Options Homeschool Picnic

It was somewhat amazing to see how many homeschoolers attend this little one day a week program called Options that our kids have begun going to this year. Technically it's a two day program, but some families go Mondays and some go Fridays. We're on Fridays. The picnic was about getting to know other kids and families who will be attending on the same day before school officially started.

There was a scavenger hunt so the kids could break the ice a little. I was surprised at how quickly all our kids made friends. Even Shane, who had trouble communicating, found a group of boys who wanted to dig in the dirt with him. They began their first classes this past Friday and all the kids came home raving about how much fun they had. Brianna made bubbles and did experiments with them in science and excitedly told us that next week they are making play dough. It's a "CSI" themed science class and she loves it.

Danya is stoked about her journalism class. She says that the name she came up with for the school paper was the most popular one and will probably be chosen as the official name. She spent this weekend on the kids' computer downstairs working on articles to submit next week. Meanwhile Gloria loves snap circuits and her drama class. Apparently P.E. was also a hit with everyone except Danya. She said her class is mostly calisthenics. She's got it rough because she's been put in with much older kids and she is one of the smallest in the class. Her choir class was apparently very fun. Danya keeps singing songs from her warm up music. It's jazz music, so I've been talking to her about how notes are stressed differently in jazz.

I was worried about how Shane would do in his first all day Kindergarten class, but he seems to have done well. The assistant teacher fell in love with him and came outside after school to tell me how adorable he is. He really is a charmer. And it sounds like this program for homeschooled kids is going to work out for our family. One really nice benefit is that Kevin and I now have a one-on-one learning time. He worked on adding and subtracting clothes pins and we played games with finding and counting chalk shapes outside on the side walk. We also got to read lots of books at the library. Katie thought it was great, too.