Does anyone have summer school plans? Any fun activities or electives? This is the place to talk about it. Special classes, summer camps, remedial lessons, etc. I'll go first! DD11 and DD9 Intermediate Science Through Children's Literature --because we haven't done much science at all this year. Celebrate Summer: Mixed Media Art Workshop- Much needed fun after such a long school year!! Math lessons 2-3 days a week. We're "behind". P.E.: Riding bikes and swimming!! No summer camp for us. They are $$$$$

Does anybody else have a hard time finding/making time for the "fun stuff"? I do. We're pretty focused on academics here, and I like reading and discussing and learning things. And providing what I consider to be a full and complete education to a 6th grader and a 2nd grader pretty much fills up the whole day. And it's good. But I feel something - wistful? regretful? something . . . . like by providing this solid education that I feel good about, we're missing out. We don't have a lot of time to get outdoors, to play games, to garden, to teach the kids to cook, or to do messy fun projects that don't have an academic focus. Lord knows we aren't getting enough excercise. And I only see this getting worse with a child entering jr high/high school. I get it that I'm making a choice, and that there isn't time for everything. But I wonder if I'm making the right choice? How do you balance all the things you find important? How do you fit it all in? If you don't, what do you let go of? February musings . . . ;)

C has her 1st Science Fair at the end of the month and since we havent touched on Science, Im open to suggestions for projects she can do. I asked her, but she really doesnt know either. I thought maybe something on Astronomy since we will be doing Apologia Astronomy this fall. Ideas? Thoughts? If your child has been in a science fair, what did they do when they were younger?

I just found this amazing free website today and printed off 10 mazes for my 5 year old that was begging for me to make her a maze. There are thousands of mazes on here with varying difficulty and fun shapes...all in PDF. There are also so many other types of games and puzzles. This is such a neat site. Please feel free to share any other free, fun, printable activities you've found for your children. http://www.krazydad.com/ here is the area specific to mazes: http://www.krazydad.com/mazes/

Pardon the silliness in these turbulent times, but I'm starting an Official Thread because I've received so many PMs about this: Friends, I never meant to confuse anyone--but I am NOT my avatar. Now, many of you immediately recognized Kaylee from the much-beloved (and long-since cancelled) Joss Whedon sci-fi western Firefly. But for those who didn't, my avatar is indeed Kaylee. (Anyone not familiar with Firefly should proceed directly to this of the opening credits to get a feel for the show. All of the episodes (14 in all, I believe) are on DVD and worth every penny. Then after you've watched them all and can't believe anyone could be so stupid as to cancel this gem, hit Netflix up for Serenity. Yes, Firefly's incredibly loyal fans got a movie!) Thanks! :001_smile:

I have no one to blame but myself. I even posted about this a month or so ago and you all told me not to do it, but I did anyway. I signed up for two classes this fall, one about writing and one about accounting. I HATE HATE HATE the accounting class. It cost me well over $400. The only thing I've learned is how much I HATE accounting. Okay, that's not true - I have learned a few things about accounting, but now I spend every Monday morning in class, every Monday afternoon doing homework, several more hours during the week doing homework and the two hours on Saturday that dd is in dance classes doing.....homework. This is one of the biggest and most expensive mistakes I've made in ages! So last Wednesday, in the middle of a truly awful week, I went to a "bellydancercize" exercise class. It wasn't what I expected it to be at all, but at the end of the class the teacher got up and did two dances. She had this beatific smile on her face the whole time. She'd had so much fun teaching the class and she was having so much fun dancing and I had the HORRIBLE thought.... What if instead of spending all that time these past few years writing novels I'd spent that time learning to dance. I could be the one teaching a class and actually MAKING money. I could be the one dancing away with a beatific smile. And I wouldn't be taking a stupid accounting class right now which I'm only taking because I got so scared that I'd never make any money from writing. I'd have an actual, fun skill. Aaarrrrrgh! Can you say mid-life crisis? I just want to get to December so these darned classes can be over and I can tear apart my life and completely re-construct it. I'm going to be a fitness instructor, a bellydance teacher, a life coach, and a diet consultant. So there!!!!!

Tomorrow is our dd's bday. She got 2 games that are a lot of fun. The best word game we have ever owned is awarded to Word X-change. This one makes you think so hard your brain hurts when you finish. ;) http://www.amazon.com/PRODIJEUX-900015-ORIGINAL-WORD-XCHANGE/dp/B0000663S3 A fun Cranium card game is Zigity. Definitely not as challenging as Word Xchange, but family friendly b/c younger dd could play http://www.amazon.com/Cranium-102020001-100E-Zigity-Tin/dp/B0006842B4

I am so GLAD they enabled this feature!! I was bummed when I joined here and wasn't able to use my sig pic. I haven't been a member of a forum before where you couldn't have one. WooHoo!!:D :hurray: :thumbup: :hurray: