BAD WOLF

BAD WOLF BAD WOLF BAD WOLF BAD WOLF BAD WOLF BAD WOLF BAD WOLF

Cloverload

Some thoughts before I decide between coffee or tea....the clover took over the fairy garden and fairies were dancing all over the lawn cus we gots lots of toadstools (okay, they may be actual mushrooms...I have no clue)...I really have an itch to revamp the fairy garden some....there are pics and vids to upload....I still have decorations I am behind on....despite having a calendar St Lucys' got forgot...will have to make crown today and cinnies tomorrow instead...oh well...lol...still putting together our scoutly group...we still are working out names to it and the levels..all we do know is the first level will be Brownies....love those fairies! Along with our vintage Brownie/Girl Guide handbooks we'll be using the materials from Quest Club, a counterpart to Frontier Girls, along with Keepers at Home to be our merit badge work. (American Heritage Girls will wait till she can join an actual troop.)

I have been sick with a cross between a cold and a flu..at least that's what it feels like,,for the past 2 weeks now. We decided we'd catch up with the holiday stuff first, then next week we'll catch up on our bookwork. Twirly has been having fun with her Brainquest book meanwhile. 

Now..I have a cupboard to sort out. I seem to recall having bought some things for her and her brother back when they were little that they might be big enough for now....

What I Love ABout Homeschooling my Dirlie

You know what I love about homeschooling:

Seeing my daughter have as much fun with a kiddie abacus as I once did:

and getting out of the shower to find love notes written in the fog on the mirror:

 It says "Sara Loves Mom" with a big heart drawn above the words, in case you can't make it out.

And being there for those milestones of lost/found teeth too!

I love you, Twirly-Whirly!
 

Scouting and What Knot

Okay...poor play on words...but I am not up to "very clever" today. It's been a bit of a week...that l lasted a month long, it feels like! The rhythm I had hoped to establish still has not fully materialized...somewhat disappointing...but on the other hand most all is being accomplished so it all turns out fine in the end. Some of the disruption of plans has been outside our area of control, so no use worrying about it, right? and other parts have been due to a small amounts of whimsy taking hold and that's okay too. 

Twirly-whirly has been moving forward with reading and writing in English as well as some Latin and Greek (she is memorizing our Greek alphabet song faster than I for instance). We continue with CC (Classical Conversations) each week too, though I hope to get in more recital time at home...evenso she is remembering the material in song form nicely. Her other subjects/activities are also coming along....ballet show Dec 1...she got her costume for that yesterday...so cute! 

What's been on my mind and back burner on slow simmer has been scouting for the girl...her brother recently became a member of a Cub Scout pack.  I am the Den Mom (Assistant Den Leader to be precise). I am an avid Scouter since my older two were the only two. Anyone who knows me knows this and my dilemma about GSUSA since they no longer quite embody what they began as. I looked for alternatives a few years ago. We joined GEMS, and really love it!

But once the boy and I began scouting together, it showed how not as much like scouting I had hoped it would be GEMS was. Mind you, we are continuing with it cus we both do love it. It just has a diff energy to it than a true scouting program. 

A while back I stumbled across really vintage Brownie books...like from the 20's/30's and I fell in love with it as I could so see TW getting so much fun from it! So very imaginative and yet grounded in real life experiences than the modern version today. So I began collecting.....books, badges, uniformy bits...in order to try to mimic it here at home between the 2 of us (we have tried with mixed results to create with other girls a Keepers Club...refer to Keepersofthefaith,com....folks started out with us but then schedules changed and such and so in the end it's just us). 

I still had trouble figuring out how to actually implement it though. and then along the way I also found American Heritage Girls, the only all-girl org that BSA has a written Mutual Support Agreement with in their history! This said a lot! I found there is a troop not too very far away, but it meets the same night as our AWANA program, which we do not want to give up. So I applied for Trailblazers...the AHG version of Lone Scouting and faster than I knew it, we were approved! It said it could take weeks! Now to scrape up reg fee etc to cover the materials....like I said I had guessed it would take may weeks. 

I am excited she'll be able to do AHG and participate in joint BSA/AHG events/campaigns like Scouting for Food etc. alongside her brother.

The next question tho was what about the homeschool scout club thingy....then it came to me as I explained to her about my idea as I was trying on both the vest and the sash on her...some schools have mascots and spirit clubs and this would be ours. So very soon we will have the first meeting of Acorn Cottage Brownies! I will post pics and such soon. 

Would you believe??? Yeah...we're still not in sync but it's all still good.

I really thought I would have had it down by now, but Life has not yet allowed for that. Evenso, it's all been running fairly nicely if not according to my ideal, which is still be ironed out. I had some curriculum that I thought was perfect before we started, but now I have decided to put it off for now. I will be working on some more fine-tuning later tonight. 

For now, let's just get to the what-we-did-today sort of thing:

The better part of this morning we weeded and slightly overhauled the fairy garden. I removed a small rose plant I had put in some years back as it had grown too big for the small space and made weeding around it bloody (small thorns but way sharp). I moved a daffodil plant...fingers crossed it doesn't now croak. 

Twirly-Whirly helped relocate some of our garden friends (the little statuary that, no doubt, like Weeping Angels,move when you're not looking (there are fey in the garden after all). They are not so dangerous as the WAs of course. 

Twirly-Whirly posing in front of the refreshed garden. She begged me to take a couple of pics herself so here they are:

 Then I took this one as I entered the house:

Well....they do some of it when we're not looking, but I can say the Twirly and I needed otter pops when we were through!


Now here is the funny part...when I went to download the pics from my camera to the computer look what I found!:

I don't know when she took these, but it was after I set my camera on my desk....lol....girl loose with camera....brought a smile to my day to say the least!

That's all for now!

The Lessons *I* Learned This Week! (or how 2nd grade didn't get off on the foot I expected to use!)

At least that's what I finally came up with for the title! I certainly have felt stumbly bumbly all/almost all week. Not what I had hoped for, to be sure! It began well enough when The Boy-o (he's just gotten too big for Boo-man anymore...he is 9, after all) went back to school, and the Twirly-whirly (she still is and probably always will be) had some time for cleaning and prepping the School~House,attending our last Friday Fun at Madrona Marsh (perhaps..lol), followed by returning to ViP soccer that Saturday and the new session of violin classes, and then Classical Conversations the Monday after that (she moved up to 2nd grade Sunday School over Labor Day Weekend..an unofficial start, I spose).

However, drama was already creeping onto the scene when the car behaved very awkwardly all the to and from CC...it ended up in the shop for 2 days..and while it shouldn't have thrown the spanner in (it didn't really mess up my planned schedule, even with taking a taxi to her new Wed ballet class and having to catch a lift back with fellow classmates), it still rather did. You know, you feel like you stepped out onto the figurative dance floor with a full card but on the wrong foot and now you can't seem to stay in step even when there's really no solid reason.

So, here's what I learned...1- Don't get a new dog the summer before school when you really need that time to plan not wipe up pee (yup, cus that happened, and then sadly the dog became aggressive and we had to then give him up!)....and 2-Don't plan to start all your wonderful lessons the very first week of school...build up and that way when the usual hurdles pop up that same week (they always do, don't they?), you won't be forced to reprint blank planner pages and rewrite all said plans the next week or so, like I am doing today! Finally, 3- if you do have to do something drastic like that, just do it...make yourself a cuppa and relax...and remember that's one of the best things about homeschooling: flexibility.

and now back to the aforementioned...who knows? Maybe the next blog will be about what we *have* done! Maybe a pic or two as well! LOL!

Lovely Irony, or how blowing off paperwork got it done....

Ahhhhh....whenever you feel stressed and time-crunched over some project etc I highly recommend going to the park....as I struggled to make our summer plans into something cohesive after my original more orderly plans were tossed sideways with some unexpected (tho great) additions, I decided to say Oh Whatever and took the kids to the SBHN Group at Large Wed parkday....not only did they have fun, but I not only relaxed but got my problems solved too!

So now even though it still isn't in the framework I had originally conceived, all I wanted to cover is still getting attended to...more on that later....

Seasons of Life.....change and more change

{Sigh....I came to this blogsite to post a speedy entry before I get really behind on things to discover the music player is no longer able to play! Urgh...half the essence of the blog is the music! I am going to have to figure out how to load an iPod playlist I suppose since PLaylist.com no longer supports itself properly. Just another unexpected change! This won't make any difference to the physical memory book, which is completely behind, but it was one of the whimsy bits that made the blog feel like a Flower Fairy Garden, and now for the moment, it's gone..sorry those who enjoyed it.}

I got a little behind on this blog, but it worked out for the better....I have ended up making changes to our summer plans so I am glad I didn't post it all only to retract. But first, I must acknowledge the End of First Grade. 

The Twirly-Whirly has received her very first report card....so very cool and necessary to benefit from places that give kids freebies and what-not by showing their report card! Homeschoolers deserve the same treats! She has grown so much! I know I say that a lot, but it's sooo true! She has begun the 6 year change....I am glad it's only a phase...I am already tiring of the "teenager" mouth! But as she approaches her 7th birthday, she begins to cross that Rainbow Bridge from Early Childhood into True Childhood which will run till she's 14. It's a whole new world! Thankfully one still filled with imagination...she is presently playing My Little Ponies visits her Treehouse people...no growing up too soon around here! 

Isn't it funny how we can say how big they seem at each age and yet one day we look back and declare how little they were?! (more blog later...must work on paperwork now...Happy Litha!)

Circling...waiting for landing....

June 1

I can hardly believe that yet again here we are on the verge of summer and all that it means: Twirly-Whirly is wrapping First Grade while her RT brother (that's Resident Teenager btw) is on the cusp of graduation from high school! I know that before I can fully realize it *she* will be the one graduating! 

I am so glad we can only really take it one day at a time...with apologies to the Doctor should he stumble across this entry, I am happy with that. My brain is full enough without adding differing/parallel etc time streams to the mix.

This past week saw us halfway through letter W..we did the Alphabet Path/Flower Fairy story and we were due to do Beatrix Potter W (Tale of Pig Robinson) but she found some story/dictation paper and was off writing her own lesson today, a crossover story of Wind in the Willows and Peter Pan. 

She has been practicing her violin all week as we anticipate her very first concert tomorrow night. She has a second one on July 4th. She has also been rehearsing for two choir shows as well...one on the 10th of this month and the other on July 1. 

At least we'll have a break from ballet this summer tho that is 'replaced' by swim lessons almost every weekday of July! Speaking of ballet tho, we were yet again treated to another superb performance by the South Bay Ballet (via Friendship Circle as well as the SBB Outreach Program). This year it was Cinderella and TW opted to make it a Girls Night Out so we invited her HearthKeepers friend and her mom to join us. Her friend also dances ballet so it was really fun for the girls. Her friend even saw one of *her* former dance classmates in the show!

 After the show there were chances for the children to take pictures with the dancers. This one is my fave:

It took her a while to work up the nerve to approach both Cinderella and The Prince, but doesn't she look like she ought to be their daughter? I am not the only one who liked it as a professional photographer there asked if he could take one of the three of them too. Who knows? Maybe she'll be in a newspaper article? I am fairly certain that one day it will be her turn to pose with aspiring little girls! ;)

That's it for this entry. I will be glad to get the last 2 weeks of June free(ish) to work up the beginnings of 2nd grade, which will be knocking at my door soon enough!

 

Detoured...

PLayed taxi to RT (resident teenager), got an adjustment, retrieved fave pair of boots (now fixed) from mall, had lunch at mall, headed to Wilderness park to meet friends, messed around for an hour when they finally showed up, came home solo to meet Boo-man's bus so Twirly could play longer with friends, now uploading videos and then will upload pics....busy day...who knows...maybe we'll get to our lessons Monday! ;)

Performance Artist and Beginner Swimmer

After ballet class sometimes we visit the local little art museum. The latest gallery showings feature modern sculpture. The gal at the desk asked how old she was and I replied "Six and a half." The lady then said, "It's all sculptures this time and she probably won't understand them." I laughed and said, "She often creates sculptures herself that *I* don't understand!" I mean, really, it's modern art...very abstract...I am certain there are mady adults who don't get it...lol.

Anyway, we were cruising through the larger room and as we got the back there was a piece of what I can only describe as video sculpture. It was a series of doors on film. The funny part was that as you passed by your shadow fell across the movie images. Now if it weren't for the fact that an adult's shadow (even mine) was too tall for the doors I would have thought it was intentional rather than just because the arrangement allowed for plugging in the equipment. But then the Twirly-whirly came by and stood in front of the door and her shadow *did* fit. The first door was one of two in a hallway. I told her she looked like Alice in the hallway and she started walking toward the door (away from the projector) and appeared to shrink by comparison to the door to where she could stand and knock on it and as it was a movie this door (almost as if on cue) opened to a drk room and she was able to make her shadow appear to enter the room and disappear inside!

More fun was the 3rd door....I remembered to film it by that point (I sometimes forget that my phone can take pics and vids). 

Today was also her first ever swim lesson. She has hopes of surfing one day. She is very random in response even to things she wants to do though. When we told her we signed her up around a month or so ago, she screamed "I don't want to get in the water!!!" I was a bit concerned how it would all go today. She was afraid and sat on the pool steps and cried alot but still did everything the instructor asked her to do so i think once the newness of it wears off she'll do fine...at least I hope so....we just signed her up for the whole of July for more lessons (not to mention keeping cool!)

MayDay!!! Mayday!!!

Yes...it means both! And as I type this entry, I have that subtle awful feeling of deja vu...that I have typed it before...hmmmm....but am too lazy to check. It applies anyway. The past month(schoolyear) has that feeling not gone off the way I wanted. I had so many project ideas at the start! But Life and other people's lives got in the way...sigh....

I hope to do those projects in the next year since  the Twirly-Whirly will be really starting schooling this year as she'll finally be that magic number 7, the Biblical number of completion. She'll have completed her true "pre"schooling ala Waldorf. She'll literally be a whole new girl (every 7 years every cell in your body has been replaced by new ones)...we could even say she has regenerated! She would like that as she continues to wait for The Doctor to come get her!

Next year, there will be far fewer outside activities during the weekday school hours. We'll be doing Classical Conversations every Monday morning and have a parkday each Friday afternoon. Twice a month we'll have a Hearth Keepers meeting, and once a month we'll do the Madrona Marsh Homeschool Class. (She will have aged-out of FFMM.)

Ballet classes will be moving to Saturdays after ViP soccer. She'll be starting Beginning 4H as well one Sat a month. We'll return to violin on Sundays too.

That will leave plenty of time during the week for not just academics but artistic and culinary endeavors! Bread machine, dehydrator, pressure cooker...all beckoning as is the sewing machine....fun stuff...


More later....

Ready or not....

Ready or Not...here I blog!

 If I don't do it now, I fear I will end up even more behind. Note to self: next school year I will have to make a specific day for journaling etc!

Here's some of what has gone on since last entry:

The Peter Rabbit Garden is underway nicely. There are already some shoots coming up! The Fairy Garden strawberry plant continues to produce berries too even tho it is almost 4 years old! No more rabbits lately, but we have got raccoons under the house! I can hear them scratching under the bathtub! Twirly finds it rather disconcerting, but then she saw one in the yard and is not so worried now. I saw one staring in at us from the back sliding glass door the other night as well! It was as big as our large cat, Bonnie, who seemed none too keen to chase it off! We had made plans to catch them and release them into Madrona Marsh until today when Ms Cindy told us they eat the baby ducklings! Now not sure what to do.

We were at the marsh today. It's supposed to rain tonight, but that didn't stop the weather from getting harsh at the marsh...Humid!!! and I am sure I got a sunburn. We learned about frogs and wolf spiders in the classroom and even got to see a tadpole and a baby spider who fell off its mother's back. Wolf Spiders carry their babes on top. They are the only spiders who care for their young! Out in the marsh, there were duck young to be seen as well as frogs and more spiders and diving beetles etc. We even witnessed an altercation of sorts when a mom duck wandered into another's territory. The male nipped her butt and came back with some feathers in his mouth. The intruder's male was not around at the time to defend her so she and her babes waddled of asap.

We went to the Circus Gatti at the Shrine Auditorium two weeks ago (I am behind on uploading pics). We had a great time! All the performing was done on a stage instead of in a ring like Circus Vargas, but we could see really well and they even had elephants! The kids had a fun time in the midway too...ate a lot of cotton candy and popcorn. Twirly did almost every ride they had. The Boo-man settled for trampolines and a mini-Ferris wheel. It was all courtesy of The Friendship Circle. At least admission was! It was still a pretty penny but worth it IMO.

We have Awana tonight. Twirly has already completed her book. :) Boo will finish tonight. That's one big thing off the list! We can just cruise to the end of next month!

Twirly is very busy these days. She is not only in the God Kids Choir with all its commitments, but she is signed up for a Violin Concert at a local auditorium via Palos Verdes Strings. This will be her first concert! :)) Added incentive: Talking Princess Celestia! lol...upon completion of course.

I wanted to write more. but there are still uploads of photos and videos to attend to and time is closing to be ready for Awana too. Cross your fingers I'll get more done soon!

March Lions

lol....you know the old saying about March? In like a lion, out like a lamb? well, weather-wise it was more like in like a lamb that mid-month morphed into the lion...good thing leprechauns don't mind the wet! I bet he really enjoyed the nip of whiskey and the shamrock cookies she left out for him. She is already anxious about getting her new shoes on Easter Sunday 3 weeks from now!

We had some mind-blowing weather this past week...the little pot of wildflowers the Twirly planted at a FFMM got pelted by hail last Saturday (St Pat's day), as did the latest pot of daffies also destined for the fairy garden. I am hopeful they will be okay. We'll be planting them soon. Already planted some new tomato and pumpkin plants and we're preparing for the Peter Rabbit Garden in the front yard (pics soon). 

Speaking of the Rabbit, tonight is Ostara eve! Twirly is happy that they'll be hunting eggs in the front yard tomorrow, instead of like last year when it was storming so the hunt was held in the parlor! We tried out the herb egg decoration 'recipe' from our Earthschooling curriculum. Came out very nice! Made with shaved crayons and herbs and flower petals....now to figure out how to get the wax off the spoon! and note to self: next time do not mix the shavings together.

And speaking of lions: we just finished family bedtime storytime reading of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. The Twirly-Whirly loved it and can't wait to have more adventures with Aslan and the children. It was so exciting as she actually anticipated events in the plot! And she totally got that Aslan was just like Jesus...she's 6. The first time I read the series (thank you again, former bro-in-law for the awesome boxed set for an Xmas so long ago now) I was in my early 20's, a new Xian, and I missed it completely! Just thought it was a great series! D'oh! Head too full of grown-up stuff, I imagine. That's why we need to come to Him like children, I guess. They see some things so much more clearly. 

and also speaking of lions and the Lion of Judah...her choir is preparing to do a June show, the theme of which is God's creation etc (to put it briefly cus it's late and I'm wearing out now), and tonight she auditioned for the part of one of the 2 lions, with some roars and fierceness and all! Really cute! (pics and a vid taken).

Well, more fun tomorrow (after the Boo-man's doctor appt)...heading off to the park to play with friends...will be taking along her violin so she can practice with her friend, A, who is also in the violin class. That is also my plan for Friday (if it doesn't rain again) as some of our fellow Friday park friends are also in the violin class.

Ending this entry now..it's almost 11pm...if I don't get to bed soon that Rabbit may pass us by and I'll have a lot of 'splainin' to do!

Time for Tea cus I am Toast! :-

Missed Friday Fun at Madrona Marsh today owing to an overlong trip to the dentist for The Teenager...oy...missed getting breakfast at home and the Twirly ate half of the snack I took to the dentist so I got a headache that going to the chiro helped with some. Between dropping Gamer off at school and hitting the chiro, I managed to swing by Kids Double Time and get The Boo-man another pair of shorts plus Perry the Platypus swim trunks and two swimsuits for Twirly-Whirly...score! Later tonight we have ballet dress rehearsal at 530 and actual show at 7. First time on a big stage! The same stage she saw Sleeping Beauty danced by the South Bay Ballet!! Lessons planned will have to be re-ordered for next week (where's the whiteout???) I'm toast right now and she's also been invited to a b'day party tomorrow from 11-3: Tutus, tiaras, and tea! no boys allowed....wondering what to do with the Boo that long....

A Month of Unschooling

That's how I have to look at February 2012 or I feel disgruntled. I didn't get done what I had hoped for: a return to rhythm and so-called normality. Instead there were dental appointments galore and a run to the emergency room and Acadec taxi rides. This blog/journal etc both online and printed out and pasted into our memory book is *supposed* to chronicle the Twirly Whirly's days, but since she is my only girl but not my only offspring I guess there's bound to be this sort of chaos. My sons need my time too.

But I am hopeful for March. Named for the Roman god of War, it's a month promising action. Even tho there are still med/dent appts looming and more AcaDec taxiing (I am so proud he is competing and going to State!!) these 'interruptions' are now on the calendar so we'll school around them. 

March sees Twirly's first on-stage recital! At the actual James Armstrong Theatre no less! They sold tix and everything. In fact, I must remember to get a snap of the marquee announcing the show before they change it. We will also be relaunching Hearth Keepers, our Keepers at Home club, with a family from our church. :)

Twirly had another homeschool class at Madrona Marsh last Tuesday. This time the moms could come in. I ran an errand then joined them. Pics have been uploaded to our FB page..one day i may caption them! Lol! (So pressed for time some days that just getting them up in a timely fashion is a gift.) One of my tasks this morning will be to carve out more margin in our lives. Ballet class will soon be back on Thursdays and that will help immensely. Next school year it looks like she'll have busy Saturdays...we may have to finally give in to them. She is aging out of the weekday morning classes. How to deal with soccer and ballet on same day will be an issue, I fear. 

Meanwhile it looks like some near future Sats will be for swim lessons! Still held at Redondo Union but not in the format that my boys did them...on weekdays during the summer...I had hoped to do it that way while Boo-man was in summer school, but this way I can recruit the Dad to help and they both can swim. And we'll get to use summer more freely for summer lessons and play days at maybe Seaside Lagoon??? Hmmm....

Anyway, that's it for now. Gotta keep a promise to take them to McDs PlayPlace. again...sigh..at least I can read/study etc there....lol....

How to Catch a Bunny

For the second time this week there was a bunny on our lawn today! The first time was back last Monday I think when the dad stepped out to go to work and announced there was a bunny on the front lawn! We chased it around for half an hour when a man in a van pulled up and we asked if he was looking for a bunny. Yup. He and I and Twirly continued the chase as the dad finally left for work. It took another half and hour. Even a calm friendly bunny can elude capture rather easily it would seem! 

What does this have to do with our homeschooling? Is there a metaphor? Does there have to be? It could stand on its own as a funny bunny story and possible pre-rabbit ownership lesson in why to always make sure your doors and gates are closed properly. 

But I suppose there is a lesson in it for homeschoolers too. Like even when plans go south and time slips by (like it sorta did during the holidays and the month after), if you stay calm and don't give up, you can get things back to normal. On that note, no pun intended, Twirly and I returned to violin class today now that it is back at the regular location. (We waited out the month they spent at a temporary site just a bit too far to drive to.)

We are definitely going to have to be disciplined in our weekly practices to get back in the swing. One of Twirly's good friends has also joined the class now so we may be adding violin practice to the park time on Tuesdays. Learning together is so much more fun than learning on your own.

Now if I could only learn where to find additional pages for our scrapbook...that's one problem of buying interesting vintage ones from eBay...they can come with unusual page connectors. The one I bought for this year (and which I really love) does *not* have posts...it is connected through plastic straps! How am I supposed to find more of those? I don't even know the proper name for it! 


I got a surprise at the Twirly-Whirly's ballet class last week. Turns out all the classes are now run through RKDC dance school even tho they are held through the Parks and Rec. So that amounts to no more wee little recitals on the last day of class. It now turns out that they do them on stage at a separate location in the evening. For instance, March 9 at the local college auditorium at 7pm. They require all in attendance to purchase tickets too! (excepting the actual dancer and any moms who wish to serve as backstage help since we would not be able to watch the performance.)


This, I am told by another mom, is quite a racket. It explains why the cost went up for the class despite no other changes. She told me that you are not allowed to tape your child's performance as the dance company sells dvds at $35 a pop! This dvd is the entire show! I really don't want to buy a dvd of a bunch of other kids when my own dd's performance will probably not last longer than 10 minutes!


The good thing is that we can tape the rehearsals. I think I will settle for that. Past filmings have often feature my dd making angry faces at me (for filming) and her just standing there pouting. Should make for an interesting show this time! Lol!




 

Young Pups, New Tricks

We tried something new yesterday. Ms Cindy of Friday Fun at Madrona Marsh has, after many moms asking, started a nature study group for homeschooled kids ages 6-8! :)) We've been doing nature study with her since the Twirly-whirly was 3 and we went all the way to South Coast Botanical Gardens in Palos Verdes to do it.

This new program allows no sibs unless they too are 6-8 and it allows no moms in the room either, both of which the kids just loved. Ms Cindy was surprised, esp by the latter, but I'm not. I bet they all felt really quite grown-up not having to have parental supervision! ;) The topic was Wiggly Worms which was the same as one of the FFMM's just the other week or so ago, but the material is expanded, and the kids got to use the dissecting microscopes (look that up). They all mastered the techniques in just minutes too!

I was a bit sad not to be able to witness her firsthand but did get off a few pics (will add later), and everyone went on the excursion into the marsh. It would seem that the rest of the families waiting outside the lab and such were noisy (what else with so many young kids) so Ms Cindy will be making the group into a drop-off program for the first hour of classroom/lab. I have known them all so long now I have no probs with that. My only challenge is where to find a convenient cup of coffee. ;)

Happy New Year!

January 17. 2012

Happy New Year! (belated)

Mood: bewildered and bemused



It's been another month of "I thought I would have more written" etc....

The holidays went mostly very nicely, but technology (our computer) continued to pull some stunts so files, photos, and such needed (some still) reloading and what not. I lost all my Flip Videos library yet again. (Meanwhile one good spot from the holidays is the fun we had with some friends on Hogswatch and the possibility that one of them may be able to reclaim the photos/videos that were reformatted over on the old hard drive at around this point last year. Keeping my fingers crossed that I will have some good news on that in the near future.) Good thing I had uploaded the movies at least to You Tube! (I have also learned that a smartphone is no substitute for a real camera and video recorder.)

This mess-up has amounted to falling somewhat behind on our lesson plans, a condition I hope to have rectified by the end of the week. I am also hopeful that by Monday morning next I will have the scrapbook caught up as well. The vintage one I bought came with only a few pages that are not the same size as the ones I used in the previous
album. I wish there were more standardized sizes. I know there are among modern books, but it would be nice if the makers had taken older books into consideration. So the hunt to find more is on.

We are back to ballet this month! Twirly-whirly has missed it! The prices have gone up tho and the day is now Monday instead of Thursday. I don't like that much, but there's nothing to be done. The Thursday enrollment flagged so they closed the class. We are also back to Library Storytime/ParkPlay and Friday Fun at Madrona Marsh. Gems and Awana have also resumed. So I do have a piece of normal going on. We are still on violin break however. The usual site is not available this month. (I need to get my musician son to tune my cello anyway.)

That's it for now, I suppose.