I know, I know!!! Where the heck have I been?!?! BUSY!!!! Busy with a baby who refuses to let me even turn on the computer, never mind actually sit here and DO something on it! Busy with dog rescue stuff that I've gotten far too deeply involved with! Busy with the boys' RIDICULOUS schedules (thank heavens they each only do one extracurricular activity a piece -- but that one piece may very near well kill me!).
But I'm hear to at least make an attempt to rectify that. I really REALLY want to be posting here, because we've been doing some AMAZING things homeschooling wise!!! And of course, Rosebud's been growing like a veritable weed:
Yes, shes almost 10 months old and is quickly working her way towards toddlerhood (sob!) -- she's not walking quite yet, but she COULD if she really gave it a try -- her balance is great, and she can stand up on her own in the middle of a room and bounces like that, picks up stuff and waves it around like that, etc. She's crawling all over creation, and cruising when there's something to hang onto, and she WILL take a step to me if I'm within a step of her, but she drops and crawls otherwise. She's pictured above with one of the aforementioned rescue pups. She LOVES animals (reminds me a lot of Zoo Boy that way), especially kitties and penguins (don't even ask), and she's taking a Music Together class that she absolutely adores. She also loves to eat and will eat absolutely anything (which is a new experience for me, mother to the two pickiest eaters in the world), and puts her 8 teeth to very good use. She's very go with the flow, loves joining her bothers on adventures, and wants to be outdoors all the time.
We've been having a great time with our Darwin/Evolution unit -- we spent the end of September learning about Charles Darwin's early life, then launched on board the HMS Beagle with him and spent all of October exploring the world and creating a ship's log (and a scale model of the Beagle!), visiting Mystic Seaport to climb aboard similar vessels of the era, learned about navigating with sextants and collecting scientific specimens, and visited Mystic Aquarium a couple times to see the sorts of sea creatures they encountered on their voyage. Now we're into the meat of Evolutionary theory and in addition to reading about it at home and watching documentaries about it, we've been visiting museums to see examples of the fossils Darwin had to work with, and to compare prehistoric life with life today, including comparing primates and humans. The boys are pictured above at an exhibit about Darwin at the Peabody Museum at Yale, New Haven, CT. While writing up some observations about principles of evolution yesterday, Zoo Boy exclaimed "I love this, I'm so glad we homeschool!" ME TOO!!!
We are of course well into Nutcracker season now, which means J is spending all of his free time at the ballet school either in class or in rehearsal. (Above in his pre-professional trainees class during parent observation week this week.) He's again dancing the role of Fritz, as well as being in the corps for the Chinese dance. He was offered an additional role (soldier) but actually turned it down, he didn't feel like he could handle a third role at this point. He's always had a much better handle on his own limitation than I ever have had on mine. He turned 12 this past month, and is definitely entering a whole new phase of maturity. He's just started reading the Narnia series of books, after having finished up the Harry Potter series this fall. He's also taking a museum Chemistry class, which is he is loving, and he really enjoys taking Clara to her Music Together classes, where he is an active participant with her.
Zoo Boy tested for his Green Belt, which is the first of the Advanced ranks, in Karate a few weeks ago, and is currently at the dojo at least 3 times a week for classes and activities. He wants to make a career out of this, and will be looking into starting on the road to instructor training soon (when he turns 10 this winter). He's also taking the same museum Chemistry class as J (and also loves it), and also very much enjoys playing with his little sister. He recently adopted two little kittens after the tragic death of his cat, Candy Corn. (He named the kitties Candy and Corn in her honor, which was all kinds of sweet.) He's working on finishing up the Heroes of Olympus series, having already read the Percy Jackson series and the Kane Chronicles (he really enjoys Rick Riordian's books), and is planning on starting The Dark is Rising series next, which our friend Laura loaned to us as she thought he would enjoy it.
Above, the boys on Halloween this year. I remember when they were little and dressed up as Winnie the Pooh and Tigger -- what happened to my sweet, innocent boys??? Ah, well, there's just no stopping them from growing up. Jacob actually put his Zombie Jogger garb to good use, participating in a Flash Mob (to Michael Jackson's "Thriller") at a charity run on Halloween weekend.
So I've done it! I've managed to post a blog post! And at least give you a cursory look into what we've been up to. I've missed a lot of stuff, like Monday Homeschool Classes and Science Fridays, but hopefully I'll be back SOON to post about those things and more details about our amazing Darwin/Evolution unit. In the meantime, if you're really missing me, you can find daily real-time photos of our doings on Facebook -- just leave me a comment with your email address and I'll send you my real name so you can search for me there.
(uh oh, there's no way for me to spellcheck this -- I'm doomed!!!)
