Tuesday SuperKid spent a great afternoon at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Cleveland Museum of Natural History. They host monthly homeschool programs, and this month's was really interesting - Mythical Creatures. The program tied into their visiting exhibit, Mythic Creatures: Dragons, Unicorns and Mermaids. Honestly, we thought the exhibit was just okay, but I was really impressed with the study program. They talked about how and why ancient civilizations came up with these creatures. While some, it is speculated, were merely metaphors for life situation (the phoenix), others were likely thought to be actual animals, probably because groups of ancient people came across the remains of several species in one place and assumed that they were the remains of one type of animal. The instructor punctuated the verbal lesson with touch boxes - various relics under large boxes with holes just big enough for the kids to reach in. The kids felt around the inside of the box and then drew a picture of an animal that best represented what they felt. One box, for example, had a snake skin, wasp nest, antler and owl wing in it. This really helped the kids understand how these misconceptions could happen. Great lesson!
Yesterday was our Classical Conversations day. This is our second year in the program. Last year we participated in the Foundations level of the program. SuperKid loved it and earned the Memory Master designation. But he didn't want to do Foundations this year, so we decided to focus on Essentials instead. I really like doing just a half-day (it's a very tedious day for the parent - especially the morning in Foundations) but next year we will probably do both. Even though we were not participating in Foundations this year, the Director gave us the opportunity to do a Family Presentation to the group, which is something SuperKid really wanted to do, so we went in early yesterday to do that. SK talked a little bit about each member of our family, including the four pets, and then I talked about how our new puppy, Winston (aka Mr. Naughty) has helped us better understand our relationship with God. I know it sounds like a stretch, but trust me, it was very simple to use our pup's interactions with us as vivid and fun-for-the-kids examples of how much God loves us and why it is important to be grateful and respectful to God. Kids, and moms, love naughty dogs so at least we weren't boring! lol
SuperKid is doing math, reading and writing this morning - and then we finally get to enjoy the good weather during an afternoon Nature Walk. SK gave a speech at Cub Scouts last week that won him the second place prize - a pair of binoculars that we can't wait to try out. We'll wrap up the afternoon with a piano lesson and then take SportsBoy to his tennis clinic. Typically I would fit in a workout after that, but because of my injuries I'm very limited in what I can do. So I'll probably actually cook something for dinner :-) and we'll have a nice quiet evening together after tennis.
SportsBoy has one more day of school before Spring Break starts - hurray! We're all looking forward to it. We're not going anywhere, but we do plan to explore some fun things around town, relax and play some tennis. SportsBoy has try-outs for his Middle School the week school starts back, so he's got some work to do if he's going to make the team. There are about 30 boys going out for 12 spots, and SB has not been that into tennis since his former coach left. Within the last week, though, he's decided it would be cool to make the team - so we'll see what happens.
Okay, off to swelter in the summer-like weather! :-)
Yesterday was our Classical Conversations day. This is our second year in the program. Last year we participated in the Foundations level of the program. SuperKid loved it and earned the Memory Master designation. But he didn't want to do Foundations this year, so we decided to focus on Essentials instead. I really like doing just a half-day (it's a very tedious day for the parent - especially the morning in Foundations) but next year we will probably do both. Even though we were not participating in Foundations this year, the Director gave us the opportunity to do a Family Presentation to the group, which is something SuperKid really wanted to do, so we went in early yesterday to do that. SK talked a little bit about each member of our family, including the four pets, and then I talked about how our new puppy, Winston (aka Mr. Naughty) has helped us better understand our relationship with God. I know it sounds like a stretch, but trust me, it was very simple to use our pup's interactions with us as vivid and fun-for-the-kids examples of how much God loves us and why it is important to be grateful and respectful to God. Kids, and moms, love naughty dogs so at least we weren't boring! lol
SuperKid is doing math, reading and writing this morning - and then we finally get to enjoy the good weather during an afternoon Nature Walk. SK gave a speech at Cub Scouts last week that won him the second place prize - a pair of binoculars that we can't wait to try out. We'll wrap up the afternoon with a piano lesson and then take SportsBoy to his tennis clinic. Typically I would fit in a workout after that, but because of my injuries I'm very limited in what I can do. So I'll probably actually cook something for dinner :-) and we'll have a nice quiet evening together after tennis.
SportsBoy has one more day of school before Spring Break starts - hurray! We're all looking forward to it. We're not going anywhere, but we do plan to explore some fun things around town, relax and play some tennis. SportsBoy has try-outs for his Middle School the week school starts back, so he's got some work to do if he's going to make the team. There are about 30 boys going out for 12 spots, and SB has not been that into tennis since his former coach left. Within the last week, though, he's decided it would be cool to make the team - so we'll see what happens.
Okay, off to swelter in the summer-like weather! :-)
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