Weekly Wrap-Up ~ Remembrance Day and NaNoWriMo

I changed the name of my weekly report because I decided to join the homeschool weekly wrap-up at  Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. There are many participants there! I also didn't feel that "report" really described what this has evolved to. I am trying to let go of some of our more "school" style work, leaning towards a bit of unschooling or at least interest-based learning. I also much rather share what we are doing in general, not just what I can fit under a subject category!

I hope you will enjoy reading my weekly wrap-up.

I need to start my weekly report with last Sunday, November 7th. Adrienne is part of the Air Cadets and was in the parade and ceremonies for Remembrance Day that took place in the city of Windsor. The parade was quite long. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police was represented, along with various cadets (army, sea, and air), the Windsor Police Pipe Band, Naval Reserves and lots more. I was on the side with Andre and Celeste, watching the whole procession.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police:

Windsor Police Pipe Band:



The start of the Air Cadets. The squadron has over 150 cadets, it's one the largest one in Canada now! There was an excellent turn out for this parade.



Adrienne (in white) did not have all the uniform pieces yet,

so she wore her civilian clothing for this parade. (It makes it very easy for me to spot her!).

During the ceremony, at the Cenotaph:



Air Cadets marching back after the ceremony:



The Sea Cadets:





This photo below has nothing to do with learning, but represents us well. We are in the car, parked in my husband's work parking lot. Our family has one car, which means that whenever we go somewhere, we might have to drop off and pick up my husband from work. Last Sunday, he was working until seven, so we attended the Remembrance Day parade during the day, then did some errands and finally went to pick him up. We usually have a chance to chat while we are waiting for him, or we listen to music, or goof around with the camera. We try to have fun together, no matter where we are! 



This week, we continued with our math and language arts. Even if we are leaning towards unschooling, I feel that my children still need to cover those subjects. 

In Math, Adrienne has taken a break from her Teaching Textbook Algebra to read a series of books by Danica McKellar. She was having some trouble with a particular concept in algebra and we researched some books at the library. Adrienne was interested in these, and so she has read some of the chapters in Math Doesn't Suck   and is now almost finished the Kiss My Math . She has told me that she really likes these and that Danica has explained concepts in a very helpful and fun way. Math and fun in the same sentence? I might just have to read one of her books..

Andre worked on his Teaching Textbooks 6. He is doing very well on it, which is wonderful to see.

Celeste and I worked through addition and subtraction with her Miquon Math. She keeps on telling me that Math is her favourite! She also practiced reading and handwriting.

I read aloud more Canadian History using the Story of Canada and the Spirit of Canada. This week we went West and learned about Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, the Red River War and the Northwest Passage by Alexander Mackenzie, the explorer. While we were reading about all this, we came upon the name Marie-Anne Gaboury, which was the wife of Jean-Baptiste Lagimodiere, a couple that moved west from Quebec with the North West Company. Her last name is very very close to my maiden name, you would just have to change one letter! I am now very curious to know if there is a connection!

We also spent some time with art and music this week, learning about and listening to Robert Schumann . We also read about and looked at the art of John Singleton Copley. Andre and I were fascinated by the details on this painting called "Watson and the Shark" below. Adrienne prefered the one after that, "The Boy with the Squirrel".

On Remembrance Day, we spent some time reading about the poem "In Flanders Fiels" by John McCrae. I read aloud an excellent biography of John McCrae called Remembering John McCrae by Linda Granfield. This book had many photographs, documents, and images that made the biography very interesting.

A good part of our time during this past week was also dedicated to writing for NaNoWriMo. We are now all past our half way point in word counts!

Adrienne decided one day to set up a fashion photo shoot in her bedroom for the American Girl dolls that she and Celeste have. She also made a lot of the clothes.  I haven't seen the final photos yet but she has been busy with that project!



Andre and I have been watching a History Channel show called Ancient Aliens. He is always fascinated by ancient history and also by unexplained events. We are now at Episode 3 "The Mission" of the first season. We have watched this on youtube, here is a link if you are interested to the first episode of the first season: The Evidence. Here is a little explanation of the show from its main website:

"According to ancient alien theorists, extraterrestrials with superior knowledge of science and engineering landed on Earth thousands of years ago, sharing their expertise with early civilizations and forever changing the course of human history. But how did this concept develop, and is there any evidence to support it?

Most ancient alien theorists, including von Däniken, point to two types of evidence to support their ideas. The first is ancient religious texts in which humans witness and interact with gods or other heavenly beings who descend from the sky—sometimes in vehicles resembling spaceships—and possess spectacular powers. The second is physical specimens such as artwork depicting alien-like figures and ancient architectural marvels like Stonehenge and the pyramids of Egypt."




Thank you for reading this far! If you enjoyed reading our weekly wrap-up, leave a comment and say hello! Also, you can visit this week's wrap-up with many other home learning families reports here.