Groundhog’s day (and Homeschool Thursday)

By this mid-winter point (half your wood and half your hay you should have on groundhog’s day) we should be hoping for no shadow and wishing for that 4 weeks until spring scenario.  But we’re nowhere near half way through our wood. And,that’s no no reflection on our preparedness, which was less than normal this year, but more a result of this non-winter we’ve been having.  I hoped after last year’s mild winter we’d get slammed.  So far no luck.  But, according to Punxatawny Phil we’ve got 6 more weeks to hope for snow. I’m ready.

It doesn’t matter to Daisy.  Either way she’ll be sleeping by the fire in the sunshine.

The rest of us will take advantage of the unseasonable weather by pretending its summer, roasting marshmallows, playing with sandbox toys, and surfing on the swivel car since skiing is out.  Yes, that is a t-shirt and socks he’s wearing below.

In schooly things, we’ve been exploring geometric shapes and dimensions, inspired by a large cardboard geodesic dome our friends made.  Wylie and I down-sized the toddler pattern (found on pintrest) to a 1/4 its regular size and he made a dome just right for a stuffed bear.  Then, we up-sized the pattern to a 1/4 size larger than the toddler dome, to one that will hopefully fit my much larger children–no toddlers here anymore!  We’ve only cut out 7 of the 30 triangles, so it may take us some time. but it’s sure to be amazing. I’m also scheming up a nifty geodesic cover for an unpleasant ceiling light.

Kale (stop taking pictures mom, it’s your move!) has been obsessed with chess.  We play daily, often over breakfast, then, again in the late afternoon. Games with him used to take forever since I was basically playing against myself (advising half his moves), then they graduated to good competition as long as I was multi-tasking.  Now I make him wait until I’ve had my coffee or it’s no contest.  And no more multi-tasking.  The boy is serious about his chess. Tonight he went to the chess club at our library for the first time ever.  I imagine he’ll be in heaven.  

Wylie’s been listening to the audio book “A Dog’s Purpose”, which sounds both lovely and downright depressing, and I suppose I really should read it now and process it with him. Since he started the book he’s taken to training Daisy to follow him about.  She used to be afraid of the swivel car (who could blame her?) but thanks to lots of treats she now follows it like the ice-cream truck.  Pretty darn cute.

Juniper has started a nature/science project observing and tallying the birds at our feeders.  She’s planning to graph the data using different kinds of graphs, and do some research on the different birds she’s observing.

We seem to be in a pretty good mid-winter rhythm, and a steady mix of project and sit down work.  Wylie’s getting more involved in community opportunities that meet his learning needs and inspire him.  I’m psyched that my vision for homeschooling teens may be coming to fruition (though I know better than to set my own expectations) in that he’s filling his time with things he’s passionate about, helping in the community, and learning along the way.