Weekly Wrap-Up: August 10

There's a Shakespeare Festival every year in our area that we've been to the last few years.  There's just something so fun about sitting outside, maybe with a picnic dinner, with the actors a mere few feet from you. You almost feel like part of the action because they're so close and because they spread out and move around the audience, much more so outside than when they're on a stage.  This year the production was Twelfth Night, which I had never seen nor read before.  The girls and I met some friends there Saturday evening.  We had read a summary of it from Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare, and there was a scene-by-scene summary of the play in the program, anyway.  It was a beautiful warm, breezy evening and the performance was great!  I think this was the funniest Shakespearean play I have seen.

We had a fairly busy week getting together with friends.  Turtlegirl had a chance to go tubing on the river with some friends, another day some other friends invited the three of us to meet them at the pool they belong to, and Swimmah and Turtlegirl had a mutual friend over yet another day.  We also have some friends who are in town for a couple of weeks who are coming over for dinner Friday.  Hopefully we'll get to see them and their very cute 15-month old again before they have to head home.

Somewhere in there, I did get a chance to talk with Swimmah and Turtlegirl about the coming school year.  They need to decide if they want to go into more depth with marine biology and continue through the year, or if they want to move on to something else.  I did point out that if they want to pursue a career in biology in some way, they will need to also study chemistry and physics sometime before college.  They both still have time, though, as Swimmah would be in 10th grade if she were in school, and Turtlegirl would be in 8th.  I also suggested ecology, environmental science, zoology, geology, astronomy...  I told them we would discuss this again in a week or so.

We've been watching the Olympics still, but not quite as intensely as last week, now that swimming and gymnastics are done.  This week we've been enjoying diving, canoeing/kayaking, and open water swimming (interesting, but not nearly as exciting to watch as shorter distance swimming).  And we've also watched some synchronized swimming and rythmic gymnastics as well.  I have to admit that while we've watched some track and field, it's really not our favorite.  But what could be a better last name for a runner than Bolt?  And I kind of feel un-American admitting this, but beach volleyball?  That just seems to me like some Type A's couldn't let it go at it just being a friendly, relaxing game you play at the beach.  Sorry, beach volleyball fans.  Maybe I'm just still harboring ill feelings from having to play volleyball in high school gym class.  Anywho....

Oh, I promised a picture of Swimmah's completed mural:

Please ignore the reflection of the unmade bed.

Enjoy your weekend!

This post is linked to Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers' Weekly Wrap-Up.