I Knew It Would Be A Challenge!
Whew! It's Hump Day and I knew that if I made it this far, I would be exhausted. This was that one week in September that comes every year that seems to be jam packed with activities and wears me out when I even glanced at the calendar.
In addition to my regular life, which is always quite busy, we had many activities to do this week. Monday morning started with a trip to the pediatrician for Dakota's 7 year check up. He did fine, had grown well and was even a good sport about getting a treatment for a wart on his knee. When we came home I tried to get some reasonable semblance of a homeschool day going, but that wasn't really on Dakota's "to do" list. At 3:00 we had our friends visit while their mom went to work and at 6:00 we had a make up baseball game in Catonsville. Tuesday morning, bright and early, we got Natalie and got all our stuff ready and headed out to the Maryland Science Center for Homeschool Days and classes. We went in right at 10 and Koda had 30 minutes of free time to play before we went into the Davis Planetarium for the One Earth, One Sky presentation. I think we both learned alot about the moon, sun and stars and I know Dakota found it very cool to see the pictures superimposed on the stars that make the constellations. Natalie happily snoozed through it all. Afterward, Dakota had a Paleo Detective class and Natalie and I browsed the gift shop and I had coffee and some Baked Lays. Again, Natalie snoozed. We picked Koda up at 12:20, gave him 15 more minutes to play and then headed home. We got in 2 hours of a little down time and then took Natalie to her daddy, our Daddy to Spalding and then my little son and I had our own "hot date" to dinner and a concert, his first, at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds. We had been given the tickets through freecycle and Dakota was so excited! We had our chairs on the lawn about 20 yards from the stage and we got to hear Colt Ford do some country rap (I know, right) and then Rodney Atkins perform his popular hits and some new pieces. We were both very tired, but we made it to the end and finally stumbled through the front door about 11:00.
And then there was today....Natalie arrived at 8 and we had to leave by 8:45. Koda was very tired and moving slow. Natalie was demanding food and attention and I was putting last minute touches on my Delaware class materials for co-op. We got there on time, but our classrooms weren't open so we had to have both classes and the parents and young kids all in the hall.
Today we learned about The First State. My 7-9 year olds had all done their projects, which were "treasure boxes" decorated with the state symbols for Delaware, and we shared them, letting the kids show off their hard work. We talked about the geography of the state, looked at the flag and then a map. For history, we talked about Thomas Garrett and the Underground Railroad. My kids had no idea what that was or who Harriet Tubman was, and they were very interested to hear about the slaves and Harriet Tubman and what happened so long ago on the underground railroad, that really wasn't a railroad at all (they were pretty surprised!). It was a great discussion and we did a cloze activity and I felt a great deal of satisfaction when we were through. For science, we talked about ladybugs. We read some facts, did some cloze activities and a word search and then for art, we make a ladybug using a styrofoam bowl, markers, pipe cleaners and googly eyes.
The kids and the class went well for me, but the acoustics were not good and the kids couldn't really hear me and I ended up losing my voice from all the shouting. The parents were great again, though, helping without asking, and getting the room together and in tip top shape before we left. I was so tired by the time I got home I didn't have much left and my sweet little granddaughter did only cat naps and demanded alot of attention, which is completely unusual! Tonight I am catching up on my computer and watching Ghost Hunters. Tomorrow is a slow day until baseball at 6pm and I am not babysitting for more than 2 or 3 hours so we should be able to have a decent homeschool day, hopefully on the deck.
In addition to my regular life, which is always quite busy, we had many activities to do this week. Monday morning started with a trip to the pediatrician for Dakota's 7 year check up. He did fine, had grown well and was even a good sport about getting a treatment for a wart on his knee. When we came home I tried to get some reasonable semblance of a homeschool day going, but that wasn't really on Dakota's "to do" list. At 3:00 we had our friends visit while their mom went to work and at 6:00 we had a make up baseball game in Catonsville. Tuesday morning, bright and early, we got Natalie and got all our stuff ready and headed out to the Maryland Science Center for Homeschool Days and classes. We went in right at 10 and Koda had 30 minutes of free time to play before we went into the Davis Planetarium for the One Earth, One Sky presentation. I think we both learned alot about the moon, sun and stars and I know Dakota found it very cool to see the pictures superimposed on the stars that make the constellations. Natalie happily snoozed through it all. Afterward, Dakota had a Paleo Detective class and Natalie and I browsed the gift shop and I had coffee and some Baked Lays. Again, Natalie snoozed. We picked Koda up at 12:20, gave him 15 more minutes to play and then headed home. We got in 2 hours of a little down time and then took Natalie to her daddy, our Daddy to Spalding and then my little son and I had our own "hot date" to dinner and a concert, his first, at the Anne Arundel County Fairgrounds. We had been given the tickets through freecycle and Dakota was so excited! We had our chairs on the lawn about 20 yards from the stage and we got to hear Colt Ford do some country rap (I know, right) and then Rodney Atkins perform his popular hits and some new pieces. We were both very tired, but we made it to the end and finally stumbled through the front door about 11:00.
And then there was today....Natalie arrived at 8 and we had to leave by 8:45. Koda was very tired and moving slow. Natalie was demanding food and attention and I was putting last minute touches on my Delaware class materials for co-op. We got there on time, but our classrooms weren't open so we had to have both classes and the parents and young kids all in the hall.
Today we learned about The First State. My 7-9 year olds had all done their projects, which were "treasure boxes" decorated with the state symbols for Delaware, and we shared them, letting the kids show off their hard work. We talked about the geography of the state, looked at the flag and then a map. For history, we talked about Thomas Garrett and the Underground Railroad. My kids had no idea what that was or who Harriet Tubman was, and they were very interested to hear about the slaves and Harriet Tubman and what happened so long ago on the underground railroad, that really wasn't a railroad at all (they were pretty surprised!). It was a great discussion and we did a cloze activity and I felt a great deal of satisfaction when we were through. For science, we talked about ladybugs. We read some facts, did some cloze activities and a word search and then for art, we make a ladybug using a styrofoam bowl, markers, pipe cleaners and googly eyes.
The kids and the class went well for me, but the acoustics were not good and the kids couldn't really hear me and I ended up losing my voice from all the shouting. The parents were great again, though, helping without asking, and getting the room together and in tip top shape before we left. I was so tired by the time I got home I didn't have much left and my sweet little granddaughter did only cat naps and demanded alot of attention, which is completely unusual! Tonight I am catching up on my computer and watching Ghost Hunters. Tomorrow is a slow day until baseball at 6pm and I am not babysitting for more than 2 or 3 hours so we should be able to have a decent homeschool day, hopefully on the deck.
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