things we were doing rather than staying home on the computer blogging about them

So, other than taking a class with the Enki Education folks and working on a multitude of secret holiday gift projects (shhh...), what have we been up to that has effectively kept me away from my blog?

Chores on cold, gray, windy November days, for one thing. Walks on those same cold, gray, windy November days, for another.

Dipping candles, which we did in my Colonial Days class on Monday. J was REALLY into it.

Proudly displaying his finished candles.

Taking a Spanish test. The kids can take tests for various band colors (akin to karate belt colors) when they feel ready. All the students start out at white band. Here, J is testing for his yellow band, which is designed to be taken at the end of one academic year of classes. J, being the motivated learner he is, decided to take the test after 6 weeks of classes. He didn't pass, but just narrowly so (he couldn't name a language learning strategy, and he was confused when he was asked a question he'd only just heard for the first time that day). He can take it again this coming week, and my guess is he's going to pass it this time.

Also on Monday, J finished up a 2-part museum class on Nutrition and started a new dog training class with our Collie, Cheer. In addition to the candle dipping, the Spanish test, and a drama rehearsal. It was quite a day!

Hanging out at the CT Science Center. We spent the day there on Tuesday. J had the 2nd in his series of homeschool group classes on Properties of Matter. And then the kids spent the rest of the day exploring the exhibits, while I followed them around grabbing a bench wherever one was available to work on the above-mentioned secret holiday gifts.

Zoo Boy got the chance to work on some circuits while we were there, which totally made his day. He would have happily spent his entire visit monopolizing both the snap circuit set and the Scientist that runs the activity, but we had tickets to the 3-D Sun movie (which was FABULOUS!), so I herded him away from his circuit board in just enough time to make our seating.

We actually spent the day at home on Wednesday (gasp!), but were back on the road on Thursday, hooking up with our friends T and D at the Children's Museum for some turtle time (here's D and Zoo Boy hanging out inside some enormous shells!) and exhibit-hopping and visiting.

J has a conversation with a tortoise. (At least, that's what he told me he was doing. What exactly DO you say to a tortoise? And, more importantly, what might it say back to you??)

Later that day, J had a class about Colonial Games (at yet another children's museum -- it's been a big museum week...), where he made this groovy mini-checkerboard. (And no, I wasn't teaching that one, I was busy trying to keep Zoo Boy occupied because this class was taught by the teacher that The Boy doesn't care for.)

We wrapped up the week today with J's sports class, which has finally (thankfully!) moved indoors for the winter. Not that I mind the kids playing sports outside in colder weather, nor do I personally mind being outdoors now, so long as I'm doing something. But sitting around watching kids play sports outside in this weather....um, no thanks. Today's topic was Basketball, which was just fine by J. (Of course, ANYTHING is just fine by J, so long as he's running around a gym with a bunch of other kids.)

And finally, we spent the first half of the week working on a big art project, which we used during our lessons in the second half of our week. But you're going to just have to stay tuned and wait for my next blog post to find out what that actually was! (So there!!)