done with the sickies!

Ok, I think we finally shook the last of the nasty sick bug away, other than a lingering cough in a few of us that seems to be, for the most part anyway, more of an annoyance than a problem.

In any case, we actually ventured out the end of this week, giving me something to actually blog about! Hooray!!

There's J (in goal in this photo, though he had a chance to play every position) playing Floor Hockey at the local YMCA in a gym class for homeschoolers. I love gym teachers. Who else is insane enough to throw a bunch of 5-8 yr olds in a room together, give them all sticks, and encourage them to swing them around?! They had a blast. Zoo Boy decided to sit out, as all those sticks looked pretty dangerous to him and he was afraid of getting hit by one of them (not an unreasonable fear, if you ask me!). Which brings me to the truly most amazing, wonderful part of homeschooling. The kids can participate in all the same sorts of things that kids at school can participate in, but they don't HAVE to. So if The Boy is afraid of getting his head bashed in by a flying hockey stick, he isn't forced to do something he's not comfortable with that may possibly traumatize him. Yet, if he decides he wants to participate, that's cool too. Next week will be a different sport, he may very well want to participate in. (The first week was Volleyball, which he loved. Last week we missed due to the evil virus, and the class played Dodge Ball. I'm sure they'll get another opportunity to try out my own personal least favorite gym sport, though.)

After gym, we went over to our favorite park, which we haven't been to in months. The education staff was excited to see us and set up a couple of their wonderful programs for us. Maple sugaring in another month -- hooray!



Of course, the kids were thrilled for the opportunity to play in the nature center for awhile. Here J crawls out of the tunnel through the stone wall. He also was excited to check out the new goldfish in the fish tank and visit with the corn snake who was being particularly active and friendly that day. Both boys found and read their favorite nature center books, too. The time passed too quickly and before we knew it, they were closing for the day. But we'll be back soon!

Zoo boy in the tree house at the nature center.

We also went to an impromptu Valentine's Day party on Saturday evening at my parent's house. They had fun playing with their cousins and eating Valentine's Day treats, while most of us adults (Mimi was having too much fun with the kids) played cards. We stayed out way too late, but we all had a great time.

Somewhere along the line these past two weeks, we managed to finish reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, by Roald Dahl. Here's J's artistic interpretation of Mr. Willy Wonka. The boys just adored the story (although Zoo Boy found the peril some of the children got into mildly intense, he managed to stick with the story, despite hiding under the covers for a couple of paragraphs here and there). I was actually luke warm on the book. It was very moralistic, and that didn't set particularly well with me, especially those Oompa Loompas and their sarcastic, sadistic senses of humor.

Of course, maybe I'm just thinking too much about it. But it's not a book I'm going to go around recommending to anyone else.