Weekly Wrap Up 3.14.2010

I know, I’m a little late but hey – you know me well enough by now to know that I am rarely ever on schedule for anything, LOL!

We had a fun, full week this week. Let me begin by sharing how our first week with our redesigned workboxes turned out. If you haven’t already read about my recent tweaks, you can find that post here. For a brief recap, I ditched the boxes and and am now trying out a much more compact version with file folders. Everything went pretty well last week. We actually used our schedule books (we had long abandoned out schedule strips as the boys kept forgetting to use them) and they helped us stay on task throughout the day.. I also noticed there was a lot less up and down movement from the table, since most of what the boys needed was right there on the table in front of them. We are utilizing a “holding station” for those items that don’t fit neatly into a file folder, but so far we have only had to use it for a couple of things every day. Both of the boys seemed to enjoy using these folders and we got everything done this week we had planned (even though we took Wednesday off because it was Drew’s birthday). There are still a few things I would like to eventually change, but they will have to wait til I can purchase a few things.

One of our TOG related projects this week was to make our own 10 commandments stone tablets. This project originally suggested cardboard, but I didn’t have any boxes large enough so we used poster board. I had the “stones” cut out ahead of time. The first day I mixed up some gray craft paint, and the boys painted their stones front and back. Originally, I was going to have them write the commandments out with a sharpie, but our gray ended up too dark for that. So instead we used chalk! It worked perfectly, although the boys had a hard time writing neatly because all the chalk was in little pieces.

We also watched 4 movies this week about the patriarchs. We watched Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and Moses. It was nice to have a fun way to reinforce all that we had been studying. Joseph was the unanimous favorite.

We were also blessed to have a couple of 50 and 60 degree days last week. It was so nice to have the sun pouring through the windows. Of course, we could not sit inside and let all the beautiful sunshine go to waste, so we spent quite a bit of time outdoors on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the older boys ran around like crazy kids the whole time and I didn’t manage to get any good pictures of them, but I did get a few of Joey.

The boys have made friends with a couple of girls that live in the complex. Wednesday night, the gorls invited them to a neighborhood outreach at a church within walking distance. So Bobby walked them over and got information from the adults running it. Apparently, they host this outreach several nights a week for area kids. Apparently, not may parents get involved because Bobby said they looked shocked to see a parent there. They provide a healthy dinner for the kids (complete with dessert) and set up games for them and open the gym. I promised the boys we would allow them to go as often as we could. They said that since they didn’t know Drew was coming and it was his birthday, they would have a cake for him this coming week!

Drew’s grandmother came from Myrtle Beach to visit him for his birthday. She arrived Saturday and will be flying back Monday afternoon. Drew loves hanging out with her and she always spoils him with eating out and movies and such. Tonight he is spending the night with her at her hotel, as he usually does when she comes for a visit.

So that pretty much wraps up this past week. I am sure I am forgetting a few things, but I am getting sleepy and having trouble keeping my eyes open! The spring forward thing messes with me every time. Hopefully I’ll be back on track in a few days. Hope you had a great week!

Blessings,

: ) Cassie