Nature Club

Today is the last day of Nature Club.  It's amazing how great our little country school is, at least from  my perspective.  Three days a week, they offer free clubs to the kids who would like to participate in diverse sets of activities that appeal to their interests.

Monday - Circus Club
Tuesday - Nature Club
Wednesday - Gym Club

Wyatt happens to participate in all three.  What a little joiner he is.  But Bella did the same and I happily let them.  We have teachers who do it, because they believe in teaching.  "Aaaah" breath of fresh air after all the talk of testing, common core and all the other bureaucratic nightmares of public education.

Circus Club teaches stilt walking, unicycle riding, juggling, cup stacking, tumbling, etc...

Gym Club is sports pick up games.  Think your and my childhood, where you just gathered your friends to play basketball, football or baseball in the backyard and streets.  Well in a world where safety makes this a frightening prospect, the school lets the kids stay once a week and figure out what games they want to play.  Sometimes several going at once.

Nature Club is brand new this year.  It was for those kids interested in learning about nature, their surroundings and physical sciences.  Surprisingly to me it draws an equal crowd of boys and girls.  It makes the sciences exciting and more accessible.  It is filled with tons of field trips that take you out into the surrounding area and woods.  Our last field trip was a creek study, where they learned about water bugs, pollution and how to know how clean the water is due to the identification of bugs in the water.  So cool!!!

Happy Holidays in Many Ways

Celebrating the holidays comes in many ways.  For Women's Club we had our Annual Holiday Tour of Homes and cookie sale. Both were largely successful and I was thrilled.

Also as resource parents, we had a holiday activity inviting all the families.  Juggler, Chris Ivey performed, breakfast was awesome, and each child received a present.  It was a great kick start to the holiday season. 

At church we had a celebration including the reenactment of Luke 2.  It was adorable!

At school we had gingerbread decorating parties early in the month and holiday parties in all the kids classes right before vacation, including a snowball fight with cotton balls in the Kindergarten classroom.  Suffice to say - having Travis home and celebrating almost daily adds to the seasonal cheer.  I love this time of year!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

October to Christmas in the Blink of an Eye

October is done.  I don't have many memories of it.  Life is cruising by me but in the most blissfully happy way mostly, so I can't complain.  I have to look at my camera to remember what I have done.  Good thing I am a picture junkie.

In retrospect...

 halloween party with friends - theme reality tv stars (Bret Michael and superfulous ho)

 school halloween parties with wyatt (above) and kody (below)

 surprising Issac's teacher for her birthday (The Big 4-0)

Farm Show

 School field trip to Farm Show

Wood Carver lighting the bench on fire to get fur coloring

 Our once a year Fundraiser - Race for Education

 A visit to Dutch Wonderland with the family

 Fun Run - all schools in the district compete to boast highest number of runners participating

 OMEGA field trip with Bella

 

Downtown Lancaster dates with the two younger boys

while Wyatt is in Karate and Bella at Fulton for acting class

March Is Over???

Days are going to fast:
here's what happened in March

We had lots of nice weather,
Saint Patrick's day parade,
the first day of spring and
waiting out Rita's long lines.

We had a wild bird come inside,
a 50's themed party at school,
our first round of sprinklers and
General Conference.

Whew!