Manic Wednesdays

Camp Arrowhead has been going great! Emma had her overnight camping trip on Tuesday night and was the official pancake maker on Wed. morning. She was a bit cold, but had a great time. She smelled deliciously of woodsmoke yesterday when she got home. They went to the fish hatchery at Powder Mills Park yesterday, which is quite a hike. She learned how to put up a tent too.

Soren studied wind yesterday in weather and they made a weather today chart.They were Victorian girls again in their Adventures in Time class. They made paper fans, a paper vase, made and played with paper dolls.

Rock climbing is going great. They learned how to traverse, and yesterday we did stemming (being on 2 walls at once), manteling - pushing up with your hands at waist level, flagging - letting one foot hang loose in order to keep your hips tight to the wall and help with balance, and smearing - using your feet on the wall to scramble up when you don't have a rock to put your foot on. Emma's particularly good at that. She got her picture taken hanging from a rock overhang for their website. I'll post a pic when they update it. They say she's quite good! Pretty neat. Soren is doing well too, and I climbed a few walls yesterday and tried to follow some routes.

We got some homeschooling materials at B&N this weekend. I got some geography, maps, a 4th grade test prep book and some grammar materials. Things I want to work on next year that we didn't do a lot of this year.

We're moving along in math and they are both doing great with cursive. Emma's on to capital letters.

Emma and I had a long talk last night about her unwillingness to finish tasks - from being sloppy in gymnastics when nobody is watching, to her room constantly being a mess, to procrastinating on her homeschooling work. It was very difficult - I adore her and don't like to criticize because she's very sensitive but I really want to help her get back on track. I had to clean out her room and take a lot of stuff because she just wouldn't straighten it up. Now she has to earn it back a piece at a time. It's life skills I guess.