A Bit of Catch Up

I will soon be summoned to go play a game of Monopoly on this rainy day -- but I thought I should get this down before time escapes once again.

The month of October is quickly coming to an end. I wanted to jot down some of the fun activities we have been doing in school this past month. This will be short and sweet.

Standards:

1. Writing Class: Every Tuesday morning, Simon goes to a writing class. It is an hour long class. The teacher is exceptional.

2. Every Tuesday afternoon, the kids go to a homeschool parent led art class. So far, the kids have made Leaf Bowls out of cement and have painted water color leaves. I will be teaching a class on the art of Henri Matisse in a couple of weeks.

3. On alternating Fridays, the kids have a couple of options.

A: On one Friday, they take off at 7:45am and head out the door with their dad who heads of a chess club at the local elementary school. At 9:00, i pick them up and off we go to "Homeschool Gym." This is held at a nearby church and the place is full of kids running in and out of an hour long gym class.

B: On the other Friday's, they go to Academy: a Friday gathering of homeschool students where a variety of interesting classes are being taught by the parents.

4. Also, once a month, they have book club. Today, I will be hosting this month's book club for the boys 3 -5 grade.

SPECKLED TRIPS THIS MONTH

1. We have been to the Minnesota Arboretum for a class on "Mother Earth" where we learned about the Native American uses of plants.

2. Playoff games: Twins and Royals as well as Twins and Yankees

3.

Orchestra Hall : We do this almost monthly. The Minnesota Orchestra puts on Kinder Konzerts and we go to as many as we can. The coolest part of all of this is we always sit in Tier 1 and on many occasions, have been able to sit in the seats reserved for special guests and or family members. Our seats are prime!

4. Ordway Theater: This is new to us this year. The Ordway is having many "Kid" dance performances and we will be going to all of them. The first one is next Thursday. I am a true lover of the arts and incredibly thankful that we live in such a rich and talented state. Next week, we will be going to the "Bad Boys of Dance" as shown above.

5. Raptor Center: The kids and I had a scheduled field trip at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center http://www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu/. We had a brief and excellent lecture on the variety of raptors the center becomes responsible for, as well as took a beautiful tour of the outside atrium style cages where the birds take refuge. We ended our trip with dissection of Owl Pellets.

EXTRA:

Art Projects:

example of what we are doing (not ours)

1. We are working on a Tessellation Art project -- to mimic some of the mosaic tiling during the Byzantine Empire. It has been really fun.

2. Building Medieval Castles: This has to be one for Dad to partake in as it is a lot of "connect a to b" and "cut z and paste it to t" I can't do that stuff.

3. Catapult Construction: Today we were slotted to build catapults (again, to mimic our studies of the Medieval time period)-- but currently, it is a nice rainy day and we are in the middle of a mean game of Monopoly. Soon we will be leaving for piano lessons.

4. We did a nice study on the European Monks. In September, we made 'Monk' crosses out of sculpi clay and this month, we made paper. Next month, when walnuts are available in stores, we will be making fresh ink from the shell of a walnut - and then will do calligraphy on our paper...just as the monks did.

This month of October has been fun and full.

Outside of School

Lucy:

1. every other Monday, she has American Heritage Girls (parallels Girl Scouts - but within Christian organization)

2. Every Wednesday, She has choir at church

3. Every Wednesday afternoon, she has piano lessons

4. Currently, she is at the end of her soccer season..playoff games.

Simon:

1. Piano lessons, choir and soccer (playoffs). More or less, Simon has the most relaxed lifestyle with plenty of good books to keep his mind busy.

And not to mention:The Jr. High boy has a very involved life of his own and the 7 month old is accustomed to the daily routine of snapping him into his car seat :)