Our Halloween Dance is coming up!

What:  Family Halloween Dance
When: Friday, October 21, 2011 7 PM to 10 PM
Where:  Clermont County Fairgrounds 4-H Hall 1000 Locust St. Owensville, OH 45160
Who:  You, your family, your friends
Hosted by:  ALIVE 4H Club

Admission:  1 canned good (to be donated to a local food pantry following the dance) or $1 per person

Snacks:  Light snacks(chips, pretzels, popcorn) and beverages will be provided by ALIVE 4-H club.

Raffle Tickets:  $1 each or 6/$5 or 15/$10.  Raffle items include but are not limited to theme baskets (pets,sports, green cleaning (2), cooking, get "schooled", movie basket) and items from and gift certificate to local businesses . We will also be drawing door prizes throughout the night.

Attire: COSTUMES!

Pumpkin Carving Contest: Bring a carved pumpkin with you and you could be named “Pumpkin Carver Supreme” and win a prize! FREE!

Costume Contest: Open to EVERYONE! We will award prizes for the cutest, scariest, most creative and best costume overall! FREE! Please keep costumes tasteful!

GLO BRACELETS for sale the night of the dance!

Need more info?  Leave a comment here on the blog and we will get back to you!

Monday Co-op & Hands-on science class

Yesterday was our first day at our new-to-us Monday co-op.  The kids truly enjoyed all of their classes.  J even asked if we could have Monday group everyday (LOL).

I'm facilitating the hands-on science class.  Yesterday we played with lemons and lemon juice.  We performed three experiments:  shiny pennies, lemon wet cell battery, and fizzy lemonade.  Shiny pennies was simple - lemon juice in a cup on top of dirty pennies.  The kids were amazed by the shined up pennies.  The wet cell batteries were a mixture of successes and failures.   Some of the kids loved the fizzy lemonade, and some did not!

Enjoy your week!

Weekly Wrap-Up: September 23

 

I think we are finally getting into a groove with our week, it feels good!

On Monday, we have our new co-op, we joined this group over the summer and have really enjoyed getting to know some "other" homeschooling families.  It's definitely a relaxed homeschool group, so we are fitting right in.  Our classes start next Monday.  The kids are taking drama, hand building clay, hands-on science, photography and more.  It should be a fun time.  We're pretty excited.

Tuesday we enjoyed at home - I caught up on some housework.  S worked on some math and writing, two things she really wanted to do.  A volunteered at a golf outing, it was a great experience for her.

On Wednesday, we finally had our egg drop for Invention Convention club.  Each family brought miscellaneous materials from home, and then each child made an egg container designed to keep an egg safe in a fall.  Then, we dropped the eggs.  Most of the designs were successful.  It was a great experiment.  My kids have still been talking about how they would change their design, so we might go drop another set of eggs.

Thursday was at the park with our new group of Unschooler friends.  It was great to connect with friends - I had fun, the kids had a blast.  The park was awesome - playground and skate park, two of our favorite things.

Today we had Leaves of Learning.  The kids are loving their classes, and making some new friends.  All in all a great addition to our week.

Tonight, A had her second social dance lesson with a group of local homeschooled teens.  It looks so much fun, I want to join in. The teens seem very nice and friendly.   Tonight they worked on spins - A said she was very dizzy.  She also said it was very fun.

So, crazy, full week, but it was good.  Next week I start teaching hands-on science - I'm a little nervous.  We're focusing on lemons for our first class, I'll share the experiments we're going to try in my next post.

To see what other homeschoolers are up to, stop by Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers Weekly Wrap-Up.

Facebook

You might have noticed that I haven't posted to my blog for a while (a month, if you're counting).  I blame it all on Facebook!  That place is addictive.  Instant gratification - post a comment, someone replies or "likes" it.  Instant feedback.  Fun, right?  And there are games - oh my gosh, don't get me started on the games!  I absolutely love Farmville - like to the point of serious addiction to farming.  Who knew?

So, anyway, I have made a commitment to myself to start blogging again, about our days, about homeschooling/unschooling in Cincinnati, and about how we're doing what we do.

I also will have a giveaway coming up in the next day or two - so please stay tuned.

Hoping to spend less time on Facebook and more time blogging and writing and crafting and spending time with my children.  Wish me luck.

Enjoying the days of summer

I haven't blogged for a while, sorry about that.  We've been enjoying a lot of outdoor time - at parks, at local lakes, at the pool, in the neighborhood.   Just soaking up the rays, I guess.

It's that time of year when my kids start thinking that they might want to go back to school - I don't blame them, it is exciting with all the back to school hype.  I sort of want to go back too. :)

That said, we are gearing up for another year of homeschooling.  I find as time progresses, we are more and more relaxed, so it should be an interesting year of growth for us.  I posted our curriculum choices a month or two ago, our plan is still to follow that loosely, but leave room for other interests as they occur. 

Our Garden

So, this year we planted tomatoes (lots), cucumbers, jalapeno peppers, cayenne peppers, cilantro and marigolds (supposed to deter pests from the tomatoes).   I don't think the marigolds are working though.

Last week, we had whiteflies all over the tomatoes.

This week we had lots (way too many) of these big guys.  Tomato hornworm (yuck).

 The white rice-like thingies are wasp eggs.  The wasp babies will eat the hornworm, and then the "grown-up" wasps will attach other hornworms.  I did leave one or two hornworms that had the white eggs.  The rest were removed and dunked into a bucket of water.  They are very squishy and large.  Yuck-o!

The kids tried to help but were all grossed out by the squish factor.

Enjoy your garden and may it be pest-free.

Quote that I'm loving today

"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,
it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." by Albert Einstein