Random January happenings for the first half of the month

Well, I took a month off without really meaning too.  Life has just been busy.  I'll see what I can catch up on this week and hopefully get a bit caught up.  We'll see.  This post was already written - and not posted.  I need to post college news.  

Here is the first half of January. 

We started the year with a traditional meal - collards, country ham and hoppin' john.  YUM!

Sweet picture of Eliana with one of her friends.  They had a play date and it was fun for me to see her enjoying playing WITH her friend.

Love seeing my children enjoying each other.  (Not that they don't also bicker, but I don't take pictures of those moments.)  The younger boys really love the opportunity to have time with Christopher.

Its a little dark, but a sweet picture nonetheless.  :)

Our first field trip of the year was to Marbles/Imax.  Marbles is a fabulous children's museum in Raleigh.  So many great things to enjoy there!

They have themed areas throughout the museum so that you can imagine and delight in a number of things.

The younger children went to Marbles while the older ones had a lab and saw an Imax movie on the Artic experience.  The younger children learned about 3 celebrations in different countries.  They talked about the food, the costumes, the music and the fun associated with each of them.

It was hands-on which made it a lot of fun.

The dragon for the Chinese New Year involved a lot of the children!  Daniel is holding the head of the dragon!

After the class, we just explored on our own.  We enjoyed all of this, but its really hard to stay with your friends during this type of outing.

The pizza parlor is one of my favorite spots.  Love those two cute cooks too!

Daniel likes collecting money.

Vehicles to drive and more.

We ended up leaving earlier than I had planned because Eliana told me she wanted to go home.  She seemed tired and I was afraid that perhaps she might be coming down with something.  (She wasn't.)  Thankfully, a friend offered to let  Daniel stay with them so he could enjoy Marbles to the fullest!

Some of the older students after going to the Imax movie.

 The kids had a lot of fun picking out gifts for their Daddy to celebrate his birthday.  :)

 For the record, I did not put all of those candles on his cake.

This is a picture of my gift to Roger.  I like how it turned out and its fun to have more pictures up on the wall of my favorite people.  :-)  

In order to finish the gift, I took a lot of photos trying to get a good one of each person.  Some were done at night - in a street light - and still turned out great.  And a bonus one of my girls.  Love it!

I also love seeing Eliana with a camera.  She also loves to take pictures.  She often gets good ones too because most people will smile for her and not try to hide or look away.  She has been taking pictures for several years now.  I often find her shots on my camera even when I don't know that she has been taking them.  LOL  She has always liked taking pictures of herself too.  

I can't believe its March already!  The time is going too quickly.  Will try to post more soon on some of our co-op happenings, field trips, a snow day and college news!

Blessings
Leslie

Field Trip to Cirque de Vol

We went on a fabulous field trip to a local Cirque de Vol to learn more about the arts of a traditional cirque theatre.  You can find out more about them here.  It was more than just watching them perform though.  They also told us their stories which made the time really special.  

Like this man who finished high school but didn't really know what he wanted to do.  He spent several years traveling around the country and eventually becoming a part of a circus group.  He became good at juggling and was fascinated by juggling as it is all math.  He is now working on a PhD in some field of math that was really impressive - but I don't remember exactly what it was.  (Clearly not my field, right!)  

We were able to see a variety of performers who each shared their skills, told their story of how they came to be involved in this art and also took questions from the group.  They did this performance just for our group!  

The aerial silks are fascinating!

We saw a hooping demonstration too.  This is similar to a hula hoop but of a heavier weigh so that they can do much more with it.

Another story we heard was from this gal who was in a prestigious business position which she left to do something she loves.  She also shared that this jobs gives her the flexibility to help care for a loved one that she would not have had with a traditional job.

My little sassy one loved the poses that were struck when the performers were on the silks.  One of my friends caught this pose.

More hooping.  She was able to twirl this hoop around the bun on her head!  Truly amazing skills these performers have!

Here are 4 of the performers that we saw.

And a picture of our group at the end of the show.

If anyone is local, this group offers a lot of classes for both adults and children.

We loved this morning outing where we were able to experience an old world, European circus type of performance.  What a treat that there are so many great things to do in our area!

I hope you are enjoying your week!

Blessings
Leslie

Before FIAR co-op: Goodnight Moon

This is a catch-up post, but its still really appropriate for any time of the year, right?  Our co-op group met to have fun with the classic children's book Goodnight Moon.  What a delight to walk into a room remade ... into the "great green room".  Look at the pictures on the wall.

 And the red balloon!

 So many fun details from the story captured in the decorations!  It was so much fun.

 We started with a devotional and reading of the story.  Then it was time for some games.  One of the first ones involved a big pile of mittens and gloves.  Each child took a turn looking through the pile to find a matching pair.

 My youngest silly one found a pair of mittens and then put them on ... her feet!  LOL

One of the pictures on the wall is of a cow jumping over the moon.  We took time to read the entire poem that this came from and then had the children act out some of the fun parts of the rhyme - like the cow jumping over the moon.  

We also played a memory game using pictures from the story.

The children all do a wonderful job waiting and taking turns.  Some of them were really good at remembering where the cards were too!

Then it was snack time.  Yum!

The "moon cheese" were the round balls (you can see them on the table below).

 The "mush" was rice pudding.

 Next, they learned more about the moon.  Daniel came with me this day and was a great helper.  Below they are talking about the different phases/shapes of the moon and what causes this.

 For craft time, they made their own moons.  They could cut the round plate into any of the moon shapes/phases that they wanted and glue it on the paper.  Then they painted it with glow in the dark paint!!!  Isn't that a fabulous idea!!!

 They also added stars to their pictures.  They turned out really cute!

 Our sweet hostess invited us all to stay for a delicious lunch and play time which was fun for everyone!

This is such a fun group and a precious group of moms and children.  I'm thankful to be a part of it and my heart is happy to see Eliana participating with them too!

Our next co-op will be on the ABC Bunny and I'll post more on that after we've met.  

Blessings,

Leslie

Shakespeare co-op 4, 5 and 6

I combined the pictures from our last three co-op meetings while we were studying Shakespeare - A Comedy of Errors.  During this meeting we had two topics - apothecaries and Greek myths.    

The students learned about various characters and the myths surrounding them.

They matched the pictures with the stories.

This was a film online about apothecaries of the renaissance.

Smelling various herbs which are used to treat a variety of sicknesses and maladies.

The students each made their own sore throat soothers with lemon, honey and ginger.

Hoping we won't have need of these this year (a girl can hope, right?), but will be thankful to have them if the need arises.

Then they played a game to find out how much they knew about various herbs.

Each card had a question with a small description of what that herb could do.  They then tried to match it up with the list that they had on a piece of paper.  They could look inside to see the answer.

There were 2 stations set up and the girls and boys rotated through both of them.

After our lesson, we enjoyed a delightful lunch of comfort foods - chicken lemon rosemary soup with cheese and garlic bread.  

Next up is our 5th meeting of the Shakespeare co-op.  We were fortunate to have an artist in residence from a local theatre, David McClutchey.  He taught the children about stage combat.    Oct 31:  Playmaker's artist in residence, David McClutchey: stage combat and staging Comedy of Errors  (S. Regional Library)

Nov 14:  Performance day!  Location TBA.

They learned how to make fighting look more realistic without actually hurting!

Things like a slap, hair pulling and a punch.  He also told stories from some of the performances that he had been a part of which was quite entertaining.

And weapons!  Lots of different weapons are used in plays.  The students were able to learn about some of them and hold them too.  (But not practice with them!  LOL)

It was a fabulous morning with a wonderful teacher!  So thankful for this opportunity!

He also helped with staging on some of the scenes from A Comedy of Errors.

For out last meeting, it was time to perform.  We did not do the entire play, but rather some key scenes from the different acts.

We had a great time watching and participating.

This is quite a funny play and some of the students really got into their parts!

They ALL did a super job and it was a really great learning experience.

Rebecca even stepped in to play a part for one of our missing students.

Um, and Eliana adding some comic relief in there too.

Great job to everyone!  To the two moms that spearheaded all of the teaching and lessons and to the delightful group of students!

This was a really fun semester studying Shakespeare.  It has opened my eyes to new things and made me want to learn more!  I love that I'm learning along with my children.  God is good.

I hope you are having fun and learning new things too!  We are never too old to stop learning and appreciating new things.

Blessings
Leslie