The Snow Weeks

The snow has hit us hard! Most of our activities for the past two weeks have been cancelled. This is both good and bad. We have enjoyed the break. We've done some great work at home--math, writing, geography (big thanks to G & G for the inspiration!) evolution studies, cooking, a couple of good documentaries, and reading (always reading!)--but we've missed gymnastics, Girl Scouts and clay class. We've missed our friends.

We made up for it yesterday with a sledding party at our house. That was fun--8 kids, 6 sleds, hot chocolate and quesadillas.

This morning we stopped by the library (on the way to the YMCA) to pick up a couple of new books. Coraline for C; she read it a while ago but now there is a movie, and The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives for me. I'm two pages in, and hooked.

I loved Freakonomics. Briefly, in Freakonomics, two economists explain sociological happenings by exposing hidden connections. In Drunkard's Walk, a physicist explores logical fallacies and illustrates the role of randomness in our lives. I am really interested in seeing how the physicist's pov holds up to the economists'.

Anyway, after the library we played basketball. The gym was completely empty, so R had a chance to run around and play with basketballs. Sitting on the sidelines while C plays on Saturdays is a real challenge for him. He desperately wants to run out on the court with the big kids. His questioning and hopeful "ball? ball?" quickly turns to a demanding "ball!" and then a frustrated "BALL!" and by the time the game is over, it's a sad little declarative "ball." He had a great time today. In fact, it was so much fun he crashed before I got him into the pool. No worries, though. The quiet roar of the waterpark was a nice backdrop for his nap. I strapped him into his stroller, parked him where I could see him, and made good use of the time by swimming laps while the girls played with their friends.

Tomorrow afternoon we will meet with other homeschoolers to play board games at the library. We are very much looking forward to that.