Open House

Last Sunday we hosted an "Open House" for Maddie's grandparents. It was fun to pull out all the projects we have been working on so she could show off what she has been doing.

To be quite honest I had no idea there would be quite so much!

Maddie was supposed to do a book report on Newton for Physics but she wasn't particularly interested. We read the book and she enjoyed it but that was about it. When we read a book about John James Audubon called The Boy Who Drew Birds she was much more excited. So, in the true homeschool spirit we did a report on him instead. You can see her poster in the background, hung in front of the TV.

We hadn't planned much and weren't really sure how we were going to do things. Next time we will be a bit more organized I think! Maddie just dove in and showed off her favorite things. 

Copies of Audubon prints on loan from Mamaw Mary and the Blue Caboose

Soldier's uniforms from the Civil War that she colored for her Civil War History Pockets

Our election lapbook.

Lapbooks are like reports but much more fun. You make all sorts of booklets and charts and add them into a manila folder. Our election lapbook came from Homeschool Share. They offer a lot of free lapbooks on many subjects.

In addition to this we showed off Maddie's math and spelling programs, some of her artwork and her morning meeting book. When Maddie didn't care to explain something (math!) she handed it over to me. She also shared her geography and music work she does with Brian in the morning.

Then we had a yummy dinner of soup (bean with bacon from the Civil War or baked potato), Momma's homemade bread and pistachio nut torte. It was a lot of fun. Not only did we update Maddie's grandparents on what we are doing, it helped Brian and I to see all that we had accomplished since August. We continued with regular schoolwork this week but next week we are taking off for Thanksgiving. Maddie had fun with a Thanksgiving project this week. We will show more on that later!!