Unexpected Homeschool: Teenage Driving (Week 22

Hallelujah, Amber and I are both almost healthy! She still is sniffling some and I still have an occasional raspy sounding cough. Our energy level has been a little lower than normal, but so much better than the past two weeks.

We were still recovering for a good part of this week, so school work was limited to the easier subjects and lower energy lessons. Thankfully, I believe next week we will manage a goodly amount of our regular schedule! We don't have co-op next week either, so we'll have that day at home. I can't wait. As much as we love co-op, I really need those break weeks.

My Valentine's Day flowers

We missed another field trip this week too. We have wanted to do the maple sugaring at our local conservation area / state forest for years, and this year our new homeschool group scheduled an event for us at a time that Amber and I could actually make. It has been freakishly warm this past week in Missouri, but the temperature dropped drastically for today. Still, it wasn't too cold and we could have gone, except I did something wrong when unloading the car from co-op earlier in the week. I have barely been able to move since, because of shooting pain where I have all damage in my spine. Amber was disappointed, but there was no way I could do all the walking or help her through all the walking.

However, Amber has been doing a lot of driving this week because of my back. Actually, she was doing most of the driving before I triggered the new inflammation, but since then she has done all of the driving. It's still a little unnerving and she is clearly a young driver, although she's actually getting us everywhere we need to go. I just have to help a little with parking in crowded lots. I guess next week, if we are up for it, I should take her out to practice parking a little more.

School accomplished:

Co-op homework: Writing and astronomy.
Co-op classes: astronomy, Elegant Essay, drama, nature drawing
Literature: Jane Eyre (3 lessons)
History: Ancient History, using Drive Thru History Adventures (another 2 complete lessons)
Math (2 lessons): Using the MathArt to study Greek Math & Platonic Solids, and Pythagoras & the Music of the Spheres. Includes additional research and documentation. (This is a review item, and also a trial for the math independent study.)
Western Civilization - 1 lesson
Flute practice and lesson -

Other Activities:

Driving - Besides driving us almost everywhere this week, we also went out early in the week to just practice driving with no particular location in mind.
Valentine's Day party at co-op
February Amber and Mom day (we take one day a month to have fun together. It helps our relationship be more than teaching parent and student child).
Video games - Amber has been really busy designing an area on Lego Worlds. She's been spending time planning and then developing her own area. It's been her creative outlet for the week.

(left) Milori is doing much better. We're so happy to have him healthy
(right) Biscotti loves to burrow into blankets

We've been watching some of the Olympics in the evenings, but we did not use it as a learning experience. I'm not terribly interested or dedicated to logging school hours outside of our planned lessons, which means I miss a lot of opportunities like the Olympics.

I've been crocheting during my TV watching time in the evenings, instead of always working on my to-do lists. I feel a little behind, but perhaps not as exhausted for it. I am really finding it rewarding to work on difficult crochet projects. Right now I'm doing the Moogly CAL (crochet along) in two different colors, and I've almost caught up with the Elements CAL. I think I might work on a few smaller projects when I finish the Elements CAL before starting an older CAL that still has the instructions available. I'm trying to decide if I want to do Atlanticus, Lilliana, or a Charlotte. I still need to figure out what pattern I want to use to make a king size bedspread too.