Weekly Wrap-Up ~ NaNoWriMo Winners, Canadian History, and a Play Pledge!

I am late again for this wrap-up! We were away for a long weekend, celebrating an early Christmas with family this past weekend and this week my husband is off work!

Here is the wrap-up for last week.

On Monday, Adrienne, Andre, and I focused on writing and finished our NaNoWriMo novels! At final count, Andre had 5,161 words, Adrienne 5,175 words, and I had 50,125 words. We are all not finished with our stories and we will continue writing after a short break. I am very proud of my children for sticking with this challenge. It wasn't easy, but they perservered and won!

On Tuesday and Wednesday, we covered Math and Canadian History. In Canadian History, we read a few Tales (Ti-Jean, The Cremation of Sam McGee). We talked more about the West Coast and the villages that the Natives built there. Adrienne decided she wanted to build one out of popsicle sticks. Here it is so far, she painted a cardboard box and the sticks before glueing them:

As part of Canadian History, we also read about cholera. I read aloud from Outbreak: Plagues that Changed History by Bryn Barnard. We have used this book before, and it is excellent. You can read more about this book on this Book Sharing Monday post.

Even though it was American History, Adrienne and I watched The Alamo, a great historical drama movie, but not for younger children in my opinion. We chose to watch it because it happened around the same time period that we are studying in our Canadian History. It did an excellent job of retelling the battle of the Alamo of Texas, USA. 






Finally, I wanted to tell you about the Play Pledge. This was started by the Unplugged Mom. She posted on her Facebook page the following pledge and invited others to join her:

I pledge to play with my children and encourage imaginative and outdoor play.

I pledge to encourage limited to zero computer, television and video game time.

I pledge to encourage independent creative thought by exercising pretend play and long spaces of time without any artificial media stimulation.

I pledge to learn with my children, more about the natural world around us.

I pledge to cook with my children, read aloud with them and spend time talking and finding out who they are.

I pledge to make crafts and encourage home made gift giving for the Holiday Season.

I pledge to set an example by limiting my computer and television time, creating new things with my hands, learning something new every day and engaging in imaginative play.

Our family has signed this pledge ( I printed and posted on our fridge).

If you would like to read other homeschool families wrap-up posts, please visit Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers.