Recap and Review

We have had a lot of great stuff going on in the past month.  We finished a unit on chemistry, and a unit on the Inuit.  We started classes at McWeeds this past week, and it was great.  We are looking forward to great classes over the next several weeks.  Tomorrow we start monthly classes at Mystic Aquarium, and Tuesday we start them at Mystic Seaport.  We did Seaport classes last year, and they are phenomenal.  The kids are super excited.  I am just excited to be getting out of the house and doing stuff again.

The kids did a few sessions of ice skating, and are starting to really enjoy it.  I will be looking into finding reasonably priced classes or lessons.

And this is what it looked like outside the first day we were supposed to start classes.  So glad it is starting to melt and we can see some grass.  To celebrate we have been planting seeds and we made a terrarium in a giant jar.

It adds a beautiful element to our school room.  And the kids learned a lot about plant requirements and ecosystems.

We had a great field trip for Homeschool Day at The Connecticut Historical Society.  The prices are low and the classes are fantastic and really hands on.  The museum is small but great, really interactive and interesting.

We finished our Magic School Bus Human Body kit, did lots of painting and artsy craftsy stuff.  We made Valentines and did cooking and baking lessons.  We watched a lot of Liberty's Kids, worked on a dinosaur unit, worked in our Star Wars workbooks, studied Mesopotamia, physics, and square roots and square numbers.  We did a unit on rocks and minerals, did geography, studied the periodic table, and learned all about the number pi.  We also started playing Settlers of Catan with the geeklings.

We also saw an amazing glass blowing demonstration.  Which prompted CJ to state that he wants to go to RISD, and study glass blowing, since it is beautiful art and studying thermodynamics at the same time!

We finished a unit on Pompeii, and the kids have shown a lot of interest in studying things on their own.  They have been doing their own research in their books on topics that interest them as well as showing a lot more effort in their work.

We are very grateful for our network of families in the Southeastern CT Homeschool group.  We have had such great field trip and playdate opportunities, great parties, and a lot of support.  It has made a huge difference in our homeschool journey.  We had a curriculum swap, and it was fantastic to share ideas and materials with each other.  I am excited to start our spring schedule.  My favorite part of our spring plans is to start hiking with some friends, and then to start some cooking classes utilizing Alton Brown videos on Netflix.  Getting into the air and then into the mud, it will be amazing after the cooped up horrible winter we have endured.  Our homeschool group will be planning field trips to the Dinosaur State Park, and nature centers.  We can't wait for spring!!

Vacation

The last week of February we took our first real vacation that the kids will remember.  Usually we just see how many educational day trips we can cram into a week, or do something fun like clean the basement for vacation.  Not this time I tell you, I needed some warmth, and a few days without cleaning, cooking, or planning.  We went to Great Wolf Lodge in Fitchburg MA.  Water park, arcade, ropes course, and magiquest.  It was AMAZING!!!  We had such a great three days, and I never shivered once, even when in the hot tub in the snow.  It has made us all more patient with each other at home to have had some great family time together.  And I was surprised at the price, it was expensive, yes, but less so than I thought, and we were lucky enough to find a groupon.  Woohoo!  We went to Newbury comics on our way up, and brought new books and graphic novels for all of us to read while there, because we are that nerdy, and we spend hours just reading quietly.  And we saved a little money by bringing stuff to have breakfast and lunch in the room.  There are fridges, coffee makers, and microwaves in each room so that was pretty easy.  We only ate one meal a day at the Lodge, and that was at the buffet meal each night.  We spent a ton of time in our bathing suits on the water slides and laughing like crazy.  Now we all want to make it a yearly vacation.  I am so on board with that.

 View from our room.  See that giant funnel thing?  Most terifying water slide I have ever been on, especially as we did it at night and it was pitch dark.   Eeek, I still shake when I think of it.

 Ropes course.  In case anyone wonders, no I did NOT go up there.  No way.

And the kiddos being knighted for completing their Magiquests, it is like my first LARPing for kids.  We all had a blast.  The pictures don't do it justice, mostly since I didn't take too many pictures.  I was too busy having fun with my family.