Runaround

GET MOVIN': We were out the door early (for us) today - a little before 9 p.m. We had a science class in Seatac to get to, and needed to stop at Staples along the way.

Annabelle found Staples to be a little slice of heaven. I guess she has that same special feeling about office supplies as I do. :) I needed Post-It notes (for marking passages we need to refer back to) and a clear envelope (to hold this awesome DVD and accompanying curriculum we got from NASA). Annabelle - well she NEEDED pink duct tape. And not just any pink, we're talking some seriously neon Flamingo Pink tape.

We made good use of our 30 minute drive down south. Part of the way we listened to (and the kids read along with) a book "Anna Banana and Me" by Lenore Blegvad. (It was an unusual book, about a shy boy who has a brave - and perhaps imaginary - friend.)

We also spent about 20 minutes practicing multiplication tables. We stuck to 0s, 1, 2s, 3s, and 5s. It went well.

We got to the school campus about 10 minutes early, so we used that time to review the homework the kids had done. They re-read the short persuasive passage about helping the environment and reviewed the kids' answers to questions posed after the selection. I'm glad they did the review, because the class started with a review of the homework and them sharing their answers.

The topic of the hands-on science portion of the day was about weights and balancing. The kids got to experiment with scales, which they enjoyed immensely. They spent a lot of time putting various objects one each end of the balancing board. It was a great exercise and I liked hearing them start to predict/speculate what would happen before trying something. The teacher has a very nice way of leading the class. She's a conversationalist/story teller, so it doesn't sound like a lecture.

EVERYWHERE, NOWHERE: I (very stupidly) decided to take an 'alternative' route to Interstate 5. Wow, did that turn out badly. Somehow (honestly, I'm still not sure how) we wound up driving round the farmlands of Kent/Auburn. It was ridiculous. I kept thinking, well surely I'll see I-5 soon, or at least a sign to I-5 but we just kept getting more hopelessly lost. I finally pulled over, unearthed an atlas and managed to navigate us back to civilization (civilization being an interstate highway).

NORTH CAMPUS: Once on I-5, we had to drive through Seattle and scoot on up to Shoreline to drop off our papers for the Home Education Exchange (HEE). Last night Christian spent considerable time filling them out.

The woman in the office was super nice when we dropped them off, and said she'd email me when she had officially input all of the data into two different systems. I swear, I'm not going to relax until I have actual student IDs for each of the kids. I still almost can't believe the turn of events and the sudden opportunity. Stay tuned for further developments.

While we were at the campus today, CJ and Annabelle got their first gander of and sample from the legendary popcorn machine in the school cafe. They are already of the opinion that HEE is The Best School ever.

BODY WORKS: This afternoon, the kids enjoyed a Magic Schoolbus DVD. Its title was "Super Sports Fun." I thought it was going to be about different sport/games and their rules. Silly me. Instead, it was about friction (baseball was used to help demonstrate) and the human body and how it's used to play sports.

CJ said by watching the video he learned that "some things that come out of muscles when they don't have enough oxygen," and that makes them stiff and sore. I told him that's lactic acid. I was impressed the video covered it.

Annabelle said she learned "the heart, lungs and blood work together, like a team."

SCARY STORY: We're ramping our writing up, and to that end today I started a book writing project with the kids. I wrote "In the Haunted Mansion" on the white board, and told the kids that was going to be the opening line to a book they write.

We talked about the book writing process. I let them know most authors don't write a book in one day. Sometimes it takes weeks, or months or even years. I told them we'd be spending a couple of weeks writing our books and when they're done, we'll put covers on them and actually bind them. They're pretty excited.

GOOD GRACES: This afternoon we ripped over to Magnolia to return about 20 items and (blush) pay some overdue fines. We need to be less greedy when we're at the library and not bring home so much. Oh, and while we were there, we checked out 8 or so things ...

P.E. PEDDLE: When Christian got home from work, we went for a ride/run to our most frequent destination, Lawton Elementary (that means we were at three schools today, pretty ironic for a "homeschoolin'" family). We wanted to check on the progress of the park playground adjacent to Lawton. Sadly, it was not open and, in fact, it looked like they were doing a couple things over. Bummer. So close, yet so far ...WE'RE MAINSTREAM: There's a big, multi-faceted feature on homeschooling on the MSNBC Web site right now. I haven't had a chance to read it all, but there's some interesting stuff there, including lots of stats for you stats fans (of which I am one).