What we are up to…

I wanted to post about what we are up to today.

We homeschool and we have chosen to homeschool year round as it just seems to fit for us. We school the same number of days that kids do that are in school but we don’t follow the school calendar. I know many of my homeschool friends follow the school calendar. Apparently, I am not quite disciplined enough for that or something because I just can’t imagine keeping up with the school schedule for 9 months….blech! Instead, I am using one of the great privileges of homeschooling and making a schedule that works for us. All that said, we are on a 3 week break right now! It is bliss. I have tried to take an extended Christmas break for the last 2 years and it has never quite worked out for one reason or another. I am really enjoying this break! Next Monday is going to be so hard – to actually get up and get back into our school schedule/routine. I will have to go back to getting to bed earlier…blech! Anyway, I digress.

This morning, after waking at 9 am (ah…) and Pumpkin and I making french toast and the wonderful time of 10 am, the kids found their own fun (LOVE it when this happens vs. the fighting that sometimes accompanies a longer break). I loved what they chose and thought I would share it with you.

We had 2 of our Little Passports(affiliate link) packages that hadn’t been opened because things had been too busy. So, the girls had fun going to South Africa and to India with Sam and Sofia this morning. Their packages contained the usual things that come with Little Passports along with a really neat sounding bird whistle and a little stuffie. My girls were super excited about the little stuffie (and of course with the things they learned).

While Pumpkin was helping me with the french toast, Snowflake was busy making up her own obstacle course. I don’t know that obstacle course is the right thing to call it, but I can’t think of anything better at the moment. She used ideas from our P.E. curriculum ( Family Time Fitness) and set up a course for she and Pumpkin to race through. I love this idea. I notice such a difference in my kids and their ability to get along and generally have a ‘good’ day on the days we do our Family Time Fitness. It also seems to help them get their school work done more quickly. I know that might sound like an overstretching imagination on my part, but I notice it week after week. The exercise seems to really help them attend and seems to build a level of cooperation. I know I see Family Time Fitness posting about studies that say just this and I generally look at the titles, but I haven’t ever read one of them. I just see the evidence in my house. So, since we are on a break and we haven’t been doing our P.E.(the 1st two weeks we did take lots of walks and bike rides – this week I seem to be on veg mode), it was nice to see her set it up on her own and get some exercise. I have hope for a beautiful and cooperative day!

Below you can see pictures of the obstacle course. Also, for those of you who homeschool, I am working on hosting a giveaway of a free Family Time Fitness course and workbook soon. It will come with discounts for those who don’t win as well. I will update you when I know, so check back soon.

The course starts with tossing 3 bean bags into the circle

Next run through the cones touching each one

Now run next to the rope, you must stay on one side of the rope – no changing sides!

Run to the hall and dribble a ball 5 times….then race back to the start/finish