January 31

January has been an eventful month. Things started off slowly and ended up with us on the go nearly every day. We finally made it to New York and had a blast as we always do. It was the first trip that the bigger kids were old enough to actually be out and about in the snow. We even got to walk in fresh fallen snow at the BBG. They were over it after a couple of days, lol. This trip, we did things that I enjoyed doing as a child in NYC. We went to the Sony Wonder Lab which I believe was the AT&T Lab when I was a kid. We also went to FAO Schwarz and waved to Eloise at the Plaza across the street. The kids participated in a community art project for Arty Facts at the Brooklyn Museum. I did Arty Facts as a kid and spent lots and lots of time at the museum so it was nice to be able to talk to them about that. Of course, they always find it hard to believe that such fun things existed back in the Dark Ages when I was a kid, heh.



Once we were back home, I felt the need to join a co-op after all. I saw my HS mentor/friend while in NYC and she unwittingly influenced me to do it. Plus, I kept seeing all these postings to local groups and finally just said, what the hell, why not? So, we are members of a small co-op now. I assist in one of the Kindergarten classes which means I get to cut, glue, and listen to little people while sitting in a tiny chair. No, it's fun. It is! The kiddos all enjoy their classes and I like that it provides a break from our normal routine. And we get to see Darcel and crew every week now! We had a really fun field trip last week to the Virginia Living Museum's Homeschool Day and I'm already looking forward to the next such local event. On the horizon for February are a couple of day trips and some changes/additions to our curriculum. If I've learned anything about homeschooling, it's that I will continue to tweak things to meet the needs of our kiddos as time goes by. L and I discussed what we will do for school next fall and we've decided to keep them at home. I'm still anxious about testing, but it's probably like everything else in that once I'm over the hump, I'll wonder what the big deal was.