Week 2 to 3 - Getting our feet wet and family Olympics

I'm failing miserably at keeping up with out weekly homeschool activities! This is supposed to be a record of things we've done, relatively around the same time we've done them…Oops.

OK, back during our 2nd week of school, I was scrambling (mostly internally) to find a balance of activities and school work. Oscar was settled in gymnastics, but I wanted him to be doing a bit more during the day. We found a swim place nearby, and he started learning some basics of swimming strokes. The class is great, but only 30 min, and a bit pricey. We bought a pack of 12 classes and will see if we continue once that's over. He does love it though!


In science, we started talking about cells, and the differences between plants and animals. We made cells made of jello and candy, and Oscar was officially sold on homeschool, "What other teacher would let you eat your science experiment?!?"

We transitioned to plants and started growing some seeds. I try to involve Livi whenever we can with our science experiments, and they both got to plant a few seeds in our windowsill and watch them grow. Once they sprouted, the added benefit of the seedlings growing towards the sun brought a little phototropism into the lesson! We've also discovered the joy that is the Magic School Bus, and there are so many videos that we can watch to add to our science lessons. Say what you will about Netflix, but man it's awesome for kids programming!

Week 3 brought is to inherited vs learned traits. Oscar created monster offspring based on what the monster parents looked like, and a quick matching lesson brought it home.

Weeks 2 and 3 were spent learning about Ancient Greece for social studies. This was a fun unit culminating with Grajales Family Olympics.  We made a Trojan Horse to go along with our discussion of the Trojan war, and spent a lot of time discussing the Gods and their surrounding legends.

The weeks culminated with a 4-event family Olympics. We made medals and olive wreaths to go along with festivities and had greek tapas for dinner. Zeus wanted to make sure we didn't forget the Olympics were all about him, so our events had to be held inside (eliminating the ability to do the race), but fun was had by all, and everyone won a gold medal! Except Mama, whose ego could handle it:

Wrestling - Livi

Javelin - Oscar

Long jump - Dada

Queen Livi presiding