Sign Language

Tonight was our last night of sign language class. This is an adult education class that I signed myself, Emily, and Grace up for. We took it about three years ago, too. Brooke was able to go with us then, but this year she is busy with Strings that night. So for two hours a night for 10 weeks, we meet at the local high school to learn sign language. It is such a fun class! It is a lot of work for me to set up babysitting and make sure we are ready to go to class on Tuesday night. But once we are there I am always so glad that we did it! The girls and I really enjoy our teacher, she makes class so much fun! We have also gotten to know quite a few people through this class. It was nice to go back this year with some experience. We were able to pick up a lot more this year to add to what we learned the first year. I do wish we could spend more time practicing and using sign language in our daily lives. But when it comes down to it, it is hard to have the patience to wait for someone to sign something and then try to understand it! But it is still a great class and I am so thrilled at what we have picked up from it. Will we go next year? I'm not sure, it is quite a time commitment so we will just have to wait and see how busy we are next fall. But even if we go every 2 or 3 years I feel like it benefits both the girls and me!

Farmer Brown and Tag

Relay Races

Wipeout!!

Mrs. Castro and Grace

Emily and Flint

The winning boys!

The group getting ready for round two!

Phy-Ed At The Hall

One person on each team was blindfolded...

One person on each team was then to give directions...

And the winners found all three balls first!

On Friday we met up with our friends from the little country school for some Phy-Ed fun! We met at our new township hall for an hour. It was so much fun for the girls to get to see the kid's from this school again. It is cool how perfectly it goes when we get together with these kids! Their teacher and I were discussing how each of us on our own doesn't have enough kids to do much for games, but when we get together we can do so much more with them. And yet, it isn't too many kids where things get chaotic or overwhelming. Mrs. Castro had brought some balls to use in relays and ideas she had found on the internet. The kids (and Mrs. Castro!) did some relays, Farmer Brown, and Tag. We are hoping we can get together once a month and have this phy-ed class together. I am so thankful to be able to do this with the kids!

Swimming!

Today we went swimming with the kids from a little one room schoolhouse. My friend, the girls' fiddle teacher, teaches there. Last month we went with them to the fire hall for a tour, out for pizza, and bowling. Today was just as much fun as the last time. I tell you there is something wonderful to be said for a little country school. If I didn't homeschool, this would be where I would love to send my kids. These kids are so polite and friendly. These kids and my girls all get along so well. They hardly know each other, but they started right up playing games together in the pool. We spent three and half hours there swimming. We did take a little break for some pizza, but as soon as they were done eating, they were right back in the pool.

Here is a picture of all the kids together.

Sophia enjoying the water.

Emily and Grace smiling for the camera.

Sophia, Grace, and Emily warming up in the hot tub.

Allison loved the water, too!

Other than this fun day, nothing exciting going on here as far as school goes. We are actually on another four day weekend. This following the public school schedule is actually kind of nice. The kids were off on Thursday for Veteran's day. The school then just gave the kids Friday off because with it being deer gun season, they realize that most of the kids won't show up for school on Friday anyway. Yep, we have our priorities straight out here in the country! I am enjoying this, though. Maybe this is the key to preventing burn-out?