of a busy and somewhat stressful week.

 Lovely to catch up with other home educating families and enjoy being out in nature.