Flexibility is WONDERFUL!!!

Well, the word for this week is "flexibility". As homeschoolers, it is one of the biggest gains and "pros" of this lifestyle. Yesterday, we were supposed to go on a field trip to Rosedown Plantation complete with demonstrations. The issue....it was VERY cold & windy and driving nearly 2 hours to pay and walk around Rosedown's 374 acres as we fight to stay warm just didn't seem like a fun learning activity. So, instead, we did school in our PJs and caught up on housework (especially Mount Washmore). Rosedown will have to wait for another day...preferrably one that is more comfortable. I think all of us were disappointed to not go, but very glad about not going as well.

Tonight, Maddie and Matt are at a Christmas dessert presentation at Vermilionville and I'm excited to hear how that goes. Its pretty amazing how many "field trips" we've been able to fit in and how many more we have on our "want list" to do. I'm going to have to get my calendar out and see how many we can fit in. Saturday is the museum for the Star Wars exhibit. Next week is old fashioned Christmas Caroling which we are all really looking forward to.

We were in Houston last weekend and had a great time with family as well as a great outcome at my ENT appointment as I am once again able to wear my hearing aid. It looks like we have successfully avoided surgery! We had Christmas with Matt's dad and stepmom, Grandma, and most of the siblings and their children (5 of our 7 neices and nephews). It was very nice to catch up with everyone. Especially now that we don't live in Houston, we really cherish time that we get to spend with everyone as it isn't just a "swing by for a visit" thing anymore. Once again flexibility was nice as we did a little extra earlier in the week to get our Thursday work done early and didn't bother with Friday. We'll do extra this week to make up for that so we still stay on the schedule of being 1/2 way done before Christmas.

One of the things that I have been doing is looking into "filler" to take care of some of the holes that I see in ABeka's curriculum. Give me a curriculum/educational supplies catalog and I'm like a kid in a candy store!!!! What ABeka does, they do very well, but it also lacks some things that now that we have nearly 1/2 a year under our belts, I am comfortable filling in the gaps with some fun things that we'll get to do as a family especially some creative writing things and art projects. We'll start with the writing and then add the art later on. I'm very excited for the new year and the next half of our inaugural school year.

Love and peace to all!!!