Weekly Happenings: About That Slow Mornings Post...

Forget I said anything about that. It seems I mistakenly thought our few slow mornings might last when it was only for this week -- and not even all week, at that!

 Anyway.

 We're continuing with some work, much to the girls' delight (that last part is a big lie; I should have typed "which the girls are tolerating"). Each day, they complete a session on the Xtra Math website to practice their math facts. Miss Priss also completes a lesson from Life of Fred Fractions, and Tiny Girl a page from DK's Math Made Easy workbook.

 A few highlights from our readings:

• Plutarch's Lives: "Brutus": Brutus and Cassius have amassed large armies to go against Octavius and Antonius. Brutus decides to richly furnish his soldiers in hopes they will fight better to preserve their fine "furniture." We shall see.
• Oliver Twist: Oliver recuperates in the home of the fine benefactor, Mr. Brownlow; but his ne'er do well "friends" are looking for him to keep him from "peaching." The girls and I are worried about our little friend.
• A Passion for the Impossible: Lilias and her two missionary friends are bringing to life the title of this book. They've arrived in Algeria knowing no one, not speaking the language, and having no concrete plans. The girls and I are concerned. Well, Miss Priss and I are. This is not Tiny Girl's favorite, so she is less personally involved.
• This Country of Ours: President Garfield is assassinated, and the spoils system (thanks a lot, Andrew Jackson) is finally abolished.

 We continued our study of flowers, concentrating on their reproductive system. I didn't take any photos this time, mostly because I left my camera inside that afternoon and everyone (including me) was in a bad mood. We soon shook it off and proceeded to enjoy our study, but the camera remained inside.

We worked with two types of flowers, petunias and roses. We dissected both and observed each under our magnifying glass. (I can't wait until our stereo microscope arrives from Home Science Tools!) Using handouts I printed from different websites, we identified different parts. Two of us greatly enjoyed this. One of us had not shaken off all of her bad mood to participate fully. Her loss.

Here are websites I found helpful:

How Flowering Plants Reproduce
The Great Plant Escape
Flower Parts

And here's a slideshow presentation that I found particularly helpful, at least the first few pages. It goes into a bit more detail that we are.

Reproduction In Flowering Plants

View more PowerPoint from bzemcik

If you're following me on Twitter, Instagram, of Facebook, then you've seen these photos before. If not (and hey, feel free to link up and join in on the fun!), here's a mosaic of our week:

From top left: 1.) Yours truly, at the summer's here! pool party; 2.) Miss Priss reading leisurely one morning; 3.) Tiny Girl and Max, at the barn early to beat the heat; 4.) My nifty nameplate from a previous workplace. Everyone had one, made by a manager's wife. I've had it almost 20 years. Sorry it's sideways; I was in a hurry.

I'll leave you with a word from Sir Walter Scott, in honor of Memorial Day and its vast significance to us:

Soldier, rest! Thy warfare o'er,
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Dream of battled fields no more.
Days of danger, nights of waking.

Amen.

I'm linking up!
The Homeschool Mother's Journal
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
No Ordinary Blog Hop
Photo Collage Friday
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