African Animals and Updates

Our little Science club has been studying African Animals. It is my trun to lead a topic and this one seemed right up my alley, with the Africa background, and the wonderful newish Africa Exhibit at the local zoo. We have been having a wonderful time with it. In the first week the kids made large maps of Africa while learning about the three major biomes and the animals that call them home. It was realy fun and filled the entire two hours quite nicely. This week we went on an African Safari at the zoo. I made guidebooks that look like scrapbooks in that there is a lot of info about a certain animal along with its biome and other important info. the kids had to find that animal at the zoo and either sketch or photograph it. We just got home, and I think it went well. The best part was that we each got to work with our own families, we didnt have to move through the zoo as one group unit and deal with dynamics etc.. So my boys both really did learn a lot about the specific animals in the book. This was a nice bonus because typically your kids get the least when your the leader, accept of course the planning you do at home.

Our weekend was nice. I got the books finished for the zoo thing very early Saturday morning. I discovered that if I get up at 3am, I can get an amazing amount of stuff done before the family gets up. I was thrilled to have them done so we could enjoy our weekend. My husband built the greenhouse while I painted the chicken coop and the kids played on the playground and around the yard. Saturday evening we had a date night which included a wonderful dinner out and tickets to see MacBeth. Well the dinner was incredible and the show was terrible!!! We (and about 1/3 of the audience) left at the intermission. I have never done that before. I will stay just out of respect for the players, but this was truly unbearable. Plus the second act was 75 minutes long, and we knew that there was no way we could sit through that.

GM and I had a great Friday afternoon, we went and did our training at the Naturalist Center and were able to get two of our topics signed off on, so that was good. After our training we went shopping at the warehouse store and finished out our evening with a nice dinner, just the two of us. We had so much fun, we laughed and chatted about stuff. I really enjoyed the afternoon and evening with him. It is such a treat to get time alone with any of them.


Sunday morning we were invited to breakfast at a friends house, and we ended up visiting and hanging out until almost 2 in the afternoon. The kids had a lot of fun and we always enjoy getting to visit with them. When we got home I had my first conference call with Beth Sutton and some other Enki-using homeschool Mothers. It was nice to discuss some of the things we are doing, or struggling with. We basically discussed rhythm, transitions, chatty talkers, and allergies and how they can effect a child's learning. It was really great, and Im looking forward to our conference call next month. We enjoyed a calm and relaxing Sunday evening and I even went to bed at about 9pm. The kids were tired too and went down just before I did. Dad had to stay up to catch up on his March Madness, but even he was tired earlier than usual. I guess when we move the clocks we will all be exhausted by 8pm. :-)


Today we are home because our Science class at the museum is canceled due to Spring Break Camps they do during the public school's break time. Im thrilled to have the day at home and Im looking forward to a nice quiet day, along with a bonus lessons day. Usually we do three per week, but we can do four this week with the extra day at home. Im getting excited about the progress they are making and looking forward to the coming of summer. Mainly because of the clubs and classes ending, not because we dont love them, we do, but the having to run is a bit much for us most weeks.

I will give a lessons update later today, just because I havent in quite some time. :-)