Roller Skating

Today there was a local homeschool group activity to the roller rink! My kids love to roller skate, even though they've only gone twice before. They were so confident! Rebecca, Jon and Savannah all three were up on skates and didn't even need me! Around and around and faster and faster. Jon kept claiming he was REALLY good at skating. And Becca was so proud that she was a "natural." Bella did fairly well considering it was all during her naptime. Close to the end Jon had fallen so much his elbow started bulging from being bruised hitting the floor so many times...but he's claiming still he's such a good skater! Go Jon!! And Becca!! (I have to remember to encourage equally. Those two have really been competing recently. And the quarrels! This is why we have family: to learn how to get along.)

Tonight Ed was really working on teaching them how to play Sudoku. His latest and greatest new math/logic puzzle game thing. It seems like everything we see, do or think has an education purpose. So I guess that's life, constantly learning and finding things to learn.

One thing we have been really thinking about is how much we really want to live on some land, or at least have someplace to go and camp, ride 4wheelers, etc. I guess we are feeling that since we are homeschoolling there is nothing stopping us from doing anything. We have a lot of freedom. It's refreshing.

Surprisingly, even though we love the warmer weather, we find ourselves thinking about snow. That would be fun to see some snow. But not the cold. Yet, maybe there is something nice about having 4 seasons. If only summer was just a bit longer....

Today I learned a little bit about a homeschoolling style called "Classical Conversations". Im going to go to an information mtg about it in S.C. in January. It sounds really interesting and I've read some good reviews about it. So much to learn. I'm still trying to find my style. I think I'm kind of eclectic though, grabbing things from here and there, what I think looks good, and with their input of what they want to learn about. I also acquired all KONOS curriculum books. I'm excited to incorporate those unit studies too! They have some great activities in them. I purchased some Hooked on Phonics for Jon and some for an older child. I figured they'd both be for Jon, but the older one was perfect for Becca and she is breezing through it and loving it!! And Jon is loving his HOP! I'm so glad! He was kind of struggling with the A BEKA phonics. I know a lot of people LOVE A BEKA, but I'm not sure it's right for us. So, little by little I'm figuring out what's going to work. I'm getting more relaxed about it too, remembering I've only done this since Halloween. Today was a great school day.

Yesterday we read "Pecos Bill" for the first time. It was GREAT!! Most tall tales or heroes are universal for the USA. Leave it to TX to have their own Tall Tale character just for them! Don't Mess with TX. Jon, of course, loved the story. He was a cowboy that used a snake for a lasso. Cool stuff.