Fall Break Week 2019

Monday of our fall break week we headed to the zoo. The weather was sunny and 50F when we arrived and stayed cool all day. The zoo was uncrowded and we were able to spend time in the exhibits we visited just observing the animals. Everyone had favorites and we only visited part of the zoo today. We saw a variety of apes, Australian animals, reptiles, fish, penguins, flamingoes, and more.

In the evening we rented Toy Story 4 with a free Fandango Now ticket we got during our summer trip to New York and had a family movie night. There were tears by the end of the movie from several people.

Tuesday was laundry day. The kids had an epic hour long nerf war all over the house to start the day. I mostly dodged bullets while sorting through school papers to pull out items for each child's yearly portfolio. I made it through three kids' work.

Wednesday while the kids did yet another nerf war I did some online classes as part of my own continuing education/teacher improvement. Continuing my own education and learning is important to me. I try to consistently make time for reading and learning for myself.

Also, typing that reminds me I forgot to share a fun class several of my kids and I took a few weeks ago. Emma is a huge fan of Sherlock Holmes (books, classic British tv show, more modern tv series, spoofs like Sherlock Gnomes, pretty much all of it). Pam Barnhill did a class on the mind palace memory technique (also know as memory palace, method of loci - first described in ancient Greek and Roman treatises). Using the technique, we worked on memorizing a poem we had never heard before, in less than 20 minutes. We had a lot of fun!

Wednesday afternoon a couple kids pulled out our sculpey clay. They created and baked the creations. That evening had the usual youth activities for the older 5 kids.

Thursday there was no early morning seminary for Joseph. It was wonderful to sleep in until 7am! When I made it down stairs about half the kids were already awake for the day, reading together. I worked on a few more homeschool portfolios today. Only two left to do tomorrow!

In the afternoon Mason and I went to physical therapy. Then it was home to make dinner, and out the door to visit some friends and drop off a few things with the oldest daughter of our friends, who is driving down south to visit Makayla this weekend at Southern Virginia University.

Friday was another no seminary day. We started the morning with baking four loaves of banana bread and a pan of magic cookie bars. At 9am I had a grocery pick up. At 11am Emma and I got a turkey into the oven because we're doing a mini-Thanksgiving-ish dinner tonight just because we can. A lot of the kids were busy with playdough kits this morning, or nerf guns. Rebekah loved playdough and didn't try to eat it, which is always good!

It is Friday afternoon and I need to get through the last two portfolios while Rebekah is napping. That's what I'm going to do next! Then it is time to prep school for the next 5 weeks.

Happy Friday!