Valentines party

I never got a chance to post about our Valentine's Day.  We started the day out with chocolate hearts on our oatmeal...

 A local homeschool group was having a valentine's day tea party, but it was too early in the day for us to attend and I thought our own would be just as much fun.  While the boys were napping, I decorated the playroom so that it literally dripped hearts... then spread out a table with heart shaped almond butter and jelly sandwiches, strawberries, fresh blueberries (special treat since they are not in season, although not in theme), and heart shaped watermelon.  The tea was actually chocolate milk...  all in all, a great way to wake up...

We participated in a homeschooler's valentines exchange by mail, so after we ate we opened valentines.  I gave the boys blank US maps, and they colored in the state each valentine came from before they opened it.  Next year, I am going to try to sign the boys up on different lists so their completed maps will be different because they were constantly comparing which states they had colored in -- I think the maps were more fun than the actual valentines!  Although, they certainly loved all the goodies they got too!  And, they've had tattoos on various parts of their bodies ever since!

starting over

It's been a few weeks since we started classical conversations, and 2 (maybe 3) more families are going to join us on the journey so we are going to start back at the beginning again.  It's ok, since we haven't really completed an entire week yet...  but we've gotten in the groove now so it should go well (although I'm still unsure about the latin...).  So, week one again -- here we come!  We meet on Mondays which works well since you wait for the group meeting to introduce the new work for the week and then reinforce it at home.  The thing I love the best about it is that it literally takes us about 20 minutes to do the recitations a day and then I feel freed up to do whatever we want without having to worry if Nic's learning enough...  its awesome!  And Joey is learning a ton too, although he comes and goes as we do the work...

There are pieces to the program that I don't understand.  The geography section is just memorizing place names, so I copied the map and blew it up... and we trace the place as we say the name every day.  I covered it in contact paper and while it doesn't totally erase every day... it erases enough.  My children WILL be able to read a map, locate wherever and hopefully have a better sense of direction than their mother... who can LITERALLY get lost in a room with one door!