Back to the Co-op

Today was our first day back to our homeschool co-op classes. Doodles was feeling a bit shy and apprehensive this morning before heading into classes. She is such an outgoing kid, most of the time but she still has a shy side to her personality. To anyone that knows her, it is so hard to believe but she has standoffish moments. 

We lightened the moment this morning before going inside, by examining all of the spiderwebs on the playground fence. I had forgotten how this time of the year, you can find spider webs covering acres of grassy fields and almost any structure, when the morning dew is heavy. Taking a few minutes to just stop and look, talk about the webs and look for the spiders that made them, seem to take the edge off her apprehensiveness.


Our co-op group is being held at a local church. This church has been so generous to open up their classrooms and buildings to a group of over 400 young people for classes. Our group is so blessed by such an amazing gift of generosity. The hosting church is amazing. There is a gym, an indoor walking track above the gym, a library and play areas for the little ones inside and out. There are quiet study rooms but, I have yet to discover where those are. The gym is open for little ones to play and folks to socialize and to get reacquainted after the summer break. Our family feels so blessed to be a part of this network of home school families. The kids that participate in this group are outstanding and so bright. They are also some of the most polite and well behaved children that I have come in contact with in such a long time. 


I do believe Doodlebug is really going to enjoy Monday Fun. This semester she is taking, Character Education, American History, Hands on Shakespeare and a science class called, “Let's Investigate”. I am looking forward to hearing about each of her classes, during our 30 minute lunch break and then, catch rest of the details on our 20 minute ride home.

 11:30 …It is lunch time. We put our name on the pizza list for a share in a pizza but, the pizza guy is running a bit late. We didn’t get our pizza until about 11:45. No big deal though, we were very hungry so, we gobbled it down and still made it to the next class with a few minutes to spare. Doodles really enjoyed getting to have pizza with her friends.


(This paragraph was started at 10:30 and finished at 12:16) I have concluded, that trying to use the 4 hours and 30 minutes here on Monday's, to write may not work out. The atmosphere is so busy and energetic, that my time may be better spent in a pair of walking shoes, listening to my mp3 player and walking on the track. God knows, I sure could use the exercise.

 It is 12:32 and I am sitting outside of the Hands on Shakespeare class. From the sounds coming from inside the classroom, these kids and the teacher are having so much fun. The teacher has these kids so engaged.  From the sounds of laughter, calling out answers, responses and lines, I would say, she must have everyone’s attention. Who knew Shakespeare could be so much fun to second graders? They are learning and reading Shakespeare's play, The Tempest. We had read it at home last week. Doodles listened to the play as I read it to her and she drew in her sketch book. She seemed to enjoy it but nothing like this. I do believe this may be her favorite class, we shall see.

It is now 1:00  I am on my door post for my service hour. I didn't know my service hour would be right outside the nursery. There are so many little ones in there today that are not happy. This is our last hour here. Doodlebug is in the “Let's Investigate” class now. She is having so much fun. I know she is not going to want to go home.

All I can say today is, Wow, what a day! It has been such a fun and blessed day. When we get home, Doodles still has to do two lessons in math, has to do a reading assignment and practice her piano for the day. I know, she and I both are going to welcome our pillows this evening.

Back at home this afternoon, we still finished up two lessons in math and Doodles wanted to continue exploring what she had learned in the "Let's Investigate" class. She collected up a number of items to see if they would float or not. She made her predictions and then tested her items to see. After she finished, she took off the the gym with Papaw. 


When she came home, she ate, practiced her piano lessons, read the play, "Henny Penny" with Papaw and I. She then, brushed her teeth and jumped into bed. I am headed that way myself, as soon as I finish up this blog and answer a couple of emails.

Tomorrow is “Field Trip Tuesday.” We are going to “Down on the Farm Day” at the fair, for half of the day. Then on “Wonder Works” for the second half of the day. It should be a fun but tiring day too.


Wednesday we will have a busy day with book work and getting ready for a couple of tests. Next week may be a bit more relaxed, we shall see.

I will try to do a weekend wrap up on Sunday and post a few more photos. We are going to attend the “Homestead Day” at Oconaluftee visitor’s center on Saturday. We have been looking forward to the homestead cay for weeks.
.

Hope you all have a wonderful week. 

              Many blessings!

Someone ask me this past week...

"So, what have you been up to?" For a moment, I had no response. I had to really stop and think for a minute, what have I done all week? It isn't like I haven't been busy. My response was, "ah, not much." Then I did a mind recount of the week's events and this is what I came up with.

Mostly, I spend much of the week hanging out and playing with Doodlebug. We spent the week making a few new outfits for her American Girl doll. She really enjoyed that. She had me to make a dress to match a fall dress that I had made her last fall for her doll. We also made an old fashioned dress too, which is requiring a bonnet and I am in search of pattern for that.

 We also picked a world of tomatoes, green and red. Put a few quarts in the freezer for soups and fried up a few green ones. Those were yummy!

In between crafting with Doodles and working around here, I have been trying to reorganize the sewing room a bit. I started refolding a lot of the fabric and trying to have my fabric stash a bit more visible. It never fails when starting a sewing project, I dig through the stacks of fabric and my shelves are a mess by the time I am done. So, I decided to get it together and get that shelf straightened up. I blog surfed for a bit of inspiration. I am amazed of all the creative ways you gals come up with for organizing your sewing rooms.

I started folded fabric in my spare time for a couple of days only to realize, I wasn't going to be any better off when I was finished. My fabric would still have to be stacked and I would still be digging and making a mess of that self with every project. So, I was back to blog surfing to find some answers. I found really neat fabric organizer boards but they were not within my budge. I kept surfing until I ran across several folk's suggestions of using magazine boards or comic book boards to fold the fabric around. I found a  board that suited my needs, it was BCW "life" magazine boards, 10 7/8 X 14 7/8 inches.They are certified to be acid free so, I won't have to worry about them having an affect on the fabric color. I just placed the order yesterday for the boards. I can't wait until I get them and get things straightened up a bit in here again. I'll let you all know how that works out.

Also, this past week a friend shared with us, several DVDs about the universe and the planets. We watched a couple of those with Doodles. She is always interested in the planets and outer space. She is certain that aliens must exist.  She sweet talked Papaw into working the solar system puzzle with her and they talked a bit about the planets.

I do think Doodlebug is starting to look forward to the start of her homeschool routine again. Papaw and I went on Tuesday to sign her up for her homeschool enrichment classes.

One of the classes that we signed her up for was "Hands on Shakespeare."They will be doing a performance of The Tempest. It should be a lot of fun for her. As you can see from her video clips throughout the blog, she has no fear being in front of a video camera. Put her on a stage and she becomes a completely different Doodlebug. She has a case of stage fright so, we are in hopes this will help her over come that a bit. She loves reading scripts and preforming a play at home. Over the weekend we found a couple of fun books for this school term. They are Scholastic's Folk & Fairy Tale Plays for Building Fluency. This book is for 2nd to 3rd grade reading levels. We also picked up Scholastic's 12 Fabulously Funny Fairy Tale Plays. I can't wait to do Rafunzel and no, I didn't spell it incorrectly. Spiderella also sounds like it may be fun too.

I can't blog without an update from the hen house. Our hens are really keeping up production so, I knew making a couple of breakfast quiche' would cut down on the surplus a bit. These were so tasty. I think I will be making a couple of lemon pound cakes this week for Papaw. That will use up a few more eggs.

And last but certainly not least, we have been doggie sitting Bones. It is like romper room here when we have Bones and Doodles too. It is never quiet, until they are asleep. He gets kind of lonely when she goes home. He is a sweet dog and I enjoy having him around.

So, there you have it, our week as it was. Hope you all had a great week.

Blessings!