Blog "Grand Opening"

Well this is my first attempt at creating this blog spot. It is Sunday January 4th and I am home with a sick little one. I say attempting to create because I am not very good doing things like this without out help from my computer experts. (husband and daughter) So needless to say this will be under construction for a while. Please be patient. We are going to get back to our normal school schedule tomorrow after a long Christmas break which started in November with Thanksgiving. We school all year round. Years ago I decided that I would rather have a longer break during the busy month of December than to stress about how much schooling was not being done on top of normal Christmas stress. So this weekend we organized books and thoughts, prepared lesson plans, and are generally excited to get back to the business of education. In our family we don't separate "school" and "life". We believe in the Charlotte Mason principle that Education is a life. So although we did no formal instruction in December, our children learned quite a bit. Our oldest daughter is a dancer and our local ballet company does The Nutcracker every year, which she dances in. This was a great opportunity for our youngest to become familiar with that wonderful musical score. They also had the experience of helping with the backstage experience because I am the props manager and Dan is the sound man for the company. They got to help create new props and learn how the stage is set up. After all that excitement Britni had her first go at making Christmas cookies by herself this year. She did a great job. Abigail also learned how to help mom make cookies and that it is "really hard to get them on the cookie sheet" and not quite as much fun as she thought it would be. Britni also decided to make some beautiful calendars for some of her friends that involved lots of research on the Internet and learning the computer skills to get the calendars ready to print and then the process of using a self service printer at the copy store to get them printed. Who says learning has to take place at a desk!