Catching up

It's been a while since I've posted about our home schooling adventures, so I figured it's about time for me to catch up on things.

Just a few of the things we've been doing lately.

Some of the other parents organized a movie afternoon. One of them has access to non-mainstream movies through his work, which is really cool. I hadn't paid too much attention to the organizing going on, as I figured we couldn't make it - for starters, it was on a wednesday, and we've got a regular "date" with a family on wednesdays, plus it's convoluted to get a but out to where it was being held. The family we get together with, however, were interested in checking it out, so they graciously offerred us a ride. Of course, we jumped at the opportunity. I'm so glad we did! The movies we saw were Microcosmos and Flatworld. They were both really great!

One of the neat things I noticed was just how much everyone got into the movies. There were a wide range of ages represented among the children, from "preschoolers" through teens. No one made any announcement that the movie was starting. The lights were already out while a couple of people wrangled with the projector, and they just started playing it. Within half a minute, everyone quieted down, found their seats and started watching. While there were kids moving about - going to the washroom, getting snacks or drinks of water, etc., they did so quietly without even being asked. Mostly, all we heard were a lot of oooo's, aaahhh's, Oh's! and Eeeewwww's!! LOL Microcosmos was absolutely fascinating, and I found myself constantly wondering just *how* they managed to film it. Flatworld was considerably noiser, since so many of us were laughing out loud. It was such a hoot! Absolutely great. As the group of us were leaving, we all agreed that if they have another one of these movie afternoons, we definately want to be there - and perhaps take part in the planning/organizing of it next time, too. That would be such fun.

Eldest has been able to got to another writing club, thanks to the kindness of the mom who was hosting it for coming to our place to give her a ride. We didn't even know it was on until her usual ride called to say their son was ill and wasn't going to make it, or where it was until their daughter emailed mine to ask if she was coming out. Eldest is talking to other members on MSN more often, though, so I'm pretty sure that sort of miscommunication won't happen again. On top of that, the teens in the writing club discovered that they all are into drawing as well, so they spontaneously started a drawing club, too. First meeting is this friday. With more things going on with Eldest, I made a point of getting a key card for her when we paid the rent this month, so she doesn't have to borrow mine. We've been meaning to for a while, but didn't have as much reason to until now. I'm glad she's getting involved with these. I like that we can give her a bit more freedom to go out on her own. Well, not really on her own, since she's usually with so many other people, including adults, but without me or her sister tagging along all the time.

Youngest isn't as involved with outside stuff like that, but at 10, I don't really expect her to quite yet. We've got enough going on to meet her getting-out-of-the-apartment needs for now. *L* Especially our wednesday get togethers, which she eagerly looks forward to. Meanwhile, Dh picked up some new darts the other night (we'd had a full board and darts set that got garage-sale'd before we moved, but there's a dart board available in our building). Youngest really enjoys darts, so they've been taking full advantage of that.

Dh has been trying to put together a digital photography group. One of the other parents had offerred to teach it, but when everyone got together, nothing happened. We're still not sure why, as she was there, but it just never came up. Dh and a couple others just started talking cameras and pictures on their own. He tried to organise another get together, sending out emails with three possible dates to see which would work best for people. Only one person answered to say they all were good days. The others that we weren't sure about never responded, including the person that had offerred to teach. So Dh just sent out an email saying it was going to happen during park day tomorrow. Either they show up, or they don't. We'll be there with our cameras, and we know for sure about one other person, but for the rest - other than one that is going to be out of town, we don't even know how if they're interested anymore due to the total lack of response. We'll see how that works out. Dh is getting pretty serious about photography again, and really wants to learn more, so any chance to get together with others and "talk shop" is welcome to him.

Other than that, things are on the quiet side. Dh is finished his project at work and just marking time for his last 2 weeks before starting the new job. Other than our usual get togethers, we become major home-bodies in the time before Christmas. I'm no lover of shopping in the first place, but as Christmas draws near, we try to avoid going out in general, but to any stores or malls in particular, as much as possible. Nothing kills the Christmas spirit for me faster than wrestling my way through crowds bad tempered people, and *everyone* seems to be bad tempered in stores this time of year. I feel for my sister, who works at a Walmart. It's going to be hell for her.

We've got plenty to keep us busy anyways, though. Sometime in the next while, we have to figure out when/how we'll be making tourtierre (I don't think we'll be getting the Artisan Mixer we want in time, which means we won't make as much as we normally would), Sw. Mikolaj is coming up, and of course, we have to prepare for Wigilia and Christmas itself. Unfortunately, we haven't done any of the Christmas shopping at all. With the job transition, we won't know what our budget it until he actually gets his next paycheck, since we're not sure what it'll come out to.

Ah, well. We'll figure it out.