The End of an Era, the Start of a New One.

Homeschooling can be a roller coaster ride.  Families change, priorities change, and as they change, so must our activities.  This week marked the last of our Tuesday playgroup.  Many of the families are getting older, and have different priorities and commitments.  The day before it was called off for good, I signed Millie up for an all girls group that meets once per month, and does fun stuff like nails, cake decorating, holiday parties, movies, etc.  After I signed her up, I thought, "what am I thinking?  We don't have the time in our schedule to add another activity!"  I didn't have to worry about it for long, since playgroup was cancelled the next day.  The girls will still see their playgroup friends at SciGirls, book club, and private social outings here and there.  Thankfully things always work out in the end!

Here's what we were up to this week:

Monday:

Monday is the most predictable day of the week.  The girls always have piano in the morning, Millie always has co-op after piano, and every other week, Elise has Jr. First Lego League.  This week at Lego League, the kids got to do some imagining and building with Legos, a Lego relay race, and a project based on Shel Silverstein's poem Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Sout Would Not Take the Garbage Out.  It was really fun!!   

Tuesday:

Today was homeschool day at the Minnesota Zoo.  We meet friends out there, and walked around.  The weather was perfect, it was a great day to wander the zoo.  My favorite part is their new natural playground.  It's so cool!  On our way out, our friends 3 year old wandered off, so we had to split up to find her.  We ended up missing playgroup, so we went home and hung out.  

Wednesday:

Wonderful Wednesday!  After doing our normal school work in the morning, we went on to learn all about Mesopotamia by reading a chapter from A Little History of the World, and watching a Lego video.  

We watched this video 4 years ago when we did ancient history the first time.  It's a movie that gets quoted often ;)  After that, we learned all about the sun.  We decided to take advantage of the beautiful fall day to take a long bike ride.  We brought binoculars and paper to do a sun spot experiment, but ended up forgetting the paper.  Oh well, it was sooo nice to be on our bikes again!!!

Thursday:

Thursday we had regular school in the morning.  In the afternoon I had class, as usual.  Millie and Elise did a lot of work at home.  Millie is learning all about the Native Americans and the history of Minnesota, and Elise did a project based on signs and symbols in our neighborhood.  

Friday:

She's "surfing"

Today was Millie's first Girls Club meeting!  They spent an hour and a half painting nails, singing songs, chatting, and having fun.  I'm so happy to have stumbled upon this group!!  Millie loved it.  While she was there, Elise and I found a really cool playground to hang out at. 

That was our week!  I need to regroup a little bit and refocus on what's important: finding time to do our academic studies.  I have been allowing our fun to interfere with school work a little too much.  Generally our outings are somewhat educational, and my kids are progressing in their studies nicely, but I really need to make sure that we spend 3 mornings at home.  That's my new goal!

Find out what other homeschoolers were doing this week, here.