Sona Creidhe Homeschooling

My daughter received her first set of practice poi from our friends Kristin and Karl for her birthday last week so she is more determined than ever to be a fire-spinner.

She has decided against being a bellydancing fire-spinner though since there is a higher chance of catching on fire that way. lol. Gauzy skirts and veils with spinning balls of fire on the end of chains just don't go well together. So now she will just spin fire and do tricks with the poi. When she bellydances though she will now use burning fans.

*falling over laughing hard*

I know some of you are saying "How in the world can she think something like that is funny"? Well to be honest the whole thing scared me to death at first because my daughter is usually very clumsy. When she saw Karl spinning a spark lit up in her eyes but I just figured she could spin unlit and that would be the end of it. The thing is though that my usually clumsy daughter is very good at spinning. She also literally comes alive when she's taking her lessons from Karl and is so happy and in her element that it would be more negligent of me to not allow her than it would to allow her. I think knowing Kristin and Karl (mother and son) and seeing how it works for them has put me more at ease.

Yes, there is some danger and risk in it but I have seen that if it's done currently with the proper fire safety it is really very safe. Besides, for now she is learning to spin without fire and won't be allowed to try it lit until she and I both are sure she is ready. That could be in six months or a year or by then she might decide she's not so interested after all. We will see and that is another reason why I am taking it one day at a time.

The bellydancing with lit fire fans as shown in the pic here? Heck, I might just try that one myself!

very painful but better. lol

Saturday I took both of the boys to a Radio Disney giveaway/program at the big mall. Big B fell in like with one of the dancers and now wants to be one. I can't help but laugh because if you knew my oldest you would know that he'd only be in it for the girls. lol. Lil Man got to meet two of the Ninja Turtles and won a prize basket from Kandoo! He was so excited and when he also won a Turtles DVD he was on Cloud Nine!

Sunday Sis and I went to Pagan Pride Day here in town. It was neat seeing all the different vendors and things to see. It was honestly more like a Medievel Faire than anything else so I'm sure that confused non-Pagans (we're non-Pagan but somewhat use to the religion). lol. Sis' friend, Karl, did his fire spinning (that's not him but just to show you what it looks like during the day which is when Karl mostly does it) about five times during the day and Sis spun with him inbetween with the practice poi (unlit of course). She's actually pretty good and if she gets better she might be able to do fire spinning herself...someday. When mom isn't so heart attack prone! lol.

So she spun the practice bags and I sat on the grass which was wonderful. Sis also got a henna tattoo on her wrist and we bought her a Buddha pendant for her birthday. The funnest part for me was when Sis and I took a free bellydancing class. Of course, it made her decide that she now wants to be a Fire Spinning Bellydancer. LMAO

Monday we went to our homeschool group where all the kids ran around, Sis practiced spinning some more, and I got to sit again. I LOVE when I get to sit around for a bit. The kids also showed off their bird knowledge by naming every bird and whether it was male or female that came into the park. I'm so proud of them for paying attention at WRI.

As for "school" work, we read, Lil Man and I colored shapes, Sis played her agriculture game, Big B figured out pricing for his YuGiOh collection he's selling, and we discussed our upcoming trip to the State Fair.

Tuesday we were able to do Quiet Time (which we were all looking forward to), I did some proofreading and retyping for something for the hubby, we got all our chores done, and had our first Tea Time of the new school year. That was the best part of the day and Lil Man's favorite thing to do. This time though we had hot cocoa instead of tea and I had planned on reading The Family Under The Bridge but the kids wanted me to read Chronicles of Narnia instead (even though the holdest has read it all before). So I read the first chapter of that and we all really enjoyed the time.

Wednesday we went to the School Days at the State Fair. School Days is where the parking and admission is free if you fill out a form and send it in. Luckily we did and had a great time! The Lil Man loved McDonald's Farm where you do "chores" throughout the little farm area (pick up an apple, ride a little tractor, milk a fake cow, etc) and then at the end you get a reward. He also loved the free petting zoo which was practically overrun by goats and sheep begging for your attention (and small cup of food of course). They also had a miniature horse, two camels, and two cows.

Sis got a free face painting as advertisement for this one stand and the Natural Resources building was pretty cool too. They had different fish in little ponds, baby rattlesnakes, a fossil dig where after you dug around you got a fossil to take home, and our friends Kristin and Karl were there with Hawks Aloft showing off all the beautiful birds with other staff. There was a peregrine falcon (Lil Man's Fave), hoot owl, great horned owl, mississippi kite, and many others. Very beautiful birds.

After that we looked at the sights, watched show with tigers from a preserve, they rode some rides, we all got a little bit of a sunburn, and came home extremely exhausted. It was a wonderful day and Lil Man thanked me with "Thank You Mommy so much! I wuved today and it was so fun and the State Fair is fun and the dragon ride was AWESOME! Thank you for taking us to the State Fair and for wuving us". Awwww I think I honestly got the best reward of all with that.

Today is Thursday and thanks to my fibro and CMP we aren't able to go to our homeschool group or really do much of anything. In fact, my fingers hurt so badly after typing this out that I am pretty much done for the day. It was so worth it though. I would hurt even more for the rest of my life just to have days like this more often. The kids learned so much this week and had fun. I got to see their smiles, hear their laughter, and just enjoy being a part of their childhoods.

I definately give this week an A+. If you read all of this then thank you very much.

My plan was to start our new "school year" the day after Labor Day. I tried to be all organized and suave about things but OY did it ever not go the way I thought! LOL

Last week we were able to finish the covers of our Book of Centuries, buy our Nature Sketchbooks, and that was about it. I had planned on doing all these really neat things for the first week "back" and then thanks to a new medication and fibro flare up that all went down the toilet. So instead the kids learned more about Fibromyalgia, Chronic Myofascial Pain, and Adrenal Insufficiency. lol. Can I count that as Science?

This week they learned about house hunting, figuring how much mortgage would be, banking, weekly grocery shopping, figuring out how many miles to the gallon that gas hog of a van gets, and that Mom is a lousy cook when she's sick. They also learned that a person CAN go three days with only a total of six hours of sleep but at the end of it they will crash out for 12 hours straight (hubby had a hard week this week).

So how do I transcribe that into actual learning? lol.

Next week though we have to get going because Big B has to catch up on his Algebra if he wants to attend the community college program in the Spring and I found a folder filled with worksheets that Sis didn't do throughout the year that has to be done before I can go on with the stuff she chose this year. *sigh* The Lil Man is easy just give him some crayons and paper and he's good to go.

On Monday this blog will hopefully be more interesting and worth reading. I still want to be her when I grow up but I'll do the best I can. lol

I'm working on playing with a theme. Not sure if I like the background color though so I might just go back to white. Hmmmm

I miss having three columns and don't know how long I can stand it without them. Let's face it, I'm so damn fickle!

We all have read the scientific explanation of why Pluto is now considered a dwarf planet instead of one of our well known nine planets. Some of us may have even read the whole longgggg discussion on why this is but I think my 3 1/2 year old has the best explanation on this.

Mom: "Well that stinks, they've decided that Pluto is not a real planet anymore"

Lil Man: "But I like Pluto!"

Mom: "Sorry sweety but that's what they say."

Lil Man: "I know what happened. The science guys they made Pluto mad so he said I don't like you anymore and he went to be Mickey Mouse's dog"

Mom: laughing too hard to really comment after that.