Weekly Wrap-up

Yes, those are supposed to be sharks.  I've been working with J and O this week, learning about water and doing some water experiments (sink or float; condensation) and so I thought I'd finish up the week reading a book about a favorite animal of the kids': sharks.  Then ... shark craft.  They loved them so much, their sharks sat by them at the table while they did their math worksheets and J even explained each math problem to her shark.  I love it when they can teach others what they're learning (to reinforce the lesson) so this worked out well.

Especially this week, when so much of our regular school time has been interrupted by regular life.

Not all of the interruptions were problems.  I mean, I didn't love the leaky pipes under my sister's house and the group efforts it took to get their showers and toilets working again, etc.  I didn't love some behavioral issues that came up.

But today, today the kids noticed the sky darkening with the shadows of hot air balloons.  They begged for us to go chasing.  I love doing that, but I refused and told them we would schedule more of that in for next week when the Fiesta is officially underway.  We all love the Balloon Fiesta out here in the Albuquerque area.

Just as we started sitting down for our first class of the day, we could hear the familiar sound of hot air balloons very close by (in fact, immediately over our backyard and nearly landing there) and could see from our homeschool room window balloons were landing in the arroyo just outside our neighborhood.

So try as I might, we couldn't stay put.  We ran to see these balloons close up (and today was only the pre-launch! the Fiesta officially starts tomorrow).  The boys even got the opportunity to "help" bring the balloons down and pack them up.  The pilots and chase teams were so friendly, they even gave a science lesson about hot air balloon flight and a demonstration of some of their gauges and gadgets.  Very cool.  I'm sure I'll post more about the Fiesta -- with pictures -- in the coming days, but for now, I'll leave you with the sharks.

It was a fun Friday in school -- planned and unplanned.  But I'm glad it's Friday, regardless!