Good 'ole fashioned field day

Aunt T organized a field day for a bunch of homeschoolers on May 6th. It was a beautiful day! I ended up with burnt nose. C got a nice tan (lucky). K got a little burnt on her shoulders.

It started at 9:30 but we left the house at 8:30 to get ice and drinks. (We didn't get back to the house until 3pm). I think there were 15 kids that participated, 5 little ones, and 6 moms. Here are all the kids, except for the little ones. I think we had a pretty good turn out.

C getting ready for the obstacle course. They had to ride a tricycle, do jumping jacks, do forward rolls, jump over some orange cones, and run to the end.

Here is K's version of jumping jacks. Too funny.

I think the tug of war was the best game of the day. The kids did a really good job at it.

I call this the balloon dance. Each kid had a balloon tied to their foot. The goal was to protect their balloon while trying to pop everyone else's. C was one of the last 3 left standing.

this is K trying the sack race. She had such a hard time. The sack was bigger than her!

And there goes C in the sack race!

This was the water balloon fight (FYI: I filled the water balloons that morning. OMG! They are not easy) C won! He never dropped the balloon! Good hands!

This is K and the little guy I used to babysit doing the 3-legged race. (Funny side note: when Aunt T was setting this up, she kept calling it the one legged race. HUH?)
Aunt T even had medals for each kid. C getting his medal.

K getting her medal

After lunch and all the games, the kids went across the street and played on the playground. It was a very busy playground by that time.

All in all I think it was a very fun day. I was tired. The kids, well, do they every get tired?

The Long Winter

Today only you can go here to get a free audio download of Laura IngallsWilder's "The Long Winter." Sounds like an old timey type broadcast. Too fun! I love Laura Ingalls! And very appropriate for our weather today. It's cold and flurry-ing. Enjoy!

Voting

Tuesday, at our local library, the kids and I went to a homeschool meeting. I wasn't even aware that they had a sort of homeschool group. The lady in charge homeschools her son. They have a meeting once a month, focusing on a different subject each time. This meeting was about voting. She briefly explained a few facts regarding voting. Then the kids were divided up into "parties." Each party was a snack (pretzels, candy, popcorn, etc). The kids had to design posters, give speeches, debate--all on why they thought their snack was the best. Then they voted. They even got "I voted" stickers. Candy won. Then at the end, they had snacks--according to which one was eaten the best, potato chips won. (I guess that would be the popular vote). It was cute and I think the kids enjoyed it. All of the kids were older than C and a lot less disciplined. I think the leader could have done better at controlling the kids, but all in all, I think they still learned something.

Ever since then, C has wanted to "play" voting. So I got him a cardboard box to set up as the divider to vote behind. He has a shoebox with a hole in the top for the votes and 3x5 cards for the ballots. The other night we voted on what to have for dessert after dinner. He has picked up some facts and some of the lingo through all this (party, ballot, campaign). It's kinda hard to vote when there are only 4 of us, but oh well. It's kinda cute.

The next homeschool meeting is a Christmas party that we won't be able to go to. In January, they will be discussing Benjamin Franklin and his inventions. I think we will try to go to that one. I'm glad I found this group.